Mr. Scott’s A.P.U.S.H
Class Page
Ottumwa High School
Ottumwa Iowa
Home of the Bulldogs
Student Generated DBQ
Project
• Students were to create a DBQ question from scratch.
• Students had to formulate a position question, from any topic we
covered through text content or class discussion/debate.
• Next they needed to research and find 8-10 documents, in total that
presented both sides of the issue.
• These documents had to be of a nature, that would allow others to
use them to formulate their own DBQ essay, for my class or any
other that saw them on this site.
• Finally the students had to write an Essay that answered the
question they posed, using only the documents they researched and
posted.
• This is in lieu of a written content final, since they’ve already taken
the AP Exam. Which is the whole point isn’t it?
• Each student’s documents and essay are attached as individual
links.
Student Links
Subject
By Julie H.
Subject
By Elizabeth B.
Subject
By Aaron L.
Subject
By Tom S.
Subject
By Jennifer H.
Subject
By Frances D.
Subject
By Haliegh B.
Subject
By Danielle L.
Mr. Scott’s APUSH
Syllabus
• AP United States History
• Course Description
• AP U.S. History is a two-semester survey of American
History from the age of discovery to the present. This is a
challenging course that is meant to be the equivalent of
a freshman college course and can earn students
college credit. The successful AP student must possess
solid reading and writing skills, a willingness to devote
considerable time to homework and studying. Due to the
rigorous and challenging nature of the AP exam this
class will focus on critical and evaluative thinking skills,
essay writing, interpretation of original documents, and
other fact-based data.
• Course objectives- Students will:
• Prepare for and successfully pass the Advanced Placement
Exam
• Master a broad and vast amount of historical knowledge
• Demonstrate an understanding of historical chronology
• Learn how to support or defend an argument or position using
historical data
• Interpret and apply data gathered from original documents
such as graphs, cartoons, letters, and eyewitness reports.
• Develop skills necessary to analytically evaluate, determine
cause and effect, as well as compare and contrast.
• Work effectively with others to solve problems and work in
other cooperative settings
•
•
Course Texts and Readings
Required reading of the textbook: American Pageant13th edition,
Houghton Mifflin
•
Supplemental texts: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your
American History Book Got Wrong, 1st edition, Simon & Schuster
•
•
A People’s History of the United States 1492-Present,
Harper Collins Publishers
•
Taking sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in
•
•
American History volumes 1 and 2 10th editions,
McGraw-Hill / Dushkin
•
There will be other excerpts from other texts, primary and secondary
sources to read in the classroom as catalysts for group discussions and
essay subjects.
1.Units of Study and Tentative Reading Schedule
Begin First Semester
Founding the New Nation
Week 1. Chapter 1
2. Chapters 2&3
3. Chapters 4&5
4. Chapters 6,7, &8
Unit Topics: Cross cultural encounters with Native Americans *
Patterns of Colonial settlement * Role of religion in colonial society
* Causes of the Revolution* Pros and Cons of mercantilism* Role
of government in relation to the needs of the people
Activity Examples:
Salem Witchcraft Trials Topics Reader-Document Analysis
First DBQ writing assignment- French & Indian War (AP test
2004)
Work on establishing a quality Thesis statement
Multiple choice and essay exam covering unit topics
Building the New Nation
Week 5. Chapters 9&10
6. Chapter 11
7. Chapter 12
8. Chapter 13
9. Chapters 14&15
Unit Topics: Confederation vs. Constitution* The
Precedence of a Constitution*
The Constitutional Governments Affect on the People * Foreign
Policy Beginnings * 1800 Revolution * Western Expansion and
Indian Removal * New American Identity & Nationalism *
Reformation, Temperance, & Utopia
Activity Examples:
Whole group discussion over President Washington’s Warning
against foreign entanglements
Political debate- Federalists and republican ideas
DBQ (AP Test 2002) “Reform movements in the United States
sought to expand Democratic ideals.” Assess the validity of this
statement with specific references to the years 1825-1850.
