One of the first hurdles to clear in preparing to teach AP United States History is trying to figure out how to fit all the content before the exam. Before the College Board updated the Course and Exam Description (CED), teachers would do their best to spend a proportionate amount of time on material based on its prevalence in the test. The newest update to the CED provides the percentages for the prevalence of each historical period in the test as it always has and the ranges for each unit varies so much that it verges on being unhelpful. However, the CED now includes a suggested amount of days to spend on each unit.

The number of days suggested by the College Board for each unit will increase or decrease depending on the number of topics within in the Unit. Within the unit guide, the College Board suggests that most topics can be taught in one 45 minute class period, but refrains from making firm recommendations on pacing to allow for flexibility and variance in each school’s calendar.

The new updates do make it easier to plan the year from the first day to the last review session. I certainly don’t miss trying to figure what percentage of my instructional weeks I was going to devote to a certain historical period. For the first time in teaching this course I have genuine confidence that the pacing I am now using will maximize my students’ learning, thereby giving them a greater opportunity to be successful. By aligning my teaching with the Unit Topics, I am able to put together a calendar that utilizes all the resources on APUSHslides.com and adheres to recommended number of days per unit. This even accounts for holidays, testing days, and all other random assemblies or rallies that interrupt our calendar in a normal year.

College Board Recommended Days Per Unit

Unit 1 ~ 8 days - 7 Topics

Unit 2 ~ 14 days - 8 Topics

Unit 3 ~ 17 days - 13 Topics

Unit 4 ~ 17 days - 14 Topics

Unit 5 ~ 17 days - 12 Topics

Unit 6 ~ 18 days - 14 Topics

Unit 7 ~ 21 days - 15 Topics

Unit 8 ~ 20 days - 15 topics

Unit 9 ~ 8 days - 7 topics

The calendar below is generic and customizable in the sense that lectures and activities can be moved around within their particular unit to accommodate any school calendar that has 18 weeks (including Thanksgiving week) from the first day of school to the last school day of the calendar year. It is designed to be used with the slides and activities on APUSHslides.com and includes a day in each week that can be used to catch up, assess or work on writing practice. Teachers have latitude on when they want include assessments in the middle or at the end of each unit.