AP United States History Syllabus 2014-15
Instructor: Mr. Siebenthal
Availability: Periods 2, 5, & before/After School
Room: 247(1,3,4,6,7)
Phone #: (303) 326-4645
ext. 64645
E-mail: kjsiebenthal@aps.k12.co.us Textbook: The American Nation, 12th Edition, by
Mark C. Carnes and John A. Garraty
Website: http://kjsiebenthal.aurorak12.org/
Textbook
http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/pcp_myhistorylab_americanhist_1_master/37/971
5/2487140.cw/index.html
COURSE DESCRIPTION: The AP U.S. History course is designed to provide students
with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the
problems and materials in U.S. history. Students should learn to assess historical
materials—their relevance to a given interpretive problem, reliability, and importance—
and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. An AP
U.S. History course should thus develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on
the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and
persuasively in essay format. In 2014, the AP US History Exam shifted to a skills-based
format. Teachers cannot cover all details for US History, and need more time to focus on
developing students’ understanding of the learning objectives and use of the historical
thinking skills.
Concept Outline:
Period Date Range
Approximate Percentage of….
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Instructional
Time
5%
10%
12%
10%
13%
13%
17%
15%
5%
1491-1607
1607-1754
1754-1800
1800-1848
1844-1877
1865-1898
1890-1945
1945-1980
1980-present
AP Exam
5%
45%
45%
5%
Themes
While the course follows a narrative structure supported by the textbook and audiovisual
materials, the following seven themes described in the AP U.S. History Course and Exam
Description are woven throughout each unit of study:
1. Identity (ID)
2. Work, Exchange, and Technology (WXT)
3. Peopling (PEO)
4. Politics and Power (POL)
5. America in the World (WOR)
6. Environment and Geography (ENV)
7. Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture (CUL)
There are 9 Summative unit assessments. This is done to help maintain comprehension
throughout the course in hopes that more retention will occur in May before the
AP US Exam..
Grading Policies: Standards Based Grading
Progress indicator: used
in teacher grade book for Conversion of grade book body of evidence to letter
individual
grades.
assignments/assessments.
Advanced (ADV/adv)
Proficient (P/p)
Partially Proficient
(PP/pp)
Unsatisfactory (U/u)
Unsatisfactory/Missing
(U/u or M/m)
In a variety of assessments, the student consistently and
independently achieves proficiency in grade level
concepts/skills and demonstrates advanced
application/analysis when the opportunity exists.
In a variety of assessments, the student achieves
proficiency
in grade level concepts/skills.
With teacher or peer support, the student is able to
achieve proficiency in grade level concepts/ skills.
The student demonstrates limited understanding/
application of grade level concepts/skills and does not
meet the identified goals at this time.
The student rarely demonstrates understanding of grade
level concepts/skills or there is insufficient evidence to
accurately determine the proficiency level.
Capital letters: summative or “major” assignments/assessments
Lower Case: formative or practice assignments/assessments
(+)= denotes upper range within progress indicators
( -)= denotes lower range within progress indicators
Used for
grade reports
and
transcripts.
A
B
C
D
F
Historical Thinking Skills
The historical thinking skills provide opportunities for students to learn to think like
historians, most notably to analyze evidence about the past and to create persuasive
historical arguments. Focusing on these practices enables teachers to create learning
opportunities for students that emphasize the conceptual and interpretive nature of history
rather than simply memorization of events in the past. Skill types and examples for each
are listed below.
