Home - AP In Practice Series: Physics 2

The AP In Practice Series is a professional learning experience that helps teachers build a strong instructional foundation, apply formative assessment data, and develop targeted approaches to complex content and pacing demands. Designed for teachers with 0-5 years of AP teaching experience, participants will engage with AP-style questions and AP Classroom resources while developing their own course plans. Each session is facilitated by an experienced AP teacher and provides dedicated time to collaborate with peers. Offered as five 2-hour virtual sessions, the series meets teachers at each critical stage of the school year, from initial planning in the fall through exam preparation in the spring, providing tools and strategies to address instructional challenges along the way.

This opening session helps early AP career teachers launch their course with purpose and a realistic plan. Participants explore pacing strategies for the first weeks of instruction, identify foundational concepts that require extra attention, and examine the misconceptions students commonly form early so they can be anticipated and addressed before they take hold. The session also includes guided practice with AP-style questions to identify strengths and areas for improvement in instruction. Teachers leave with a working draft of a pacing plan and a clear strategy for using formative assessment to monitor student understanding from day one. Dedicated work time is structured to support both those building an instructional plan for the first time as well as those refining an existing plan.

This session shifts focus to the challenging topics that are still ahead in the course. At this point in the year, most teachers have not yet reached their course's most abstract or cognitively demanding content, making it the right moment to plan ahead rather than respond after the fact. Participants identify upcoming complex concepts and explore instructional strategies, models, and examples that make those ideas more accessible. Participants will also examine released AP exam items to anticipate the errors students are most likely to make. Teachers leave with a draft instructional plan for an upcoming complex topic and a clearer sense of how to approach it before they are in the middle of teaching it.

As the first semester comes to a close, AP teachers have collected meaningful data about how their students are performing, and this session is designed to help them use it. Participants analyze student performance across multiple assessments to identify patterns of misunderstanding, distinguish surface errors from deeper conceptual gaps, and select targeted instructional responses that fit the demands of a fast-moving AP course. Using AP Classroom data and classroom assessment results, teachers practice making specific, evidence-based decisions about what to reteach, how to adjust pacing, and how to monitor whether their adjustments are making a difference. Teachers leave with a revised lesson, pacing plan, or assessment plan grounded in their own student data.

This session helps AP teachers navigate the dual pressure of demanding content and limited instructional time. As they move into the second half of the year, teachers face some of the course's most challenging topics alongside an accelerating sense of urgency as the exam approaches. Participants prioritize the high-complexity content that warrants the greatest instructional investment, explore strategies for teaching under time constraints without sacrificing depth, and use AP Classroom resources to identify where students need the most support. The session emphasizes deliberate, evidence-based decisions about what to emphasize and what to streamline. Teachers leave with an adjusted instructional plan and clear measures for monitoring student progress in the weeks ahead.

In the final weeks before the AP Exam, every instructional decision carries weight. This session helps teachers make those decisions strategically. Participants identify which remaining content warrants continued instruction and which can be efficiently reviewed, examine the most common student errors on AP-style questions, and build a short-term plan that balances finishing content with targeted exam preparation. The session emphasizes integrating review into remaining instruction rather than treating the two as competing priorities. Teachers leave with a practical, time-sensitive plan for the final weeks and clear indicators for gauging how prepared their students are for exam day.

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