Syllabus for United States History Advanced Placement
Textbook: American Pageant 12th edition Bailey and Kennedy
Readers: The American Spirit 10th Edition Volumes I &II
Description:
The AP program in United States History is designed by the College Board to provide students
with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and
materials in United States history. The program prepares students for intermediate and advanced
college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year
introductory college courses. Students will learn to assess historical materials – their relevance to
a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importance- and to weigh the evidence and
interpretations presented in historical scholarship. The AP United States History course develops
the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present
reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in easy format.
Learning Objectives:
The students will:
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Acquire a grounding in the subject matter of United States history and in major
interpretive questions that derive from the study of selected themes,
Be exposed to the historical content,
Analyze and interpret primary sources, including documentary material, maps, statistical
tables, and pictorial and graphic evidence of historical events,
Learn to take notes from both printed materials and lectures or discussions,
Write essay examinations,
Write analytical and research papers, and
Express themselves with clarity and precision and know how to cite resources and credit
the phrases and ideas of others.
Useful websites:
For your textbook, Primary Source Documents and the College Board
http://college.hmco.com/history/us/bailey/american_pageant/11e/students/
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com
http://www.picturehistory.com/
http://www.history.com/media.do
http://www.authentichistory.com/
http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/academic/americanpresident/
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
As Burns Crookston (1972) wrote, "The student should not be a passive receptacle of
knowledge, but should share responsibility for learning with the teacher." In fact, I can
teach you almost nothing that you do not choose to learn. In this course you will be
required to participate actively through your writing assignments and class discussions.
Class discussions, including my lectures and comments, will assume that you have done
the assigned readings; if you do not keep up with them, it will be very difficult to get very
much from the course.
Week1. Review Acorn book, Peterson Study Guides, and textbook
Lecture Chapter 1 New World Beginnings
Week 2. Lecture Chapter 2 The Planting of the English Colonies, Chapter 3 Settling the
Northern Colonies and quizzes on Chapters 1,2 and 3.
Week 3. Teach the Writing Process, important word meanings, the thesis sentence,
journal entries, breaking down the prompt, short answer responses, free responses and the
DBQ. Quizzes on the explorers and the thirteen colonies.
Week 4. Lecture Chapter 4 American Life in the 17th Century, quiz Chapter 4. Explain
how to write to current events. Tear apart past A.P. free response questions and write
thesis sentences to them.
Week 5. Lecture Chapter 5 Colonial Society on the Eve of Destruction and Chapter 6 The
Duel for North America. Quizzes on both.
Week 6 Comprehensive Test Chapters 1-5. Free Response in class. Lecture Chapter 7
The Road to Revolution and quiz on this chapter.
Week 7. Vocabulary Test on Important Word Meanings. Discuss Smithsonian Article
Four Fateful Elections. Lecture Chapter 8 America Secedes from the Empire. Test
Chapter 8, Lecture Chapter 9 The Confederation and the Constitution.
Week 8 Quiz Chapter 9, Lecture Chapter 10 Launching the New Ship of State Homework
sheets for chapter 10 due. Lecture Chapter 11 The Triumphs and Travails of the
Jeffersonian Republic, quiz Chapter 11.
Week 9 Short answer responses to chapter 10 Review Chapters 6-10, Comprehensive test
Chapters 6-10.
Week 10 Lecture Chapter 12 The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of
Nationalism. Chapter 12 Quiz. Video Documents of Destiny Growth of a New Nation.
Lecture Chapter 13 The rise on Mass Democracy
Week 11 Quiz Chapter 13 Lecture Chapter 14 Forging the National Economy. Quiz 14.
Free Response in class. Peer Evaluation of Free Responses/DBQ.
Week 12 Current Event one page reflection paper due. Lecture Chapter 15 The Ferment
of Reform and Culture. Quiz Chapter 15. In class Free Response/DBQ. Peer evaluation
of essay
Week 13 Lecture Chapter 16 The South and the Slavery controversy, Multiple choice
Test Chapter 16
Week 14. Form Study Groups; work in Peterson Study Guide Lecture Chapter 17
Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy. Name Game Quiz, Inventors. Lecture Chapter 18,
Quiz Chapter 18
Week 15 Name Game Quiz II The Arts/Writers etc. Lecture Chapter 19 Drifting Toward
Disunion, test chapter 19. Revisit the Writing Process, Create a thesis from Journal
entries then create an intro paragraph, a short answer response then a full-blown essay.