I. Chronological Reasoning
Compare causes and/or effects, including between short-term and long-term
effects
Analyze and evaluate historical patterns of continuity and change over time
Connect patterns of continuity and change over time to larger historical processes
or themes
Analyze and evaluate competing models of periodization of American history
II. Comparison and Contextualization
Compare related historical developments and processes across place, time, and/or
different societies, or within one society
Explain and evaluate multiple and differing perspectives on a given historical
phenomenon
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
III. Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence
Analyze commonly accepted historical arguments and explain how an argument
has been constructed from historical evidence
Construct convincing interpretations through analysis of disparate, relevant
historical evidence
Evaluate and synthesize conflicting historical evidence to construct persuasive
historical arguments
Analyze features of historical evidence such as audience, purpose, point of view,
format, argument, limitations, and context germane to the evidence considered
Based on analysis and evaluation of historical evidence, make supportable
inferences and draw appropriate conclusions
IV. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis
Draw appropriately on ideas and methods from different fields of inquiry or disciplines
Analyze diverse historical interpretations
Apply insights about the past to other historical contexts or circumstances, including the
present
Evaluate how historians’ perspectives influence their interpretations and how models of
historical interpretation change over time
Aurora Public Schools APUSH Standards + guiding comments:
Standard
Comments
Quarter
1,4
Standard 1: Globalization
Standard 2: Politics and
Citizenship
Standard 3: Religion
Students demonstrate or do not demonstrate the
following
o Pre-Columbian Societies
o Transatlantic Encounters and Colonial
Beginnings, 1492-1690
o Colonial North America, 1690-1754
o The American Revolutionary Era
o The Early Republic
o Transformation of the Economy and Society in
Antebellum America
2
Standard 4: American
Diversity
Standard 5: American
Identity
Standard 6: Demographic
Changes
Students demonstrate or do not demonstrate the
following
o The Transformation of Politics in Antebellum
America
o Religion, Reform, and Renaissance in
Antebellum American
o Territorial Expansion and Manifest Destiny
o The Crisis of the Union
o Civil War
o Reconstruction
3,4
Standard 7: Economic
Transformations
Standard 8: Environment
Standard 9: Reform
Students demonstrate or do not demonstrate the
following
o The Origins of the New South
o Development of the West in the Late
Nineteenth Century
o Industrial America in the Late Nineteenth
Century
o Urban Society in the Late Nineteenth Century
o Populism and Progressivism
o The Emergence of America as a World Power
4
Standard 10: Culture
Students demonstrate or do no demonstrate the
following
o The New Era: 1920s
o The Great Depression and the New Deal
o The Second World War
o The Home Front During the War
o The United States and the Early Cold War
o The 1950s
o The Turbulent 1960s
o Politics and Economics at the End of the
Twentieth Century
o Society and Culture at the End of the
Twentieth Century
o The United States in the Post-Cold War World
Critical Thinking Synthesis Questions for the Course: Debating The Past
Quarter 1:
How many Indians perished with European settlement?
Were puritan communities peaceable?
Was economic gain the colonists’ main motivation?
Was the American Revolution rooted in class struggle?
What ideas shaped the Constitution?
Did Thomas Jefferson father a child by his slave?
How did Indians and settlers interact?
Quarter 2:
Was early nineteenth-century America transformed by a “market revolution”?
For whom did Jackson fight?
Did the antebellum reform movement improve society?
Was there an “American Renaissance”?
Did the frontier change women’s roles?
Did slaves and masters form emotional bonds?
Was the Civil War avoidable?
Why did the South lose the Civil War?
Were Reconstruction governments corrupt?
Quarter 3:
Was the frontier exceptionally violent?
Were the industrialists “robber barons” or savvy entrepreneurs?
Did immigrants assimilate?
Did the frontier engender individualism and democracy?
Were city governments corrupt and incompetent?
Were the progressives forward-looking?
Did the United States acquire an overseas empire for economic reasons?
Did a stroke sway Wilson’s judgment?
Quarter 4:
Was the decade of the 1920s one of self-absorption?
What caused the Great Depression?
Did the New Deal succeed?
Should the United States have sued atomic bombs against Japan?
Did Truman needlessly exacerbate relations with the Soviet Union?
Would JFK have sent a half-million American troops to Vietnam?
Did mass culture make life shallow?
Did Reagan end the Cold War?
Do historians ever get it right? (History repeating itself)
Unit One
Day One
Instructions Timeline activity and Origins
American History Video: SNL
Origins:
Passage to Alaska
Cahokia: The Hub of Mississippi Culture
Mesa Verde, Colorado
Diffusion of Corn
August, Week One
Alien Encounters: Europe in the Americas
Columbus
Spain’s American Empire
Indians and Europeans
Relativity of Cultural Values
Disease and Population Losses
Spain’s European Rivals
The Protestant Reformation
English Beginnings in America
The Settlement of Virginia
“Purifying” the Church of England
Bradford and Plymouth Colony
Winthrop and Massachusetts Bay Colony
Troublemakers: Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson
Other New England Colonies
French and Dutch Settlements
Maryland and the Carolinas
The Middle Colonies
Indians and Europeans as “Amercanizers”
August, Week Two
American Society in the Making
What is an American?
