AP US Course Syllabus
Syllabus
Advanced Placement United States History
The AP U.S. History class is a challenging course that provides and demands a college-level experience for students through both directed instruction and independent research/analysis topics. Main differences between the college prep class and the AP class are the following:
- (Amount and level of reading) Students will be required to read, for multi-interpretive analysis, historical source documents and books, essays from leading historians, and college level text. Students can expect from 5-10 hours of outside class reading per week.
- (Discussions)Students will be required to participate in both large and small group discussions. Grades will be earned based on key points students make as well by responses to points made by other students. Students will be required to appoint a secretary when in small groups. This will resemble a college discussion section. It will be expected for the students to be familiar with discussion topics by means of multiple documented sources prior to the meeting.
- (Critical writing requiring analytical interpretation of varied sources both historical and contemporary) Students will need to write essays that demonstrate not only an objective understanding of facts, names and dates, but also includes multiple, logical explanations for causes and effects of key events. Students are expected to think for themselves and not simply rehash the teacher’s or the text’s remarks on a topic.
- (Independent research)Just as in college, students will be expected to utilize libraries, the internet, and museums to formulate their opinions and further increase their understanding of key topics. The students will present this information through essays, document based questions (DBQ), and discussions. Like all good historians, the students will be required to document their sources.
Course Text and Readings:
Out of Many: A History of the American People, 5th edition (Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2007)
A pacing guide for the textbook and a list of key terms for each chapter is attached. (Link). The pacing guide is based on finishing the textbook by March 25th so the class has time to review for the AP test.
The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, Volumes 1&2 (Lexington: D.C. Heath and Co., 1992)
Students will also be provided course handouts such as previous AP tests, and historical documents not found in the readers.
Along with the readings, students will be provided, in class, documentary films from the History Channel, PBS, and others.
Assessments and grading:
Essay and DBQ scores will be based on the College Board rubrics. Objective tests will be multiple-choice and modeled after the new AP style.Pop quizzes will be randomly given, will be brief, and will test the student on the previous night’s assignedreading. Participation points are given one per day. The points can be removed due to being absent (unless part of a school activity), being tardy, using a cell phone in class, using the pass, or being off task. It is therefore possible to lose 4 points in a single day while it is only possible to earn one point per day. To make up for a lost point, a student will have to write a college level response to a historical document. The student will have up to the legal time to make up for excused absences; three school days for points lost not due to an absence. Three college level projects will be assigned per triad to allow students to help improve their grade.
The Grading scale will follow district guidelines, and will be weighted as follows:
Essay (long answer question and short answer question) 25%
DBQ (Document Based Question) 17%
Objective tests (Multiple Choice) 28%
Popquizzes from the homework of reading the text (students will be able to use their own, original, hand written notes on the pop quizzes) 10%
Participation points 10%
Discussions 10%
Projects up to 10% recovery points
The following is a schedule of the class:
(Link)
The AP test is, Friday, May 6that 8:00 am (test site to be determined)
Homework:
The primary homework for the class will be the reading of the text and studying for in class tasks. On the beginning of each week, a reading pacing guide will be put on the white board, one can also be found online at my staff page. The students are expected to be, at a minimum, current on their reading with the guide.Pop quizzes on the reading will be used to check if students have completed their homework.
Make-up work:
All assignments are to be completed in class. If a student is missing on the day the assignment is given, the student will have to make it up with an essay/DBQ of varying length before/after school. MC tests are never given as make-up.
Please visit the following website for more information about AP US history: