ADVANCED PLACEMENT UNITED STATES HISTORY
2013-2014 COURSE REQUIREMENTS
TEXTBOOK: AMERICAN HISTORY: A Survey
Alan Brinkley
12th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2003
RESOURCES: For Primary Source ”Notecard” Assignments
AMERICA’S HISTORY: Documents to Accompany
Kevin J. Fernlund
6th ed., Bradford St. Martins, 2008
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT: United States History as Seen by
Contemporaries, Vol. 1 & 2,
Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy
6th ed., D. C. Heath & Co., 1987
For Secondary Source “POTUS Papers”
PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White
House,
Edited by James Taranto and Leonard Leo
1st ed., Wall Street Journal Books, 2004
For Secondary Source “Thesis Papers”
TAKING SIDES: CLASHING VIEWS ON CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES IN
AMERICAN HISTORY, Vol. 1 & 2
Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle
9th ed., Dushkin McGraw-Hill, 2001
OPTIONAL STUDENT RESOURCE:
UNITED STATES HISTORY: Preparing for the Advanced
Placement Examination
John J. Newman and John M. Schmalbach
2nd ed., Amsco School Publications, 2002
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The Advanced Placement United States History course is a two-semester class that offers a survey of American History since the 15th century at college-level pace. Extensive reading, writing, and study skills useful in college will be emphasized. The class concludes with a college level exam, prepared by the College Board, which, if passed, may result in college credit. The exam for 2013 will be given on Wednesday, May 14, at 8:00 am. There is a fee for this exam ($89).
The course is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of U. S. History and to provide students with analytical skills and factual knowledge to deal critically with the problems and materials in United States history. Students should learn to assess historical materials – their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability and their importance – and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship.
Furthermore, students will develop:
1. their ability to understand and respect other points of view, both personal and cultural. Included within this should be the ability to understand peoples of different races and cultures and show respect for human diversity and for students’ varied talents and perspectives. Also, students should explore the interaction among peoples of different races and cultures and how such interaction has shaped United States and world history.
2. an informed historical perspective, including an understanding of how one's own society developed, and an awareness of how other societies developed.
3. their understanding the major ways that science and technology have affected humans and their world.
4. their understanding of the power and limitations of science and technology in a changing world; awareness of how societies, institutions, and individuals are responsible to see that technology is used ethically and appropriately.
5. their understanding of the influence of geographic characteristics, including climate, physical features and natural resources, on North America's major societies and cultures.
6. their understanding of the context of current events from a historical perspective with the ability to connect modern trends to past events.
7. their understanding of current events from an international perspective.
8. their ability to integrate into the curriculum a wide variety of materials as well as human and technological resources, including primary documents, texts, maps, graphs, charts, and other resources.
9. their understanding of the concept of change and continuity over time with the ability to relate past to present.
10. their understanding of the major events and movements in American history, the turning points of historical development, and their relationship to the present.
11. their understanding of cultural and individual diversity, and humankind’s shared environment, heritage, and responsibility.
12. their ability to explore critical eras in the historical development of the world in the following spheres of human activity: social, political, scientific, military, technological, economic, and cultural (philosophical, religious, and aesthetic).
13. the ability to apply the techniques of historical interpretation including cause and effect, major trends, change over time, etc.
14. their ability to use knowledge of the civilization of the United States to develop in themselves the skills of thinking, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making.
15. an informed historical perspective, including an understanding of how one’s own society developed and an awareness of how other societies developed.
Additional Student Learning Outcomes:
1. In the process of fulfilling assignments in the course, students will have opportunity to demonstrate and improve the quality of their critical thinking, reading, and writing abilities.
2. In the process of fulfilling assignments in the course, the student will be able to identify important individuals and events that have contributed to the development of American history.
3. In the process of fulfilling assignments in the course, students will learn to critically and analytically read historical works and primary sources.
4. In the process of fulfilling assignments in the course, will begin to understand the connection between the United States and Western Civilization in addition to the global community.
