This course will focus on bringing Pre-AP ideals into the concrete realities of public education. We'll discuss the meaning and purpose of "Pre-AP" and focus throughout the week on different ways to approach both content and skill-building without sacrificing the joys of state testing expectations. We'll do some document analysis (I know, right?), talk about basic writing skills (scaffolded for teachers and students alike), and make sure we're comfortable responding to all sorts of prompts (FRQs, DBQs, and any other acronyms we can throw in.) Because SO many students are coming to us with fewer and fewer basic reading skills, we'll look at some content-appropriate (i.e., "history-ish") literacy strategies that will work with primary sources, outside reading, and even those big, scary, boring textbooks. In general, we'll add to our repertoire of strategies for building students' skills without them always realizing it in hopes of combining an appreciation for all the artsy-craftsy, hands-on, and occasionally odd things we do to help students learn NOW with a vision of what we want them to be able to do LATER, so that they can succeed academically and personally wherever their little paths may take them.

• Please bring your best lesson plan or idea
• Your greatest challenge, insecurity, or weakness in the classroom (don't worry, we'll be gentle)
• Stuff to write with and on for various activities

Dallas Koehn has been teaching various Social Studies and History classes at Union Public Schools in Tulsa, OK, for 13 years. His classes have included "Academic", ELL, and Pre-AP sections, and he's been a consultant for the College Board for a good chunk of that time. As "Instructional Team Leader" (the latest Educationese for "Department Head"), he's worked with his department to implement Pre-AP strategies at all levels to various degrees - a work always "still in progress." Dallas has worked with both the State Social Studies and Fine Arts Conference and numerous school districts in Oklahoma and Texas to throw as many starfish back in the ocean as possible - whether they wish to go or not. He is National Board Certified and is fairly tolerable after enough caffeine.