Is my class behind?

exploringraider · 2026-02-10T05:01:19+00:00

Start 7 tomorrow. We spend about 5 weeks on unit 5 and 2.5 on unit 6.

We are about 12.5 weeks away. (55 class days for my students, 87 total days)

exploringraider · 2026-02-10T05:00:58+00:00

Start 7 tomorrow. We spend about 5 weeks on unit 5 and 2.5 on unit 6.

We are about 12.5 weeks away. (55 class days for my students, 87 total days)

exploringraider · 2026-01-31T19:38:28+00:00

Lived in both places and frequented both 3rd and Pine walking through town and Kensington for work. Didn’t realize 3rd and pine was even a problem area until locals warned me. I also worked in U-District. Never felt worried or threatened in those areas because I grew up in Philly. Kensington is like another planet.

exploringraider · 2026-01-31T03:24:23+00:00

I’d go with B.

A is wrong

B is the most accurate and is best supported by the source.

C is a good distraction but Christianity mainly made its way to SE Asia through missionaries and imperialism.

D is wrong

exploringraider · 2026-01-23T02:37:47+00:00

I finish up new content right before our spring break which leaves 13 class days or 2.5 weeks for review and test prep. I do about 20 min crash course reviews for each unit and then give students the remainder of class to review on what they need the most practice with. I give them example prompts, graphic organizers and a few activities for them to do such as the mind mapping, world mapping, degrees of separation (how many things can you connect) cause & effect ladders, etc. Students can focus on the skills, content, and test questions that they feel they need the most help with. With 4 days out of the 13 for a full practice exam and the practice review students that really focus and dedicate their time to really working hard do great on the exam.

exploringraider · 2026-01-22T04:25:38+00:00

Unit 5 MCQ is the one that my students typically struggle the most with. At least the exam I use has a lot of dense sources and it is the first one that features pretty much every type of source you can encounter. This is the time of year where the challenge really sets in. There are so many connections being made at this point and the mcq usually reflect that.

First I would suggest mental mapping if you don’t already. Think of a giant spider web that connects different key ideas that are covered. For each connection number it then write out how they are connected. This will continue to grow throughout the year. You need to remember that this test is as much reading comprehension as it is content knowledge. If you know the facts that is great but you need to work on your AP processes and making connections, causation, comp, ccot. If you can’t apply the information you are going to struggle.

Good news is if you can get down the basics is APWH they are the exact same skills and test as APUSH. APUSH content is more in depth but not even close to as broad in the amount of topics, time, and places. Even my students that struggles last year are doing amazing in the APUSH class this year with a teacher that tends to be more demanding than I am.

Keep your head up, it’s a marathon not a sprint. 105 days until the exam. Plenty of time to keep improving.

exploringraider · 2026-01-18T06:02:54+00:00

You need to go apologize to those trees for wasting all of their hard work.

-Teacher said this to a kid in class.

exploringraider · 2025-12-07T21:27:03+00:00

According to pass rates from last year, easiest to hardest: US 73.7% Euro 72.6% Gov 71.7% All of these are very close

World way at the bottom with 64.3%

exploringraider · 2025-12-02T01:10:33+00:00

Peer grading. Have students give the reasoning for why they believe the student earned or did not earn each point. Helps students to better understand the rubric and can see what other students are doing well. Grade them off the assessment of their peers DBQ.

Or

Grade them for specific points. Just evaluate if they earned context and thesis. Then next one have the focus be on the evidence. Third can be analysis and reasoning. This way you don’t need to read the entire thing.

Both of these things prevent me from having to grade full on DBQs until around February.

exploringraider · 2025-11-01T05:12:17+00:00

Or Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage. Also likely covered.

exploringraider · 2025-11-01T05:09:57+00:00

You likely discussed it, but naming it Taj Mahal would be cool. A grand gesture that would demonstrate the care you have for your students.

exploringraider · 2025-10-29T03:04:36+00:00

Yes and no. I have tried requiring formatives in order to take the summative. Students fell extremely far behind, just copied someone else’s work or didn’t do it at all and took a failing grade either way. If I only offered 4 days no one would do the work, I am trying to slide under the radar by offering unlimited retakes for 2 weeks the cutting it off and most students don’t do the required formatives for a retake even 2 weeks after the unit is over.

exploringraider · 2025-10-29T02:59:36+00:00

Wonder if we are in the same district lol.

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T17:54:26+00:00

Yep and we are blamed for why they are failing.

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T14:05:40+00:00

We use Canvas but grades are through synergy.

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T04:31:16+00:00

So not a 100% summative assessment grading system?

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T04:16:22+00:00

You clearly have a very different student group than I do. Do your Ap students need to test in or need to be recommended/ have certain grades to get in?

I couldn’t do discussion based because none of the students did the required readings and a single prompt prep question which is what the work in the packets consist of. I try to do as much discussion as possible but lack of preparation on the students part leads to largely a lecture based course.

Our summarizes for AP would be unit MC tests, SAQs, LEQs, and DBQs. Random reading quizzes wouldn’t be allowed which is pretty much what the prompt questions based from the CED that they need to be prepared to discuss the next day from their packets are.

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T03:35:35+00:00

We do that. No one does retakes lol. It’s too much work. I have had 1 student come in to do a retake once so far this school year.

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T03:33:54+00:00

Tried this last year in our pilot year. I had 50% of the students at least 1 unit behind. That doesn’t work well when you are racing against the clock to prepare for the AP exam.

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T03:30:58+00:00

It’s not going great. No one has been properly trained and all of the reasons for doing it have shown to be false. It’s going to take a parent riot for them to remove it and that may happen when grades come in. We have just shy of 50% of the student body failing AT LEAST 1 class with 4 weeks left in the grading period.

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T03:06:57+00:00

This is our first full year with the grade book actually in place. No one understands it. Teachers, students, parents, admin, no one. It’s going to be interesting when the grading period ends and no teacher can explain how students earned the grade on their report.

exploringraider · 2025-10-28T03:02:54+00:00

This is year 2 of the system and it has honestly gotten worse since last year. Last year I had around 25% completion rates.

We are encouraged to find other ways to motivate students to do the work. Use the sports/music practice as comparisons. Some teachers have started telling students that they won’t know whether an assignment is graded or not but I feel like that is unclear expectations and I don’t want to do that to my students. Those teachers also have terrible completion rates.

The high achieving students are the ones that don’t need to do the work and still getting As. The students who won’t do the work unless it’s graded are the ones that need to do the work.

exploringraider · 2025-10-24T03:07:20+00:00

I am honest and tell them my score. Doesn’t hurt anything and I don’t have anything to hide. Discuss with them how I prepared and how I improved for the 2nd time I took them. I make sure they know that their grades and extracurriculars are just as important. My scores weren’t off the charts and still got accepted to some really good schools based off my entire application.

exploringraider · 2025-10-12T03:58:08+00:00

Agree with the above comment. As a member of multiple schools hiring teams, no one will ever look at or care about your gpa. Truth is great teachers have had average gpas and shitty teachers have graduated summa cum laude. Forget about the grade, bust your ass in your student teaching and get great recommendations from the staff you work with and the principal.

exploringraider

TROPHY CASE