Advanced Placement Art History Workshop

Presenter: Marsha K. Russell

This workshop, designed to address the needs and concerns of both beginning and experienced AP teachers, focuses on how to put into place and develop an AP Art History program.  We will explore issues ranging from what absolutely must be taught in a rapidly expanding curriculum and how much time to spend on what, to how to build a collection of art images and which texts are most effective for high school students.  We will discuss how to use the Internet and technology in the AP Art History classroom, how to help our students become excited about art history, how to help them approach discussing and writing about art with intelligence and sophistication, and how to help them succeed on the AP exam.  We will pay particular attention to trends within the field that are reflected in the AP exam, such as the integration of non-western art into an already crowded curriculum and the shift away from formal analysis toward demonstrating an understanding of how pieces of art reflect their historical and cultural contexts. We will give special attention this summer to two areas in which many teachers feel a lack of confidence:  first, how do we teach our students to write the kind of essays they need to perform well on the AP exam? Second, how can we help our students make sense of art from the 20^th and 21^st centuries?  We will also explore how to help our students approach the Document-Based Short Answer question, how to construct and evaluate unit exams that function as AP practice, and how to make the best possible use of field trips.  We will use ETS and College Board materials from the 2008 Reading to understand and practice the exam grading process.  All week long, we will seize every opportunity to explore and share “best practices,” do hands-on enrichment activities, and use slide presentations and field trips to local museums to apply our new learning.

Participants are asked to bring a box of Crayons to the workshop, as well as handouts of favorite lessons and other goodies they are willing to share. 

Marsha Russell has been teaching AP Art History and sophomore Humanities at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, for the past seven years, following ten years with the Liberal Arts Academy, a magnet program for gifted students at Austin’s A. S. Johnston High School.  She founded the AP Art History program at both schools and was the first to teach the course in the Austin metropolitan area.  Both an AP Art History examination Table Leader and a College Board consultant, she has been named Tracor Teacher-Scholar and received grants from The Texas Council on the Humanities and the Austin Area Junior League to integrate art history into the world history curriculum. 

Updated 1/15/08