AP UNITED STATES HISTORY
COURSE SYLLABUS
EASTSIDE HIGH SCHOOL
Instructor:
Jon Rehm
Room 04-060
Email: rehmjc@gm.sbac.edu
Website: http://easatsideapush.wikispaces.com
The most important concept to understand is that this course is a college level course. It is
designed to replace a 2-semester introductory level history course in a student’s freshman
year of college. Students who chose this course should do so with the understanding that
only self-motivated, dedicated, serious students will be successful. Within the course
students will use the content of U.S. history to investigate significant events, individuals,
and processes. These investigations will develop the thinking skills and methods utilized
by historians. In order to master that content, students must be self-directed and
intrinsically motivated to succeed. While it will vary for some students, you can expect
to spend an average of 7-10 hours outside of class per week preparing for this class.
Course Objective: This course is designed to introduce students to a systematic study of
the past. Students are exposed to the principle figures, events and phenomena associated
with 9 historical periods within the nations history. Students will also learn about 7
historical themes with which students will explore and analyze the course material. With
this in mind, student will:
 Master a broad body of historical knowledge
 Demonstrate an understanding of historical chronology
 Use historical data to support an argument or position
 Interpret and apply data from original documents
 Prepare for and successfully pass the AP Exam
Class Expectations: It is expected that you will come to class each day with your binder/
folder, pens, pencil, and highlighters. Any assignment will be subject to assignment checks.
You will also need a notebook to use as your intellectual diary in class. You are, also,
expected to bring your “A” game to this class. You will be putting forth a considerable
amount of effort. Stay consistent, focused and keep the end in mind – passing that AP exam
with a 3 or better and earn your collegiate credit.
Make up Work: Be on time and try to avoid missing class. This class will move at a
collegiate pace and will not be easy to make up work. Please check the agenda missed
assignments and for makeup work/assignments. Turn in all make up work at the beginning
of class period. If you are absent, you have equal amount of days plus one to turn in all
assignments missed. All pre-announced quizzes and tests are to be taken on that day, even
if you missed the day before. All assignments are listed online and a schedule is posted on
the class agenda. All makeup work is the responsibility of the student and you are required
to be in touch with exactly what you need to do in order to continue working smoothly in
the class.
Late Work: All work will be accepted late. One letter grade will be deducted for each day
the assignment is late. You can avoid this penalty by communication with me before the
assignment is due.
Text: Students will use a variety of primary and secondary sources provided by the
teacher. In addition students will use:
Brinkley, A. (2012). American history: Connecting with the past (AP Edition). New York,
NY: McGraw Hill
Book companion site: http://glencoe.mheducation.com/sites/0076621367/index.html
Grading System: Your grades will be based on the same tasks you will be asked to perform
on the A.P Exam, namely multiple-choice and essay tests. In addition, 15% of your grade
will be based on participation, class work, and homework (this will include but will not be
limited to such diverse activities as outlines, presentations, book reviews, and diagrams):
Multiple-choice tests:
Essay tests:
Quizzes/Class work:
Homework:
40%
30%
15%
15%
Readings, Podcasts, and Discussions: Basic information, concepts, and research
methodology will be presented in podcasts and in the text. Listen to the podcasts and do
the reading before you come to class so that you will be prepared to ask interesting
questions and contribute good ideas to the discussions. You will have quizzes for most of
the readings and videos you are required to complete. These are to ensure that you read.
Since there is so much information to be learned, the readings provide the content and will
be reinforced by class discussions. The questions will be detailed so you must take notes to
be successful. You must take your own notes. Remember: Research by cognitive and
educational psychologists demonstrates that you are more likely to understand and
remember things if you have discussed them with others. The class period is an
opportunity for you, other students, and me to ask questions and assist your understanding
of course concepts, and to practice applying these concepts to practical situations.
Tests: Each quarter we will have two to three each of these types of tests. These tests are
not easy. One simple reading of the chapter without study won't do it. You must keep up
with the reading and podcasts or you will not make it. Essay tests will come from
previous AP Exam essay questions. Some will be done in class and some at home.
Because this is an AP course, you will probably find it more difficult to earn top grades in
this class than most courses that you have taken before. In general, students find the course
to be very difficult at first, but do better as the year progresses. Setting a high standard has
several tangible benefits for students. You will learn a great deal of history and thinking
skills, you will be better prepared for college, and you will be ready to excel on the AP U.S.
History Exam.
Tests or quizzes can be made up before or after school before the end of the 9 weeks. As a
member of this class, you are required to take the AP exam in May. You do not have to pass
the exam in order to pass the class. College credit will be awarded for scores of 3 (out of 5)
or higher depending on the university/college of your choice.
