AP United States HistoryCourse 2015-2016
Curricular Requirements / PagesCR1a The course includes a college-level U.S. history textbook.
CR1b The course includes diverse primary sources consisting of written documents, maps, images, quantitative data (charts, graphs, tables), and works of art.
CR1c The course includes secondary sources written by historians or scholars interpreting the past.
CR2 Each of the course historical periods receives explicit attention.
CR3 The course provides opportunities for students to apply detailed and specific knowledge (such as names, chronology, facts, and events) to broader historical understandings.
CR4 The course provides students with opportunities for instruction in the learning objectives in each of the seven themes throughout the course, as described in the AP U.S. History curriculum framework.
CR5 The course provides opportunities for students to develop coherent written arguments that have a thesis supported by relevant historical evidence. — Historical argumentation
CR6 The course provides opportunities for students to identify and evaluate diverse historical interpretations. —Interpretation
CR7 The course provides opportunities for students to analyze evidence about the past from diverse sources, such as written documents, maps, images, quantitative data (charts, graphs, tables), and works of art. - Appropriate use of historical evidence
CR8 The course provides opportunities for students to examine relationships between causes and consequences of events or processes. - Historical causation
CR9 The course provides opportunities for students to identify and analyze patterns of continuity and change over time and connect them to larger historical processes or themes. - Patterns of change and continuity over time
CR10 The course provides opportunities for students to investigate and construct different models of historical periodization. -Periodization
CR11 The course provides opportunities for students to compare historical developments across or within societies in various chronological and geographical contexts. -Comparison
CR12 The course provides opportunities for students to connect historical developments to specific circumstances of time and place, and to broader regional, national, or global processes. - Contextualization
CR13a The course provides opportunities for students to combine disparate, sometimes contradictory evidence from primary sources and secondary works in order to create a persuasive understanding of the past.
CR13b The course provides opportunities for students to apply insights about the past to other historical contexts or circumstances, including the present. / 3
6, 8, 10, 11
3, 6, 8, 11, 14
2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11,12
4, 5, 10
3, 7, 12, 16, 18*
5, 6, 9
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
5, 7, 8
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
5, 6, 7
7, 9, 10
4
8, 10
7
9, 10
Course Description
The Advanced Placement U.S. History course is designed to provide students with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problemsoutlined in the Advanced Placement U.S. History curriculum framework. The class meets daily for 80 minutes and an additional 30 minutes per week periodis available for further study. Using chronological and thematic approaches to the material, the course exposes students to extensive primary and secondary sources and to the interpretations of various historians. Class participation through seminar reports, discussions, debates, and role-playing activities is required; special emphasis is placed on critical reading and essay writing to help students demonstrate content mastery when taking the AP Exam in May.The course prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses. The course is structured chronologically, to include one or more of the nine periods and/or key concepts outlined in the curriculum framework.
Goals
Students will live history by reading effectively; finding the main idea in any given history text, document or movie argument, and will analyze and interpret primary sources, including documentary material, maps, statistical tables, and pictorial and graphic evidence of historical events. They will read critically, assessing whether ideas of authors are supported by evidence and placing a source in context with other sources and other knowledge. They will also be able to manage and interpret maps effectively. They will compare developments or trends from one period to another when working with multiple interpretations of culture, politics, economy or historical issues in secondary sources. Students will be able to write a coherent essay, creating an effective introduction, organizing a storyline, justifying assertions with evidence, coming to a conclusion and referencing sources correctly. They will write effectively in other formats such as drafting letters, composing lists, creating tables of data or writing newspaper articles.They will have a space to develop effective speaking in debates or mock court formats and will be exposed to activities that will help them understand the ideals, principles and practices of citizenship in order to create a significant and meaningful impact for their future participation in our democratic society.
