by Emily Glankler
Now, more than ever, teachers need digital tools to help them educate their students. Check out the best AP® World History Digital Resources.
Important Pages on the College Board Website
Primary Course Page on AP® Central
This is the main landing page for the course and contains information about the course, the exam, and how it is scored.
Direct Link to the Course and Exam Description
This document houses College Board objectives for the course as well as a suggested pacing guide. It is an incredibly valuable resource.
This page explains the different components of the exam.
This page gives score distribution tables to show the percentages of 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s for each AP® subject.
AP®World History: Modern Past Exam Question
This page houses essay prompts, rubrics, and student samples from previous exams from 1999 to 2019.
Test Prep Resources
Share this widget with students so they can see how they might do on their exams. Could come in handy if you want to scare an unmotivated student into completing her homework!
Anti-Social Studies Exam Review Resources
Check out a variety of products all created by an experienced AP® World teacher, including unit overviews, maps, era timelines, and unique AP-style writing prompts.
Mr. Freeman has compiled a one-stop shop for AP® World materials, organized by unit.
Heimler’s History Ultimate Review Packet
Every year students swear by this Ultimate Review resource that provides exclusive review videos, fill-in notes with answer keys for each unit and practice multiple-choice questions and AP-style practice exams.
Marco Learning’s Free Study Guide Pack
This is a helpful resource if your students need big picture reviews of each of the units in AP® World History: Modern.
Online Lesson Plans
Anti-Social Studies Teacher Starter Pack
This PDF contains 40+ original lesson plans, 26 AP-style writing prompts, unit overviews, maps, and timelines, all aligned to the College Board’s Course and Exam Description.
This searchable database contains amazing primary sources and full lesson plans, curated by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute out of Columbia University.
Brown University’s Choice Program offers curriculum materials to help develop the skills and knowledge young people need to be informed about history and decision making on contested contemporary policy issues. For teachers, choices offers introductory professional development workshops around the world to assist educators in implementing Choices materials in their classrooms.
This is a great resource to purchase for your school or social studies department and to use in both AP® and on-level courses. You receive 10 unique DBQs with step-by-step lesson plans and handouts designed to introduce your students to document-based questions. (Note: the DBQ prompts are not “AP-style” but the documents and supporting materials are fantastic for practicing DBQs early in the year or building lessons around.)
Facing History and Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.
The Learning Network (New York Times)
The New York Times has a great collection of free lesson plans based on current events, as well as an archive of over 1,000 lesson plans based on past New York Times articles.
Marco Learning’s Free Lesson Plans
Developed for Marco Learning’s AP® Teacher Support, each lesson plan is aligned to the College Board’s official Course and Exam Descriptions and vetted by experienced AP® teachers.
Stanford History Education Group
Register for free and gain access to a completely searchable database of lessons, each organized around a central historical question and a set of primary source documents.
Teaching Tolerance provides educators with free materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued, and welcome participants.
World History For Us All (UCLA)
Based out of UCLA’s National Center for History in the Schools, this website is a collection of teaching units and other resources organized by “Big Eras” in world history. (Hint: the AP World curriculum begins in “Big Era 5” on their website.)
The Zinn Project offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and grade level. These teaching materials emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history.
Facebook and Community Groups
AP® World History Teachers (Facebook Group)
This is a group strictly made for current instructors of Advanced Placement World History so every conversation in here is AP® World ONLY!
Marco Learning’s Online Resources for AP® Teachers
A forum for AP teachers to share advice, experience, and resources for teaching AP® classes online. Created and moderated by the Marco Learning team of teachers.
College Board’s Official AP® Community
This online community is where AP® and Pre-AP® teachers discuss teaching strategies, share resources, and connect with each other.
Podcasts
Note: Some recommendations may contain mature language. Please use your own discretion.
Anti-Social Studies (Season 1)
In 17 episodes, World History teacher Emily Glankler covers the Neolithic Revolution up to the present day, with family-friendly jokes throughout! (Hint: AP World History content begins with Episode 4 “The Medieval Era or, ‘That Time Europe Lost Its Mind’”)
These episodes are not for the faint of heart (they often span multiple hours) but they are great for a super deep dive into ancient civilizations and military history.
People’s History Podcasts for Young People
Many podcasts offer accessible and engaging people’s history lessons. This link contains recommendations that may be of interest to high school students. (Some of the podcasts would be appropriate for upper elementary and middle school as well, such as selected Storycorps and Uncivil episodes. Listen first.)
Malcolm Gladwell often goes back into history to explore stories or ideas that we’ve misremembered (or forgotten entirely.)
Stuff You Missed in History Class
Holly and Tracy are expert storytellers who focus on one very specific person or topic from the past that they believe more people should know about.
Although most episodes are more focused on modern American history, there are incredible episodes dispelling common myths and misunderstandings about world history topics like Marie Antoinette and medieval torture devices.
YouTube Channels
With unit introductions, live reviews, and “deep dives” into illustrative examples, Emily Glankler’s channel is a great place for kids to start.
AP World History: Modern AP Daily Live Review Videos
On this playlist, experienced AP World History teachers lead live review sessions on content and test-taking strategies for the 2022 AP World History exam.
Although the videos are not aligned to the College Board’s AP World History: Modern curriculum, John Green is always a student favorite with entertaining videos covering all of World History. (Hint: AP World History starts at around #14 “The Dark Ages… How Dark Were They, Really?” in the series.)
Mr. Freeman’s channel is perfect for diving deep into specific topics in AP World, including “Illustrative Examples,” key dates, and things to know before taking the exam.
This channel is ubiquitous in the AP History community. Steve Heimler has a short, information-packed video for every topic in the Course and Exam Description. These videos are super helpful for students to watch either before they read the textbook or as they’re reviewing content before assessments.
Marco Learning’s AP® World History Playlist
Marco Learning has a whole bunch of YouTube videos that walk students through the key concepts of the AP World course, as well as videos that breakdown the Exam and scoring rubrics.
General Digital Teaching Tools
Edit a YouTube video to include questions.
Creating engaging presentation with this great addition to Google Slides.
Online platform to facilitate peer feedback.
Students create short videos.
A free solution to all your PDF problems.
For editing PDFs.
Make a video for your class.
Make a video for your class.
Group Discussion Board
Turn quizzes into a game!
Free Educational Games
Editable, adaptable templates for distance learning.
Editable templates for digital learning.
Great for group projects, timelines, etc.
Great for vocab!
If you already have or use google classroom.
Google Classroom Introduction for Educators
Other Resources
Free online classes from Harvard, MIT, and more!
Binge-worthy online courses.
Looking for more AP® World History Digital Resources? Check out our AP® Lesson Plan Library!
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