AP World History Syllabus
Course Description
The AP World History course develops a greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts, in interaction with different types of human societies. The course highlights the nature of changes in international frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparison among major societies. To accomplish this, the course devotes considerable time to critical evaluation of primary and secondary sources, analysis of different historical interpretations of events, oral presentations, short essays, and major research paper.
The course will be rigorous and rewarding. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with historical themes and social habits, as they analyze and interpret course material. The ultimate reward of the course is that the student will be well rounded and informed on how the world developed and how history develops the present.
We will use the following AP World History themes throughout the course to identify the broad patterns of processes that explains change and continuity over time. Each unit draws from the five overarching themes and global coverage is balanced throughout the course.
The Five AP World History Themes
1. Interaction between humans and the environment
2. Development and interaction of culture
3. State-Building, expansion, and conflict
4. Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
5. Development and transformation of social structures
Chronological Boundaries of the Course
The course content is structured around the investigation of course themes and key concepts of six chronological periods. The six historical periods, from approximately 8000 B.C.E. to the present, provide a sequential framework for the course.
The outline details the six units and the timeframe in which they are covered:
· Unit I. to c. 600 B.C.E. (3 weeks)
· Unit II 600B.C.E. to 600 C.E. (5 weeks)
· Unit III. 600 CE – 1450 (7 weeks)
· Unit IV. 1450-1750 (6 weeks)
· Unit V. 1750 – 1900 (7 weeks)
· Unit VI. 1900 – the present (6 weeks)
Analyzing Material and Maximizing Cognitive Development
To gain an in-depth understanding of the vast material of the course, students will analyze and organize the ebbs and flows of empires by utilizing the PERSIAN chart to capture the characteristics of civilizations. This concept of evaluating information will be used consistently throughout the course and will at a minimum examine the political, economic, religious, social, intellectual, art and architecture, and geographical concepts of empires.
Personal Philosophy
I believe that the AP World History course provides students with opportunities to be challenged at a level of organization and critical thinking that prepares them for future AP classes, college or university programs, or technical work. A course rich in the study of primary-source materials allows students to develop an understanding of world history layered with the voices and personalities of the past. Although initially the course may appear overwhelming to students, the engaging topics and opportunities to probe the big questions of society and culture make this a course where the students experience tremendous growth.
Purpose and Organization of Course Activities
AP World History is the equivalent of a college-level survey course in world history.
Like college students, you are expected to read the assigned pages in the textbook as listed in the unit calendars and take notes in the charts and types of graphic organizers provided by the teacher. In designing this course, the College Board aimed to help you gain the higher-order thinking skills you will need to be successful in college.
For example, almost everyday in class we will analyze primary sources both texts and visuals. The primary source analysis will help in the construction of the Document Based Question (DBQ) essay for the examination, but also the daily use of historical documents and visuals will allow practice using evidence and making credible arguments. The exercise will also enhance writing skills such as point of view, context, syntax, and biases enclosed in primary sources.
A second important habit of mind you will develop over the year is assessing issues of change and continuity over time, including the capacity to deal with change as a process and with questions of causation. Also be aware to illustrate cause and effect as it impacts history. You will constantly be keeping track of changes in history through the compare and contrast/continuity/change over time charts and maps you will construct both in class and for homework in all six units. Moreover, these charts and maps will help you see global patterns and processes over time and space while also connecting local developments to global ones and moving through levels of generalizations from the global to the particular. This skill will be especially useful for writing the Change over Time essay on the AP World History Exam and often is a major focus in upper-level college courses in the social sciences as well as in the discipline of science.
About three to five times in each unit, we will conduct whole-class seminars where students will discuss diversity of interpretations that historians present in your textbook and in other secondary sources such as articles provided by your teacher.
We will also do simulations and debates that challenge you to address questions about human commonalities and differences and the historical context of culturally diverse ideas and values.
