<p>So... last year I had the opportunity to go to an amazing impressionism art show with these amazing (and pretty famous) pieces and the AP Art History teacher blew me away and I thoroughly impressed by the insight and passion she had for art. Well, unbeknownst to me, the teacher decided to retire last year and this year we have a young just-out-of-college teacher who has no idea which way's right and which way's left. She's totally clueless and I have learned NOTHING new or extraordinary and feel like I am wasting my time there. Our tiny little class of 10 is getting a bit frustrated and a few of us are interested in studying separately on our own... however, we don't know how to go about doing so. We're juniors and seniors and we're just looking for some ideas as to what kinds of things your AP art history teachers taught you and were wondering if anyone had any or know of any helpful websites as well.</p>
<p>I'll preface this by saying that I'm not very familiar with the AP Art History curriculum. If you plan to take the exam, go to AP Central and get the course outline (which includes sample questions) and look up the available past free response questions. You can also look up resources recommendations under "teacher resources."</p>
<p>I have seen on this board a number of recommendations for "The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern" by Carol Strickland.</p>
<p>One resource I can highly recommend are the Teaching Company DVDs on art history. My daughter is currently watching the series on "A History of European Art" and finds it very engaging. I think you might find the insight and passion that your first teacher had. You would need to explore other lecture sets to cover all of the AP curriculum. Here is a link to their fine arts courses. The</a> Teaching Company - Courses By Subject
See if your library carries them--many libraries do. If not, look online for used copies. The prices for new copies are pretty high, even when on sale.</p>
<p>here are some thoughts about your art history class. i concur that 'The Annotated Mona Lisa' is a great resource -- Strickland is excellent in the language of art analysis while remaining highly readable. i suggest that you examine the past AP tests on line (at collegeboard.com) to see what is expected of students taking the test. Now, the exam is 60% writing in the form of both long and short essays, so writing practice is critical.</p>
<p>i recently published a product designed for art history students, '250 Masterpieces in Western Painting'. this set of art history flashcards, covering the Renaissance to the 1960s, will prepare you well for the exam - each painting is analyzed by an art historian (generally the author of a survey text like Gardner's, Janson's. etc.), modellinghow to write about art. </p>
<p>And here's a deal -- i can't bear the idea of all 10 of you having a miserable experience in your art history class, so i'll send you a complimentary set of Cards if 8 of you join the new blog i started (see below). Sound reasonable?</p>
<p>I am currently in AP Art History and my teacher ranks in the top percentile for students getting a 4 or a 5 and is an excellent teacher. I recommend for you that you buy the REA AP Art History book - it is written by the top teachers who teach the class and the history review is excellent outlining what is and isn't important for you to know. Read your textbook thoroughly, generally speaking you should be through the Gothic at the semester and then up to present for the AP, which will require extra work on your part. </p>
<p>Go to AP Central on collegeboard.com and double check what percent of the AP exam is on non-Western cultures, I forget how much but you will have at least one long exam involving a non-Western culture. For this, I suggest, and my teacher does too, that you choose one non-Western culture to specialize in so you will be well equipped for the exam. If you do these things, then you should be well prepared for the exam, but Art History requires much dedication as there simiply is not enough time in any class to get through all of the material. Once per semester, we have a Saturday seminar where my teacher spends 4.5 hours with us and we go through one whole chapter. I suggest that maybe you and your classmates get together one day each semester and work together on teaching yourselves an entire chapter that maybe you won't get to in your class in order to keep up with what you will need for the AP.</p>