Lies My Teacher Told Me

I am a little late at posting, but I have learned so much from this book that it is hard to decide what to post. The very first chapter of this book made me re-think how to teach APUSH. I have a year to teach the class, but I never feel like I have enough time. Maybe I am like the teacher he describes in the section called "Forests, Trees, and Twigs". I sometimes get so caught up trying to teach them SO much that I am probably overwhelming them. With our "twig" state test that requires the students to know miniscule information, it is hard not to teach the somewhat trivial information that bogs us down. The very book that they make fun of (American Pageant) is the book we teach out of in the county. It loves to give the height and other physical characteristics along with their financial status. The kids love this information. It makes them pay attention and remember the person. My question is this - Do we include all the trivial information (the twigs) if it makes them pay attention or do we only focus on the most important information (the trees) if it helps us "cover" the information by the time they leave us?