:: 2013 AP* Summer Institutes at UT Austin

Pre-AP Middle School Social Studies for New Pre-AP Teachers
Institute Code AP13025
This institute is closed for registration.

This Pre-AP course is designed to help middle school teachers develop lessons that will prepare students for the challenges of social studies courses in the AP program. Daily sessions will provide opportunities for middle school teachers to learn a variety of instructional strategies that will motivate students and foster the development of skills necessary for success in subsequent history classes in high school and in college.

Teachers will be active participants in the sessions and will engage in hands-on activities and the sharing of ideas. The course will include primary source analysis and document-based questions along with discussion groups, close reading techniques, ladders of questions, timed writings, vocabulary building, interdisciplinary projects that involve research and technology, and ideas for designing effective test questions. Participants should come ready for an informative and intellectually stimulating week.

Participants should bring:

  • One lesson or best teaching practice to share with the other participants.

We will use the AP Vertical Teams Guide for Social Studies during the sessions. If you have a copy, please bring it.

Lead Consultant: Nancy Schaefer
Nancy Schaefer draws from her teaching experiences in private and public schools to present ideas and strategies that work well with young adolescents. She holds B.A. and M.Ed. degrees from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Nancy is a College Board Consultant in the Southwestern Region, and she has twenty years of teaching experience at the middle school level with thirteen years as a Pre-AP teacher. She has presented at three AP National Conferences (2003 in Los Angeles, 2004 in Orlando, and 2012 in Orlando). In addition to Pre-AP workshops and summer institutes in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Florida, Maryland, West Virginia, Illinois, Mississippi, and Alabama, Nancy spends her time developing curriculum for middle school social studies. Her instructional experience includes U.S. history, world cultures, economics, and English. Nancy has membership in the National Council for Social Studies and the Arkansas Council for Social Studies, and she is a member of the Teacher Advisory Board on Economic Education at the Little Rock Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank.



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