CED 2019

The new 2019 AP Calculus AB and BC Course and Exam Description is now available. New and experienced AP Calculus teachers should download a copy and read it carefully. (A paper copy with binder can be ordered here also – it’s FREE.)

The main sections of the book are here with notes on each.

Part 1: General information about the program

  • About AP
  • AP Resources including a preview of the online AP Classroom opening on August 1, 2019+
  • AP Calculus Prerequisites (p. 7)
    • 4 years pf math before AP
    • Study of Elementary functions, and the language and properties of function in general
    • Students who take AP Calculus BC should have basic familiarity with sequences and series, as well as some exposure to parametric and polar equations. This indicates that students should not be seeing sequences, series, parametric equation, vector equation, and polar equation for the first time in their BC course.

Part 2: The course framework

  • The revised Mathematical Practices. The practices have been reorganized into 4 categories with detail under each (p. 14)
    • Implementing Mathematical Processes
    • Connecting Representations
    • Justification
    • Communication and Notation
  • The course content.
    • The big ideas have been reorganized into three
      • Change
      • Limits
      • Analysis of Functions
    • In addition to the organization of the course content into 10 units there is information about how much of the exams test each unit, how to spiral the big ideas.See links below.
    • The AP Classroom available on August 1, 2019 will include “Personal Progress Checks” with which each student can determine how well he or she has mastered the units.
  • Unit Guides: These guides serve almost as the lesson plans for the year and will certainly help in preparing your syllabus. This is the longest section.
    • Each unit begins with a paragraph on Developing Understanding, Building the Mathematical Practices, and Preparing for the AP Exam.
    • Sample instruction activates list activities for instruction for each topic in the unit.
    • Each of the 10 units breaks the required course content giving the Enduring Understandings (EU), Learning Objectives (LO), and Essential Knowledge (EK) for each topic. There are 6 – 15 topics in each unit.
    • In the sidebars are link to other resources.

Part 3: Instructional Approaches

  • Notes on textbooks, calculators, and professional organizations, and
  • Instructional strategies – an outline of dozens of strategies you can use in your class. Each is defined and explained briefly.
  • Developing the Mathematical Practices – this section identifies skills, sample key questions, activities and instructional strategies for each
  • Exam Overview – gives information on the exams, how topics are weighted, how each unit is weighted, how the learning is assessed etc.
  • A list of “task verbs” given the meaning of the task students are asked to do on the free-response questions. This should be very helpful. (p. 227)
  • Sample multiple-choice and free response questions with answers. Each is indexed to unit and LO to give you an idea of how each LO can be tested.

Below are links to separate pages for each of the ten units in the 2019 AP Calculus Course and Exam Description (CED). The pages list the Enduring Understandings, Learning Objectives, and Essential Knowledge organized by the topics for each unit. With each topic are links to past blog posts on that topic. Since blog posts often discuss more than the calculus in one topic many are listed several times. I’m not sure if this is complete yet, so i will be making changes as time goes by. Also, new post will be added when they are published.

Each unit starts with a “Unit at a Glance” section of one or two pages. It might be helpful to give students a copy of this at the beginning of the unit so they can see the topic and skills they will be working to learn in that unit. There is also a “Sample Instructional Activities” page that will help you choose several type of activities for each section. These are listed  together in the “Instructional Activities” section on pages 203 – 213 with examples.

Click here for the  2019 AP Calculus Course and Exam Description book for AB and BC (Same book for both)

The CED and This Blog

Mathematical Practices

Unit 1 Limits and Continuity.

Unit 2 Differentiation: Definitions and Fundamental Properties

Unit 3 Differentiation: Composite, Implicit, and Inverse Functions

Unit 4 Contextual Applications of Differentiation

Unit 5 Analytical Applications of Differentiation

Unit 6 Integration and Accumulation of Change

Unit 7 Differential Equations

Unit 8 Applications of Integration

Unit 9 Parametric Equations, Polar Coordinates, and Vector-Valued Functions BC ONLY

Unit 10 Infinite Series BC ONLY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement