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PAUL RODRIGUEZ
Paul Rodriguez has taught for 30 years, including working with the College Board for 21 years, including being on the content writing team and mentor for AP Precalculus. Paul has participated in the AP reading for Statistics since 2004, including 6 years as a reader, 8 years as a table leader, 6 years as a rubric team member, and 3 years as a question leader and was a question leader in the inaugural AP Precalculus reading. Starting in 2011, Paul served 7 years on the AP Statistics Test Development Committee, with the responsibility of writing and editing the AP exam and was the co-chair of the committee when the new course and exam description was written. Paul has co-authored the test bank for the Statistics and Probability with Applications textbook, 3rd edition and is the coauthor for the 5 Steps to a 5: AP Precalculus review book. Paul has also written exam style problems for Calc Medic. Paul has conducted several 1 and 2-day workshops, as well as summer institutes sponsored by the College Board and he enjoys the opportunity to share his love of math, classroom activities, using technology in the classroom, and especially appreciates learning from the experiences of workshop participants. |
Paul can be contacted at [email protected] |
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Welcome to the wonderful NEW world of AP Precalculus! I am looking forward to working with all of you and hope that you will leave feeling prepared and excited about the opportunity to teach AP Precalculus.
My goals are to review important topics from each of the three units in AP Precalculus (Polynomial and Rational Functions, Exponential and Logarithmic Functions, and Trigonometric and Polar Functions) on that appear on the AP exam, as well as how the new Curriculum Framework will impact your current course. I will provide activities that help illustrate these topics and provide instruction and opportunities to use various types of technology, including graphing calculators and computer software. Also, we will discuss the creation of the AP Precalculus exam, and review the scoring of the 2024 AP Precalculus exam in great detail. Participants are expected to come prepared to learn, involve themselves in activities, and more importantly, prepared to teach! We will utilize resources from all participants. Finally, we will discuss who the AP Precalculus course is designed for, how to select materials for use in class, how to recruit students, how to assess students, how to prepare students for the AP exam, and of course, anything else that participants want to know!
Questions? Email me at [email protected].
Institute Preparation
You will be receiving electronic copies of all the lesson plans we cover, examples on how to make the perfect chapter tests, examples of projects and classroom activities, and many other resources. I strongly believe we learn most by doing, so you will be asked to participate in the activities, as well as present one of your own. It would be helpful to have a laptop computer or tablet. It will be necessary, however, to bring a graphing calculator. I will be modeling instruction using a TI-84 and/or Numworks calculator and the website desmos.com, so bringing a TI-83 or TI-84 would be great. I hope to also have copies of several textbooks with the updated curriculum, so you will not need to bring any of your own.
The Institute Schedule will be adjusted to reflect the participants need but will have an emphasis on the new Curriculum Framework released in March 2023, including the new College Board website and the questions from the practice AP exam. Material or content on specific days may be moved around based on time.
AGENDA
Monday:
Introduction:
Tuesday:
Polynomial and Rational Functions:
Wednesday:
Exponential and Logarithmic Functions:
Trigonometric and Polar Functions:
Thursday:
Trigonometric and Polar Functions:
Unit 4 and Preparing for the exam:
My goals are to review important topics from each of the three units in AP Precalculus (Polynomial and Rational Functions, Exponential and Logarithmic Functions, and Trigonometric and Polar Functions) on that appear on the AP exam, as well as how the new Curriculum Framework will impact your current course. I will provide activities that help illustrate these topics and provide instruction and opportunities to use various types of technology, including graphing calculators and computer software. Also, we will discuss the creation of the AP Precalculus exam, and review the scoring of the 2024 AP Precalculus exam in great detail. Participants are expected to come prepared to learn, involve themselves in activities, and more importantly, prepared to teach! We will utilize resources from all participants. Finally, we will discuss who the AP Precalculus course is designed for, how to select materials for use in class, how to recruit students, how to assess students, how to prepare students for the AP exam, and of course, anything else that participants want to know!
Questions? Email me at [email protected].
Institute Preparation
You will be receiving electronic copies of all the lesson plans we cover, examples on how to make the perfect chapter tests, examples of projects and classroom activities, and many other resources. I strongly believe we learn most by doing, so you will be asked to participate in the activities, as well as present one of your own. It would be helpful to have a laptop computer or tablet. It will be necessary, however, to bring a graphing calculator. I will be modeling instruction using a TI-84 and/or Numworks calculator and the website desmos.com, so bringing a TI-83 or TI-84 would be great. I hope to also have copies of several textbooks with the updated curriculum, so you will not need to bring any of your own.
The Institute Schedule will be adjusted to reflect the participants need but will have an emphasis on the new Curriculum Framework released in March 2023, including the new College Board website and the questions from the practice AP exam. Material or content on specific days may be moved around based on time.
AGENDA
Monday:
Introduction:
- Why is there a new AP Precalculus course?
- Overview of Workshop Schedule and Materials
- Skills and Learning Objectives – A deep dive into the CED
- Structure and Construction of AP Precalculus Exam
- Grading of the AP Precalculus Exam
- Teaching and Assessment Strategies
- Preparing Students for the AP Exam
- Technology, the way of the future!
Tuesday:
Polynomial and Rational Functions:
- Rates of Change
- What is necessary and what is optional?
- Pacing
- Transformations
- Limits and concavity
- Regression
- Calculator and Computer skills
- AP free response questions and grading
- AP Classroom
Wednesday:
Exponential and Logarithmic Functions:
- Sequences
- Rates of Change again!
- Regression again!
- Limits and concavity again!
- Semi-log plots
- How this course is different than AP Calculus
- AP free response questions and grading
- The AP Audit
- 1st Semester Project Ideas
Trigonometric and Polar Functions:
- Typical Unit Circle
- What graphs do we need to know?
- What identities are necessary?
Thursday:
Trigonometric and Polar Functions:
- Regression again!
- Limits and concavity again!
- Polar functions
- Rates of Change of Polar Functions
- AP free response questions and grading
Unit 4 and Preparing for the exam:
- State and local demands
- Vectors and the Law of Sines and Cosines
- Matrices
- Review for the AP exam
- 2nd Semester Project Ideas