American Themes (IDSC.1278)
About the Workshop
In this, our eighth year of this course, American Themes in the AP® Classroom bridges the skills presented in the AP® English Language and Composition classroom with the AP® U.S. History classroom. An equal blend of content and process, this course parallels the increasingly similar objectives of the respective AP® courses. This year's theme is "Faith in America."
Indeed, the introduction of the synthesis question in 2007 to the AP® Language examination mirrors the DBQ prompts that history classes routinely feature. Both courses also express the importance of cultivating an informed citizenry, and there are numerous avenues in either course to achieve this goal.
While all participants will engage in the process of crafting an original synthesis/DBQ question during our week, we will also offer additional assignments for those participants pursuing graduate credit.
Register for the 2018 American Themes workshop online.
About the Instructors
Jason Stacy
Jason Stacy is associate professor of U. S. History and Social Science Pedagogy at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Before joining the history department at SIUE, Stacy taught AP® U.S. History for eight years at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire Illinois. Stacy has served as an AP® U.S. History Reader, Table Leader, Exam Leader, Consultant, Senior Auditor, and question author for the redesigned AP® U.S. History exam. Stacy is the author of Walt Whitman's Multitudes: Labor Reform and Persona in Whitman's Journalism and the First Leaves of Grass, 1840-1855 (2008), editor of Leaves of Grass, 1860: the 150th Anniversary Facsimile Edition (2009) and co-editor of Walt Whitman’s Selected Journalism (2015). His research has appeared in Social Education, the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, and American Educational History and his reviews have appeared in American Literature, the Journal of American History, and the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. Stacy is also a contributing editor for the Walt Whitman Archive. Since 2009, Stacy has served as editor-in-chief of The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies. He is a former president of the Illinois Council for the Social Studies (2014).
Steve Heller
Stephen Heller teaches AP® English Language and Composition—in an American Studies team-taught class—at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He is the co-author of Documenting US History with Jason Stacy. Heller and Stacy have team-taught the American Themes in the AP® Classroom course for over 10 years.