Course Content: Please note that this is a college level course in history. Therefore the
course contains content applicable to such a college offering. This includes the coverage of
mature material, video’s and possibly the use of scenes from movies rated R. This material
will only be used to further knowledge of the subject and will not be used gratuitously. In
all discussions students are expected to use proper terminology at all times. If parents
wish their student to be exempt from this material they can discretely be excused from the
classroom and given an alternative assignment.
Within our classroom, we must agree to work together to master the content and learn
from each other. Mutual respect and consideration within our classroom is a must. Bring
your "A" game of respect to class each day.
Technology in the classroom: You are encouraged to bring your laptop or portable
learning device (tablet) that has a keyboard for in class assignments. The county has
partnered with Google, therefore it is suggested that you create a g-mail account and access
Google drive. Most assignments will be available online.
COURSE CONTENT ORGANIZATION OF HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS, THEMES, AP
EXAM
Section I: Historical Thinking Skills
Every AP Exam question will require a student to apply one of the historical thinking skills
to one of the thematic learning objectives. The AP US History course seeks to apprentice
students to the practice of history by explicitly stressing the development of historical
thinking skills while learning about the past. There are four types of historical thinking
skills:
I. Chronological Reasoning
1. Historical Causation:
a. Compare causes and/or effects, including between short-and long-term
effects
b. Analyze and evaluate the interaction of multiple causes and/or effects
c. Assess historical contingency by distinguishing among coincidence,
causation, and correlation, as well as critiquing existing interpretations of
cause and effect.
2. Patterns of Continuity and Change over Time
a. Analyze and evaluate historical patterns of continuity and change over time.
b. Connect patterns of continuity and change over time to larger historical
processes or themes.
3. Periodization
a. Explain ways that historical events and processes can be organized within
blocks of time.
b. Analyze and evaluate competing models of periodization of U.S. history.
II. Comparison and Contextualization
4. Comparison
a. Compare related historical developments and processes across place, time,
and/or different societies or within one society.
b. Explain and evaluate multiple and differing perspectives on a given historical
phenomenon.
5. Contextualization
a. Explain and evaluate ways in which specific historical phenomena, events or
processes connect to broader regional, national, or global processes
occurring at the same time.
b. Explain and evaluate ways in which a phenomenon, event, or process
connects to other, similar historical phenomena across time and place.
III. Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence
6. Historical Argumentation
a. Analyze commonly accepted historical arguments and explain how an
argument has been constructed from historical evidence.
b. Construct convincing interpretations through analysis of disparate, relevant
historical evidence.
c. Evaluate and synthesize conflicting historical evidence to construct
persuasive historical arguments.
7. Appropriate Use of Relevant Historical Evidence
a. Analyze features of historical evidence such as audience, purpose, point of
view, format, argument, limitations, and context germane to the evidence
considered.
b. Based on analysis and evaluation of historical evidence, make supportable
inferences and draw appropriate conclusions.
IV. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis
8. Interpretation
a. Analyze diverse historical interpretations.
b. Evaluate how historians' perspectives influence their interpretations and
9. how models of historical interpretation change over time.
10. Synthesis
a. Combine disparate, sometimes contradictory evidence from primary sources
and secondary works in order to create a persuasive understanding of the
past.
b. Apply insights about the past to other historical contexts or circumstances,
including the present.
Section II. Thematic Learning Objectives
The framework presents a set of learning objectives, organized by seven major themes that
describe what students should know and be able to do by the end of the AP US History
course. These represent the major historical understandings that colleges and universities
want AP students to have developed in order to merit placement out of the introductory
college U.S. history survey course. Students should use a range of historical thinking skills
to investigate the thematic learning objectives.
The AP Exam will measure student proficiency in the historical thinking skills as well as the
thematic learning objectives. Every AP Exam question will be rooted in these specified
learning objectives.
These content learning objectives for the AP U.S. History course and exam are organized
under seven themes, which are topics of historical inquiry to explore throughout the AP
U.S. History course.
1. Identity
a. How and why have debates over American national identity changed over
time?
b. How have gender, class, ethnic, religious, regional, and other group identities
changed in different eras?
2. Work, exchange, and technology
a. How have changes in markets, transportation, and technology affected
American society from colonial times to the present day?
b. Why have different labor systems developed in British North America and
the United States, and how have they affected U.S. society?
c. How have debates over economic values and the role of government in the
U.S. economy affected politics, society, the economy, and the environment?
3. Peopling
a. Why have people migrated to, from, and within North America?
b. How have changes in migration and population patterns affected American
life?
4. Politics and power
a. How and why have different political and social groups competed for
influence over society and government in what would become the United
States?
b. How have Americans agreed on or argued over the values that guide the
political system as well as who is part of the political process?
5. America in the world
a. How have events in North America and the United States related to
contemporary developments in the rest of the world?
b. How have different factors influenced U.S. military, diplomatic, and economic
involvement in international affairs and foreign conflicts, both in North
America and overseas?
