Advanced Placement United States History Syllabus – 2012-2013
Course Description
This course is designed as an introductory United States college course would be and will prepare you to take the AP
test in May. Topics will cover the pre-colonial era to the present day and will examine several themes that run
through this span of time. This course meets four days a week for 55 minutes, and one day for 80 minutes, for the
whole year. Attached is an outline of material and readings for the semester and below is some general information
about the daily work for the course.
WEEKLY OUTLINE
1st day we meet in week: chapter packet is due, which includes definitions for the essential terms, answers to the
multiple choice questions, and responses to the essential questions. The type of response expected for these
questions will vary as we progress through the year, from graphic organizers, to deductive reasoning exercises, and
finally to full written responses. Be sure to check on the appropriate way to respond before the due date.
Primary source readings are also due, including a Reading Like an Historian Response for each source. These are due
at the beginning of the period, as they will be used to fuel the classroom discussion. Annotating your copies of the
sources will aid you during class discussions. I will collect your responses weekly for a homework grade.
Powerpoint presentations will be available for download prior to the start of class. This will allow you to take notes on
the powerpoints, without the need to write the contents of the slides as well. These powerpoints will also include
pictures and other primary sources that we will examine in class. Taking notes on the discussions will help you hone
your analytical skills, as well as provide a useful review tool for the exam in May.
2nd day we meet in week: secondary source readings are due, including a Reading Like an Historian Response for
each source. These are due at the beginning of the period, as they will be used to fuel the classroom discussion.
Over the course of these days there will be lecture/discussion over the topics and the readings will be used to explore
the topics fully. Themes from the attached sheet by the US History Development Committee will also be addressed
during this time.
3rd /4th day of week: we will be focusing on the skill of the week. We will be using the material we have covered
in the week to develop the skills you will need to take the AP test, or participate in any introductory college course in
history.
In weeks with shortened schedules we will adjust this outline if necessary.
Weekly Schedule of Readings
Week
Era
Week of Colonial Era
9/7
Due 9/9
Colonial Era
Week of
9/12
Skill Focus/Theme
Brinkley
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Ch. 1-2
Skill Focus:
Source Interpretation
Graphic Organizers for Essay
Questions
Themes:
American Diversity/Identity
Culture
Religion
Slavery
Religion
Demographic Changes
Environment
Economic Transformation
“Of Plymouth Plantation”, by William
Bradford
“A Model of Christian Charity”, By
John Winthrop
“1491” by Charles C. Mann
“Penning a Legacy”, by
Patricia Hudson
Skill Focus:
Ch. 3-4
Graphic Organizers for Essay
Questions
Themes:
American Diversity/Identity
Culture
Religion
Slavery
Religion
Demographic Changes
Environment
Economic Transformations
Politics and Citizenship
War and Diplomacy
“The Way to Wealth”, by Benjamin
Franklin
“The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano”, by Olaudah Equiano
Political Cartoons as appropriate
“Jefferson’s Secret Life”, by
Barbara Murray and Brian
Duffy
“Founding Friendship” by
Stuart Leibiger
Week of American Revolution;
9/19
Constitution/New
Republic
Supreme Court Cases
Ch. 5, 6
Skill Focus:
Sorting and Grouping
Primary Sources
Interpreting and Recognizing
Bias in Secondary Sources
Themes:
American Diversity
Globalization
Politics and Citizenship
Reform
War and Diplomacy
“Common Sense”, by Thomas Paine
“Personal Letters”, by John Adams and
Abigail Adams
Political Cartoons as appropriate
“… By the Unanimous
Consent of the States”, by
Ezra Bowen
“Order vs. Liberty”, by Larry
Gragg
Week of Jeffersonian America
9/26
Skill Focus:
Reading Comprehension
Reading Essay Questions
Themes:
Culture
Economic Transformations
Environment
Politics and Citizenship
Religion
War and Diplomacy
Ch. 7
“History of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition” by Lewis and Clark
“Tecumseh's Plea to the Choctaws and
Chickasaws” by Tecumseh
“Lewis and Clark” by Gerald
F. Kreyche
“The Shackles of Power: 3
Jeffersonian Decades” by
John Dos Passos
Week of Varieties of American
10/3
Nationalism
Skill Focus:
Organizing an Answer to an
Essay Question
Themes:
American Identity
Demographic Changes
Economic Transformations
Environment
Slavery and its Legacies
Ch. 8
“The Monroe Doctrine”
“Thomas Jefferson Letter to President
Monroe” by Thomas Jefferson
“Thomas Jefferson on the Missouri
Compromise” by Thomas Jefferson
“Chief Justice Marshall
Takes the Law in Hand”, by
Robert Wernick
“The Florida Quagmire”, by
Floyd B. Largent, Jr.
