Session II: Art History 

This session will provide an important opportunity for teachers to understand the new AP Art History curriculum framework and the demands of the previously instituted redesigned course. Participants will be presented with strategies for implementing the new curriculum, including information on syllabus development, course pacing, creating assessments, and integrating a student research component. Participants will have the opportunity to focus on designing a course that will embrace the new curriculum. Classroom activities will be modeled that will help participants and their students gain more in-depth knowledge of both familiar and unfamiliar works in the 250-image set. The emphasis will be on creating a course that works for our 21st-century students that embraces a more global perspective and one that prepares them to become effective learners, thinkers, and writers.

Particular emphasis will be placed on areas that have a greater presence in the curriculum redesign, such as the Pacific, Africa, and the Indigenous Americas. Participants will develop tactics and activities for teaching areas that are less familiar, and they will have ample opportunities to learn, acquire, and share best teaching practices and resources. Strategies for incorporating technology, digital images, and online resources into the AP Art History course will be presented as well. At the end of the session, participants will walk away with practical materials, activities, and strategies to immediately promote active student-centered learning in the classroom and prepare students for the reformatted test that aligns with the current AP Art History Curriculum.

Instructor: Alison Napier has taught high school and community college in the Tidewater area of Virginia since 1999. She received a bachelor’s degree in art history from Washington and Lee University in June 1994. She holds a second bachelor’s degree in Spanish with a minor in secondary education, a master’s degree in applied linguistics with an emphasis in teaching English as a second language, and a master’s degree in humanities with an emphasis in visual studies. She will begin a Ph.D. program in the Fall of 2017 in American Studies at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Mrs. Napier is an AP Art History reader and College Board consultant, and she has also written questions and commentary for the Art Praxis Exam and the current version of the AP Art History exam. In addition, she has chaired the AP Art History curriculum redesign committees for both Virginia Beach City Public Schools and the Virginia Department of Education’s Virtual Virginia courses. She also serves at adjunct faculty teaching Art History and the History of Graphic Design at Tidewater Community College and Virginia Wesleyan College.