6. Environment and geography --physical and human
a. How did interactions with the natural environment shape the institutions
and values of various groups living on the North American continent?
b. How did economic and demographic changes affect the environment and
lead to debates over use and control of the environment and natural
resources?
7. Ideas, beliefs and culture
a. How and why have moral, philosophical, and cultural values changed in what
would become the United States?
b. How and why have changes in moral, philosophical, and cultural values
affected the U.S. history?
These themes focus student understanding of major historical issues and developments,
helping students to recognize broad trends and processes that have emerged over
centuries in what has become the United States.
Section III. The Concept Outline
The required course content for each historical period of U.S. history is presented in a
concept outline. Required Content: The course is organized into nine historical periods that
run from the precolonial era to the present, and the key concepts, supporting concepts, and
historical developments that are required knowledge for each period are presented in an
outline. No AP questions will require students to know historical content that falls outside
this concept outline.
There are 9 Chronological historical periods.
Course Planning and Pacing Guide 2014-2015
Please be advised that this is the anticipated pacing guide but, I reserve the right to change
as the students and year advances. You will receive calendars by unit updates.
1. Unit 1: Period 1: 1491-1607
a. Content: Native Americans pre-contact and in cultural collision Primary
Theme: Environment
Primary Historical Thinking Skill: Use of Evidence
i. Course Introduction
ii. Three Worlds Collide (Chapter 1)
2. Unit 2: Period 2: 1607-1754
a. Content: Colonial comparisons
Primary Theme: Peopling
Primary Historical Thinking Skill: Comparison
i. European Colonization (Chapter 2)
ii. Early English Colonization (Chapters 2-3)
iii. Eighteenth-Century Colonial Society (Chapters 4-5)
3. Unit 3: Period 3: 1754
a. Content: The American Revolution
Primary Theme: Identify
Primary Historical Thinking Skills: Causation and Argumentation
i. The Road to Independence (Chapter 6)
ii. Declaring and Winning Independence (Chapters 6-7)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
iii. Republican Governments (Chapter 9)
iv. Political Debates in the Early Republic (Chapters 9-10)
Unit 4: Period 4: 1800-1848 Chapters 11-22
a. Content: Growth and spread of democracy and capitalism
Primary Theme: Work, Exchange, and Technology
Primary Historical Thinking Skills: Periodization, Continuity and Change over
Time, and Argumentation
i. Democratic-Republicansin Power (Chapter 11)
ii. Creating a Republican Culture (Chapters 12-13)
iii. The Market Revolution (Chapter 14)
iv. Jacksonian Democracy (Chapter 13)
v. Slavery and Reform (Chapters 15-16)
Unit 5: Period 5: 1844-1877
a. Content: Division, war and reunion
Primary Theme: Politics and Power
Primary Historical Thinking Skills: Contextualization, Interpretation, and
Argumentation
i. Manifest Destiny (Chapter 17)
ii. Sectional Crisis (Chapter 18)
iii. The Civil War (Chapters 19-21)
iv. Reconstruction (Chapter 22)
Unit 6: Period 6: 1865-1898 Chapters 23-35
a. Content: The Gilded Age
Primary Theme: Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture
Primary Historical Thinking Skills: Causation, Continuity and Change over
Time, and Argumentation
i. Conquering a Continent (Chapter 23)
ii. Industrial America (Chapter 24)
iii. Urbanization (Chapter 25)
iv. The New South (Chapter 26)
v. American Culture in the Gilded Age (Chapter 27)
1. Politics of the Gilded Age (Chapter 27)
Unit 7: Period 7: 1890-1945
a. Content: The Gilded Age
Primary Theme: Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture
Primary Historical Thinking Skills: Comparison and Argumentation
i. Progressivism (Chapters 28-29)
ii. The United States Becomes a World Power (Chapter 30)
iii. The 1920s (Chapters 31-32)
iv. The Depression and the New Deal (Chapter 33)
v. World War II (Chapters 34-35)
Unit 8: Period 8: 1945-1980 (Chapter 36-42 and Review for AP Exam)
a. Content: The Cold War and Liberalism
Primary Theme: Identity
Primary Historical Thinking Skills: Continuity and Change over Time and
Argumentation
i. Cold War America (Chapter 36)
ii. Triumph of the Middle Class (Chapter 37)
iii. The Civil Rights Movement (Chapter 37)
iv. The 1960s (Chapter 38)
v. The 1970s (Chapter 39)
9. Unit 9: Period 9: 1980- Present
a. Content: Globalization and conservatism
Primary Theme: America in the World Primary Historical Thinking Skills:
Synthesis and Argumentation
i. The New Conservatism -- The Reagan Years (Chapter 40-41)
ii. A Global Society (Chapter 42)
Remember, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams:
Don't Panic
Extra Help: Extra help is available for any student who needs or wants extra help. Please
ask!