AP+Syllabus+2010-11

Course Overview
toc

The Advanced Placement United States History course will take students on a multimedia survey of American history from prehistoric times through the 21st Century. For each era, students will examine guiding questions that will allow them to explore many of the paradoxes that highlight the American experience. Topics include: slavery and liberty, natives and immigrants, religion and secularism, isolationism and imperialism. Blending factual knowledge and critical analysis, students will emerge from the course with the ability to identify key events in U.S. History and to convey what they mean, from a myriad of perspectives. We will do this through the analysis of primary documents and practice in other critical thinking activities which will help us develop into stronger contributors of our ever-changing society. We will devote a significant amount of time learning how to be effective communicators and writers in preparation for, not only the AP Exam, but for our future educational pursuits as well.

While this course does cover a rather large quantity of material which we cannot cover sufficiently in such a short amount of time, we will be emphasizing certain themes that occur throughout US History to better help us understand connections between historical eras. Those themes include: the American identity, culture, economic transformations, the US and globalization, and politics and citizenship. These themes have been deemed essential to the study of American istory by the College Board, and will be a guide for our study this year.

This course is not for the feint of heart! This will be a very rigorous course, but at the same time, I trust that it will be incredibly enjoyable and rewarding as well. Your hard work and dedication are essential to your success in this course.

Student Outcomes
As mentioned earlier, one of my goals for this course is to prepare you to be successful on the AP Exam in May. However, this exam does not determine whether or not you have truly succeeded in this class. Students who develop the skills and knowledge listed below are those that I will consider to be successful:

Comprehension of a broad body of historical knowledge Expression of ideas clearly in writing Conduct original research on a historical issue Interpret and apply data from original documents Persuasive writing using evidence Compare and contrast alternate interpretations of a historical figure or event Effectively argue a position on a historical issue Critique and respond to arguments made by others Evaluate primary materials, such as historical documents, political cartoons, and first-person narratives Evaluate secondary materials such as scholarly works or statistical analyses

Class Expectations
My expectations for this class are quite simple and be summed up by two words: respect and responsibility. I plan on showing you respect by taking time to answer your questions, listening to your concerns, and trying to make this class interesting and meaningful for you. Likewise, you will never hear me speak negatively about another student, because I respect all of you. Likewise, I expect you to show respect for your classmates, this room, our school, and myself in the same manner.

Along the same lines, we all have different responsibilities in this classroom. I have a responsibility to prepare each day and keep your interest. I also have the responsibility of teaching you the skills necessary to be successful on the AP exam. Likewise, you have a responsibility to come to class each day prepared with all of your necessary materials (Macbook, textbook, writing utensil, and any other handouts that I have given you.) I expect you to have completed each assignment on time and have each reading assignment completed at the beginning of each unit. (We will discuss this more in detail when we discuss grading.) If you are gone for any reason, you are responsible for getting work that you missed.

Course Grading
Although one of the central purposes of this course is to prepare you for the AP® examination in May, you will have other assignments besides multiple choice tests, DBQs, and FRQs throughout the year. Grades will be updated frequently based on the following breakdown:

Quizzes/Tests (Exam Format) 30% DBQs and FRQs 25% Projects (Including writing) 15% Homework/Participation/Attendance 15% Semester Exam 15%

In accordance with KIS policy, your grade will be deducted by 1% at the end of the semester for each “English Only” violation that occurs while in this classroom. Please see the Student Handbook for more information.

A typical homework assignment for this class will require you to read a certain text and write an analytical 50 word sentence about a topic relating to that text.

DBQs (document-based questions) and FRQs (free-response questions) are done to simulate the type of questions that you will encounter on the AP exam. Expect to complete approximately five of each of these each semester. Some will be done in class, others outside of class.

Expect to take three “major” tests each semester, which will typically be multiple choice with a few essay questions. I will typically give a short reading quiz each unit and possibly a one-question essay quiz to ensure that students are keeping up with the reading requirements.

Projects will be ongoing throughout the semester and will typically require students to synthesize and evaluate information from a historical perspective. This may involve role playing, creating iMovies, debates, mock trials, creating a tutorial to help others prepare for the AP exam, and so on.

The Semester One exam will be completion of a project for entry in the National History Day Competition. (This will be due during finals week despite the fact that the project will not be entered into the competition until February 2012.) The Semester Two exam will be a full length mock exam to be given in late April, approximately two or three weeks prior to the actual AP Exam.

