How I’m Teaching AP Macro Despite Having No Content Knowledge

11 min readSep 24, 2021

My September report

At the beginning of September, I told my 70 Macroeconomics students that their Unit II test would be scheduled for September 13. “That’s nine class periods after the Unit I test and within the time frame suggested by the Macro CED Pacing Guide,” I said.

On the MCQ portion of the Unit II exam, 38 of my 70 received a score that fell under a dark green AP Classroom bar, while 22 received a score that fell under a light green bar.

On the FRQ portion of the Unit II exam, 33 of my 70 received a score that fell under a dark green bar, and 11 received a score that fell under a light green bar.

Given the above, I told my students that I’m predicting 75% of them will earn a score of 3 or better on this year’s exam, with this prediction based on my having divided by two the sum of the percentage of students (87) who received am MCQ dark or light green bar and the percentage of students (62) who received an MCQ dark or light green bar.

Sidenote: My interpretation of the green and yellow color bars comes from dialogue with experienced teachers. It’s not an official description provided by the AP Program itself.

The AP Daily Videos

To prepare my students for the Unit II AP Macroeconomics test, I required them to watch each of the fifteen Unit II AP Daily videos while away from class, with these videos lasting between 8 and 9 minutes.

Yes, I know many AP teachers that view the AP Daily videos as “boring,” worse even, but that’s not how I view the videos.

I view the videos as content-rich, well-structured, professionally-looking, and well-presented bite-sized bits of knowledge that allow for all students to learn the needed content and skills in as little time as possible, with this conclusion reached after having watched:

Dozens of APUSH, APGov, and AP Psych videos.
The Matt Romano, Rebecca Sealock, Jennifer Raphaels, and Jen Filosa AP Daily Macroeconomic videos.
All of the Steve Heimler, Jacob Reed, Jeff Lovett, and Jacob Clifford AP Macroeconomic videos.

Below, what I especially like about the AP Daily videos:

That the information found on each slide is so well written and formatted that the students who want to take notes need only take screenshots of the slides, rather than have to listen over and over again to what the video-producing teacher has said to get the gist of the message. To put it another way, I find that the AP Daily videos are infinitely more “note-taking friendly” than any of the videos produced by the Cliffords, Heimlers, etc., though I think these teachers have produced high-quality videos. I, in fact, show some of their videos in class on occasion, though only after having had my students watch the AP Daily videos.
That the AP Daily video-producing teachers don’t attempt to interject humor, movie clips, silly faces, and sound effects into their videos. I prefer the no-nonsense, I’m not-going-to-waste-your-time approach; finding the alternative, and their attempts to engage, generally an unwanted distraction.
That AP Classroom provides me with the ability to hold my students accountable to the watching of the videos by way of an online, though often administered in class, AP Classroom Topic Question Quiz.
That AP Classroom provides me with an indication of the extent to which the students in each of my three Macroeconomics classes have answered the quiz questions correctly.

That AP Classroom provides me with an indication of the extent to which my students have “watched” each of the assigned videos.

That AP Classroom does not allow students to skip through a video and still earn credit for having “watched” the video. Students must watch the entire video for AP Classroom to so register.

Sidenote #1: If you’re looking for non-AP Classroom, high-quality, no-nonsense, 4–10 minute bite-sized bits of knowledge, be sure to check out the videos produced by Adam Norris (APUSH), Mandi Rice (APPsych), Kelsey Falkowski (APGov), Carey LaManna (APGov), Andrew Conneen (AP Gov), Daniel Larson (AP Gov), and Tom Richey (APUSH and APGov.) Great work!

Sidenote #2: If you’re looking for a good example of what a student’s Unit II AP Daily notes might look like here, click here.

