◆ APUSH teachers: every Canvas assignment below is copy-paste ready. No editing required. Fully 2027-format calibrated. Free, always.
◆ For Teachers • Canvas LMS • 2027 Format • 100% Free

APUSH Canvas Assignments: 8 Ready-to-Copy Assignment Blocks for the 2027 Exam Format

Every assignment on this page is ready to paste into Canvas right now. DBQ, LEQ, SAQ (including the new SAQ 3 non-text source), MCQ stimulus practice, HAPP analysis, peer review, discussion posts, and a full diagnostic — each with the complete 2027 rubric built in, student-facing instructions written, and a teacher configuration checklist. Copy. Paste. Set due date. Done.

▶ How to Use These in Canvas Jump to DBQ Assignment Jump to SAQ Assignment
Time You Get Back Per Week
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45 min not writing assignment instructions from scratch
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30 min not hunting for the 2027 rubric language
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20 min not formatting the Canvas description box
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15 min not writing differentiation scaffolds
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All 8 assignment types updated annually for format changes

🎉 100% Free. Exists Nowhere Else Online. Ready to Paste into Canvas Right Now.

Every other APUSH resource makes you build assignments from scratch, hunt for the 2027 rubric, and format Canvas descriptions yourself. This page does all three — for every assignment type — in one click.

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One-Click Copy Into Canvas
Every assignment block has a Copy button. Click it. Open Canvas. Paste into the Description box. Set your due date. Publish. That’s the entire workflow.
▲ Can’t do this on TPT
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2027 Format Already Written In
SAQ 3 non-text source protocol. Single-prompt LEQ. Wider-range DBQ note. Every assignment reflects the May 2027 format — no editing required to be current.
▲ Updated every August
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Full Rubric Built Into Student Instructions
Students see the 7-point DBQ rubric, 6-point LEQ rubric, and 3-point SAQ rubric inside the assignment itself. No separate handout to distribute or forget.
▲ Zero prep time
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Canvas Peer Review Instructions Included
Full peer review assignment with rubric-anchored feedback language already written. Includes the exact Canvas setup steps (Peer Reviews tab, due date, anonymous settings).
▲ Setup in 3 minutes
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Student Score Calculator Built In
The diagnostic assignment sends students to the interactive score calculator and generates a personalized study plan. Gives you class-level data on where students need the most help.
▲ Diagnostic + differentiation
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Full-Year Pacing Calendar
A scope-and-sequence table tells you which assignment to run in which week, with the right resource to pair it with. Units 1–9, August through May.
▲ Department-shareable

▶ How to Get Any Assignment Into Canvas in Under 2 Minutes

No LTI integration required. No account. No download. Works in any Canvas version.

1Click “Copy Assignment Text” on any block below
2Canvas → Assignments → +Assignment → Description box
3Paste (Ctrl+V / Cmd+V) • Customize the [CUSTOMIZE] fields
4Set points & due date → Publish
💡 Canvas tip: If your school uses Canvas with Rich Content Editor enabled (most do), paste in Visual mode — not HTML view. The formatting including bold rubric text, bullet points, and section dividers will carry over cleanly. If formatting looks off, use Edit → Switch Editor to toggle to visual mode first.
▼ Go to DBQ Assignment ▼ Go to SAQ Assignment ▼ Go to LEQ Assignment ▼ Diagnostic & Study Plan
Home / Teacher Resources / Canvas Assignments
What makes these Canvas assignments different from every other APUSH teacher resource

TeachersPayTeachers sells PDFs you have to retype. TomRichey has pages you link to. The College Board provides rubrics as downloadable documents. Nobody has built a page where a teacher can copy a complete, publication-ready Canvas assignment description — with student instructions, 2027 rubric criteria, submission requirements, and differentiation notes already formatted — and paste it directly into Canvas’s rich text editor. That’s what every block on this page does. Each assignment block was written to replace the blank Canvas description box for that assignment type. Copy. Paste. You’re done. Every assignment reflects the 2027 format changes: SAQ 3 includes non-text source instructions, the LEQ uses the single-prompt format, and the DBQ notes the wider chronological range. All rubric language is drawn directly from the current College Board scoring guidelines.

How to Use These Assignments in Canvas: 5 Steps

  1. Click “Copy Assignment Text” on any block below. The full assignment text copies to your clipboard automatically, including rubric criteria, instructions, and submission details.
  2. Open Canvas → your APUSH course → Assignments → +Assignment (or open an existing draft assignment).
  3. Click inside the Description box and paste (Ctrl+V / Cmd+V). The text appears with structure intact. If you’re using the Canvas Rich Content Editor, the formatting will hold. If you see raw text, use the Switch Editor button to toggle to visual mode before pasting.
  4. Customize your prompt or documents. The gray text marked [CUSTOMIZE] indicates where you add your specific DBQ prompt, SAQ source, or LEQ question. Everything else is complete.
  5. Set points, due date, and submission type (Online → Text Entry for typed essays; File Uploads for scanned work). Use the Teacher Configuration Checklist under each block. Publish.
Assignment TypeRecommended PointsSubmission Type in CanvasGrading Time (30 students)Suggested Frequency
DBQ Essay7 points (matches rubric) or scale to 100Online → Text Entry or File Uploads3–4 hours1–2 per unit; 8–10 per year
LEQ Essay6 points or scale to 100Online → Text Entry or File Uploads2–3 hours1 per unit; 8–9 per year
SAQ Set (all 3)9 points (3 per SAQ) or scale to 45Online → Text Entry1.5–2 hours1–2 per unit; weekly in April/May
MCQ Stimulus Practice10–15 points (1 per correct answer)Canvas Quiz (New Quizzes) or Text EntryAuto-graded or 30 min manualWeekly; 2–3 per unit
HAPP Document Analysis4 points or scale to 20Online → Text Entry30–45 min1–2 per DBQ; pre-DBQ scaffolding
Peer Review Essay5 points (participation/quality)Online with Peer Review enabled in Canvas15 min to set up; students do the workAfter every major essay assignment
Discussion Post10 pointsDiscussion (not Assignment)30–45 minWeekly warm-up; before primary source work
Diagnostic AssessmentUngraded or completionText Entry or external Google Form link15 min reviewStart of year; after major format changes
“APUSH teachers grade 8–10 DBQs and a stack of LEQs per unit, plus weekly SAQs. The rubric is precise and feedback needs to be surgical. Writing assignment instructions from scratch, finding the current rubric, formatting the Canvas description box — this page eliminates all three at once, returning 2–3 hours per week to the work that actually improves student scores: feedback quality and classroom discussion.” — The time math behind ready-to-use Canvas assignments

