Research in APUSH

I remember when I was in high school and college, many many moons ago, all we did was write I thought were research papers. In reality is was more just writing essays that were descriptive and I really did not take any research skills away.


10 plus years later I know realize I need to help my students in understanding different research methods.  Any student can Google a question and get the answer. That skill is not hard to master, my 4 year old is doing that these days.

I now spend most of my time teaching the Point-of-View, Historical Context, Intended Audience, Purpose of various historical topics. This year was the first time I started to use these skills in my teaching and it took a while for my kids to truly understand what they mean and how they can use them in writing and analysis. I personally don't think I did a good job in teaching these skills for my group of kids. I made many notes, throughout the school year, to make changes for next year. This year taught me a lot about myself, my kids, and the college board.  This summer I am in charge of online learning and I will be spending numerous hours reflecting and making major changes to my APUSH curriculum.

Fouch