HOMEWORK
Advanced Placement courses are demanding and require daily homework. Students planning to earn a score of 4 or 5 will spend a MINIMUM of SEVEN hours per week studying. Begin planning and preparing now to take the A.P. exam in May.
Homework is mainly reading and critical/analytical essays NOT take-home worksheets. The bonus to the student is that they can plan their own study time to more easily match their schedule. The pitfall is that the student can easily slack off and, after 7-10 days, fall rapidly behind. All assignments are given in advance to allow students to organize their time. The College Board’s AP US History curriculum demands a tight schedule. Every effort will be made to strictly adhere to the syllabus.
GRADING
Grading for AP will be on a point system. Points are totaled to determine the grade for each grading period. The scale is listed below. It is advised that students NOT THROW ANYTHING AWAY. Inadequate and poor planning on the student’s part does not constitute an emergency on the teacher’s part. In short, if you see you are behind and NEED an “A”, plan better and study harder.
GRADING SCALE:
100% = A+, 99-95% = A, 94-90% = A-, 89-87% = B+, 86-83% = B, 82-80% = B-,
79-77% = C+, 76-73% = C, 72-70% = C-, 69-67% = D+, 66-63% = D, 62-60% = D-, 0-59% = F.
POSSIBLE GRADE COMPONENTS:
Chapter Quiz = 5-20 points
Chapter/Class Notes = 10 points per chapter
POTUS Paper = 20 points (readings and analysis of selected secondary source readings about Presidents)
Thesis paper = 20 points (readings and analysis of selected secondary source readings)
Interactive Questioning = 10 points per lecture/discussion period
Notecards = 10-20 points (readings and analysis of selected primary source readings)
Historiography = 10 points per exercise, from the Varying Viewpoints sections of the text
Class Participation (discussion) = 50 points per quarter
Unit Tests (Multiple Choice and either Free Response or DBQ Essays) = 100 points
Final Exam = 20% of the semester grade
Unit Projects = 20-100 points
THEMES OF AP US HISTORY COVERED IN THIS COURSE
1. American Culture – diverse individual and collective expressions through literature, art, philosophy, music, theater, and film throughout U.S. history. Popular culture and the dimensions of cultural conflict within American society.
2. American Diversity – diversity of U.S. people and relationships among different groups. The role of race, class, ethnicity, and gender in the history of the U.S.
3. American Identity –views of the American national character & ideas about U.S. exceptionalism. Recognizing regional differences within the context of what it means to be an American.
4. Demographic Changes – political, social, economic implications – changes in birth, marriage, and death rates; life expectancy and family patterns; population size and density. The economic, social, and political effects of immigration, internal migration, and migration networks.
5. Economic Transformation – changes in trade, commerce, and technology across time. The effects of capitalist development, labor and unions, and consumerism.
6. Environmental Issues – ideas about the consumption and conservation of natural resources. The impact of population growth, industrialization, pollution, and urban and suburban expansion.
7. Globalization – engagement with the world from the 15th century to present: colonialism, mercantilism, global hegemony, development of markets, imperialism, cultural exchange.
8. Politics & Citizenship – colonial and revolutionary legacies, U.S. political traditions, growth of democracy, & development of the modern state. Defining citizenship; struggles for civil rights.
9. Religion in the U.S. – the variety of religious beliefs and practices in America from prehistory to the 21st century; influence of religion on politics, economics, and society.
10. Slavery and its impact and legacy – systems of slave labor and other forms of unfree labor (e.g., indentured servants, contract labor) in Native American societies, the Atlantic World, and the American South and West. The economics of slavery and its racial dimensions. Patterns of resistance and the long-term economic, political and social effects of slavery.
11. Social & Political Movements and Reforms – includes anti-slavery, education, labor, temperance, women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, public health, and government.
12. War & Diplomacy – armed conflict from the pre-colonial period to the 21st century; impact of war on American foreign policy and on politics, economy, and society.