Week 16 Lecture Chapter 20 Girding for War: the north and the South, worksheets for
this chapter are due. Lesson on Primary Source Documents. Lecture Chapter 21 The
furnace of the Civil War Quiz Chapter 21
Week 17 Multiple Choice Test Unit 5 Peterson Chapter 5 quiz, Lecture chapter 22 The
Ordeal of Reconstruction and complete worksheets
Week 18 Peterson Chapter 6 Quiz, Peterson Chapter 7 Quiz, Lecture Chapter 23;
Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age. Current Event is due and Quiz on Chapter 23
Week 19 Semester Exams
Week 20 Lecture and Quiz on chapter 24 Industry Comes of Age and Lecture and Quiz
over Chapter 25 America Moves to the City
Week 21 Work on Short Answer Responses, Begin working on Test Strategies, work in
Peterson Guide Multiple Choice Questions, use strategies to complete chapter 25
worksheets. Form permanent Study Groups
Week 22 Lecture and worksheets due for Chapter 26 The Great West and the
Agricultural Revolution, Lecture and worksheets due for Chapter 27 The Path to Empire,
possible test for Chapter 27.
Week 23 Timed Free Response in class, peer evaluation of essay, Comprehensive Test
Chapters 25-27 Second timed Free Response in class with peer evaluation
Week 24 DBQ in class, Lecture Chapter 28 and Worksheets due America on the World
Stage, Lecture Chapter 29 Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt and quiz on this
chapter.
Week 25 Begin Nine-Week Peterson Review Plan, Lecture Chapter 30 Wilsonian
Progressivism at Home and Abroad and complete worksheets.
Week 26 Lecture and Quiz on Chapter 31, the War to end War, Lecture and Quiz on
Chapter 32 American Life in the Roaring Twenties.
Week 27 Lecture and Quiz on Chapter 33 The Politics of Boom and Bust, Lecture and
Quiz on Chapter 34 the Great Depression and the New Deal
Week 28 Lecture and Quiz Chapter 35 Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War,
Lecture and worksheets due for chapter 36 American in World War II.
Week 29 Free Response in class, Review Week
Week 30 Test Chapter 36 Lecture and Quiz Chapter 37 The Cold War Begins, Lecture
Chapter 38 The Eisenhower Era
Week 31 Quiz Chapter 38 Lecture and Quiz Chapter 39 The Stormy Sixties, Lecture and
worksheets for Chapter 40 The stalemated Seventies
Week 32 Correct Chapter 40 Worksheets Lecture Chapter 41 The Resurgence of
Conservatism, Lecture Chapter 42 The American People Face a New Nation
Week 33 Review Peterson Guild Chapters nine and ten, quiz on each chapter.
Week 34 Practice Tests
Exam
Week 35- 37 Enrichment after exam, Civil Rights Unit
Students have been provided with a computer to access primary source documents and
contact A.P. Central
RECOMMENDED SUMMER READING
ANYTHING BY
BARBARA W. TUCHMAN………SOME GOOD ONES ARE:
THE GUNS OF AUGUST
ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM
FIRST SALUTE
THE MARCH OF FOLLY
http://books.google.com/books?ct=title&q=inauthor%3ABARBA
RA+TUCHMAN
ANYTHING BY
DAVID G. McCULLOUGH
http://books.google.com/books?as_auth=David+G+McCullough&s
a=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=author-navigational&hl=en
SOME GOOD ONES ARE: JOHN ADAMS
1776
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN …………TEAM OF RIVALS
NO ORDINARY TIME
http://books.google.com/books?as_auth=Doris+Kearns+Goodwin
&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=author-navigational&hl=en
UNITED STATES HISTORY ADVANCED PLACEMENT PREP
BOOKS:
http://books.google.com/books?ct=title&q=U.S.+HISTORY+ADV
ANCED+PLACEMENT+PREP+BOOKS&spell=1&oi=spell
I RECOMMEND PRINCETON REVIEW, KAPLAN AND
PETERSON’S