Lies My Teacher Told Me,
Ch. 4
Week of Jacksonian America
10/12
Skill Focus:
Organizing an Answer to an
Essay Question
Thesis Statements
Themes:
American Diversity
American Identity
Politics and Citizenship
Ch. 9
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia Decision
Week of American Economic
10/17
Revolution
Skill Focus:
Thesis Statements
Themes:
American Diversity
Demographic Changes
Economic Transformations
Globalization
Reform
Ch. 10
“A Week in the Mill” by Anonymous
“General Appearance of Mill Workers”
by Charles Dickens
“A New England Girlhood” by Lucy
Larcom
Week of Cotton, Slavery, and
10/24
the Old South
Ch. 11
Skill Focus:
Deductive Reasoning Activity
Inductive Reasoning Activity
Themes:
American Diversity
Culture
Economic Transformations
Environment
Slavery and its Legacies
“Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, Ch. 10” by Frederick
Douglass
“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”
by Harriet Jacobs
“Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ch. XII” by
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Week of Antebellum Culture
10/31
and Reform
Ch. 12
Skill Focus:
Practice Essays
DBQ's: Reading the Question
Themes:
Culture
Environment
Reform
Religion
“The Young American” by Ralph Waldo Lies My Teacher Told Me,
Emerson
Ch. 6
“Resistance to Civil Government” by
Henry David Thoreau
“Women in the 19th Century” by
Margaret Fuller
“Great Are the Myths” by Walt
Whitman
“All We Want is Make Us
Free!”, by Howard Jones
“The Lives of Slave
Women”, by Deborah Gray
White
Lies My Teacher Told Me,
Ch. 5
Week of The Impending Crisis
11/7
Skill Focus:
Practice Essays
Themes:
American Diversity
Demographic Changes
Politics and Citizenship
War and Diplomacy
Ch. 13
“Sociology for the South” by George
Fitzhugh
“Appeals to the Christian Women of the
South” by Angelina Grimke Weld
“The Portent” by Herman Melville
“Assault in the Senate”, by
David E. Johnson
“James K. Polk and the
Expansionist Spirit”, by
Harlan Hague
“Martha Derby Perry:
Eyewitness to the 1863 Draft
Riots” by JD Haines
Week of The Civil War
11/14
Skill Focus:
Practice Essays
Themes:
Globalization
Politics and Citizenship
Slavery and its Legacies
War and Diplomacy
Ch. 14
“The Red Badge of Courage, Ch. 5” by
Stephen Crane
“Hospital Sketches, Ch. 3” by Louisa
May Alcott
“Mohun: The Charge of the Virginians”
by John Este Cooke
“Iron Brigade Soldiers
Wartime Letters” by Julie
Holcomb
“Defense of Little Round
Top” by James R. Brann
Week of Reconstruction
11/21
Ch. 15
Skill Focus:
Thanksgiving Break Project –
Power Point Presentation on
Topic in Civil War/
Reconstruction Era
Themes:
American Diversity
Economic Transformations
Politics and Citizenship
Slavery and Its Legacies
“O Captain, My Captain” by Walt
“The Doom of Slavery”, by
Whitman
Brooks D. Simpson
“Up From Slavery, Ch. XIV” by Booker
T. Washington
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week of The Conquest of the
11/28
Far West
Ch. 16
Skill Focus:
Presentation of Student
Projects
DBQ's – Scoring
DBQ Practice Essays
Organizing a DBQ Response
Themes:
American Identity
Demographic Changes
Economic Transformations
Environment
“O Pioneers, part 1 ch.1” by Willa
“Eden Ravished”, by Harlan
Cather
Hague
“The Passing of the Buffalo” by Hamiln
Garland
“Black Elk Speaks, Ch. 23-25” by
Black Elk
“Significance of the Frontier in
American History” by Frederick
Jackson Turner
Week of Industrial Supremacy
12/5
Ch. 17
Skill Focus:
DBQ Practice Essays
Organizing a DBQ Response
Themes:
Demographic Changes
Economic Transformations
Environment
Reform
“Life in the Iron Mills” by Rebecca
Harding Davis
“Proem: to Brooklyn Bridge” by Hart
Crane
“If You Men Don't Withdraw,
We Will Mow Every One of
You Down” by William C
Kashatus
Lies My Teacher Told Me,