1. DBQ Essay Assignment (2027 Format, 7-Point Rubric)

Copy and paste this entire block into your Canvas assignment description. Replace the [CUSTOMIZE] sections with your specific prompt and documents. The rubric table, timing instructions, and 2027 format notes are already written. For the full DBQ strategy your students can reference independently, link them to the DBQ practice guide and 2027 DBQ wider range guide.

Digital assignments are most effective when grading expectations are transparent from the beginning. Teachers using Canvas can pair classroom activities with the AP U.S. History Rubric Download Collection, which includes ready-to-use evaluation tools for essays, short-answer responses, document analysis, historical reasoning tasks, and evidence-based writing assignments. Providing rubrics alongside assignments helps students focus on the skills that directly impact AP exam success.

DBQ Essay

Document-Based Question (DBQ) Essay — 2027 Format

7-point rubric • 60 minutes (15 reading + 45 writing) • Wider chronological range

✍ Text Entry or File Upload ⏰ 60 minutes suggested ⭐ 7 points (or scale to 100) ✅ 2027 format updated
📋 Canvas Assignment Text — Click to Copy
AP U.S. HISTORY — DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION (DBQ) ESSAY 2027 Format | 7-Point Rubric | 60 Minutes ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PROMPT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your DBQ prompt here. Example: "Evaluate the extent to which the Progressive movement fostered political change in the United States from 1890 to 1920."] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DOCUMENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your 7 documents with attribution lines here. Attribution format: Author, Title/Type, Date. Example: "Document 1 — Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (excerpt), 1906."] NOTE FOR STUDENTS: In 2027, the DBQ document set may cover a WIDER CHRONOLOGICAL RANGE than previous years — documents may span multiple units. This means your outside evidence and contextualization should connect across eras, not just within the documents' main time period. See the 2027 DBQ Wider Range Guide at apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-dbq-2027-wider-range-guide.html ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMING AND FORMAT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Reading Period: 15 minutes — read all documents, plan contextualization and outside evidence • Writing Period: 45 minutes — write your essay • Total: 60 minutes • The DBQ is worth 25% of your AP exam composite score ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT YOUR ESSAY MUST DO (7-POINT RUBRIC) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THESIS/CLAIM (1 point) ✓ Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis that establishes a line of reasoning ✓ Does NOT merely restate or rephrase the prompt ✓ Must be more than one sentence — must include a position AND the reasons/categories that support it CONTEXTUALIZATION (1 point) ✓ Describes a broader historical context BEFORE the main document era (or before the earliest document in the set) ✓ Must RELATE that context to the argument — a bridge sentence connecting the prior development to the prompt topic is required ✓ NOT awarded for merely a phrase or reference — minimum 3 substantive sentences EVIDENCE: DOCUMENT CONTENT (2 points) ✓ 1 point: Accurately describes content from at least 3 documents ✓ 2 points: Uses content from at least 3 documents to support an argument, with explicit "because" connections to your thesis EVIDENCE BEYOND THE DOCUMENTS (1 point) ✓ Uses at least 1 piece of specific historical evidence NOT found in the documents ✓ Must be different from your contextualization evidence (no double-dipping) ✓ Must be used to support an argument — not just mentioned SOURCING/ANALYSIS (1 point) ✓ For at least 1 document, explains HOW or WHY the document's historical situation, audience, purpose, OR point of view is relevant to an argument ✓ Must be more than identification — must explain the relevance COMPLEXITY (1 point — hardest to earn) ✓ Demonstrates a complex understanding by doing ONE of the following: — Explaining the significance of an argument by explaining connections across time periods — Explaining relevant nuance by analyzing multiple variables — Explaining both similarity and difference, both continuity and change, or both cause and effect — Explaining relevant connections across geographical areas or themes ✓ Must be developed across the ESSAY, not just in a single sentence ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Submit your completed essay as a typed response in the Text Entry box below, OR upload as a Word/PDF file • Include your thesis sentence in bold at the start of your introductory paragraph • Label your contextualization paragraph with [CONTEXT] at the start • Label your outside evidence clearly: (Outside Evidence: [name of event/law/person]) • Minimum recommended length: 4–5 paragraphs (intro, 2–3 body, conclusion optional) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STUDENT RESOURCES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Before writing, review: • DBQ Practice Guide: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-dbq-practice.html • DBQ Contextualization Guide (3-sentence formula): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-dbq-contextualization-guide.html • 2027 DBQ Wider Range Guide (cross-era evidence chains): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-dbq-2027-wider-range-guide.html • Document Sourcing Guide (HAPP method): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-document-sourcing-guide.html
⚙ Teacher Configuration Checklist
  • 1Replace [CUSTOMIZE] prompt with your specific DBQ question
  • 2Replace [CUSTOMIZE] documents with your 7 documents and attribution lines
  • 3Set Points Possible: 7 (or multiply by 14.3 for a 100-pt scale)
  • 4Submission Type: Online → Text Entry + File Uploads
  • 5Add a due date 48–72 hours after class for take-home, OR set as in-class with 60-min timer using Canvas Quiz if preferred
  • 6Enable SpeedGrader → consider a Rubric attachment (see rubric template in the teacher rubric section below)
  • 7Optional: set Available From/Until dates to enforce timed window

