APUSH Summer Preview, Tutoring, and EF
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Anonymous
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DS will be in 9th next year. He's a very strong STEM kid. He also has an IEP. His ADHD/Anxiety/ASD are what got him his IEP. He has a few friends in school and he desperately wants to fit in. They are taking APUSH next year and he wants to do it as well. Even with his IEP, he's going to struggle. He's just not a strong critical thinker that can connect the dots, recall facts from memory, and generally cannot elaborate in an essay. He has no study skills, does not know how to take notes, or organize his thoughts.
I don't want to tell him he can't take APUSH without at least giving him a chance. I asked him if he would be willing to work with a tutor over the summer to preview the material, get an understanding of what would be required, see if he really wanted to commit to this for a full year, etc. He agreed. In my mind, I would find an MCPS APUSH teacher looking to tutor over the summer. I would ask this person to cover some but not all---whether they went deep and didn't cover all the material or went wide and didn't do as deep a dive as during the school year, I would leave up to them. But I recognize that they couldn't cover the entire course over the summer. I would have them assign readings, teach note taking skills, how to make flash cards, teach how to write the DBQ and FRQ and then review the essay responses. I suppose it would be study skills using APUSH as the content. If, at the end of the summer, the MCPS tutor said he was ready for the class, he would take it for credit next year. If the teacher felt he was not ready, he would take H.US History 9. Does this sound like a reasonable approach? I get that DS wants to do what his friends are doing but he doesn't understand that he's at a different starting point then they are. |
Anonymous
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Most kids are doing APUSH or AP gov though
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Anonymous
?????? |
Anonymous
| Our school has the kids do AP gov. It’s a very hard class. Thankfully our teacher teaches study skills but it’s weekly quizzes, note taking, weekly chapter readings and semester exams. |
Anonymous
| Schools like Blair only offer APUSH in 9th. |
Anonymous
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I wouldn’t do it. Kids are on different paths in life, have different strengths and interest and they need to understand that. APUSH has lots of reading and writing and if he needs time to build towards that it’s completely normal and fine. You don’t have to start HS tackling College Level, particularly not in an area that’s not your strongest. That said, working with a tutor this summer to work on Study Skills/Executive functioning/Essay writing could be good for him overall to better prepare him for HS generally.
My advice, work on what truly needs attention and leave APUSH for the future. |
Anonymous
Absolutely Not true |
Anonymous
I appreciate this. I haven't hired an EF coach yet. Don't they need content/subject material in order to teach study skills/note taking/essay writing? |
Anonymous
| If he does this, I would have him go through the entire Khan APUSH course over the summer. But I would first ask the school if AP NSL is an option in 9th. It’s a slower course (covering only one semester of college over the year). |
Anonymous
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I have an ADHD/anxiety kid who is really bright but I would never put him through APUSH in 9th.
Our older child who got into RMIB and other magnets but stayed at the home school and is really good at "connecting the dots" as you put it and enjoys the subject took APUSH and it was a lot of work and really hard. I cannot imagine my other child being able to do that amount of work independently and balancing all the other things that come with starting high school. |
Anonymous
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PP again. There is a ton of writing in APUSH and for DC1 writing half a page or a page response question multiple times a week was a breeze. They didn't always get full points, but the process of writing comes naturally and easy to this child.
My other child really has trouble organizing thoughts and getting them down on paper. Every time they are asked for a response that is longer than a paragraph panic sets in. I don't know if your child is that extreme but if your child is I would really urge you not to put your child through that kind of stress. |
Anonymous
Sure but it doesn’t have to be APUSH. It could be working on organizing their life for the next week, or going through reading a book and answering questions and doing short essays. It could start with passages like those used on standardized test. |
Anonymous
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Do AP Gov first.
—former APUSH teacher. |
Anonymous
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You say he is a very strong stem kid but wants to take APUSH next year because his friends are. For my ADHD kid, taking subjects of interest are better for him - the more naturally interested in something he is, the better he will do. Is there an AP science or math class he could take instead? AP Enviro or AP Stats. Or can he double up on regular science so that he can get to AP Bio or Chem next year?
It's easier to tell your friends you aren't taking APUSH because you find it boring, but you are on a path for AP-something-I-like |
Anonymous
| Does the HS offer a college prep class to accompany APUSH for 9th graders? I’d ask the counselor about that. |