Key Themes
The course is divided into periods of time and focuses on issues and events relating to the following seven
themesdescribed in the AP U.S. History Course and Exam Description as unifying concepts. These themes
are designed to encourage students to think conceptually about the American past and to focus on historical
change over time.
1. Identity (ID)
2. Work, Exchange, and Technology (WXT)
3. Peopling (PEO)
4. Politics and Power (POL)
5. America in the World (WOR)
6. Environment and Geography (ENV)
7. Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture (CUL)
Historical Thinking Skills
These skills reflect the tasks of professional historians. Students will get practice developing the following content-driven skills:
Chronological Reasoning
Historical Causation
Patterns of Continuity and Change Over Time
Periodization
Comparison and Contextualization
Comparison
Contextualization
Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence
Historical Argumentation
Appropriate Use of Historical Evidence
Historical Interpretation and Synthesis
Interpretation
Synthesis
Academic Skills
In addition, class activities and assignments will address the following academic skills:
Reading for comprehension and recall
Study skills in preparation for assessments
Formal writing skills
Public speaking skills in class discussions and activities
Map reading and interpretation
Course Textbooks
1.Brinkley, Alan,The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the United States, 6th
Edition (New York, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 2012)
2.Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History, 4th edition. 2013.
Additional Textbooks
3.Goldfield, David, Carl Abbott, Virginia DeJohn Anderson, Jo Ann Argersinger, M. Argersinger, Peter L. Barney, Robert M. Weir. The American Journey: A History of the United States, 7th edition. 2013
4.Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classic, 2005.
Additional reading material will be available through handouts, internet and other sources.The course makes profitable use of the Smart Board, Internet, television and other audiovisual aids. The classroom has a collection of biographies and paperback editions of important works of literature for dealing with cultural and intellectual history, reference books, catalogs, art books and others to compliment the textbooks.
Thematic Outline
First Period (9 weeks - August 12 - October 6)
Required reading in Textbook:
(1)Brinkley,Chapter 2: Transplantations and Borderlands to Chapter 5: The American Revolution
(2)Foner, Chapters 2: A New World to Chapter 6 The Revolution Within
Learning goals and activities
- America before Columbus(1 week)
Understand the impact of topography, climate, regions (physical, cultural, and economic) and the origins of the population composition of the territory in evaluating the development of the American Identity in North America while working on a physical map of the United States and a primitive migrations map.(ENV) (ID) (CR3)
Compare and contrast Pre-Columbian societies of the Americas with the Indigenous societies of North America at the arrival of the Europeans by charting similarities and differences between the cultures.(PEO) (CR2, CR11)
2. Europe looks westward and the arrival of the English 1492-1690 (2 weeks)
Explore the first European contact with Native American Populations, examine the Spanish, French and English colonization of North America, and analyze the different lifestylesand conflicts in the colonies of New England, the Atlantic coast and the south.(PEO, CUL) (CR2, CR8)
Describe religious diversity and its influence on politics, economics, society and government and the topic of servitude and slavery in the early Colonial America.(CUL, POL) (CR8)
Identify resistance to the colonial authority through a Time Line of different events, (the Bacon Rebellion, the Glorious Revolution, and the Revolt of the Pueblo)including; date/ event/ cause and effect/other.(POL)
3. Colonial development and English imperialism 1690-1754 (2 weeks)
Assesspopulation growth and immigration by the creation of charts and will explore the development of the transatlantic sea trade preparing and using different maps and data.(PEO, WXT) (CR7)
Understand the growth of the plantation economy and the development of slave societies, the Enlightenment Movement and the religious revivals of the Great Awakening and its leaders. (WXT) (CR7)