Course Schedule & Assignments
Unit 1: Early Colonial Period: 1490’s – 1730’s
Required Readings:
► Text, Chapters 1 & 2
► Puritans & Sex by Edmund Morgan
► Primary Document Packet (Selections from America’s History and The American Spirit)
Main Topics:
◊ First European contacts with Native Americans
◊ English settlement of New England, the Mid-Atlantic region, and the South
◊ European motives for colonization
◊ Impact of African slavery on colonial development
◊ How the Spanish colonial system operated and its impact on British colonies
◊ Impact of events in Britain on the British colonies
Activities:
- Objective Test - In helping to prepare for the AP Exam, the Multiple Choice
questions on all objective tests will include 5 choices for the correct answer.
- Students will be divided into 4 groups – one devoted to biological, one to cultural, one to commercial, and one to religious exchange. Each group has two days to learn as much as possible about how their exchange formed the political, social, economic, and religious foundations of the early “Atlantic World.” When they meet as a group, each group should argue why their exchange mode was most influential in shaping life in the “New World.”
- Students will write an essay analyzing Dr. Brinkley’s statement that three factors “characterized these first permanent English settlements.” Essays should address the following:
○ What characteristics shaped these settlements?
○ Which of the three characteristics that the author described was most important
and why?
○ How do each of these characteristics build upon what was learned in Chapter 1
about “The Meeting of Cultures?”
- Students will write a letter to any of the following:
o Richard Hakluyt. Explain why you feel he and others like him were “propagandizers” who kept the positive image of America alive in England. Tell him what effects such as propaganda will have on visions and expectations of 17th Century English colonists
o An English family that settled in Jamestown in 1619. Explain to the family how and why settlement had been so difficult for the first few years in the colony and why it is important for them to continue their efforts to survive in Virginia
o Pocahontas. Tell her the plot of the late 20th century Disney movie about her life and explain where the script deviates from the facts. Describe how you believe the movie has influenced the way Americans think about her in the 21st century.
o The 41 “saints” who signed the Mayflower Compact. Tell them how historians of the 20th century viewed the significance of the Mayflower Compact. Explain the influence of the Mayflower Compact on the Founding Fathers as they wrote the Constitution.
o A colonist who is thinking about leaving the Massachusetts Bay Colony to join Thomas Hooker, Roger Williams, or Anne Hutchinson. Advise him/her of the philosophical and religious differences between these dissenters. Suggest which dissenter might be the best leader for a new colonial experiment.
o James Oglethorpe. Explain why you think his vision for Georgia failed. Provide some advice about how you think he might have more successfully governed the colony.
Unit 2: Late Colonial Period: 1700’s – 1776
Required Readings:
► Text, Chapters 3, and 4
► Indentured Servants Readings
► Primary Document Packet (Selections from America’s History and The American Spirit)
Main Topics:
◊ English settlement of New England, the Mid-Atlantic region, and the South
◊ From servitude to slavery in the Chesapeake region
◊ Religious diversity in the American colonies
◊ Population growth and immigration
◊ Transatlantic trade and the growth of seaports
◊ Growth of plantation economies and slave societies
◊ The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening
◊ Colonial governments and Imperial policy in British North America
Activities:
- Objective Test with Free Response Essay.
- Lives of Indentured Servants – Students will use chapter information and primary documents to answer questions and participate in a class discussion.
- Students will discuss Benjamin Franklin’s America as a Land of Opportunity.
- Persuasive speech – Students will create a speech that a colonist living in 1774 might have written about the “publick good.” Students will write from the perspective of one of the following:
○ Bostonian woman ○ a colonial tea merchant
○ Bostonian man ○ a tea merchant from the Dutch East India Company
○ Samuel Adams ○ a Son of Liberty
○ a minuteman
Unit 3: A New Nation: 1763 – 1808
Required Readings:
► Text, Chapter 5 & 6
► Presidential Thesis Paper – John Adams (From Presidential Leadership)
► The Declaration of Independence
► Common Sense by Thomas Paine
► Letters Addressed to the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay by Daniel Leonard
► Primary Document Packet (Selections from America’s History and The American Spirit)