SYLLABUS
COURSE IDENTIFICATION:
COURSE INSTRUCTOR:
PREREQUISITE(S):
TITLE:
AP World History and Pre-AP English 10
ACADEMY: Humanities
ROOM:
HU 109
Leslie Keeney
PHONE: 896-5600 EXT.: 5772
EMAIL: lkeeney@rrhs.rrps.k12.nm.us
WEB: http://www.orgsites.com/nm/lkeeney/
none
TEXTBOOKS: Adas, Stearns, etc..: World Civilizations 4E,
McDougall-Littell World Literature, and Writer’s Inc.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course meets the requirements for English 10 and AP World
History. Students will study world history from the foundations period (8,000 B.C.E) through
the present. Students are expected to take the AP World History test in May. Writing pieces and
literature selections reinforce the concepts and content of the social studies component of the
course. Students will apply reading, research, writing, and speaking skills to demonstrate
learning in analytical pieces.
Habits of Mind:
 Constructing and evaluating arguments: using evidence to make plausible arguments.
 Using documents and other primary data: developing the skills necessary to analyze point of
view, context, and bias, and to understand and interpret information.
 Developing the ability to assess issues of change and continuity over time.
 Enhancing the capacity to handle diversity of interpretations through analysis of context, bias, and
frame of reference.
 Seeing global patterns over time and space while also acquiring the ability to connect local
developments to global ones and to move through levels of generalizations from the global to the
particular.
 Developing the ability to compare within and among societies, including comparing societies’
reactions to global processes.
 Developing the ability to assess claims of universal standards yet remaining aware of human
commonalities and differences; putting culturally diverse ideas and values in historical context,
not suspending judgment but developing understanding.
Themes:
 Impact of interaction among major societies (trade, systems of international exchange, war, and
diplomacy).
 The relationship of change and continuity across the world history periods covered in this course.
 Impact of technology and demography on people and the environment (population growth and
decline, disease, manufacturing, migrations, agriculture, weaponry).
 Systems of social structure and gender structure (comparing major features within and among
societies and assessing change).
 Cultural and intellectual developments and interactions among and within societies.
 Changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and political identities
(political culture), including the emergence of the nation-state (types of political organization).
1
SYLLABUS
WEEK
1–5
Aug. 10 –
Sept. 8
6 - 14
Sept. 11
– Nov. 3
THEME/CHAPTER(S)/ADDITIONAL
MATERIALS
Unit One: 8,000 B.C.E. – 600 C.E.
Foundations
 Periodization
 Rise of Civilization
 Empires
 World Belief Systems
History Readings Stearns Chapters 1 - 5
Literary Readings
 Summer Reading: Ishmael and The
Kite Runner or The Poisonwood Bible
 The Ramayana
 “Daedalus and Icarus”
 Sacred literature excerpts
MAJOR GRADED ASSIGNMENTS
Unit Two: 600 – 1450 The Postclassical
Period
 Islam: Rise, Expansion, and Trade
 Economic and Government
Systems: Feudalism, Neo
Confucianism
 Nomadic Invasions
History Readings Stearns Chapters 6 - 15
Assessments
 Weekly Multiple Choice (history)
 Literary Essays
 Literature STAARS
 Essential questions and IDs
Literary Analysis:
 47 Ronin Story (Imagery)
 Haiku Analysis (poetry structure)
 Sacred literature (various)
Historical Essays
 COT: Empires
 COT: Islam
 CC: Feudalism
 CC: Mongols
Assessments
 Weekly Multiple Choice (history)
 Literary Essays
 Literature STAARS
 Essential questions and IDs
Historical Essays
 DBQ: Silver Trade
 COT: Social and Economic
Transformations
Literary Analysis:
 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(imagery)
 An Epic of Old Mali (the epic
hero)
 Nonfiction response
 History: Multiple Choice and
Essays
 English: Essay
Literary Readings
 Sacred literature excerpts
 Asian poetry Unit
 47 Ronin Story by John Allyn
14 -18
Unit Three: 1450 – 1750: The World Shrinks
Nov. 6 –
Dec. 8
History Readings : Stearns Chapters 16 - 20
Literary Readings
 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (inclass)
 An Epic of Old Mali excerpt

Indian Givers: excerpt
 other short stories
19
Assessments
 Weekly Multiple Choice (history)
 Literary Essays
 Literature STAARS
 Essential questions and IDs
Literary Analysis:
 Ishmael (tone or theme)
 The Ramayana (elements of an
epic)
 Daedalus and Icarus
Historical Essays
 COT: The Kite Runner or The
Poisonwood Bible
 DBQ: Treatment of Women
Semester Exam
 Will include material from the
Dec. 11 –
Foundations period through 1750
14
 Will include all literary concepts
covered this semester
Grading will be weighted in the following manner: History: essays 40%, multiple choice 40%, participation and
preparation 20% Literature: tests and essays 40%, STAARS 40%, participation and preparation: 20%
2
EXIT
STD(s)