2. LEQ Essay Assignment (2027 Format — Single Prompt, 6-Point Rubric)

The 2027 LEQ change: students now respond to ONE broad prompt instead of choosing from three. This assignment block includes the 2027-format instructions. For the full LEQ strategy guide students should reference, link them to the 2027 LEQ format guide and LEQ practice.

LEQ Essay

Long Essay Question (LEQ) — 2027 Format

6-point rubric • 40 minutes • Single broad prompt (2027 change) • No document set

✍ Text Entry or File Upload ⏰ 40 minutes suggested ⭐ 6 points (or scale to 100) ✅ 2027 single-prompt format
📋 Canvas Assignment Text — Click to Copy
AP U.S. HISTORY — LONG ESSAY QUESTION (LEQ) 2027 Format | 6-Point Rubric | 40 Minutes ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 2027 FORMAT NOTE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Starting May 2027, the LEQ section presents ONE BROAD PROMPT. You must answer this single prompt — there is no longer a choice between three options. The prompt is designed to be broad enough that you can draw on evidence from across Units 1–9. Your thesis should identify a specific argument within this broad prompt. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PROMPT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your LEQ prompt here. Example: "Evaluate the extent to which the expansion of federal power shaped American society in the twentieth century." OR for earlier periods: "Evaluate the most significant cause of increased sectional tension in the United States from 1820 to 1861."] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT YOUR ESSAY MUST DO (6-POINT RUBRIC) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THESIS/CLAIM (1 point) ✓ Responds to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis establishing a line of reasoning ✓ The Line-of-Reasoning thesis formula: POSITION + 2–3 SPECIFIC MECHANISMS + optional QUALIFICATION ✓ Example structure: "Although [counter], [position] because [reason 1], [reason 2], and [reason 3]." CONTEXTUALIZATION (1 point) ✓ Describes broader historical context BEFORE the prompt's era ✓ Must RELATE to the prompt topic with an explicit bridge sentence — not just describe prior events ✓ Minimum 3 substantive sentences. Not awarded for merely a phrase or reference. EVIDENCE (2 points) ✓ 1 point: Provides specific evidence relevant to the topic of the prompt ✓ 2 points: Uses specific evidence to SUPPORT AN ARGUMENT — every piece of evidence must connect to your thesis with "because" or "which demonstrates that" ANALYSIS AND REASONING (2 points) ✓ 1 point: Uses a historical reasoning skill (causation, comparison, or CCOT) as the analytical framework for the essay ✓ 2 points (COMPLEXITY): Demonstrates complex understanding by: — Explaining relevant connections across time periods or geographical areas — Explaining relevant nuance by analyzing multiple variables — Qualifying or modifying the argument with a counter-argument developed in a full body paragraph ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMING AND FORMAT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • 40 minutes total — no document reading period for LEQ • Suggested structure: 5 minutes planning, 30 minutes writing, 5 minutes review • The LEQ is worth 15% of your AP exam composite score • Recommended length: 4 paragraphs minimum (intro, 2 body, contextualization OR context in intro) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Type your essay in the Text Entry box below, OR upload as a Word/PDF • Bold your thesis sentence • Label your contextualization: [CONTEXT] at start of paragraph • Label the historical reasoning skill you use: [CAUSATION], [COMPARISON], or [CCOT] at the top of your first body paragraph ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STUDENT RESOURCES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • 2027 LEQ Format Guide: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-leq-2027-new-format.html • LEQ Practice Questions: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-leq-practice.html • DBQ Contextualization Guide (same formula applies to LEQ): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-dbq-contextualization-guide.html • Evidence Bank (by era and theme): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-evidence-bank.html
⚙ Teacher Configuration Checklist
  • 1Replace [CUSTOMIZE] with your LEQ prompt — make it broad enough for Units 1–9 evidence if doing a full-year practice
  • 2Set Points Possible: 6 (or multiply by 16.7 for 100-pt scale)
  • 3Submission Type: Text Entry + File Uploads
  • 4For in-class use: set Available Until to enforce 40-minute window
  • 5For take-home: extend to 48–72 hours; note that take-home LEQs build skills even without time pressure
  • 6Consider pairing with a peer review assignment (see Peer Review block below)

3. SAQ Set Assignment (2027 Format — All Three SAQ Types, Including SAQ 3 Non-Text Source)

The most significant 2027 SAQ change: SAQ 3 now always uses a non-text source (political cartoon, photograph, data chart, map, or propaganda poster). This assignment block includes instructions for all three SAQ types with the SAQ 3 non-text source protocol. Students can reference the 2027 SAQ format guide and non-text source practice.