Analyze the Colonial Government and the American imperialist policy during the Mid Eighteen Century.(POL) ( CR2) (CR6)
4. Building a nation, 1754-1789 (2 weeks)
List the consequences of the French Indian Warand the Proclamation of 1763. (POL) (CR5)
Explain the relationships between England and its colonies that opened the road to Independence and identify in a time line the causes and effects of the Revolutionary War in the colonies and the outside world.(POL) (CR6)
Understand the extraordinary ideas and outcomes of the American Revolution, including the development of republic ideology. (ID) (CR8)
5. The Federal Government (2 weeks)
Explore the evolution of federalism beginning with the Continental Congress, the Articles of Confederation, the structure and weaknesses of the government under the Articlesand the role of Enlightment, slavery and religion in the political process.( POL, CUL) (CR7)
Discuss the ratification of the Constitution and the issues involving the structure of the Government of the United States analyzing political cartoons. (POL)
Other Activities
- DBQ AP Workshop: Essay Practice: How advanced were the Ancient Civilizations of America? (CR5)
- Table of the 13 original colonies: name/location/year/type of colony/religion and or economy/influence (CR3)
- Group activity: Posters to America. Groups of 3 students will prepare posters to recruit Europeans to populate the new British colonies and present them orally in class. Posters should convince and include land offerings, way of life and incentives. Each student, representing different characters (given before the oral presentations) must choose from the presentations which colony will benefit most and write a two page essay on the reasons for choosing a colony over another.( ID,WXT) (CR3)
- The Constitution and the Bill of Rights: Research of the historical background of the amendments. (CUL) (CR7)
- AP Workshop:free-response writing(CR5)
- DBQ New England and Chesapeake ( assignment and later class discussion)(CR7)
- Topic Tests: Will include 30 multiple choice questions, 10 definitions or identification exercises and a free-response-style essay.
Primary Source Readings
De las Casas,Bartolomé,History of the Indies, 1542, book excerpt,
“Declaration of Joseph” from the Pueblo Revolt, 1681 in Foner: Voices of Freedom
R.C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop, Reasons for Puritan migration (Boston, 1864), I, 309-311
The Articles of Confederation
The Constitution of the United States of America
Secondary Source Readings
Tolson, Jay“Founding Rivalries More like squabbling brothers than `fathers,' how did they succeed?”Us News and World ReportFebruary, 18 2001
Second Period (8 weeks - October 7- December 15)
Required reading in Textbook:
(1) Brinkley,Chapters 6: The Constitution and the New Republic, 1789-1850, to Chapter 14: The Civil war
(2) Foner, Chapters 7 Founding a Nation to Chapter 14: A New birth of Freedom
Learning goals and activities
6. The New Republic, 1789-1815 (2 weeks) (CR2)
Compare and contrast the administrations of Washington and Adams and the role of Hamilton in the first years of the New Republic.(POL) (CR9)
Discuss the beginnings of political parties, Federalists and Republicans and create a cartoon that represents the differences in political thought. (CUL, POL) (CR6)
Understand the Second Great Awakening and the Presidency of Jefferson.(CUL)
Examine the growth and expansion of the West and the indigenous resistance and the development of the agricultural economy and the slaves’communities,culture and resistancein the South. (WXT, ENV) (CR8)
Summarize the War of 1812, its causes and consequences.(POL)
Present the development of a market economy, the industrialization of the North and changes in the social structures during the cotton revolution in the South by creating a group newspaper (some groups north and some south) that will reflectsuch development in the editorials, stories, cartoons, and other sections of the document. (WXT) (CR13a)
Analyze the role of James Monroe and his Era of Good feelings and understand and examine foreign affairs through the Monroe Doctrine. (CUL) (CR8)
7. A Growing Nation (Antebellum America) (2 weeks)
Explore the debates on state rights and judicial federalism. (POL)
Discuss Jackson’s governmentand the expansion of democracy in America. (CUL)
Research and analyze social reforms, transcendentalism and utopian communities in Antebellum America and the development and conflict of the American culture literary and artistic Renaissance.(CUL) (CR6)
