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European History Course Perspective
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by Paul Fitzgerald
AP European History
Miramonte High School
Orinda, California
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| | Please note: The official College Board® Course Description is available below in "More."
AP European History may be the most challenging course taught in high school, yet it may also be the most rewarding for both teacher and student. Where else does a teacher have the opportunity to expose students to Renaissance art, the great religious debates, witchcraft, the goodness or evil of human nature, Darwin, Freud, Virginia Woolf, Hitler, and Gorbachev? AP European History teachers are likely to find their high school students intellectually transformed by the content and rigor of the course. Teachers who insist on reviewing frequently throughout the year will be especially rewarded. Their students will gain new appreciation of historical patterns each time they review previously learned material. Ultimately, they will better see how European history has had such a profound effect on themselves and their own culture. Student response to these "big picture" questions makes all of the work involved in the course worthwhile.
As with all AP courses, pacing is critical. "Napoleon by winter break and Hitler by spring break" has become a mantra for experienced teachers. If you are teaching the course chronologically, try to be finished with the early nineteenth century by the first semester break. Be sure to demand a thorough review of first semester work before the second semester begins. It will help students connect first semester themes to new material and it will greatly aid in review as preparation for the May AP Exam. Allow one to two weeks for review in early May. Because there is so much material in the course, students must take responsibility for much material not directly discussed in class. Many teachers give readings and assignments over the summer break to insure proper pacing.
Second in importance to pacing is the need for teachers to train their students to have a good chronological sense of history, a mental timeline along which to file the material they are studying. To help them, insist on the memorization of some important dates, such as 1492, 1517, 1648, 1789, 1929, and 1989. Ask them if the idea, person, event, or movement was active before or after the important date. When they study a term, they should study it as the Glorious Revolution of 1688 or the 1939 Hitler-Stalin Pact. So many of the multiple-choice and essay questions on the exam are framed by time period that a student lacking a mental timeline may write about the sixteenth century instead of the seventeenth century.
Besides pacing and chronological thinking, teachers need to emphasize the course content from a variety of points of view. The acronym PERSIA (Political, Economic, Religious, Social, Intellectual, Artistic) enables one group of students to see the French Revolution, for example, as a crisis of an entrenched three-estate system; another to emphasize the middle-class banking crisis; another to examine the cynical privileges of an elite clergy; a fourth group to examine the role of women, urban workers, and peasants; a fifth group to emphasize the intellectual influence of the philosophes on the French revolutionaries; and a final group to examine neoclassicism and its role in the French Revolution. Many teachers employ debates, "meetings of the minds," mock trials, and other interactive devices to encourage multiple perspectives. (For more ideas to make the history class interactive, refer to the College Board publication Teacher's Guide to AP European History, available at one-day workshops and Summer Institutes). By emphasizing point of view, students learn that history is not just one fact after another to be learned; rather it is a series of interpretations to be carefully weighed. Not only will they perform much better on the document-based question portion of the AP Exam, they will have a much greater interest in the field of history.
In recent years teachers have become increasingly concerned about the pressure to admit students who may not have the necessary background to be successful in the course. They can help their own case by actively participating in the selection process of students. Even in school districts that have mandated open enrollment, teachers can still ask for student grades and teacher recommendations. Marginal students can be reported to counselors who then have better information to help them advise these students; this is especially valuable for sophomores. In my experience, the very best classes include a combination of sophomores and seniors. Seniors have the sophistication for the more complex ideas of European history. They lead class discussion and are able to see the big picture. Sophomores work very hard and try to memorize as much as possible during the first semester. By the third quarter, when some seniors are beginning to suffer from senioritis, most of the sophomores matured to the point where they, too, are making serious connections and analyzing sophisticated material. Their growth keeps the seniors honest at least until the May exam. It is a good balance and has worked for me in three high schools for almost 20 years.
As you teach this course, please do not work in isolation. Communicate with both experienced and novice AP teachers of European history by joining the AP Central Discussion Forum for European History. You can also review sample student essays and the scores received on the most recent AP Exam in the Exams section of the Web site. Finally, you are strongly encouraged to attend College Board-sponsored training sessions. By attending a one-day workshop each school year, you can hear how different presenters have been successful and you will have the opportunity to ask questions and share ideas with other participants. Besides the one-day curricular and grading workshops, you are strongly urged to attend a one-week Summer Institute where an experienced teacher will lead you through the steps in developing or updating your own course. Publishers will provide you with several textbooks and secondary sources, hoping you will adopt their materials. You will practice scoring essays and participate in several activities that model what the presenters do with their own students. Late afternoons and evenings will be available for more sharing of ideas with others, who, like you, are interested in becoming better at what you do. Whether it is online, at workshops, or at Summer Institutes, express your thoughts on such topics as pacing, chronological thinking, how to teach point of view, student selection, and textbook preferences. It will help all your hard work seem worthwhile as you become part of the growing AP faculty community.
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