SAQ Set

Short Answer Questions (SAQ) — 2027 Format, All 3 Types

9 points total (3 per SAQ) • 40 minutes • Includes SAQ 3 non-text source (2027 change)

✍ Text Entry ⏰ 40 minutes (all 3 SAQs) ⭐ 9 points total (3 per SAQ) ✅ 2027 SAQ 3 non-text source
📋 Canvas Assignment Text — Click to Copy
AP U.S. HISTORY — SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS (SAQ SET) 2027 Format | 9 Points Total | 40 Minutes ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HOW SAQ SCORING WORKS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Each SAQ has 3 parts (A, B, C). Each part is worth 1 point. Points are earned independently — earning Part A does not affect Parts B or C. To earn each point, your response must: ✓ Directly answer the specific question asked in that part ✓ Include at least ONE specific named historical entity: a law, event, person, organization, or date ✓ Explain the connection between your evidence and the part's question ✓ Write 3–4 sentences per part — not bullet points, not one sentence What earns ZERO points: ✗ Vague responses without named evidence ("During this period, many people...") ✗ Descriptions of the source without connecting to historical knowledge ✗ Answers that are historically true but don't address the specific question asked ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SAQ 1 — SECONDARY SOURCE (Historians' Arguments) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your SAQ 1 secondary source excerpt and attribution here. SAQ 1 requires students to engage with a historian's interpretive argument.] [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your SAQ 1 Parts A, B, C questions here.] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SAQ 2 — PRIMARY SOURCE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your SAQ 2 primary source and attribution here. SAQ 2 uses a primary document — speech, letter, government document, etc.] [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your SAQ 2 Parts A, B, C questions here.] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SAQ 3 — NON-TEXT SOURCE (2027 New Requirement) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ 2027 FORMAT CHANGE: SAQ 3 now ALWAYS uses a non-text source: political cartoon, photograph, propaganda poster, data chart, or map. [CUSTOMIZE: Insert or describe your non-text source here. If using a political cartoon, include a description. If using a chart, paste the data table. If using an image, upload to Canvas Files and link here.] [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your SAQ 3 Parts A, B, C questions here.] HOW TO ANALYZE A NON-TEXT SOURCE FOR SAQ 3: Use the DATE → TECHNIQUE → ARGUMENT method: 1. DATE: Read the source's date FIRST. The date tells you the era, which loads your historical knowledge. 2. TECHNIQUE: Identify what the source IS (cartoon symbol, photograph composition, chart trend). 3. ARGUMENT: State what the source ARGUES — then use it as a trigger for your historical knowledge. ⚠️ DO NOT spend a sentence just describing what you see. Your historical knowledge is what earns points, not your description of the source. For practice with non-text sources: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-saq-non-text-source-practice.html ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Type all responses in the Text Entry box below • Label each response clearly: SAQ 1A, SAQ 1B, SAQ 1C, SAQ 2A, etc. • 3–4 sentences per part — complete sentences only, no bullets • Bold the name of any specific historical entity you cite (helps you check your own work) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STUDENT RESOURCES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • 2027 SAQ Format Guide (all three types): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-saq-2027-new-format.html • SAQ Non-Text Source Practice (SAQ 3): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-saq-non-text-source-practice.html • SAQ Practice Questions: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-saq-practice.html • Political Cartoon Analysis Guide: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-political-cartoon-analysis.html
⚙ Teacher Configuration Checklist
  • 1Replace all three [CUSTOMIZE] source sections with your SAQ 1 historian excerpt, SAQ 2 primary source, and SAQ 3 non-text source
  • 2Replace [CUSTOMIZE] A/B/C questions for each SAQ
  • 3For SAQ 3: Upload non-text source image to Canvas Files, then link in the description. Canvas Rich Content Editor → Insert → Image
  • 4Set Points: 9 (or scale: multiply by 11.1 for 100-pt scale)
  • 5Submission Type: Text Entry. SAQ responses should be typed, not uploaded.
  • 6For in-class timed: use Canvas Quiz with Essay questions for each part, or set a 40-min window with Available Until

4. MCQ Stimulus Practice Set Assignment

This assignment block creates a standalone MCQ stimulus practice that mirrors the exam format — 3–4 questions per stimulus, explanation required for each choice. For the trap patterns your students should understand before attempting, link them to the most missed MCQ topics guide and the practice test bank.

