AP* and Pre-AP* Summer Institute

AP* Art History for New and Experienced AP* Teachers

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, to methods for helping our students discuss and write about art with intelligence and sophistication. We will explore pedagogical approaches for providing our students with the knowledge and the analytical skills they need to succeed on the AP exam. We will pay particular attention to trends within the field that are reflected in the AP exam, such as ways to integrate global 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 use ETS and College Board materials from the 2010 Reading to enhance our effectiveness.  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.

LEAD INSTRUCTOR:  [NAME]

Marsha Russell has been teaching AP Art History and sophomore Humanities at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, for the past nine 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 has received grants from The Texas Council on the Humanities and the Austin Area Junior League to integrate art history into the world history curriculum.  Grants from the St. Andrew’s Parents Council have enabled her to do course-related study in Mexico, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic.  With a Bachelor of Music degree from Southwestern University and an MA from the University of Texas, she has taught AP Art History for 15 years. 

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