Multiple choice test and essay exam covering unit topics
Testing the New Nation
Week 10. Chapter 16
11. Chapter 17
12. Chapter 18
13. Chapter 19
14. Chapter 20
15. Chapter 21
16. Chapter 22
Unit Topics: Evolving Attitudes about Slavery * Expansion
vs. Sectionalism * Attempts at Compromise * Election of 1860 &
Secession * Mexican war & Texas * Popular Sovereignty * Diplomacy
of the Civil War * Key Civil War battles* Impact & Consequences of
the Civil War * Black Codes * Radical ness of Reconstruction * The
Legacy of Reconstruction.
Activity Examples:
“Who freed the slaves?” Group activity analyzing both primary and
secondary sources from different points of view.
Read and interpret whether President Lincoln’s Inaugural Speech was
a call for Peace or War.
Students will create their own northern or southern newspaper that
incorporates the major topics covered in the unit, elements include but
not limited to opinion editorials, illustrations& political cartoons,
Society and cultural essays, and War/political reporting.
Multiple choice test and essay exam covering unit topics
Week 17. Historical Novel analysis due
Varies from student to student, depending upon
their Chosen topic and Novel read.
Week 18. First Semester Final Exam Modeled after the AP
exam in timing and format.
Specific dates determined by School Administration and to
Coincide with the proposed final schedule for the entire student body.
Begin Second Semester
Forging an Industrial Society
Week 1. Chapter 23
2. Chapter 24 & 25
3. Chapters 26&27
Unit Topics: Social, Economic, and Political Impact
of Industrialization* Unionization and the Worker* Role and
Effect of Political Third Parties* The Change in America’s role
in World Affairs* American Expansionism
Activity Examples:
Students research and analyze examples of propaganda, then
make their
own propaganda cartoon, posters, or song.
Students will research and compile documents that answer
their own
student created DBQ on any of the above unit topics
Write an essay that illustrates or justifies your opinion on
which area was most effected by industrialization (social,
economic, political)
V. Struggling for Justice at Home and Abroad
4. Chapters 28&29
5. Chapter 30
6. Chapters 31&32
7. Chapter 33
8. Chapter 34
9. Chapter 35
Unit Topics: Reactions to Social Injustice, Corruption and
Muckraking* Progressive Era Presidents: Compare and Contrast*
America’s Role and Motives in WWI* Post WWI Agreements*
Isolationism, Nativism and the Fourteen Points* Red Scare, Shared
Culture, & Mass Consumption* Governments Role in Society, Crime
Fighting, and Economics during prohibition* Crash, Depression, and
the New Deal* “Good Neighbors?” Latin America and Asian Policies
Activity Examples:
Students create a yellow journalism headline and front page story
over someone or something covered in this unit
Compare and contrast Hoover and Roosevelt’s’ plan for economic
recovery during the great depression
Examine the Treaty of Versailles and establish what aspects of it and
subsequent events made it a cease-fire for twenty years instead of a
truce.
Making Modern America
10. Chapter 36
11. Chapter 37
12. Chapter 38
13. Chapter 39
14. Chapter 40
15. Chapter 41&42
Unit Topics: America’s Motives for Entering WWII* Allian
Planning* Home Front Issues and Conduct During WWII* Origins an
the Cold War* Struggle for Civil Rights, Liberties, and Equality* Vietn
and Reactions* Domestic Policies and Social Reactions* Watergate
Crisis’s of the Seventies* Roots of Conservatism* End of the Cold W
Position on the World Stage at the end of the 20th Century
Activity Examples:
Students will play axis and allies then compare how their strategies f
similar or different to those of commanders in WWII
Write an essay that traces the development of the women’s moveme
to the 1970’s
DBQ (2001) what were the Cold War fears of the American people in
the Second World War? How successfully did President Eisenhower
fears?
Create a chart that places key cold war events under the administrat
within from Eisenhower to G.H.W. Bush.