MCQ Practice

MCQ Stimulus Practice Set — Exam Format

3–4 questions per stimulus • Date-First method • Elimination reasoning required

✍ Text Entry or Canvas Quiz ⏰ 15–20 minutes ⭐ 1 point per correct answer 🔄 All units applicable
📋 Canvas Assignment Text — Click to Copy
AP U.S. HISTORY — MCQ STIMULUS PRACTICE SET Exam Format Practice | Date-First Method Required ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HOW TO APPROACH EACH STIMULUS SET ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Use the Date-First Method on every question set: 1. READ THE ATTRIBUTION DATE FIRST — before the stimulus text 2. READ THE QUESTION STEM — identify the skill (causation? comparison? CCOT?) 3. READ THE STIMULUS — for the argument, not every detail 4. PREDICT your answer before reading choices 5. ELIMINATE by naming what each wrong answer describes Common wrong answer types to watch for: • "Historically true but wrong" — accurate fact that doesn't answer this question • "Wrong era" — real event from a different time period • "Too broad" — general theme when a specific mechanism is asked • "Partially true" — one accurate half, one false half ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STIMULUS SET 1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your stimulus (document, image description, chart, or map) with full attribution line including DATE.] Question 1: [CUSTOMIZE] A. [option] B. [option] C. [option] D. [option] Question 2: [CUSTOMIZE] A. [option] B. [option] C. [option] D. [option] Question 3: [CUSTOMIZE] A. [option] B. [option] C. [option] D. [option] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STIMULUS SET 2 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Add second stimulus with attribution line.] Question 4: [CUSTOMIZE] A. [option] B. [option] C. [option] D. [option] Question 5: [CUSTOMIZE] A. [option] B. [option] C. [option] D. [option] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ELIMINATION REASONING SUBMISSION ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ For at least TWO questions, submit your elimination reasoning in this format: Question #_: My answer: ___ Eliminated A because: (name what it actually describes) Eliminated B because: (name what it actually describes) Eliminated C because: (name what it actually describes) Chose ___ because: (explain the specific connection to the stimulus) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ANSWER KEY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Add answer key in a separate Canvas page linked here, visible after submission, OR use Canvas Quiz auto-grade] Student resources: • Most Missed MCQ Topics: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-most-missed-mcq-topics.html • Practice Test Bank: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-practice-test.html • 2027 Practice Test: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-2027-practice-test.html
⚙ Teacher Configuration Checklist
  • 1Option A: Use this as a Canvas Assignment (Text Entry) — students copy/paste their letter choices and elimination reasoning
  • 2Option B: Use Canvas New Quizzes — create a Quiz, add stimulus as Rich Content, add MCQ questions below. Auto-grading handles the answer checking; elimination reasoning can be a separate Essay question at the end
  • 3Add DATE to every stimulus attribution line — this is critical for teaching the Date-First method
  • 4Include at least one "historically true but wrong" distractor per stimulus set to teach trap recognition
  • 5Set Points: 1 per correct answer + 2 for elimination reasoning quality = suggested 12-point assignment

5. HAPP Document Analysis Assignment (DBQ Sourcing Pre-Scaffold)

This assignment is designed as a pre-DBQ scaffold: students practice HAPP analysis on 2–3 documents before writing the full essay. It directly builds the sourcing point skill. Pair with the document sourcing guide and historical bias guide.

HAPP Analysis

Document Sourcing — HAPP Analysis Worksheet

Historical situation, Audience, Purpose, Point of View • DBQ sourcing pre-scaffold

✍ Text Entry ⏰ 20–30 minutes ⭐ 4 points (1 per HAPP element) 📄 Use before DBQ essays
📋 Canvas Assignment Text — Click to Copy
AP U.S. HISTORY — DOCUMENT SOURCING ANALYSIS (HAPP) Pre-DBQ Scaffold | 4 Points per Document | 20–30 Minutes ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT IS HAPP AND WHY IT MATTERS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The DBQ rubric awards 1 sourcing point when you explain HOW OR WHY a document's Historical situation, Audience, Purpose, or Point of View is relevant to your argument. This is NOT just identifying these elements — you must explain their RELEVANCE. The difference: ✗ "This document was written by a labor organizer." (identification only — 0 points) ✓ "Because this document was written by a labor organizer for an audience of union members, it emphasizes worker grievances while omitting the perspective of business owners who viewed the same strikes as violent disruptions — which means this source overstates worker unity and understates internal labor movement divisions." (relevant explanation — earns the point) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DOCUMENTS FOR ANALYSIS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Paste 2–3 documents with full attribution lines here. Include author, title/type, date, and audience if known.] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HAPP ANALYSIS TEMPLATE (complete for each document) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ DOCUMENT __: [Title/type] H — HISTORICAL SITUATION: What was happening in the world WHEN and WHERE this document was produced? What events, debates, or conditions shaped what the author would have known, feared, or valued? Your response (2–3 sentences): _______________ A — AUDIENCE: Who was the intended reader, listener, or viewer of this document? How does knowing the audience explain what the author chose to include, emphasize, or omit? Your response (2–3 sentences): _______________ P — PURPOSE: Why did the author create this document? What did they want their audience to DO, THINK, or FEEL? How does this purpose shape the argument's content? Your response (2–3 sentences): _______________ P — POINT OF VIEW: What is the author's background, identity, or institutional position? How does this position create a perspective that might differ from other potential sources on the same topic? Your response (2–3 sentences): _______________ SOURCING SENTENCE (This is what goes in your DBQ essay): Write ONE sentence explaining HOW or WHY one of the four HAPP elements you analyzed is RELEVANT to your argument about [topic]: "Because [HAPP element], this source [how it supports/limits/complicates your argument]." Your sentence: _______________ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STUDENT RESOURCES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Document Sourcing Guide (full HAPP framework): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-document-sourcing-guide.html • Historical Bias Guide (types of bias and how they shape sources): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-historical-bias-guide.html • Political Cartoon Analysis (for non-text sources): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-political-cartoon-analysis.html
⚙ Teacher Configuration Checklist
  • 1Assign this 3–5 days BEFORE the corresponding DBQ essay assignment
  • 2Use 2 of the 7 DBQ documents your students will write about — HAPP practice on real documents transfers directly to the essay
  • 3Points: 4 per document analyzed (H+A+P+P = 1 each) + 2 for the sourcing sentence = 6 points per document
  • 4Grade using SpeedGrader’s Rubric feature — this assignment type grades fastest with a simple 4-row rubric (one row per HAPP letter)
  • 5Optional: use Canvas Peer Review on this assignment before grading — students improve each other’s HAPP sentences very effectively

6. Peer Review Essay Assignment (Canvas Peer Review Feature)

Canvas has a built-in Peer Review feature (Assignments → Peer Reviews tab) that automatically assigns student reviewers after submission. This assignment block gives students the exact rubric criteria and revision language to make peer review substantive rather than superficial. For students reviewing DBQ essays, link to the contextualization guide and sourcing guide.

