Robert Coad has taught AP* Art History at Hamilton High School’s Humanities Magnet since 1994 and since retiring from full time teaching in 2017, has taught one class of APAH at independent and charter schools in Los Angeles.
Since 1996, Robert has led one-day and 5-day APSI workshops throughout the United States, Canada, and John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. Robert has served as a College Board National Leader Consultant, a Reader for AP Art History Exam and was honored as a Distinguished Teacher (AP Art History) at the College Board Western Region Conference.
Robert holds National Board Certification in Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood Art (2002/2012). He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and a Humanities Teacher Leadership program award. Robert was a mentor teacher and BTSA Support Provider for LAUSD for many years.
Robert has traveled extensively in the United States and Europe, with extended stays in London, Paris, Florence, Venice, and Rome. Before moving to Los Angeles, Robert lived in New York for 13 years, earning his Master’s and Doctoral degrees at NYU. He has also traveled to Japan and Mexico to study firsthand works in the redesigned AP Art History course
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Workshop Agenda (Synchronous sessions in bold)
DAY 1
Welcome! How to Navigate our online APSI materials.
Introductions, expectations of the week, online protocols, the agenda
Equity and Access
Introducing AP® Art History CED’s (Course and Exam Description)
Looking at the Course at a Glance
Big Ideas and clearly articulated 8 Art Historical Thinking Skills
Specific content areas to focus on during this workshop (participant driven)
Asynchronous Activity: Closer look at Course at a Glance and Art Historical Thinking Skills
Investigating the course content (250 works) and your classroom schedules:
Time for reflection and questions from yesterday’s activities
Beginning the course – The first week: introducing foundational ideas – What is Art History? What do Art Historians Do? (Power Points shared)
Learning Objectives and global content - organizing the course content into specific units that scaffold Art Historical Thinking Skills.
OR Unit 1 (Prehistory) Unit 2 (Ancient Mediterranean). Number of works: 47
Asynchronous Activity: Organization of content and pacing
What is happening in tomorrow’s session?
DAY 3
Time for reflection and questions from yesterday’s activities
Building Art Historical Thinking Skills – a close look at Skill 4 (Artistic Traditions), Skill 5 (Visual Analysis of Unknown Works) and Skill 6 (Attribution of Unknown Works); where they are assessed on the AP Exam
Asynchronous Activity: Close look at Unit 3 (Early Europe and Colonial America) and Unit 4 (Later Europe and the Americas)
Sharing best practices: Sharing activities you chose for Units 2 through 4 and how you would assess student learning after those activities
Introduction to the AP Classroom
Asynchronous Activity: Organization of content, pacing, assessments, and skills
What is happening in tomorrow’s session?
DAY 4
Time for reflection and questions from yesterday’s activities
The AP Art History Exam and 2023 AP Exam Free Response questions– a close look at the exam format and this year’s free response prompts, scoring guides and student samples
Asynchronous Activity: Reading scoring guides and rubrics then grading student samples from the 2023 Exam.
Strategies and Activities for Unit 7, Unit 8 and Unit 10 and Skill 7 and Skill 8
Asynchronous Activity: Organization of content, pacing, assessments, and skills
Synchronous: Debrief, Question and Answer
College Board Workshop Evaluations (Email)
- Participants in the AP Art History Summer Institute will increase their knowledge of the AP Art History Course and Exam Description.
- We will take a “deep dive” into each of the 10 units and 8 art historical thinking skills.
- Strategies and pedagogical techniques for increasing student proficiency in the learning objectives will be shared with specific focus on how to introduce core concepts of content, form, context, function to arrive at an understanding of “meaning”.
- A critical piece of this workshop will focus on how to organize the course content and pacing, using instructor’s daily calendar as a firsthand example to examine, reject and/or modify.
- We will also learn how to use the AP Classroom including its many resources for each Unit and Practice Questions, Class Progress Checks and Feedback, the daily videos, and the AP® Question Bank to scaffold each of the 8 art historical thinking skills and develop lesson plans that reinforce student learning.
- Participants will spend time becoming familiar with the format, sample questions and grading of the exam and look at specific free response questions from the 2023 exam.
- Participants will be introduced to how to use the Instructional Planning Report to continually refine classroom instruction.
- Time will also be provided for reflection and to work on your course syllabus, pacing plans and lesson planning.
Workshop Agenda (Synchronous sessions in bold)
DAY 1
Welcome! How to Navigate our online APSI materials.
Introductions, expectations of the week, online protocols, the agenda
Equity and Access
Introducing AP® Art History CED’s (Course and Exam Description)
Looking at the Course at a Glance
Big Ideas and clearly articulated 8 Art Historical Thinking Skills
Specific content areas to focus on during this workshop (participant driven)
Asynchronous Activity: Closer look at Course at a Glance and Art Historical Thinking Skills
- How can we use these documents to guide planning and instruction?
