Curriculum and Instructional Resources

“In an effective classroom students should not only know what they are doing, they should also know why and how.” – Harry Wong

AP Course Curriculum

The best curriculum is only effective when a teacher makes it work for the students they teach. AP teachers should utilize the Course and Exam Description (CED) from College Board as the foundation of their curriculum, and build a course of study that utilizes best pedagogical practices and addresses the needs of all learners in their classroom.

College Board AP Course and Exam Description

College Board offers a Course and Exam Description (CED) for every AP course, which contains guidance from the College Board. College Board has updated the course and exam descriptions (CEDs) for most AP courses and they all now contain unit guides. The unit guides include:

an outline of the exact content and skills covered on the exam
pacing and sequencing suggestions to help teachers integrate material into their courses
unit weighting to focus instruction on topics that will make the biggest impact

You can learn more about CED’s on the College Board website.

Adapting your AP Curriculum

The unit guides from CEDs are key to understanding and putting together a high quality course for your students. However, it is still essential to make your course work for you and your students.

Using best practices

While teaching a college level course is more rigorous, the fundamentals of teaching an AP course are not much different from teaching a non-AP course. To support student achievement, teachers should:

focus on rigorous instruction
build a supportive environment for their students and
collaborate with other teachers at their school
make use of Advanced Literacies
incorporate Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Educational practices

Building AP Readiness

Success in an AP course begins before students walk in the door on day one. All of their prior experiences should prepare them for the college level work they are going to achieve in. Our findings show that schools that are successful at expanding their AP program begin preparing students early for success in their AP courses. This process occurs by engaging your school in Vertical Teaming to gather the tools and mindsets necessary to build AP readiness for all students.

Making the Curriculum Work for You

There are a variety of materials that exist to help you with planning your course, including lessons, activities and support materials from a variety of sources. As you decide which materials to use, ask yourself these questions:

Is this resource fully aligned with the Course and Exam Description from College Board?
Is the resource of high quality?
Does the resource support your instructional, socio-emotional, and cultural goals for your students? Does it fit within the course sequence?
1. Even some high quality resources may not support your specific instructional goals or sequence of the course.
2. Avoid adapting a resource that isn’t BOTH high quality and aligned to your specific goals.
What modifications or adaptations do you need to make the resource work within your classroom?

AP for All Curriculum Supports

AP for All held its first Curriculum Writing Institute in the summer of 2017. The goal was to leverage experienced AP teachers within the NYCDOE to create model curriculum maps, unit plans, lesson experience templates, and additional resources for all AP courses we currently support. Each year we have continued to build and refine those resources based on teacher feedback and the most recent updates to the College Board frameworks in Spring 2019. College Board’s Course and Exam Descriptions (CED) → have evolved to include units and the AP for All materials have been re-designed to help supplement and expand on what is included in the CED.

Curriculum Overview and Welcome

Good planning is essential to a successful AP course. From its launch, AP for All has been thrilled to offer high quality professional development in the form of AP Summer Institutes, content training, and targeted workshops.

To continue supporting AP teachers in NYC, AP for All held its first Curriculum Writing Institute in the summer of 2017. The goal was to leverage experienced AP teachers within the NYCDOE to create model curriculum maps, unit plans, lesson experience templates, and additional resources for all AP courses we currently support. Each year we have continued to build and refine those resources based on teacher feedback and the most recent updates to the College Board frameworks in Spring 2019.

How to use these documents.

These documents are to be used to support the revised College Board Course and Exam Descriptions (CED) → for the corresponding course. This year saw many changes to course frameworks and support materials. Before you dig into the materials below, be sure that you familiarize yourself with the 2019-20 Changes to AP: A Path to Success for All Students .

In addition to material from College Board and AP for All, our partner, the National Math and Science Initiative who supports most of our course with AP Content workshops, mentors and AP Summer Institutes. NMSI posts lessons, activities and support materials for most supported courses on Blackboard and teachers in AP for All supported schools are entitled to access. Email nmsi@edusupportcenter.com for an account and indicate which AP for All school you are currently teaching at.

How to modify these documents.

These document represents the combined work of several experienced NYCDOE AP teachers. Our goal was to provide teachers with a “jumping off” point to work from and a model they could use as a baseline. It is essential to modify these documents to address the needs of your school, your students and your own pedagogical approach. AP for All supported teachers should feel free to make a copy of this file in Google Docs or download this as a Word Doc and tailor the resources to fit the needs of your own classroom and students.

This a Draft Release of these documents.

As a supported AP for All school, we are looking for your help in continuing to refine our work and are working hard to ensure that documents reflect the recent changes to AP courses. We appreciate any feedback or questions you have, which will help us to make improvements to better support you in your work. Please email apforall@schools.nyc.gov with any questions or comments, and please indicate the document you are emailing about in the subject line.