Content Coaching: My Biggest Advice for AP Psychology Teachers

Scratch that!  This advice is for all teachers.  Although I give this advice from the perspective of AP Psych, it totally applies to all courses who summation is wrapped up into one big test.  Here it is...

Align your course.

Some of you are totally giving me an eye roll right now, as if to say, really - I'm ready a blog post for that advice?!?!?

You're dag-on right you are.  And here's why...

There is SO MUCH out there to align your course to.  Every textbook company says they've got the latest and greatest resources, which many of them do.  Their handouts and activities can be great resources, but you don't necessarily want to be using their resources in the area where alignment matters the most.  That area, my friends, is tests.

When it comes to aligning the assessments of your course, if the resources are available to you, you need to use the ones that are provided by the company who makes the summative assessment of your course.

In AP Psychology's case, your tests should be made almost exclusively from released test questions from CollegeBoard.  I know that not all subjects or courses are lucky enough to have a huge amount of released questions available to them, and that really is unfortunate.  But my advice still stands - don't assume that if it comes from a textbook that the test questions are great. They could be great, but that doesn't mean they are aligned.

So what does this mean for me?

I'm so glad you asked.  

I'm giving this piece of advice because last week (at the time this was written) we all (AP teachers) got their students' scores.  It's a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride to get those scores because you know how hard you worked, you have mostly high expectations, and no matter how great the scores are, are both relieved and disappointed in the scores.

If you are feeling less than excited about your scores, or if you are teaching this course for the first time next year, I want you to heed this one huge piece of advice, and take some time to print the more recent released multiple choice tests provided by CollegeBoard.  Divide them up according to the units and incorporate them into your tests.

This is no small task, but if you get the tests made before you teach each unit, it will change your course completely.

If you found this helpful...

I want to provide more support for you in specific areas of AP Psych content where many teachers feel less than confident teaching throughout the year.  Yes, I'm going to tell you about a membership program I'm offering, but before I do that, I'm going to provide you with content coaching for completely free.  I want you to see how I can support and help you as your content coach before you consider joining.  How does that sound?

So about those videos - make sure you have joined the waitlist by getting your AP Psych Done Right Workbook, and then stay tuned for an email on when those are coming out starting on Wednesday, July 24th.  That's just 2 weeks away!

 You do NOT want to miss these three videos because year after year these are the areas students struggle the most

1. The Normal Curve - how we talk about statistics in AP Psychology
2. Neurons: Agonist vs. Antagonist - how we talk about biology in AP Psychology, and
3. Treatment - the big understandings within treatment of clinical psychology that will help your students get the bigger picture.

So, again, get signed up to be the first to see these videos by clicking here to get your workbook, and you'll be on the list!

Until the next time,