Day 76
I’m really used to doing straight forward writing where what you have to write is listed for you, but this class flips that on its head as we must think of what to write about
Writing is tough in AP World. The information can’t be spoon fed to them. They use documents that are impossible to have seen before. They have to think for themselves. In their previous history class, the writing is straight forward and shorter. Their “essay” is a response. Some of the writing can be simple as identify or define. While a challenge, it’s nice to hear they have to think.
Connor
I feel like today one of the critical aspects that we did good is reviewing previous units. Sometimes I feel like when it came to other classes and particularly AP Human Geography last year, I would often forget terms and parts of previous units because of the focus on newer units and terms.
The writing aspect is very unfamiliar to me, and it is still quite challenging to understand. I have improved a lot from the beginning of the year. I’m really used to doing straight forward writing where what you have to write is listed for you, but this class flips that on its head as we must think of what to write about and find a way to properly use the words so that we can maximize the points and explanations in our writing.
Although the writing has proven important in the class continuously, I feel that sometimes it would be nice to spend more time covering the actual curriculum, and a lot of the content we study in our own time with the checklists and homework. Sometimes the content can be a little confusing and the writing and other documents we do does help a bit, but I feel it would improve our writing even more if we did more content practice and focus.
It is difficult to cover everything. Even if I lectured the entire year, I couldn’t cover everything. That would be merely covering. I know what Connor is asking for. I agree with him. If they deeply understood every concept, then they would have a resevoir of wealth to draw from. However, I can’t. I choose to go into a few topics deeply and I do that through documents. The students interpret the history for themselves. They make claims. They support them with evidence. They are getting better at thinking, which is what Connor said from the beginning.