At the sophomore level, you will be required to demonstrate the skill of comparison. You will improve that skill by practicing comparing within and among societies, including comparing societies’ reactions to global processes. On all of the graphic organizers, annotated timelines, and annotated maps you create there will be directions to write a thesis statement that generalizes the data you presented. An easy thesis statement can be simply a comparison, a statement of the similarities and differences. The third essay you will write on the AP World History Exam in May is the Comparative essay, so this skill is extremely important for you to improve.
Student Evaluation
Essays/Exams
Tests and quizzes cover information from the readings, handouts, and lectures and are usually in multiple-choice format. The multiple-choice questions are taken from various test banks and are also of my own creation. Early in the year the essays are take-home assignments, and the students engage in peer-grading of each other’s work to better understand what I am assessing. Later, I provide more practice with in-class essay assignments using questions in the style of the AP World History Exam, as well as the AP Exam free response questions posted on AP Central. Usually, exams are given at the end of a unit. (60 percent)
Essay Preparation
Students are trained in writing the DBQ, change-over-time, and comparative essays by a process of gradual reduction in supportive measures. For example, earlier in the course students may learn a prompt in advance and prepare for an essay prior to the class period when the essay is composed. Alternatively, students may be paired to work together on document analysis and organization for a DBQ. Students are also given a rubric that will help them construct their planning. As the year progresses, scaffolding is removed as students become more independent and internalize the steps in the essay process.
Homework/Notebook
Students keep an organized note keeping system (preferably Cornell Note System) devoted solely to history, as well as a binder for handouts. They take lecture notes and outline notes on the textbook chapters. All homework is due the last school day of the week. (40 percent)
Notebook Criteria
One of the biggest keys to success in the course is organization. Students will have to return to previously filed work to prepare for the AP examination.
Requirements:
• 2-3-inch hard-cover three-ring binder used exclusively for AP World History
• Sections can be labeled in the following manner
➢ General Course Information/ syllabus
➢ Rubrics/Guides
➢ Charts and Notes
➢ Maps and Images
➢ Handouts/Documents
➢ Essays/Tests
Class Participation
Participation is a crucial part of the class. I often employ the Socratic Method for whole-class discussion and encourage all relevant opinions and ideas to be introduced by the students.
Projects
First semester project is to prepare a product that matches the Texas History Fair theme. The project requires research at the collegiate level and will use campus libraries, archives, and a vast array of databases to conduct their investigation. The student can work individually or in groups and prepare a historical paper, exhibit, performance, documentary, or a website. Students will participate in the campus History Fair Competition and subsequent competition if the students advance. The project has three components: The process paper (1 test grade), the product (3 test grades), and the annotated bibliography (1 test grade).
Second semester project will be a research project that correlates to our post-course topic. The project will be constructed from research, the field trip, and personal experience with the topic. The project will be due after the AP Examination.
Teacher Resources
Textbook Resource Materials
Bulliet, Richard W., et al. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Publisher’s supplements provide many teacher resource materials: transparencies, study guides, test banks, and Web sites.
Nystrom, Elsa A., Primary Source Reader for World History, Volume I: to 1500. Kennesaw State University: Thomson-Wadsworth, 2006.
Nystrom, Elsa A., Primary Source Reader for World History, Volume II: since 1500. Kennesaw State University: Thomson-Wadsworth, 2006.
Brady, Charles and Roden, Phil. Document Based Questions in World History. Evanston, Illinois: The DBQ Project, 2005.
Internet Sources
http://www.maps101.com – evaluate change over time in areas of the world
http://www.fordham.edu – students will identify and evaluate diverse historical interpretations from this website
http://www.pbs.org – various film segments
http://www.nationalgeographic.com – map and film segments
http://historychannel.com
http://www.historyworld.net
Additional sources that will be used in the course to analyze an array of primary sources, written documents, maps, images, quantitative date (maps, charts, and graphs) art work, and other sources.
Textual:
World History, a Collection of Primary Sources by Dr. Richard Cruz, Dr Chris Guthrie, and Dr. Janet Schmeltzer
The Human Record: Sources of Global History, by Alfred Andrea and James Overfield, 6th edition, Volumes I and II, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2009.