Discuss the physical territorial expansion of the nation and its relation with the Monroe Doctrine and the Manifest Destiny and discuss the causes and results of the Mexican War and American imperialism in an essay. (Some documents and maps will be provided) (ENV, POL, PEO) (CR7) (CR9)
8. Civil War and the Reconstruction (2 weeks) (CR2)
Characterize the population makeup of the South and the relations between blacks and whites. (ID)
List and identify the causes that lead to the Civil War: the Compromise of 1850, popular sovereignty, the Kansas Nebraska Act, the 1860 Elections and Abraham Lincoln and secession. (POL) ( CR10)
Chart resources, military strategies and diplomacy of both the North and South at war. (POL) (CR10)
Analyze the effect of the Declaration of Emancipation on black societies during the war.(ID, CUL) (CR8)
Discuss and understand the social, political and economic effects of the war on the American peoples. (CUL) (CR8)
Study Radical Reconstruction and the Compromise of 1877 and evaluate the impact of reconstruction in the Southern States and the role of African-Americans in State governments, education and economy.(WXT) (CR12)
Other Activities
- Comparison of Barack Obama’s inaugural address speech with that of George Washington. (Analysis of common elements, political status of the nation in each case, differing ideas.)(CUL) (CR6)
- Role-play debate: Should Daniel Shays be pardoned and allowed to return to Massachusetts?
- Civil War Debate: What if the south had won the Civil War? Consequences for the North and South. (CR8)
- Discussion on slavery: Dred Scott mock trial
- Topic Tests: Will include 50 multiple choice questions, 10 definitions or identification exercises and a free-response-style essay.
- DBQ Civil War ( assignment and later class discussion) (CR7)
- Mid Term Test: 50 multiple choices and 4 free-response-style essays.
Primary Source Readings
President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address,
George Washington’s First Inaugural Address in the City of New YorkThursday, April 30, 1789,
Lincoln’s Declaration of Emancipation
Federalists and Jeffersonian
Monroe Doctrine Speech,
Secondary Source Readings
Staples, Brent“To be a slave in Brooklyn” New York Times Magazine, June 24, 2001
Paterson, “The Root of the Problem” Time Magazine April, 2007
Vaughn, Alden T "The Horrid and Unnatural Rebellion of Daniel Shays."American Heritage.June 1966, pp. 50–53.
Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet Digital History
Third Period (8 weeks - January 8 – March 9)
Required reading in Textbook:
(1) Brinkley,Chapter 14: Reconstruction and the New South to Chapter 23: America in a World at War
(2) Foner, Chapters 15: What is Freedom to Chapter 19: Safe for Democracy
Learning goals and activities
9. Restructuring the nation (3 ½ weeks)
Evaluate the configuration of the new South: Jim Crow and the segregation policy.(CUL) (CR6)
Analyze the expansion and development of the West Frontier, the government policies towards the American indigenous population and the environmental impact of the colonization of the West. (PEO, POL) (CR8)
Discuss the meaning of democracy for the American society during the Revolutionary War, before the Civil War era and its vision during 1800’s. How was democracy perceived at different periods of time in America?(POL) (CR9)
Students will explain the Gilded Age, individualism,Social Darwinism and the New Order in a free response essay: How did individualism and industrialization changed the values, lifestyle and society of Modern America?(CUL) (CR13b)
10. Reforms, expansion and war (2 ½ weeks)(CR2)
Identify theUrban society and the new intellectual and cultural movements that developed in this period.(ENV, CUL) (CR6)
Compare and contrast using a table the administrations of the Progressive Presidents; Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson and their domestic reforms. (POL) (CR7)
Analyze in a three part essay:The role of women, black America and civil rights during the Progressive Era. (ID) (CR5)
Explain, list and map the causes and results of the political and economic imperialist expansion of the nation. (PRO, ENV) (CR10)
Describe in a timeline the initial neutrality and the reasons for involvement of Americans during the First World War, the effects of the Treaty of Versailles andthe turbulent aftermath of foreign and American affairs. (WOR) (CR10)