Sidenote #3 This following from Trevor Packer: “We’d never want to take the position that teachers should place greater emphasis on AP Daily videos than other great videos and resources. But you asked me whether there are any specific benefits that may be unique to AP Daily. In addition to the accountability benefit you mention, I think it’s beneficial to have videos for which AP Topic Questions have been specifically created so that there’s an intentionally designed “check for understanding” that provides the teacher with immediate data regarding student understanding of the content and skills depicted in the video. These Topic Questions were explicitly designed to detect common misunderstandings, so that combination of video + three topic questions + immediately available data for the teacher can help teachers focus their instructional time on real misunderstandings among their students rather than on stuff the students may already have learned well.”

The PBL

By the end of September, all of my students had agreed to do one of the following:

Produce a business plan.
Produce an AP Daily Macroeconomics “resemblance video.”
Produce a Tom Richey Marco Learning “resemblance video” focusing on an all-important AP Macro Economics topic.
Produce a feature story designed for publication in the San Marino Tribune (the local newspaper), with this feature story to describe the history, particularly during Covid, of a “super cool Los Angeles area small business that the residents of San Marino might be interested in learning about.”
Produce either a 4–5 minute video or 750–1000 word blog post describing how they, serving hypothetically as a member of a registered interest group, sought to affect policy on behalf of that interest group.

All PBLs are to be completed by the end of the semester.

A Typical Day in September

When school began in August, I told my students that I would provide them throughout the semester with a significant number of instructional minutes to work on their PBL. Yet, as we moved further into September, I double-clutched, spending almost every minute of every class period making sure that the students were learning what they needed to learn to do well on the exam.

That said, I am now going to double-clutch again. In other words, in October, I will indeed provide my students with at least 50% of every class period to work on their PBLs (assuming no drastic decrease in their Unit III test scores.)

Regardless, my agenda for a typical day in September appears below.

The Mentors

In my August report, I described how I, at the start of the school year, searched for and found three AP Macro teachers willing to provide me with not only their email address and phone number but also with much-valued support throughout the year.

Drew Hettinger (teaching the semester-long course at West High, California)
Tony Peterson (teaching the year-long course at Hoover High, California)
Kurt Gutschick (teaching a first semester-long course at Valor Christian High, Colorado)

Periodically, throughout September, I would reach out to one or more of these mentors. Below, some of my questions.

Do any of you teach the inverted yield curve? I can’t figure out whether it’s part of the CED. Have conflicting info.
One of my kids has asked why the stock market and the yield curve aren’t taught in Unit II; given that the focus of the unit is indicators of the state of the economy. Good question, I thought. How should I respond?
Do any of you require your students to watch the AP Daily videos? Failing that, do you in any way encourage them to watch these videos?
On the Macro FB page, one of the teachers said that “when trying to answer an FRQ, the answer isn’t as important as how they set up and show their work. Even if the answer is wrong, they get the point if it is set up correctly.” Is that so?

Whenever I reached out, my “mentors” would always respond within hours and with something of high value.

The Calls for Grace

For the second year in a row, my high-performing site and district leaders have called on the teachers, AP included, to show their students some “grace.” To find out what that might mean for my Macroeconomics students and me, I reached out to my mentors. Also, to some of my favorite non Macro AP teachers. Additionally, I searched the internet for “the call for grace in education?”

Below, the best of what I was told and read:

Grace means not doing anything different until your site and district leaders offer specific guidance or suggestions
Grace means giving students second (and third, and fourth) chances.
Grace means curving AP Classroom tests to reflect the green and yellow coded bar system appearing on AP Classroom.
Grace means choosing to be in a good mood every day and, if that’s ever beyond you, owning that fact and apologizing to your students.
Grace means making an effort to remember students may carry a burden unknown to you, and thus giving them the benefit of kindness.
Grace means continually training yourself to look for and celebrate the best in each of your students.
Grace means confronting a student who is oppositional or infringes on another’s ability to learn with patience and a restorative approach.
Grace means giving your students increased freedom to learn at their own pace, in their own place, and at their own time.
Grace means giving those who want to excel and move beyond what they need.
Grace means giving those who need a break what they need.
Grace means believing in your students as they would like to believe in themselves.
Grace means providing your students with as many opportunities as possible to understand and apply what they have learned.
Grace means doing what you can to help students get through their challenges rather than simply holding them accountable.
Grace means providing students with more support, more time.
Grace means helping students be responsible in a different way.
Grace means displaying consistently (to paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald) an irresistible prejudice in your students’ favor.

