<p>Thanx for your posts and private letters of support. I thought I'd let all the CCers know what happened today. </p>
<p>I began class by explaining that we are behind. No excuses. When the going gets tough the smart plan. We have 36 school days until the May 8th APUSH exam. We are on Chapter 28 in American Pageant and need to go to Chapter 39. Plus, we need to reserve some time for review. It won't be easy but we can do it. Our goal is for everyone to score a 3 or higher. Here's the plan:</p>
<p>. I passed around a copy of AP US History Crash Course. The students all agreed that the book is direct, clear and strategic. We are ordering a class set from Amazon. I will pay $4.00 per book and each student will pay $5.32 = $9.32.
. We will use Crash Course to help guide our topic selection. We will concentrate on high probability topics and skip the rest.
. I also showed the class a copy of the Amsco book. At $17.00 a copy it is too expensive for everyone to buy a copy. However, I will buy 5 copies and donate them to the school library.
. I discussed the possibility of having after-school review classes beginning next week. To make a long story short, some of my students work and others are on sports teams. So we agreed to have after-school classes on Mondays and Wednesdays and evening classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.</p>
<p>Then it was time to teach. I began today's lesson by asking if there was anything in today's society that they are angry about. Yes - greedy bankers, global warming, and the housing crisis. Well, back in 1900 a group known as Progressives were also angry and wanted to reform American government. Following Crash Course we focused on key Progressive goals and leading Muckrakers including Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell and especially Jacob Riis. </p>
<p>Tomorrow, we'll study TR and finish Chapter 28. All comments and suggestions are welcome!</p>
<p>Sometimes you just get lucky with the exam, and other times it annihilates you. It depends on the students too. You seem to have a nice group!</p>
<p>I took the APUSH exam last year and scored a 5. I Barely did any homework, or studied, and got extremely lucky with the exam.</p>
<p>Practice APUSH tests are the best! To me, all of them seemed almost the same. </p>
<p>The Essays are pretty much where the exam lies. Since anyone and their mother can get an acceptable mult. choice score if you put reasonable effort into the course, try to get practice on the essays.</p>
<p>I took AP Euro and that course saved my butt. We did tons of essays, and that made up for my APUSH teacher doing relatively few. it showed.</p>
<p>The essays ANNIHILATED the people who had no practice, because they are totally different- Just like the DBQ.</p>
<p>I still stand by it being a matter of Luck. We had easy essays last year- the most common combination being Andrew Jackson/Indian stuff and Industrialization. The questions were really broad and encompassed a huge time span. The other choices were on Reconstruction/radicals, and muckrakers. You might not be so lucky this year :)</p>
<p>Good luck, I hope you don't get a progressive era essay.</p>
<p>Progressives. If there's one thing my APUSH teacher has drilled into my head about the Progressive Era, it is that the so-called Progressive presidents (TR and Wilson) were simply masters of rhetoric, and that their actions were nothing close to the Progressive ideal. Taft-the-better-trustbuster and "conservative" was more Progressive than the other two (and that's not saying much). Muckrakers (the bodiless voice of the Progressives), the US Steel disagreement, the splitting of the Republican party, Wilson's meteoric rise to fame and his equally sudden fall from grace... </p>
<p>I've spent way too many hours in a lonely library studying away at the history of these United States.</p>
<p>This sounds solid. The class I'm in has a wonderful teacher and almost everyone has passed each year. We're on 33 in Pageant right now, and we have a 2 week review built in, so it looks like you're on the right track. Maybe you'll just get in 1 week of review, which should be fine. Good luck!</p>
<p>Your review strategy is very solid, and it's great that you've provided some excellent supplemental review books for study. I just got the REA Crash Course book, and it is fantastic, and I've ordered the AMSCO book.</p>
<p>FYI - a new copy of the previous edition (from 2001 I think - is that okay?) of the AMSCO book is $4 + shipping at Half.com (an eBay website - you need an eBay account to buy) which should be more affordable. Of course a newer edition is ideal, but is it bad to buy the older edition?</p>
<p>Thanx soooo much! Great tip. I don't think the 2001 copyright will be a problem at all. Almost all of the exam questions cover the period between 1607 and 1970 with maybe a Reaganomics question thrown in. I will discuss with students tomorrow. Glad you like the Crash Course book!</p>
<p>@ Testmonster - I'm looking at the Amsco book on Amazon right now (it's by John J Newman right?) and it's $28.35. Where did you find it for $17??</p>
<p>^Thank you! I'm happy to report that things are going really well. I'll write up a full report as soon as I can. For now, you can buy Amsco for $17.00 at Amsco.com. You can buy Crash Course for $8.32 at Amazon. Go figure.</p>
<p>Personally, I plan to fail the APUSH exam and NOT report scores to colleges... I'll take my B and my 2 and move on with life. I got lucky on the AP Euro exam (I did nothing in that class and somehow got a 4... I was seriously lucky because most of my questions were from 1450 - 1600, which I knew really well) and I don't think I'm going to get lucky on the APUSH exam. This would usually bother me, but I'm trying to be a little more laissez-faire and a little less stressed. History just isn't for me.</p>