Ch. 7
Week of Age of the City
12/12
Ch. 18
Skill Focus:
DBQ Practice Essays
Organizing a DBQ Response
Thesis Statement
Visuals and Maps
Analysis vs. Narrative
Themes:
Demographic Changes
Economic Transformations
Culture
Politics and Citizenship
American Identity
“Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto”
by Abraham Cahan
“The Shame of the Cities” by Lincoln
Steffens
“The Nickel and Dime
Empire”, by Joseph Gustaitis
Lies My Teacher Told Me,
Ch. 8
Week of From Stalemate to
12/19
Crisis
Ch. 19
Skill Focus:
Winter Break Project – Create
Your Own DBQ – 1865-1914
Themes:
Economic Transformations
Politics and Citizenship
Reform
American Identity
“1892 People's Party Platform”
“Speech to the Women's Christian
Temperance Union, 1890” by Mary
Elizabeth Lease
“Undermining the Molly
Maguires”, by Joseph H.
Bloom
Christmas Break - December 22 - January 2
Week of The Imperial Republic Skill Focus:
1/2
Presentation of Student
Projects
Themes:
Globalization
War and Diplomacy
Politics and Citizenship
American Identity
Ch. 20
“Account of the Maine Incident” by
Captain Charles D. Sigsbee
“Battles for Kettle and San Juan Hill”
by Theodore Roosevelt
“Theodore Roosevelt:
Leading the Rough Riders
During the SpanishAmerican War” by Paul
Hutton
Week of Rise of Progressivism
1/9
Skill Focus:
DBQ Practice Essays
Themes:
Reform
Politics and Citizenship
Economic Transformations
Demographic Changes
Ch. 21
“We Are All Bound Up Together” by
“The Ambiguous Legacies of
Francis Watkins Harper
Women's Progressivism”, by
“80 Years and More: Reminiscences
Robyn Muncy
1815-1897, Ch XIX” by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
Week of Battle for National
1/18
Reform
Skill Focus:
DBQ Practice Essays
Themes:
Reform
Politics and Citizenship
Environment
Globalization
Ch. 22
“The Jungle, Ch. 5” by Upton Sinclair “Woodrow Wilson,
“The White Man's Burden” by Rudyard Politician”, by Robert Dallek
Kipling
“The Real White Man's Burden” by
Ernest Crosby
Week of America and The Great Skill Focus:
1/23
War
Multiple Choice Questions –
How to Read Questions
Themes:
War and Diplomacy
Globalization
Economic Transformations
Politics and Citizenship
Ch. 23
“President Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points
for Peace”
“Treaty of Versailles, Articles 1-26”
Week of The New Era
1/30
Skill Focus:
Multiple Choice Questions –
How to Select Answers
Themes:
Economic Transformations
Culture
American Diversity
American Identity
Ch. 24
“The Great Gatsby, Ch. 3” by F. Scott
Fitzgerald
“Jazz” by Toni Morrison
“The Weary Blues” by Langston
Hughes
“The Birth of a Nation:
When Hollywood Glorified
the KKK” by Eric Niderost
Week of The Great Depression
2/6
Skill Focus:
Practice Multiple Choice
Themes:
Economic Transformations
Politics and Citizenship
Culture
Globalization
Ch. 25
“Stories in a Frame” by Dorothea Lange
“The Grapes of Wrath, Ch. 5” by John
Steinbeck
“Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange
“Brother, Can You Spare a
Dime?”, by Henry Allen
“The Abduction of Aimee”,
by J. Kingston Pierce
Week of The New Deal
2/13
Skill Focus:
Practice Multiple Choice
Themes:
Reform
Economic Transformations
Politics and Citizenship
American Identity
Ch. 26
“Fireside Chat, May 7th, 1933” by
Franklin Roosevelt
“Fireside Chat, April 28th, 1935” by
Franklin Roosevelt
“A Monumental Man” by
Gerald Pershall
FEBRUARY BREAK
Week of The Global Crisis,
2/27
1921-1941
Skill Focus:
Practice Essays
Themes:
War and Diplomacy
Globalization
Ch. 27
“Freedom” by E.B. White
“Battle Cry” by Leon Uris
Week of America in a World at
3/5
War
Skill Focus:
Practice Essays
Themes:
War and Diplomacy
Economic Transformations
American Diversity
Culture
Ch. 28
“Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne
Wakatsuki Houston and James D.
