AP U.S. History is often considered a challenging and demanding course, but most of Mrs. Noel Dover’s students find the class fun and engaging. Dover’s enthusiasm for U.S. History and her dedication to helping her students excel create an environment where students feel both challenged and supported. Dover creates a class that is exciting and engaging from what could be a dry and textbook heavy one.
Dover stated, “One of the things that my students shared was that they liked the American Revolution. I think they like that unit because it’s something that they feel comfortable with, they know something about it, and so I think they like U.S. history in general because they know something about it and it makes it a little bit more fun to dive in and get to know the content a little bit better.”
Dover’s students not only find the American Revolution engaging, but they also connect with her passion for early American history. By focusing on well known figures like John Adams, and important events like the making of the Declaration of Independence, students like the familiarity of the topics they are learning.
“Anything that takes you back to early American history is totally my jam, but my very favorite president is John Adams, even though he’s not necessarily known for the best policies, but I love the love that he had for his country.” Dover continues, “And especially as a founding father going back to his work within the Continental Congress and his helping with the Declaration of Independence “
Dover incorporates fun and creative activities to help her students engage more with the content. This allows them to actively participate in learning, making the material feel more enjoyable.
“We don’t do a lot of projects but we’ll do fun things like sometimes we’ll do one-pagers or I’ll have them do posters. You just don’t have time in AP to do projects. It’s very fast paced. We’ll do posters where the students have to fill it in with everything they know to try to make the things that you’re working on more fun.” Dover explains.
The fast paced nature of AP U.S. History allows for little time for extensive projects, but Dover finds ways to keep her students engaged in the course material through interactive activities.
My biggest thing that I love about AP is that I don’t have to cover history thematically and that’s how you get it in regular and honors. The class covers everything starting at 1491 so before Christopher Columbus and then it goes all the way through to the present.
Despite the challenges of the course, she emphasizes the importance of covering the entirety of U.S. history, starting from the very beginning and working all the way through to the present.
