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We asked some members of the AP Art History community for advice that they would offer other teachers. Here's what they suggest:
Scheduling and Reviewing
"How can I cover all this material in 9 or 10 months?" is one of the first questions asked of a Reader who is conducting an AP Art History seminar. My answer is: "Always make a plan ahead of time." If possible, get your school's calendar in the summer. From it make a calendar of your own in which you determine the number of teaching days available to you, starting with the date of the AP Exam and working backward. Then jot down the number of days you want to spend on each area. For example: two days on Old Kingdom Egypt, two days on Early Christian art, three days on fifteenth-century Italy, five days on the nineteenth century, and so on. Then fit in where you think a test belongs, or a paper, or field trip. Do this for the entire year. You will have to juggle a bit, and doubtless change your mind several times to get it all in, but the important thing is to get it down on paper. From this calendar make a syllabus to give your students at the beginning of the year, including their reading assignments for each unit. Then you must stick to it. The advantages are several. You will be prevented from spending an unusual amount of time on a favorite area and will be forced to move on. Students will know ahead of time when their assessments or papers are coming up, and you will have fewer difficulties with conflicts and absenteeism, since students can plan in advance. If this is too intimidating, try working out a syllabus for one term or semester at a time, first deciding where you want to be by that point in the year. But remember that finally you must include all you need to cover by that target date in May. Contingencies may arise during the year, and you will have to adjust your schedule, but it's easier to do if you have that road map in front of you to show you where you're going. If you discover you have assigned too much or too little time to an area, make a note of it so that you can correct it the following year.
Reviewing is no fun for either student or teacher, particularly if it involves lists of vocabulary or terminology that students are expected to memorize. To make it a little less painful, I've devised a method that students seem to enjoy. I make up crossword puzzles for them using as many interesting definitions as I can manage for terms they need to know: "bishop's seat" (cathedral), "column bulge" (entasis), "many Early Christian churches had one" (atrium), "triglyph's partner" (metope), and so on. Don't be intimidated by the prospect; it's easier than you think. Just start with two terms that have a common letter and go from there. In a way, they construct themselves. You may not have the beautiful symmetry of a New York Times puzzle, but the students don't care. I tell them they can do the puzzles individually or work on them in groups. Usually three or four students work together, and competition to finish first builds up between the groups. The guessing and laughter that accompanies it is fun for all, and at the end students have mastered 80 or 90 terms in a class period.
Lu Wenneker
Marlborough School, Los Angeles, California
Keeping Organized
The following is very humdrum advice, but it is one of the things that students mention often as really helping them organize the large amount of material. At the beginning of each unit (roughly every two weeks), I give my students an introductory sheet with the assignments, key concepts/causative elements and connections, and examples they will need to know. Then, before each new slide lecture/discussion I give them a slide sheet with the name of the artist (if known) on the left, then the name/title/dates, followed by a space for notes. I mark with an asterisk the ones that I want the students to have notes on from their reading before they come to class. That way I never have to slow down for spelling out names and so on, I can hold the students responsible for specific works, and I can draw on the list for comparisons in class.
I also do as much as I can to have the students reinforce their textbook and lecture learning by requiring architectural, painting, and sculpture critiques on buildings in the area, museums, etc.
Betty Cole
Overviews
I always give my students an overview of each chapter. This overview consists of the title, artist, date, media, and museum of each figure we will discuss and each figure in their text. I leave a space for note taking. This prevents students from having to spend time figuring out how to spell the title, the artist's name, etc. when they should be taking notes and participating in the discussion of the work of art.
While students are being tested on a particular chapter, I check their overviews to monitor their progress; I can see if they have read the chapter, taken appropriate notes, understood the key issues, etc. This gives me a tool to help them improve and to check their understanding.
We also maintain a vocabulary list (both general and art specific) for each chapter; I give them words at the beginning of the chapter and we add to it as we go along. I keep the vocabulary words on a chart in the classroom and encourage students to read their textbooks with a dictionary. Different classes seem to have different needs for vocabulary.
Donna Head
WT Woodson High School, Fairfax, Virginia
Research on the Web
As homework, and prior to a classroom lecture or a unit of study, a teacher can assign several artists or monuments for students to research online. Students produce a single-page printout that includes a key bullet-point write-up and a reproduction of the specific work of art simply copied and pasted from Web sites. (The teacher can create a sample format for students to follow.) This printout is useful in that it will begin to provide a review sheet that can be compiled for the entire year.
Another variation is to assign a different artist to each student; the results can then be collated and photocopied for the entire class.
Begin with the following website and build on it as the year unfolds: Art History Resources on the Web; http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html. This site is maintained by Professor Chris Witcombe of Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia.
Yu Bong Ko
Tappan Zee High School, Orangeburg, New York
Templates
Here is one idea that I know other teachers have tried as well and that I find useful: "templates" for class lectures and discussions. Before the day we are to cover a particular topic -- say, Byzantine art and architecture -- I type up a handout that contains a skeletal overview of important historical background and maybe a brief bulleted list overviewing the subject, along with entries for each work or site to be discussed. These entries are NOT notes. I simply type an identification of the artists, architects, and work or site along with a few key words. I also type important information like codes for laserdisc images or other such stuff to help me cue images to the template right on the document; that way students know where I got the images we discussed, even if we're months away from the class in question. And I leave blank space in which students can take notes.
I find that using a template eliminates the need to waste time in class spelling out key words or names, and it also frees up students to actually LOOK at what we are discussing via slide or book, rather than dutifully writing out information. I also like to take my own notes for class presentations freehand on a copy of the template and then add to it anything that comes up during class.
David Karp
Holy Names Academy, Seattle, Washington
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