What are you doing after the AP Exam?

Hi, Andrea Wong  - Over the past several years I've taught Personal Finance to help meet state requirements, but before that, I used to have students do a "Book Trailer" (Like a movie trailer, but for a book!). 

There were a few things I was getting at:  a.  giving students some down time after an intense year b. giving students the opportunity to dig deeper into a topic from world history that interests them c.  Having fun with history by learning that we can learn about it from reading all sorts of different genres besides informational (so therefore liking or continuing to like history after their grueling year).  d.  Having fun with the final product - we did a whole Red Carpet Premiere thing with APUSH and the Library - it was really fun and a great way to end the year.

I'm looking forward to hearing other suggestions!

Carrie Emmerson these are nice suggestions! I am curious to know about your Red Carpet Premiere. What do you exaclty do? How do you connect that activity with your AP course?

 Andrea Wong in my AP Human Geography class I chose four movies that are related to the topics learned in the course: Lion, The Motorcycle Diaries, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, and GoodBye Lenin. Each movie covers a different continent and a distinctive historical and geographical reality.

Here are some examples of the activities I created and materials I use: Lion,  The Motorcycle Diaries, Supporting reading for Lat Am., Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Good Bye Lenin.

Thanks, Laura Massa !  The students have to tie a written book summary and review to AP Themes, which gets at that.  The Red Carpet activity is just a fun way to show their videos and celebrate the year.  We even had a School Counselor make gold "Oscar" statues with spray painted Legos.  It was great fun and a reasonable final assessment in my mind, as I think the AP Exam itself is the *real* final assessment.

Thanks, Laura Massa !  The students have to tie a written book summary and review to AP Themes, which gets at that.  The Red Carpet activity is just a fun way to show their videos and celebrate the year.  We even had a School Counselor make gold "Oscar" statues with spray painted Legos.  It was great fun and a reasonable final assessment in my mind, as I think the AP Exam itself is the *real* final assessment.

P.S.  I am always so impressed with your thoughtful assignments and creativity!

Here is a dump of the mini projects I have made over the years....hope some are useful!

Missing Chapter   History through Music  EndofYearProjectIdea  Modern World History Turning Points  I am also doing a book group this year.  Groups of 3 are reading 11 different titles. Book Group

Enjoy!

Janet Mann  All of these look really fun, and History Through Music is such a cool idea to engage students at the end of the school year.

I had a full class for the first couple of weeks after the AP exam. We watched The Woman King, then students had an option project: they could either create an ultimate civilization drawing on empires we've studied or do the Visions of the Future project inspired by BHP. 

Now that I'm down to six juniors for the next few weeks, I laid out a bunch of options to let them decide. We landed on Unhinged History (a deep dive into something niche/silly/just plain fun) and creating a Crash Course-style video. My students were also asking to watch Mulan...I think I'll have to look up the SBMC set that used "The Ballad of Mulan" and come up with a choice board to make this a little more academic 

In AP World History, after the Exam I have students watch Hotel Rwanda in class. I have them fill out a video guide as they watch the film, and then we do a few in-class discussions on a couple topics. I tie it back to some of the topics covered in units 7 and 8, relating to mass atrocities, newly independent states, decolonization and such. We also discuss some of the controversy around Paul and how he's portrayed in the film and how some people within Rwanda view him (including his recent terrorism arrest) and discuss the "Hollywood vs. History" concepts, as well as some of the later developments in Central Africa that have grown out of the conflict shown in the film, ending with a conversation on why it is that Africa is largely ignored (at least in America) when discussing global news stories. Students are able to identify major news stories in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, but many of them struggle to name even a single significant news story out of Africa. This is all ungraded, and very informal. I use it primarily as a way to keep them engaged for the last few weeks of school, but also to help wind them down after the exam.

My on-level students just finished Hotel Rwanda today. I was so pleased to see them get so invested! It was also interesting to read that Paul Rusesabagina is now living in Texas.