AP UNITED STATES HISTORY 2015 SUMMER ASSIGNMENT
I am pleased that you have enrolled in the Advanced Placement United States history
class for the next school year. I want to give you some idea of what to expect as the
year unfolds. The AP United States History course and exam was recently redesigned to accurately mimic a college level American History curriculum. Beginning with the 2014-2015 school year and with the 2015 exam administrations, the concepts learned will be more critical-thinking based. All of the students enrolled in AP U.S. history will take the national exam in May 2016. The exam will be divided into four parts. Part I will consist of 55 multiple choice questions under a time limit of 55 minutes, weighted at 40%. Part II of the exam will consist of four short answer questions. This portion of the exam will take 50 minutes and is weighted at 20%. Part III will consist of just the Document Based Question. Students will have 55 minutes to write it and will be weighted at 25%. The final part, Part IV, will consist of one long essay. Students will have 35 minutes to write this essay and it will be weighted at 15%. The tests are then scored by readers for the College Board the following June and final scores are available online in early July. Scores range from 1 to 5, with a 3 or better considered as “passing”, and therefore eligible to receive college credit in many universities and colleges.
Since you are potentially earning college credit for your work, A.P. U.S. history is designed to be taught at the college level. Many students initially find the pace and workload difficult. However, as the year unfolds students seem to adjust well to the type and amount of work that is expected of them.
All students enrolled in AP United States history are expected to complete this summer assignment. While no one really likes homework in the summer, this will pay off by providing us with more time to review for the AP exam that is scheduled for May of 2016. Students who fail to complete the assignment on time will receive a substantial late penalty and will have to do it during the first quarter with their other required work. In addition, the tasks that you will be required to do are representative of the kind of work that you will be doing throughout the year in AP United States history such as reading substantial works, being able to process large amounts of information, and thinking critically about a given topic. Remember this assignment is due on our first day of class, September 3rd, 2015. Please feel free to e-mail me during the summer if you have any questions or concerns. My e-mail address is I am looking forward to a wonderful year with all of you.
SUMMER PROJECT POINT BREAKDOWN (also 1st quarter project grade!!)
Task One: (50 points)
Complete the key terms IN PEN by using outside resources, your textbook, and the internet. Especially this site: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/hyper_titles.cfm
Task Two (50 points)
Write a fictitious letter describing a colonial region: either Chesapeake Virginia, Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania. The colony you should focus on is indicated in the upper corner of this sheet with a “V” (Virginia) “M” (Mass.) or “P” for (Penn.)
TASK ONE (50 POINTS)
Through use of outside resources such as the Field Library and internet web sites
define or identify the significance of the terms listed below in the packet. Identification
of the terms should be done in PEN and not typed. The terms are related to America’s
early colonialism. The significance/definition should be one or two sentences long.
Puritans
Roanoke
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
Sir Walter Raleigh
Plantations
"City Upon a Hill"
William Penn
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
King Phillip's War
James Oglethorpe
Proprietors
Quakers
London Company
"Starving time"
House of Burgesses
Lord Baltimore
Jamestown
Headright System
John Smith
Plymouth Plantation
Sir William Berkeley
Bacon's Rebellion
John Rolfe
Separatists
Indentured servants
Anne Hutchinson
Powhatan
Pocahontas
"Theocracy"
Toleration Act of 1649
William Bradford
Plymouth
General Court
John Cotton
Navigation Acts
Mayflower Compact
Mercantilism
Squanto
John Winthrop
James River
New Amsterdam
Dominion of New England
Thomas Hooker
Roger Williams
Congregationalism (Massachusetts Bay)
First public schools
Town meetings
Harvard
The Great Awakening
Patroonships
Tobacco plantations
Indigo
"slave codes"
George Whitefield
Jonathan Edwards
Albany Congress (1754)
“New Lights”/”Old Lights” (Great Awakening)
Cotton Mather
Salutary neglect
John Peter Zenger
"Olive Branch Petition"
The Iroquois Confederacy
Battle of Yorktown
Molly Pitcher
“Common Sense” by Thomas Paine
Mary Wollstonecraft
John Locke
Abigail Adams
Loyalists/Tories
Articles of Confederation
Northwest Ordinance 1787
Battle of Saratoga
Shays' Rebellion
TASK TWO (50 POINTS)
Boats-R-Us Colonial Relocation Services, Inc.
Lucky you! You are a relocation agent for Boats-R-Us Colonial Relocation Services
Inc. which has recently sent you on a long (1607-1720) scouting trip to the American
colonies. You have just returned to London, England and your favorite client, Lord
Walker, has requested that you write him about your experiences in one of the
colonies since he plans on taking up residence in the New World for a few
generations. Obviously, your client is a wise and enterprising young man, but he
needs your assistance in picking a place he can call home. As a professional, you
are concerned about his future happiness so you should be careful to warn him about
some of the pitfalls, and perhaps you may wish to share some advice on achieving
political and personal success. Other things of interest to your client may include:
· Physical geography of the colony
· Type of people in the colony
· Social structure
· Key colonial leaders
· Economic pursuits/opportunities
· Religious climate
· Organization of the colony (towns, etc..)
· Hardships, problems
Your letter should be 300-500 words in length and it may be “dropped” within any
timeframe of colonial America. (Obviously, colonies had different founding dates
and your “window” may be as open or closed as you would like).
All the background you should need is contained in the pages you have read and
your current understanding. Be creative!!! Have fun!!!