Tips for TEACHING Stimulus Based Multiple Choice
TLDRThis video script offers a solution for AP History teachers struggling with stimulus-based multiple-choice questions. The speaker identifies four key skills needed for success: content knowledge, historical thinking skills, conditioning to answer quickly under time pressure, and the ability to dissect questions to identify correct and incorrect answers. The script suggests practicing rapid document review and dissecting questions to improve students' efficiency and accuracy, ultimately leading to better performance on exams.
Takeaways
- 📚 Content Knowledge: Students need a solid understanding of the subject matter to answer AP History multiple-choice questions correctly.
- 🤔 Historical Thinking Skills: Employing skills like causation and change over time is crucial for tackling these questions effectively.
- 🏃 Conditioning: The ability to answer questions quickly under time pressure is a skill that requires practice, akin to physical conditioning.
- 🚀 Ultra Marathon Analogy: The speaker uses the example of an ultra-marathon to illustrate the importance of mental fortitude and practice for endurance.
- ⏱️ Rapid Document Review: Practicing quick document interpretation can help students become more efficient in handling stimulus-based questions.
- 📝 Document Summary: Encourage students to write a one-sentence summary after a timed document review to check comprehension speed.
- 🔍 Dissection of Questions: Understanding the structure of multiple-choice questions, including identifying wrong answers and distractors, is key.
- 🙅♂️ Wrong Answers: Typically, wrong answers are factually incorrect, outside the time period, or misuse historical thinking skills.
- 💡 Distractors: These are factually correct but do not answer the question posed, requiring students to think critically to identify them.
- 👥 Group Exercise: Working in groups to identify wrong answers and discuss reasoning can foster deeper understanding and practice.
- 📈 Continuous Practice: Regular practice in both document review and question dissection leads to improved speed and accuracy in test-taking.
Q & A
What is the main issue the video aims to address for AP History teachers?
-The video aims to address the challenge of teaching students to perform well on stimulus-based multiple-choice questions in AP History classes, where students often struggle and show signs of distress.
What are the three initial tasks that students need to tackle these types of questions according to the video?
-The initial tasks include having content knowledge to get the right answer, employing historical thinking skills such as causation or change over time, and a third skill that was later identified as conditioning.
What is the term 'conditioning' in the context of the video?
-Conditioning refers to the practice of answering these questions quickly under time pressure, which is a skill that requires practice and is often overlooked.
How does the speaker use the ultra-marathon analogy to explain the importance of conditioning?
-The speaker uses the ultra-marathon analogy to illustrate that even with physical strength, without the mental fortitude and practice to endure the full distance, one cannot succeed, similar to students knowing content but failing under exam pressure.
What is the suggestion given to improve students' ability to handle time pressure during exams?
-The suggestion is to practice rapid document review, where students are given a limited time to read and interpret documents quickly, and then write a summary to improve their speed and comfort under time constraints.
What is the fourth skill required for students to perform well on stimulus-based questions, as mentioned in the video?
-The fourth skill is 'dissection,' which is the ability to understand how multiple-choice questions are constructed and to identify the correct and incorrect answer options effectively.
How does the video suggest students approach multiple-choice questions to improve their performance?
-The video suggests that students should first hunt for the two obviously wrong answers and then identify the distractor, rather than immediately searching for the correct answer.
What are the typical reasons given in the video for why answer choices might be wrong in a multiple-choice question?
-The reasons include the answer being factually wrong, outside the time period of the problem, or using the wrong historical thinking skill.
How does the video describe the role of the distractor in a multiple-choice question?
-The distractor is factually correct as a statement but does not correctly answer the question, making it a tricky option for students to identify.
What example is given in the video to illustrate the process of identifying wrong answers and the distractor?
-The example given is a question regarding the Republicans' claim about abolishing slavery in their national territory, with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 as the correct answer, and the task is to identify the two factually wrong answers and the distractor.
What is the final advice given in the video for teachers to help students improve their performance on stimulus-based questions?
-The final advice is to repeatedly practice the process of identifying wrong answers and dissecting questions, providing reasons for their choices, which leads to more efficient and quicker responses over time.
Outlines
📚 Enhancing AP History Multiple-Choice Question Performance
This paragraph discusses strategies for improving students' performance on stimulus-based multiple-choice questions in AP History classes. The speaker identifies four key skills required for tackling these questions: content knowledge, historical thinking skills, conditioning (practice in answering quickly under time pressure), and dissection (understanding the structure of the questions). The analogy of training for an ultra-marathon is used to illustrate the importance of mental conditioning alongside physical preparation. The paragraph concludes with a suggestion to practice rapid document review to enhance students' ability to comprehend documents quickly, which is crucial for answering these types of questions efficiently.
🔍 Developing Question Dissection Skills for AP Exams
The second paragraph focuses on the skill of dissecting multiple-choice questions, which involves understanding their construction and identifying incorrect answers and distractors. The speaker shares an exercise where students are tasked with finding the two obviously wrong answers and the distractor for each question, explaining why they are incorrect. This method aims to improve students' ability to critically analyze questions and answers, leading to more efficient and accurate responses on exams. The paragraph also includes an example from the APUSH CED, demonstrating how to apply this skill in practice. The speaker encourages repetition of this exercise to foster deeper understanding and faster response times.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡AP History
💡Multiple Choice Questions
💡Content Knowledge
💡Historical Thinking Skills
💡Conditioning
💡Dissection
💡Ultra Marathon
💡Rapid Document Review
💡Distractors
💡College Board
💡APUSH
Highlights
Teaching stimulus-based multiple-choice questions in AP History can be challenging, but this video offers a method to improve student performance.
Three essential tasks for students to tackle these questions: content knowledge, historical thinking skills, and the newly identified conditioning and dissection skills.
Conditioning refers to the practice of answering questions quickly under time pressure, a skill often overlooked.
An analogy is made between ultra-marathon training and the need for mental fortitude in students to perform well under exam conditions.
The importance of rapid document review practice to improve speed and comprehension in answering stimulus-based questions.
A method for practicing document review involves timed reading with a summary requirement to enhance quick comprehension.
The necessity for students to understand the structure of multiple-choice questions, including identifying wrong and distractor answers.
A strategy for dissecting questions by first finding the two obviously wrong answers and then identifying the distractor.
Common reasons why answer choices are wrong: factual inaccuracy, being outside the time period of the problem, or misuse of historical thinking skills.
The role of the distractor as a factually correct statement that does not answer the question, and how to identify it.
An example from the APUSH CED is used to illustrate the process of identifying wrong and distractor answers.
The importance of repetition in the practice of dissecting questions to improve efficiency and speed in answering.
The video provides a method for teachers to engage students in identifying and justifying their choices for wrong and distractor answers.
The video encourages teachers to share their strategies for teaching stimulus-based multiple-choice questions to foster a community of learning.
The presenter offers additional resources for AP teachers and invites viewers to explore teacher resource packs for AP World and AP European History.
A call to action for viewers to share their own strategies in the comments section to enhance collective teaching methods.
The presenter signs off with a friendly and engaging tone, inviting further interaction and learning.
Transcripts
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