AP World History

Summer AssignmentDirections and Parent Letter

Dear Students and Parents:

I am excited that you have decided to accept the challenge of taking an Advanced Placement class, which is a university-level course taught in high school. I promise that you will strengthen your academic, intellectual, observation, and discussion skills. Additionally, I promise that each of you will become a stronger writer from this course. I am excited to teach this class again next year and I am dedicated to providing a challenging and rewarding academic experience. I began this course at Lemon Bay High School in 2002. Intrinsic in any AP course is an increased workload and some time review outside of class. Students should expect to spend about one hour each day on the work in the course, much of which is reading.

This course is a web enhanced course and consequently students will use e-mail, the course website, and various other computer programs such as Google documents to enhance their learning opportunities. This creates a very rich academic environment where students will take tests online, participate in online discussions, and have the capacity to communicate and learn outside of the traditional class time. The course web site is located at and will be fully available after August 1st however, the summer assignment is already loaded on the site, and there is other information that is being placed on it regularly, including the updated course syllabus. Over the summer, I will begin to add assignments for eachof our course units. In order to enroll, students should use the following access code to register: Q9B5B-5P3TK. Once they register, they should be able to see the AP World History files.

Part of entering an AP class is an assumption of a certain level of background knowledge and skills. With this in mind, the course requires the completion of a summer assignment. Your summer assignment has two parts: a book study and a series of maps that you need to complete. You must complete both parts of the assignment. Both parts are due on the first day of classes. Please review and be prepared to take an assessment during the first two weeks of school relating to the book portion of your assignment. The assessment will be mastery based which means you can take the assessment multiple times, but must attain 80% or above to pass. The assessment will be primarily a multiple choice assessment – do not worry about spelling for this assessment. The maps from the summer assignment will be used throughout the course. Don’t stress out about this, but do some review and familiarize yourself with the information in the summer assignment. Additionally, I want to warn each of you that the summer assignment has been designed to preclude students leaving the assignment until the last few days of summer break. So, begin now and do a little each day. I expect to see quality work turned in on this project. You will finish with plenty of summer break remaining.

During my summer break, I am always available to help students via email. Students, and parents, may feel free to email me at: . Regardless of where I am in the summer, I always have access to this email. I will almost always respond within 24 hours of receiving your email. If you email, please be specific about who you are and what exactly you need help with. I am looking forward to meeting you in August!

Sincerely,

Colin M. Ramsay

AP World History

Summer Assignment 2013

Mr. Ramsay, Room 04-327

Summer contact:

This assignment must be completed, and turned in on the first day of classes. Failure to complete the assignment will require that you withdraw from the course.

1.Purchase, and read, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall by Amy Chua (2009)

ISBN-10: 9781400077410 – Available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle

-I have seen this for $1.96 on Amazon used books. You may read any of the above versions.

2.As you read the preface, introduction and each chapter, you are to keep a Cornell-style notebook. You may do this using a word processor, too. Make sure you follow directions.

  1. On the left side of the notebook, you are to take reading notes on each chapter. For each chapter, these must include:

1. The main idea(s) of the chapter

2. Specifics on tolerance

3. Specifics on “glue”

4. Specifics on requirements,

5. Specifics on survival, rise issues, and fall issues.

Numbers 1-5 above are the bare minimum that I should see for each chapter.

  1. On the right side, you are to write your thoughts about what you are reading, in context to history and geography, and you are to write the key vocabulary words (with definitions), and the key people in each chapter (with an brief explanation of who they are). For the right side, you will need to create a specific pattern that you want to follow as you read each chapter.

Cornell-style Notes:

Chapter 1: The First Hegemon
Your reading notes will go on these pages.
You should have the one or two main ideas of each chapter, specifics on tolerance, specifics on “glue”, specifics on requirements, specifics on survival, rise issues, and fall issues. This is NOT a conclusive list of all that you will need here; rather it is a minimum list. / Thoughts and Reflections on
Ch. 1:
1.Your thoughts based on the context of world history and geography.
2.Vocabulary with definitions
3.Key individuals with explanations
4.Hand drawn mini-maps (As needed)

3.Once you have finished reading the book, and taking your reading notes, you are to go back and answer the following questions in your notebook on the pages that follow your reading notes for chapter 12.