The grading scale functions as stated below: A 93-100% A- 90-92% B+ 87-89% B 83-86% B- 80-82% C+77-79% C 73-76% C- 70-72% D+ 67-69% D 63-66% F 59% and below

The Social Studies Department has adopted the following policy regarding late work. All major assignments are due at 8:00 A.M. in your appropriate class in-box on the due date. Papers turned in within 24 hours after the due date will lose 15% of the grade. Papers turned in over the next 24 hours will lose an additional 15%. Papers more than 48 hours late will not be accepted, and will result in a zero for that assignment. Weekends count as one total day late. For example, if an assignment is due on Friday, you may email it to me (or post it on my wikispace) anytime that weekend and it will be docked 15% of the grade. If you wait until Monday (or the next school day) to turn it in, it will be docked an additional 15%. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please ask!

As an additional note, academic honesty is of the utmost important to me and is a vital part of maintaining credible institutions of learning. Academic dishonesty tarnishes the integrity of everyone involved and ruins careers and reputations. There is absolutely no excuse for academic dishonesty. If you are caught participating in any behavior that is academically dishonest (see pages 16 - 18 of the Parent/Student Handbook for details), I will follow the appropriate guidelines in reporting your offense. This is one of the easiest ways to fail this class and will not be tolerated. It is strongly recommended that you review your handbook with your parents before signing this syllabus and please ask questions if you do not understand what academic honesty means.

The AP Exam
The AP Exam will be given on Friday, May 11th, 2012. Here is a breakdown of what the AP Exam will look like:

80 Multiple Choice Questions (55 minutes) 1 Document-Based Question (DBQ) (60 minutes) 2 Free Response Questions (FRQ) (35 minutes, each)

The test covers all of US History, from European Discovery to the present. A majority of the questions are on the 19th and 20th Centuries. We will spend an ample amount of time going through test preparation techniques to help you be successful in taking this test.

Textbook
The primary text for this class is The American Pageant, 14th Edition by David Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen, among others. As mentioned earlier, you will be expected to have completed the readings from this text prior to each unit’s beginning. (You will receive a weekly assignment sheet reminding you of these dates.) In addition to this, there will be numerous primary and secondary source readings for each unit. Some of the secondary sources that we will be using regularly include:

Cowley, Robert, ed. What Ifs? of American History: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been. New York: Berkley Trade, 2004.

Oates, Stephen B., and Charles J. Errico. Portrait of America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin College Division, 2006.

Voices of America Past and Present. New York: Longman, 2005.

Yazawa, Melvin, comp. Documents to Accompany America’s History. Sixth ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2008.

Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States: Abridged Teaching Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 2003.

Zinn, Howard & Anthony Arnove. Voices of a People’s History of the United States. New York: Seven Stories Press. 2004.

Course Outline
__Semester One__ Unit 1: Pre-Columbian Societies American Pageant: pg 4-11 Zinn, Chapter 1

Unit 2: Transatlantic Encounters and Colonial Beginnings, 1492-1690 American Pageant: Remainder of Chapter 1, Chapters 2-3

Unit 3: Colonial North America, 1690-1754 American Pageant: Chapters 4-5

Unit 4: The American Revolutionary Era, 1754-1789 American Pageant: Chapters 6-8

Unit 5: The Early Republic, 1789-1815 American Pageant: Chapters 9-12

Unit 6: Antebellum America, 1815-1850 American Pageant: Chapters 12-15

Unit 7: The Crisis of the Union, 1850-1861 American Pageant: Chapters 16-19

Unit 8: The Civil War, 1861-1865 American Pageant: Chapters 20-21

Unit 9: Reconstruction, 1865-1877 American Pageant: Chapter 22

Unit 10: Development of the West and Industrial America and Urban Changes in the Late Nineteenth Century American Pageant: Chapters 23-26

Unit 11: The Progressive Era American Pageant: Chapters 28-29

Unit 12: America as an Imperial Power American Pageant: Chapters 27 and 30

Unit 13: The 1920s American Pageant: Chapter 31

Unit 14: The Great Depression and the New Deal American Pageant: Chapters 32-33

Unit 15: World War II American Pageant: Chapters 34-35

Unit 16: The Cold War American Pageant: Chapter 36 and excerpts from Chapters 37-40

Unit 17: The Civil Rights Movement American Pageant: Chapters 37-38

Unit 18: Domestic Turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s American Pageant: Chapters 39-40

Unit 19: The Conservative Revolution of the 1980s American Pageant: Chapter 41

Unit 20: AP Exam Review

Unit 21: Post-Exam Final Project

Final Notes
I typically arrive at school by 7:30 am. You are more than welcome to come by my room anytime before school starts if you have any questions or concerns regarding the class.

The “Wiki” for this class can be found at http://mrwoodkis.phoenix.wikispaces.net. You will be using this website frequently throughout the semester to find assignments, participate in discussions, review for tests, and so on. I will do my best to keep this up to date and add websites that I find that pertain to each of the units that we are discussing in class. In order to make this a truly collaborative effort, feel free to update this website by adding your own websites of interest. This will only make for a richer experience for all of us in this class.