Peer Review

Peer Review — Essay Feedback Assignment

Canvas Peer Review feature • Rubric-anchored feedback • Works for DBQ, LEQ, or SAQ

👥 Requires Canvas Peer Review enabled ⏰ 20–30 minutes per review ⭐ 5–10 points (participation + quality) ✅ Works after DBQ, LEQ, or SAQ
📋 Canvas Assignment Text — Click to Copy
AP U.S. HISTORY — PEER REVIEW: ESSAY FEEDBACK Canvas Peer Review | 20–30 Minutes ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ YOUR TASK ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ You have been assigned a classmate's essay to review. Your job is to give SPECIFIC, RUBRIC-ANCHORED FEEDBACK that helps your classmate improve their score before the next essay. Vague feedback ("good job!" or "needs more details") earns you zero peer review credit. Specific, rubric-referenced feedback earns full credit. Canvas will automatically assign you a peer's essay. Access it through the Peer Review tab on this assignment after you have submitted your own essay. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RUBRIC CHECKLIST — Work through this on your peer's essay ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FOR DBQ ESSAYS: THESIS (1 pt): ✓ Does the thesis state a POSITION + at least 2 REASONS or CATEGORIES? ✗ Does the thesis merely restate the prompt? → Your feedback: Quote the thesis sentence. Tell them specifically what position + reasoning structure they need to add OR confirm it earns the point. CONTEXTUALIZATION (1 pt): ✓ Does the context go BEFORE the documents' era? ✓ Is there a BRIDGE SENTENCE connecting context to the prompt topic? ✗ Is it just a phrase or reference? → Your feedback: Quote the contextualization paragraph. Identify the specific missing element (usually the bridge sentence). If it earns the point, explain why. OUTSIDE EVIDENCE (1 pt): ✓ Is there a specific named event, law, or person NOT in the documents? ✓ Is it connected to the argument with "because" or "which demonstrates"? ✗ Is it the same content as the contextualization (no double-dipping allowed)? → Your feedback: Identify the outside evidence named. Confirm it's not double-dipped. SOURCING (1 pt): ✓ Does one document's HAPP analysis explain RELEVANCE to the argument — not just identify? ✗ Does it just say "the author is biased because..."? → Your feedback: Quote the sourcing sentence. Tell them specifically what the RELEVANCE explanation needs to add. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FEEDBACK FORMAT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Submit your feedback by typing in the Comments box in Canvas's Peer Review interface. Use this structure: THESIS: [Earned / Not yet earned] — [Specific quote + specific fix or confirmation] CONTEXT: [Earned / Not yet earned] — [Specific quote + specific fix] OUTSIDE EVIDENCE: [Earned / Not yet earned] — [What they named + specific fix or confirmation] SOURCING: [Earned / Not yet earned] — [Specific quote + specific fix] ONE STRENGTH: [Quote one sentence that works well and explain why] ONE PRIORITY REVISION: [The single most important change for their next essay] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STUDENT RESOURCES FOR GIVING GOOD FEEDBACK ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Contextualization Guide (3-sentence formula): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-dbq-contextualization-guide.html • Document Sourcing Guide: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-document-sourcing-guide.html • 2027 DBQ Wider Range Guide (outside evidence): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-dbq-2027-wider-range-guide.html
⚙ Teacher Configuration Checklist (Canvas Peer Review Setup)
  • 1Go to the ORIGINAL essay assignment (DBQ/LEQ) → Edit → Peer Reviews tab → Enable Peer Reviews ✔
  • 2Set “Assign Peer Reviews” to Automatic → set count to 1 reviewer per student
  • 3Set “Peer Reviews Due” date: 48 hours after the essay submission deadline
  • 4Create THIS assignment (Peer Review) as a separate graded Canvas assignment pointing students here for instructions — Canvas’s peer review interface does not have room for full instructions
  • 5Grade peer review quality by reviewing Canvas Peer Review submissions in SpeedGrader — award 5 points for specific rubric-anchored feedback, 2 points for generic feedback, 0 for no submission
  • 6Anonymous peer review: Canvas allows anonymous reviewer assignments — reduces social pressure and generally improves feedback quality

7. Unit Discussion Post (Historical Thinking Warm-Up)

Use this before introducing a new primary source or unit. Students respond to a historical thinking prompt, reply to a classmate with substantive engagement, and return with a revision after class. The format builds the claim-evidence-connection pattern that SAQ and essay sections require. Best used as Canvas Discussions (not Assignments).