My takeaways.

The overwhelming majority of AP teachers that I heard from said that grace means not doing anything different unless admins “tells us to do something different and even then, I probably wouldn’t — there’s no place for grace in AP.”
Among the AP teachers who believe that AP teachers should show their students some grace, there’s a vast range of opinions regarding the question of curves, retakes, open-note tests, and extensions.
Talk of curves, more so than talk of retakes, extensions, and open-note exams, often grows heated.

I believe in curves, with my MCQ, SAQ, LEQ, and DBQ curves appearing below, along with some additional information I think students should find of value.

A colleague of mine whose judgment I respect tremendously views the above as “grade inflation.”

I view the not-applying-of-a-curve as an AP teacher’s way of supersizing their course (aka placing it on academic steroids and thus making students work harder than they need to work to pass the May exam). Not fair!

“Curve schmerve,” said an AP teacher in response.

Below, how other AP teachers have weighed in.

“At your school, APUSH students earn an additional credit point for taking the class, so the class is already weighted. Your curve allows students to double benefit from taking AP. Talk about unfairness.
“I had a mentor one time who told me to keep the rigor and standards on the tests, curve the grade. That way, they learn the expectations, but it doesn’t kill their average.”
No curve on m/ch. I want their class grade to reflect their ability to perform on the actual test. On the other hand, I do curve FRQs. Earn half the points = 75.
No one should curve after a unit test. The May exam is testing the entire content of the course. My tests are only chapter or at most one unit tests. They shouldn’t need a curve, or not much of one.
I curve. An 85%+ is a 4. 75–84% is a 3. 65–74 is a 2. Everything else is a 1. They can also redo/retake every test… ultimately, my goal is for kids to care less about their grades and more about learning and making progress over time.
Everyone should curve, IMO, to the same degree as they doing on the actual exam.
I only curve the frqs: 6/6 95–100, 5/6 85 4/6 80 3/6 75 2/6 70 1/6 60

As for the question of retakes, extensions, and open-note tests, I will, on occasion, though not the biggest fan.

The Unit III Test

The Unit III test is scheduled for Monday, October 4. That’s ten class periods after the Unit II test and within the time frame suggested by the Macro CED Pacing Guide.

The Five Most Important Things I’ve Learned During my Second Month of Teaching Macro

AP Classroom has a lot to offer, but it takes time and effort to learn to utilize it well.
When I give the students an FRQ, it works best if, rather than inputting their answers into AP Classroom, the students place their answers on a blank sheet of paper; then, the next day self-score using the AP Classroom rubric. If they then have any doubts about what score to put down, the paper should go to a team of “high scoring students” (assuming no objections). If there are still doubts after that, the paper should come to me. If I can’t end the doubt, the paper should then go to one of my mentors.
I need to double-check any FRQ that is either self-scored or scored by a team of high-scoring students.
Many of my students are finding the subject matter more interesting than I had anticipated.
My students seemed to find most interesting the topics relating to unemployment, GDP, and the multiplier effect (with the latter’s link to Keynesian Economics).

Three Things I’m Wondering About as September Comes to a Close

To what extent, if at all, can I create my own Topic Question FRQs.
As we move further into the semester, will my students continue to respond well to the learning system I have utilized during the first two months of school?
To what extent, if any, will the students’ average MCQ and FRQ scores decline as we move into Units III-VI?

(This ends my September report. To read my next report, please check back here end of October. To read my August report, click here.