  1. What is Amy Chua’s thesis?
  2. Do you agree with her thesis? Explain your answer in some detail.
  3. What is a “hyperpower”?
  4. What is the problem of “glue”?
  5. Why did Chua select these empires and not others?
  6. How does a society come to be a world-dominant power?
  7. What can bring a world-dominant power down?
  8. What requirements does Chua set for a society to be considered world-dominant? Why?
  9. Is Chua’s method valid? Explain your reasoning.
  10. What does Chua mean by “tolerance”? How does her definition differ from our general view of tolerance? Explain.
  11. According to Chua, how can hyperpowers survive?
  12. Chua states that she has tried to avoid selection bias in this work. Has she accomplished this, or not? Explain.

4.Once all of the above is complete, go back and complete a map for each of the major empires the book covered: Persian Empire, Roman Empire, Tang Dynasty, Mongol Dynasty, Spanish Empire, Dutch Empire, Ottoman Empire, Ming Dynasty, Mughal Empire, British Empire, American “Empire”, Nazi German Empire, Japanese Empire. Label each empire’s boundaries, neighboring states, all major geographic features, and all major trade routes. Develop a coloring system and a map key for your maps.

You may download blank outline maps from:

  1. Eduplace -
  2. Student’s Friend -

5.After you have completed the notebook, you will then select any empire from “Part One” and any empire from “Part Two” of the book. Write a compare and contrast essay covering the similarities and differences in each empire. Your finished essay must have each of the following: a thesis, direct comparisons and direct contrasts (minimum of two each), direct evidence supporting a comparison or contrast (minimum of four each), and a good conclusion. Write your essay on standard loose leaf notebook paper. The finished essay should be between four and six pages (count the pages as you would count pages in a book), handwritten in ink. You may NOT use a word processor for this essay.

6.Scoring:

  1. Notebook with completed maps – two essay grades
  2. Essay – One essay grade
  3. Test on Day of Empire – One test grade - This will be given in class on the first Friday of classes. The test will be a combination of multiple choice questions and short response questions.

Total: Four total grades

Scoring Rubric for the Maps:

Category / 14 points / 9 points / 6 points / 3 points
Labels – Accuracy/Text Size / At least 100% to 90% of the items are labeled and
located correctly. / 80 -90% of the items are labeled and located
correctly. / 79-70% of the items are labeled and located
correctly. / Less than 70% of the items are labeled and
located correctly.
Map – Legend/Key / Legend is easy-to-find and contains a complete set of symbols. / Legend contains a
complete set of symbols. / Legend contains an almost complete set of
symbols. / Legend is absent or lacks several symbols.
Scale / All features on map are drawn to scale and the scale used is clearly
indicated on the map. / Most features on map are drawn to scale and the scale used is clearly
indicated on the map. / Many features on map are NOT drawn to scale even though a scale is clearly
indicated on the map. / Many features of the map are drawn NOT to scale
AND/OR there is no scale marker on the map.
Color Scheme / Student always uses color appropriate for
features(e.g. blue for water; black for labels, etc.) on map and text / Student usually uses color
appropriate for
features(e.g. blue for water; black for labels, etc.) on map. / Student sometimes uses
color appropriate for features(e.g. blue for water; black for labels,
etc.) on map. / Student does not use color
appropriately.
Graphics – Pictures/Relevance / All graphics & pictures are attractive (size and colors), well executed and support the theme/content of the presentation. / A few graphics or pictures are not attractive or well
executed but all support the theme/content of the presentation. / All graphics & pictures are attractive but a few do not seem to support the
theme/content of the presentation. / Several graphics or pictures are unattractive or
poorly executed AND detract from the content of the presentation.
Attractiveness / The map exceptionally
attractive in terms of design, layout, and neatness / The map is attractive in
terms of design, layout and neatness. / The map is acceptably
attractive though it may be a bit messy. / The map is distractingly
messy or very poorly designed. It is not attractive.
Spelling and Grammar / There are no
grammatical/mechanic
mistakes on the
map/poster. / There are 1-2
grammatical/
mechanical mistakes on the
map/poster. / There are 3-4
grammatical/
mechanical
mistakes on the
map/poster. / There are more than 4
grammatical/
mechanical
mistakes on the
map/poster.