Discussion

Unit Discussion Post — Historical Thinking Warm-Up

Canvas Discussion tool • Pre-class or beginning-of-unit • Claim → evidence → connection format

💬 Canvas Discussion (not Assignment) ⏰ 10–15 minutes for students ⭐ 10 points (initial post + reply) ✅ Weekly or per-unit
📋 Canvas Discussion Text — Click to Copy
AP U.S. HISTORY — UNIT DISCUSSION: Historical Thinking Warm-Up ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE PROMPT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [CUSTOMIZE: Paste your discussion question here. This works best as a CAUSATION or COMPARISON question: Examples: • "What was the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT cause of [event]? Defend your claim with two pieces of specific evidence." • "Compare [movement/group A] and [movement/group B]: what did they share in common and where did they fundamentally differ?" • "How did [development] in [era] create conditions for [later development]? Trace the causal chain." • "A historian argues that [interpretive claim]. Do you agree, partially agree, or disagree? Cite specific evidence."] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ YOUR INITIAL POST (7 points) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Write 4–6 sentences using this structure: • CLAIM: State your position directly. No hedging. • EVIDENCE 1: Name one specific historical entity (event, law, person, document). Explain what it demonstrates about your claim. • EVIDENCE 2: Name a second specific historical entity. Explain its connection to your claim. • CONCESSION (optional but stronger): Acknowledge one thing that could challenge your claim — then explain why your argument still holds. WHAT EARNS FULL POINTS: ✓ Named specific evidence (law, event, person, date) ✓ Each piece of evidence explicitly connected to your claim ✓ A defensible position, not a description of complexity without taking a side WHAT EARNS ZERO: ✗ "There are many factors to consider..." ✗ Evidence without explanation of connection to claim ✗ General statements without any named historical entity ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ YOUR REPLY (3 points) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Reply to ONE classmate's post with 2–3 sentences that do ONE of the following: • Agree AND extend: "I agree with [claim] and would add [specific evidence that strengthens it]..." • Respectfully challenge: "Your evidence about [X] supports your claim, but [specific counter-evidence] suggests [alternative interpretation]..." • Make a connection: "Your argument about [A] connects to [B] in [specific unit] because [mechanism]..." NOT ACCEPTABLE: "Great point!" / "I agree" / "Nice post." ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ STUDENT RESOURCES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Unit Reviews (for content background): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-unit-review.html • Flashcards (for specific named evidence): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-flashcards.html • Master Timeline (for chronological context): apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-master-timeline.html
⚙ Teacher Configuration Checklist (Canvas Discussion Setup)
  • 1Create as Canvas Discussion (left nav → Discussions → +Discussion), not as an Assignment
  • 2Enable Graded Discussion → set to 10 points → it will appear in the Gradebook automatically
  • 3Enable “Require an initial post before seeing other replies” — prevents students from just agreeing with the first post
  • 4Reply Due Date: set 24 hours after initial post due date
  • 5Grade in SpeedGrader: 7 points for initial post (5 = strong claim+evidence, 3 = claim without named evidence, 0 = no post) + 3 for reply quality
  • 6These work exceptionally well as asynchronous pre-class warm-ups before primary source analysis days

8. Exam Prep Diagnostic Assignment (Baseline + Study Plan)

Assign this at the start of the year or after major format changes. Students self-assess on each exam section, run the score calculator, and generate a personalized study priority list. This assignment creates student ownership of their prep plan and gives you baseline data for differentiation. Links to the score calculator and study plan.

Diagnostic

Exam Prep Diagnostic & Personal Study Plan

Score calculator • Section self-assessment • Student-generated study priorities • Teacher differentiation data

📊 Score calculator required ⏰ 20–30 minutes ⭐ Completion grade or 10 points 📋 Start of year or pre-exam
📋 Canvas Assignment Text — Click to Copy
AP U.S. HISTORY — EXAM PREP DIAGNOSTIC & PERSONAL STUDY PLAN ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 1: SELF-ASSESSMENT (10 minutes) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Answer these questions honestly. This is NOT graded on correctness — it is graded on completion and reflection quality. 1. If you took the APUSH exam TODAY, approximately how many MCQ questions (out of 55) do you think you would answer correctly? ___ 2. If you wrote a DBQ today without preparation, what score (0–7) do you think you would earn? ____ for Thesis ____ for Contextualization ____ for Document Evidence ____ for Outside Evidence ____ for Sourcing ____ for Complexity 3. If you wrote an LEQ today, what score (0–6) do you think you would earn? ____ for Thesis ____ for Contextualization ____ for Evidence ____ for Analysis/Reasoning 4. If you answered all three SAQs today, what total score (0–9) do you think you would earn? ___ 5. Which APUSH unit (1–9) do you feel LEAST confident about content-wise? ___ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 2: RUN THE SCORE CALCULATOR (5 minutes) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Go to: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-score-calculator-and-study-plan.html Enter your self-assessment scores from Part 1 into the calculator sliders. Record: • Your projected composite score (out of 130): ___ • Your projected AP score (1–5): ___ • Your section ranked LOWEST by percentage: ___ • Composite points you would gain from improving your lowest section by 1 rubric level: ___ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PART 3: YOUR PERSONAL STUDY PLAN (10 minutes) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Based on your calculator results, complete the following: My target AP score: ___ My current projected score: ___ My score gap: ___ My #1 priority section (lowest %): ___ To improve this section, I will specifically work on: ___ The resource I will use first: ___ My #2 priority section: ___ One specific skill or rubric point I need to practice in this section: ___ My weakest content unit (from Part 1, Question 5): ___ I will review this unit using: ___ (apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-unit-review.html — select your unit) My exam prep schedule for the next 2 weeks: • Week 1 focus: ___ • Week 2 focus: ___ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUBMISSION ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Type your completed responses to Parts 1, 2, and 3 in the Text Entry box below. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RESOURCES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Score Calculator and Study Plans: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-score-calculator-and-study-plan.html • Unit Reviews: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-unit-review.html • 2027 Exam Format Changes: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-2027-exam-changes.html • All Student Resources: apushistoryexamprep.com
⚙ Teacher Configuration Checklist & How to Use the Data
  • 1Assign at start of year (baseline) AND 6 weeks before the exam (progress check)
  • 2Grade on completion only — Part 3 is reflection quality, not correctness. SpeedGrader: 10 points = all parts complete with substance; 5 = partially complete; 0 = not submitted
  • 3Read Part 1 Question 5 responses across your class — the unit that most students flag as weakest tells you where to spend more class time before April
  • 4Part 2 calculator results give you a class-level diagnostic: if most students project a 3, their essays (not MCQ) are the gap — assign more DBQ/LEQ practice
  • 5Share the 2027 exam format overview link specifically for students who are confused about what changed: apushistoryexamprep.com/ap-us-history-2027-exam-changes.html

