26.4% – how much my AP Macro passing rate improved this year. Nearly 15 years of teaching this course and this year’s scores surpassed all previous years’ scores. Last year – 44.4% students scored a 3 or higher. This year – 70.8%. Anyone who has ever taught AP Macro (and AP Micro), a semester AP course, knows that time is an issue. You have a ton of material to cover in a short amount of time. So…what changed this year?
I do not set out to change the structure of any course I teach. Why? Because that means sticking to a method that may or may not work. Things happen. Flexibility is needed. And, seriously, I would exert more effort remembering how to keep that structure than just doing what needs to be done. What works for one class may not work with another. Do I change the way I teach? Absolutely. However, change comes as I see it needed (which is sometimes the morning of a lesson when I am driving to school and I think of a neat way to teach a concept that I did not consider before). Saying all this, what changed this year? Here is my reflection…
- Unit 1 Fundamentals – less time spend on this unit… sadly, you do not have time to teach Unit 1. The only concept that I spend time teaching is comparative advantage. And as much as I want to teach the very detailed way to solve these problems, I resort to Jacob Clifford’s “quick and dirty” method. It reduced the amount of time teaching this concept. I think this is the most important unit to teach (since it is the fundamentals); however, you just do not have time. I also do a small test on these basic concepts
- Unit 1 – supply and demand…yes, again, shorten the amount of time you spend on this unit. Many of my Macro students have not taken Micro (from previous fall). The most important part of this unit is learning the foundations of drawing graphs. Many of my seniors can quickly grasp the effect of prices due to various events. Therefore, I do not spend as much time practicing events and shifts. I cover that WHILE the students practice graph drawing. This skill will set the foundation for all future graphs. I do a small test on just S and D.
- Bellringers – I introduced concepts (and definitions) through bellringers, primarily videos. This enabled the students to be introduced to the concept while I took attendance. Then, we jumped into actual application of the concept (and the “big picture”).
- Tactile learning – (click link for access to some of my files) this is what I believe was the biggest difference. For many of my concepts, I created or converted activities that forced the students to be hands-on. We all know that elementary teachers use manipulatives to teach students. Why is it that high school teachers think we can’t do the same? I decided to incorporate MORE hands-on activities this past semester. Here are a few:
- Bingo – I used Bingo in my AD/AS unit. It is very easy to create a review game that recalls definitions. However, students need to be able to APPLY the concepts – not just know the definitions. I chose to include examples that made students APPLY the definitions/shifters to different scenarios. It took a few tries to figure this out. However, with the help of students, we worked out the kinks. Here is how you can do the same. First, create some Bingo cards (many free generators online). If you are only practicing AD, then your choices need to be AD right, AD left. Same if you just do AS. I found it better if you do this activity after you review BOTH and include AD right, AD left, AS right, and AS left on the BINGO cards. Second, create some application problems. I have included mine in the link. Cut these out and be ready to draw from a bag. When you draw a card, read the problem to the students and have them put a bingo chip over the appropriate curve shift. You may be asking, “how do you get Bingo?” Well, go to Wheel of Names website and spell out BINGO. Click and spin the wheel. This will tell the students which column to look at when finding the answer to the scenario. Yes, there will probably be multiple winners but it is the repetitive practice that helps students.
- Escape Room (click to access) – I don’t think this helped my scores but the kids enjoyed it (I think), allowing me to include some history and “bust” some myths about Herbert Hoover. It also allowed the students to review fiscal policy and apply previously learned AD/AS graphs. This activity enabled me to come back and review some FRQ scenarios.
- Kinesthetic activity (ripple effect of Great Depression) – this was not my activity but one I found online. I did edit to include yarn (will explain). For this activity, the students worked in groups to analyze the effects of a job loss/loss of hours on a family during the Great Depression. The students had a budget and made changes based on an updated financial situation. After the students completed the new budget, we went outside to demonstrate the “connectedness” of everyone in a community (also, to save time, I introduced the CIRCULAR FLOW DIAGRAM through this). Each family was given a specific color of yarn. Each family then discussed some of the changes they made in their budgets. What the students didn’t know was all family scenarios are somehow connected. If a family made a change in budget and reduced or omitted a particular spending that impacted another family, they passed the yarn to that family member. That other family member passed it back the presenting family (and the process continued until everyone goes). At the end, there is a web of yarn that demonstrates how one even can have an impact on a community. Click on this link to see a picture of the end result. It is difficult to explain how this worked. You just need to jump in and figure it out.
- Review days – yes, you would think this is common practice in all AP classes; however, for a semester class, you just do not have time to incorporate review days when you have a gargantuan amount of material to cover. This year, however, I chose to reduce the amount of time I spent on some items to free up a day or two to review for the AP exam. Also, College Board created an extra unit in Macro (not extra material but took some material from a unit to create the new unit on stabilization policies.) I DID NOT do this unit…you DO NOT have time!!!!! Keep incorporating that information the old way and just make sure you cover what needs to be covered. If you treat each unit as a test, you will run out of time. For me, the following break down works: first nine weeks – Scarcity/fundamentals test, S and D test, GDP concepts test, AD/AS test; second nine weeks – Fiscal policy, monetary policy, international trade, review
I will continue to add to this list after more reflection. As of now, I am going to enjoy these results and be proud of the hard work by my students.
I dedicate this post to my mom who passed away on May 3 from cancer. She and Dad instilled in me my strong work ethic.