Worlds of History: a Comparative Reader by Kevin Reilly
Visual: Most images for analysis will originate from the textbooks, readers, and internet sources. Samples for analysis are but not limited to art, political cartoons, and photos
Quantitative: Tables and graphs in Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History by David Christian
Secondary Sources:
David Christian, Maps of Time
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost
John Keegan, The First World War
Other works of historical interpretation and reviews used in the course are taken from the professional database (JSTOR).
Course Timeline
Week 1
1. Introduction to the course
2. Syllabus
3. Parent letter
4. School business
5. binder composition and standards
6. Introduction to the National History Fair competition
7. Historiography lecture
8. Biases and point of view activity
9. Test: Historiography
Unit I. (Early River Civilizations) to 600 CE (3 weeks)
Period 1: Technological and environmental transformations
Key Concept 1.1 Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth
Key Concept 1.2 The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural Societies
Key Concept 1.3 The development and interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral, and Urban Societies
Week 2
1. Nature, Humanity, and History handout/outline/PERSIAN Chart
2. Analyze early evolution of humans, including migration, foraging, fire building and interaction with their environment
3. Primary source analysis: Creation stories from the Bantus of Africa, Aborigines from Oceania, and The Book of Genesis. Students will analyze the primary sources and compare how peoples understood and explained their natural worlds that surrounded them.
4. Examine the Ice Age
5. Analyze the transformation of early gender roles and social patterns
6. Examine the economic system of the Agricultural Revolution and crop surpluses that followed
7. Discuss the development of tools
8. Animal domestication and pastoralism development
9. Activity – class discussion on gender roles
10. Discuss the importance of the early urban centers of Catal Huyuk and Jericho and how trade impacted their development
11. Student will study archeological date from Jericho and learn how to question the reliability and validity of the information for a specific historical question.
12. Migration Map activity
13. Compare and contrast the development of modern humans
14. Chart the evolution of human lifestyles
15. Test: First four million years of history
Week 3
1. First River Valley Civilization handout/outline/PERSIAN Chart
2. Group Discussion – Conrad Demarest’s model of empire building
3. Group activity – outline elements and design a civilization
4. View Mesopotamian Geography
5. Sumerians and Semitic languages and their assimilation
6. Mesopotamian society, religion, and technologies
7. Primary source analysis: Selections from The Hammurabi Code
8. Literature analysis: The Epic of Gilgamesh
9. Egypt and the Nile – isolation, weapons, and modes of transportation
10. Primary source analysis: Selections from Hymn to the Nile, Hymn to the Sun, and The Book of the Dead.
11. Egyptian pharaohs, administration, people, religion, record keeping, monumental building, and urban planning
12. The rise and fall of the Indus Valley Civilization
13. Outline the grid, sewer and water systems of Indus Valley
14. Students will analyze the history of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro by analyzing archeological records to attempt to understand the society since it lacks a deciphered written record
15. Analyze the continuities and changes in early river civilizations
16. Socratic seminar: Define the elements of a civilization
17. Map activity of Mesopotamia and Egypt
18. Compare and Contrast the belief systems of Mesopotamia and Egypt
19. Chart the locations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley Civilization
20. Internet activity: Students will explore how the findings of archeology have contributed to one of the following civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Harappa.
21. Test: The first river civilizations
Week 4
1. The Late Bronze Age handout/outline/PERSIAN Chart
2. Early China geography
3. Analyze the expansion and conflicts of the Shang Dynasty
4. Analyze the expansion and conflicts of the Zhou Dynasty
5. Discuss Chinese ancestor veneration
6. Outline the Cause and effects of Confucianism and Daoism on Chinese culture
7. Primary source analysis: Selections from Saying from Confucius
8. The cosmopolitan Middle East
9. The Hittites and the chariot
10. Discuss the establishment of the New Kingdom of Egypt
11. Nubia’s interaction with Egypt economically and in warfare
12. The Aegean World – trade and commerce