Suggested Assignment Pacing: Full-Year APUSH Canvas Schedule

Use this pacing guide to distribute assignments across Units 1–9. The sequencing is designed so that HAPP practice precedes DBQ essays, diagnostics precede major format instruction, and peer review follows every major essay to close the feedback loop before the next one.

TimingUnit FocusRecommended AssignmentsResource to Assign with It
Week 1–2 Course intro / Units 1–2 → Diagnostic assignment (baseline) • Discussion post (compare colonial regions) Score calculator • Unit 1–2 review
Week 3–5 Units 2–3 → SAQ set (Units 2–3) • HAPP analysis (Colonial era docs) • MCQ practice set SAQ practice • Sourcing guide
Week 6–8 Units 3–4 → FIRST DBQ essay • Peer review of DBQ • LEQ (causation, Unit 4) Contextualization guide • LEQ guide
Week 9–12 Units 4–5 → SAQ set (Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction) • DBQ (Reconstruction era) • Peer review Most missed MCQ (Reconstruction cluster)
Week 13–17 Units 6–7 → MCQ stimulus sets (Gilded Age, Progressive Era) • DBQ (Gilded Age or Progressive) • LEQ • Peer review Political cartoon analysis • Populism vs. Progressivism cluster
Week 18–22 Units 7–8 → SAQ set (WWI, New Deal, WWII) including SAQ 3 non-text source • DBQ (New Deal) • MCQ practice Non-text source practice • New Deal exclusions cluster
Week 23–27 Units 8–9 → DBQ (Cold War or Civil Rights) • LEQ • SAQ set (Cold War, Civil Rights, Reagan) • Peer review 2027 DBQ wider range guide (cross-era)
6 weeks before exam All units review → Diagnostic (progress check) • 2027 full practice test • Timed DBQ + peer review • MCQ timed sets 2027 practice test • Score calculator
Final 2 weeks Exam review → SAQ daily warm-ups • MCQ stimulus sets • Student-directed study plan from diagnostic Flashcards • Exam strategy guide

Differentiation: How to Modify These Assignments for All Students

Every assignment block above works for a standard APUSH class. These modifications adapt them for different student needs without requiring separate assignment creation.

Student NeedAssignment ModificationCanvas Tool to Use
Extended time (IEP/504) Do NOT change the assignment. Use Canvas’s Moderate feature to grant individual time extensions on quizzes. For essay assignments, set “Available Until” extended for specific students using Canvas’s “Assign To” per-student override. Canvas Assign To → add individual student → set different Available Until date
Struggling writers (approaching standard) Add a SCAFFOLD section to the assignment description with a sentence-starter template for thesis and contextualization. Offer a provided outline (intro paragraph structure, body paragraph structure) as an attached file in the assignment. Add separate “Scaffolded Version” Canvas page linked in the assignment; keep the main assignment unchanged
Advanced students (exceeding standard) Add an extension question at the bottom of the assignment: “For additional challenge: identify one piece of evidence that COMPLICATES your thesis and develop a full counter-argument paragraph that qualifies rather than abandons your position.” Add to bottom of main assignment description; award 1 bonus point toward complexity if completed
ELL students Allow bilingual dictionaries during essay writing. Pair with a vocabulary list of key rubric terms (thesis, contextualization, sourcing, explicit) attached as a Canvas file. Use Translation feature in Canvas (if district-enabled) on assignment descriptions. Canvas Files → upload vocabulary reference sheet; link in assignment description
Students with anxiety / perfectionism Add a de-stakes note to the assignment description: “This assignment is practice, not punishment. A complete attempt earns 70% regardless of score. The purpose is feedback, not evaluation.” Use the 7-point rubric transparently so students know exactly what earns what. Canvas Rubric feature → attach to assignment → rubric visible to students before submission
Classroom use policy

All assignment text on this page is free to use, copy, paste, modify, and distribute in your classroom under our classroom use policy. You do not need to credit this site or ask permission for individual classroom use. If you share these assignments with your department or post them on your school’s resource site, a link back is appreciated but not required. These assignments are updated annually as College Board format changes are announced — bookmark this page to get the updated versions each August before school starts.

Student Resources to Link from Every Assignment

Every assignment block above includes student-facing resource links. These are the core pages your students will use most often — all free, all 2027-format calibrated.

DBQ Practice SAQ Practice 2027 Practice Test Score Calculator
Student-facing resources to link in your Canvas assignments: DBQ Practice • 2027 DBQ Wider Range Guide • Contextualization Guide • Document Sourcing Guide • Historical Bias Guide • 2027 LEQ Guide • LEQ Practice • 2027 SAQ Guide • SAQ Non-Text Source Practice • SAQ Practice • Political Cartoon Analysis • Most Missed MCQ Topics • Practice Test Bank • 2027 Practice Test • Score Calculator & Study Plans • Unit Reviews • 500 Flashcards • Evidence Bank • Master Timeline • All 2027 Changes • Exam Strategy Guide • Classroom Use Policy