- How can we build Art Historical Thinking Skills into your classrooms?
- How could you assess student learning?
- Can we re-order the 10 Units to better serve our student’s interests and needs (and our individual strengths as teachers)?
- How can we further organize course content into manageable classroom experiences?
- How can we organize works within each Unit to build connections between works within a unit and between works in other Units?
Investigating the course content (250 works) and your classroom schedules:
- What are the advantages to following the 10 Units in order?
- Are there alternative orderings of course content that might better “fit” strengths in our knowledge on content and our student populations?
- Close look at your school calendar and available classroom instructional time. Can you identify potential challenges?
- What is happening in tomorrow’s session?
Time for reflection and questions from yesterday’s activities
Beginning the course – The first week: introducing foundational ideas – What is Art History? What do Art Historians Do? (Power Points shared)
Learning Objectives and global content - organizing the course content into specific units that scaffold Art Historical Thinking Skills.
- How to present Skill 1 (Visual Analysis) and Skill 2 (Contextual Analysis) using a work of art.
- Clearly differentiating Formal and Contextual Analysis for students
- Connecting Content and Form to Context, Function and Meaning.
OR Unit 1 (Prehistory) Unit 2 (Ancient Mediterranean). Number of works: 47
- How can we develop Art Historical Thinking Skills 1 and 2 and Skill 3 (Comparison of works of art) when teaching the content in these units?
- Is there a way of organizing works in these units into smaller groups that facilitate comparisons between works of art from these different units?
Asynchronous Activity: Organization of content and pacing
- After considering both possibilities above – and other orderings – work with your school calendars organizing course content day to day with these considerations:
- What works require more class time to unpack
- Building connections between works and within artistic traditions
- Scaffolding Art Historical Thinking Skills
- Exam Weighting
What is happening in tomorrow’s session?
DAY 3
Time for reflection and questions from yesterday’s activities
Building Art Historical Thinking Skills – a close look at Skill 4 (Artistic Traditions), Skill 5 (Visual Analysis of Unknown Works) and Skill 6 (Attribution of Unknown Works); where they are assessed on the AP Exam
- How (and when) to present the above skills using works of art from Units 2, 3, and 4 (also Units 5 and 6)
- AP Exam Free Response Questions - standardization of questions
Asynchronous Activity: Close look at Unit 3 (Early Europe and Colonial America) and Unit 4 (Later Europe and the Americas)
- How can we develop Art Historical Thinking Skills 1 through 6 when teaching the content in the above units (and earlier units)?
- Is there a way of reorganizing the work in these units into smaller groups that facilitate an understanding of continuity and change?
- Where are these skills related to specific Units assessed on the AP Exam?
Sharing best practices: Sharing activities you chose for Units 2 through 4 and how you would assess student learning after those activities
Introduction to the AP Classroom
- How to enroll your students in AP Classroom
- Using Personal Progress Checks to inform instruction
- The Progress Dashboard, monitoring student learning
- How to use the question bank to design assessments
- Using the Instructional Planning Report to continually refine classroom instruction.
Asynchronous Activity: Organization of content, pacing, assessments, and skills
- Work with your school calendars organizing course content day to day with these considerations:
- What works require more class time to unpack
- Building connections between works and within artistic traditions
- Scaffolding Art Historical Thinking Skills
- When will assessments occur and in what format?
- How could you assess student learning?
What is happening in tomorrow’s session?
DAY 4
Time for reflection and questions from yesterday’s activities
The AP Art History Exam and 2023 AP Exam Free Response questions– a close look at the exam format and this year’s free response prompts, scoring guides and student samples
- How can this examination inform our classroom instruction and assessment strategies throughout the year?
- When should we introduce the 6 types of free response questions to our students, curriculums, and our own assessments?
Asynchronous Activity: Reading scoring guides and rubrics then grading student samples from the 2023 Exam.
- What happens at the AP Art History Reading
- A “blind” reading of free response student samples and grading according to the rubrics and scoring guidelines.
Strategies and Activities for Unit 7, Unit 8 and Unit 10 and Skill 7 and Skill 8
- How (and when) to present the above skills using works of art from Units 7, 8, and 10 (also Units 5 and 6)
- Organizing the works in Unit 7 and Unit 8 for clarity and coherence
- Homework assignments, class projects, class presentations
Asynchronous Activity: Organization of content, pacing, assessments, and skills
- Work with your school calendars organizing course content day to day with these considerations:
- What works require more class time to unpack
- Building connections between works and within artistic traditions
- Scaffolding Art Historical Thinking Skills
- How could you assess student learning?
Synchronous: Debrief, Question and Answer
College Board Workshop Evaluations (Email)