Houston
“Apostrophe to the Land” by Countee
Cullen
“The Face of War” by Martha Gellhorn
“Night” by Elie Wiesel
Week of The Cold War
3/12
Skill Focus:
Practice Essays
Themes:
War and Diplomacy
Globalization
Politics and Citizenship
Culture
Ch. 29
Find two primary sources from the Cold “1948: The Presidential
War to share in class. Complete the
Election” by Michael D.
APPARTS activity for each.
Haydock
“Our Greatest Land Battle”,
by Edward Oxford
“I Learn A Lot From the
Veterans”, by Stephen A.
Ambrose
“The Biggest Decision: Why
We Had to Drop the Atomic
Bomb”, by Robert James
Maddox
Week of The Affluent Society
3/19
Skill Focus:
Practice Essays
Themes:
Economic Transformations
Culture
Demographic Changes
American Diversity
War and Diplomacy
Ch. 30
“The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” by
Sloan Wilson
“On the Road, Pt. 1” by Jack Kerouac
“The Split Level Years:
1950-1960”, by Henry Allen
“Bud Day: Vietnam War
POW Hero” by Richard C.
Barrett
Week of Civil Rights, Vietnam,
3/26
and the Ordeal of
Liberalism
Skill Focus:
Practice Essays
Themes:
Politics and Citizenship
Reform
War and Diplomacy
Ch. 31
“Coming of Age in Mississippi” by
Anne Moody
“The Crucible, Act.1” by Arthur Miller
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” by
Martin Luther King Jr.
“Message to the Grass Roots” by
Malcolm X
“Spirit of '68”, by John B.
Judis
Lies My Teacher Told Me,
Ch. 9
Week of Crisis of Authority
4/2
Skill Focus:
Practice Test
Themes:
Culture
American Diversity
War and Diplomacy
Politics and Citizenship
Environment
Ch. 32
“President Johnson's Address to the
Nation Announcing Steps To Limit the
War in Vietnam and Reporting His
Decision Not To Seek Reelection.”
March 30, 1968
“Nixon's America”, by
Michael Barone
Lies My Teacher Told Me,
Ch. 10
“President Nixon's 2nd Watergate
Speech” by Richard Nixon
Week of From the “Age of
4/9
Limits” to the Age of
Reagan
Age of Globalization
Skill Focus:
Practice Test
Themes:
Demographic Changes
Religion
War and Diplomacy
Ch. 33
“President Reagan's Evil Empire
Speech, June 8th, 1982” by Ronald
Reagan
“Ronald Reagan Tear Down the Wall
June 12 , 1987, Speech”
“Face Off” by John Lewis
Gaddis
Skill Focus:
Test Taking Strategies
Themes Review Sheet
Themes:
Economic Transformations
Globalization
War and Diplomacy
Culture
Politics and Citizenship
Ch. 34
United States v. Eichman (Flag
Burning) Nos. 89-1433, 89-1434
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED
STATES 496 U.S. 310
“Divided We Sprawl”, by
Bruce Katz and Jennifer
Bradley
“A Politics for Generation
X”, by Ted Halstead
Bush v. Gore. Argued on
December 11, 2000
September 20, 2001 Address to a Joint
Session of Congress and the American
People United States Capitol
Washington, D.C., by Pres. George W.
Bush
APRIL VACATION
Week of Review
4/23
Week of Review
4/30
AP US HISTORY EXAM – MAY 4TH 8:00AM
Week of Activities in American
5/7-6/12 History
Lies My Teacher Told Me,
Ch. 11-13, afterward
Class Website: msad37.org/nhs/emerson/home.html
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