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Ping Zhuge
has taught at the School of Science and Engineering Magnet High School in Dallas, TX since she graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2015. She began teaching AP Calculus AB in 2015 and AP Calculus BC in 2018. Throughout her 11 years’ journey on the same campus, she has taught a variety of math courses including Honors Algebra II, Honors Geometry, and Honors Pre-Calculus. She has served as an AP Calculus reader with the College Board since 2020 through which she gained valuable insights into student misconceptions while solving Calculus problems, and how the scoring works in the AP Calculus tests. She began her consultant journey with the College Board in December 2023 and she enjoys sharing her passion in Calculus with fellow Math teachers through online and in-person workshops. She believes all math content can be connected and delivered using methods that relate to the students’ level, and that all students deserve an equal opportunity to succeed. Ping enjoys sharing her love of math with everyone. |
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COURSE DESCRIPTION
We will explore the Course and Exam Description in our 4-day APSI, through which we will have a deeper understanding about big ideas, mathematical representation, and how each unit in the course is built upon each other. We will explore the AP Classroom together through which we will learn more about the powerful resources AP Classroom provides us to plan our lessons for the year; we will explore how to assess our students throughout the year; we will see how our own classrooms can be extended periodically as needed. We will also familiarize ourselves with the hybrid format of the AP test format and the point-by-point scoring system. We will develop lessons, engage in students’ activities, and utilize calculators together with our goals being to help students understand the AP Calculus AB course as much as possible and to equip them to be as fully prepared as possible for the AP Calculus AB test in May
Agenda f
or the AP Calculus AB APSI and subject to change:
Day One: Explore Course and Exam Description
Calculus Content: Unit 1 (Limits & continuity and students’ activities related with this unit)
Day Two: Planning the course:
Calculus content: all derivative rules, implicit differentiation, and applications of derivatives including students’ activities and utilize the AP Classroom throughout the units.
Day Three: Planning the AP Course
Calculus content: revisit limits (limits in derivatives and limits in integrals, limit is a big idea in the course); integral techniques (U-sub, long division, and completing the square); accumulation functions & FTC; discuss how we can modify or simulate AP like questions for the students to practice while implementing as many concepts as possible.
Day Four: Planning the AP Course
Calculus content: integral applications including slope fields, separation of variables, area and volume.
Course and Exam Description:
A closer look at the 2026 AP Calculus AB exam FRQs (non-calculator active) based on the scoring guidelines
· strategies to help students review for the AP Calculus AB exam in May and mock test via AP Classroom Practice Exam and activities we can use to help students during the review stage
· Read Instructional Planning Report to better prepared for the new school year.
· AP Course Audit
We will explore the Course and Exam Description in our 4-day APSI, through which we will have a deeper understanding about big ideas, mathematical representation, and how each unit in the course is built upon each other. We will explore the AP Classroom together through which we will learn more about the powerful resources AP Classroom provides us to plan our lessons for the year; we will explore how to assess our students throughout the year; we will see how our own classrooms can be extended periodically as needed. We will also familiarize ourselves with the hybrid format of the AP test format and the point-by-point scoring system. We will develop lessons, engage in students’ activities, and utilize calculators together with our goals being to help students understand the AP Calculus AB course as much as possible and to equip them to be as fully prepared as possible for the AP Calculus AB test in May
Agenda f
or the AP Calculus AB APSI and subject to change:
Day One: Explore Course and Exam Description
- Ice breaker
- Introduction to the Course and Exam Description with guided questions for exploration including discussing AP exam formats, timing, and calculator policies
- AP Classroom basic functions (locate the Course and Exam Description and know where to create a session so that the students can be registered for the exam and utilize the resources in the AP Classroom throughout the whole school year)
- Introduction to AP Classroom’s Question Bank, Progress Check, Daily Videos, lesson handouts provided by the College Board (Equip us to know where to find extra resources for our lessons, how to design a formative assessment, support students outside the classroom.)
Calculus Content: Unit 1 (Limits & continuity and students’ activities related with this unit)
- Planning the first unit (about 3 weeks of instruction of the school year)
- Participant’s sharing out ideas for unit one planning and questions and comments.
Day Two: Planning the course:
Calculus content: all derivative rules, implicit differentiation, and applications of derivatives including students’ activities and utilize the AP Classroom throughout the units.
- Equity strategies to broaden access to the students to enroll into the AP Calculus course and strategies campus may use to align vertically so that the students are better equipped for the AP level math class.
- Participants utilize AP Classroom, AP Central, and textbooks to develop assessments and lessons for the topics we covered.
- More resources we can utilize throughout the year.
- Time to discuss participants’ thoughts, questions, and comments
Day Three: Planning the AP Course
Calculus content: revisit limits (limits in derivatives and limits in integrals, limit is a big idea in the course); integral techniques (U-sub, long division, and completing the square); accumulation functions & FTC; discuss how we can modify or simulate AP like questions for the students to practice while implementing as many concepts as possible.
- Using College Board rubrics to score samples of student work for the AP Calculus AB 2026, Free Response (Calculator Active)
- Time to incorporate learned instructional strategies into a lesson plan and plan a lesson.
- Time to discuss participants’ thoughts, questions, and comments about
- Calculus Topics and a lesson we designed
Day Four: Planning the AP Course
Calculus content: integral applications including slope fields, separation of variables, area and volume.
Course and Exam Description:
A closer look at the 2026 AP Calculus AB exam FRQs (non-calculator active) based on the scoring guidelines
· strategies to help students review for the AP Calculus AB exam in May and mock test via AP Classroom Practice Exam and activities we can use to help students during the review stage
· Read Instructional Planning Report to better prepared for the new school year.
· AP Course Audit