Spanish Settlement
The Chesapeake Colonies
The Lure of Land
“Solving” the Labor Shortage: Slavery
Prosperity in a Pipe: Tobacco
Bacon’s Rebellion
The Carolinas
Home and Family in the South
Georgia and the Back Country
Puritan New England
The Puritan Family
Puritan Women and Children
Visible Puritan Saints and Others
Democracies Without Democrats
The Dominion of New England
Prosperity Undermines Puritanism
A Merchant’s World
The Middle Colonies: Economic Basis
The Middle Colonies: An Intermingling of Peoples
“The Best Poor Man’s Country”
The Politics of Diversity
Rebellious Women
August, Week Three and Four
America in the British Empire
The British Colonial System
Mercantilism
The Navigation Acts
The Effects of Mercantilism
The Great Awakening
The Rise and Fall of Jonathan Edwards
The Enlightenment in America
Colonial Scientific Achievements
Repercussions of Distant Wars
The Great War for the Empire
The Peace of Paris
Putting the Empire Right
Tightening Imperial Controls
The Sugar Act
American Colonistis Demand Rights
The Stamp Act: The Pot Set to Boiling
Rioters or Rebels?
Taxation or Tyranny?
The Declaratory Act
The Townshend Duties
The Boston Massacre
The Pot Spills Over
The Tea Act Crisis
From Resistance to Revolution
September, Week One
The American Revolution
“The Shot Heard Round the World”
The Second Continental Congress
The Battle of Bunker Hill
The Great Declaration
1776: The Balance of Forces
Loyalists
Early British Victories
Saratoga and the French Alliance
The War Moves South
Victory at Yorktown
The Peace of Paris
Forming a National Government
Financing the War
State Republican Governments
Social Reform
Effects of the Revolution on Women
Growth of a National Spirit
The Great Land Ordinances
National Heroes
A National Culture
Unit Two
September, Week Two
The Federalist Era: Nationalism Triumphant
Border Problems
Foreign Trade
The Specter of Inflation
Daniel Shay’s “Little Rebellion”
To Philadelphia, and the Constitution
The Great Convention
The Compromises That Produced the Constitution
Ratifying the Constitution
Washington as President
Congress Under Way
Hamilton and Financial Reform
The Ohio Country: A Dark and Bloody Ground
Revolution in France
Federalists and Republicans: The Rise of Political Parties
1795: All’s Well That Ends Well
Washington’s Farewell
The Election of 1796
The XYZ Affair
The Alien and Sedition Acts
The Kentucky and Virginia Revolves
September, Week Three
Jeffersonian Democracy
The Federalist Contribution
Thomas Jefferson: Political Theorist
Jefferson as President
Jefferson’s Attack on the Judiciary
The Barbary Pirates
The Louisiana Purchase
The Federalists Discredited
Lewis and Clark
Jeffersonian Democracy
The Burr Conspiracy
Napoleon and the British
The Impressment Controversy
The Embargo Act
September, Week Four
National Growing Pains
Madison in Power
Tecumseh and Indian Resistance
Depression and Land Hunger
Opponents of War
The War of 1812
Britain Assumes the Offensive
“The Star Spangled Banner”
The Treaty of Ghent
The Hartford Convention
The Battle of New Orleans
Victory Weakens the Federalists
Anglo-American Rapprochement
The Transcontinental Treaty
The Monroe Doctrine
The Era of Good Feelings
New Sectional Issues
Northern Leaders
Southern Leaders
Western Leaders
The Missouri Compromise
The Election of 1824
John Quincy Adams as President
Calhoun’s Exposition and Protest
The Meaning of Sectionalism
October, Week One
Toward a National Economy
Gentility and the Consumer Revolution
Birth of the Factory
An Industrial Proletariat?
Lowell’s Waltham System: Women as Factory Workers
Irish and German Immigrants
The Persistence of the Household System
Rise of Corporations
Cotton Revolutionizes the South
Revival of Slavery
Roads to Market
Transportation and the Government
Development of Steamboats
The Canal Boom
New York City: Emporium of the Western World
The Marshall Court
October, Week Two
Jacksonian Democracy”
“Democratizing” Politics
1828: The New Party System in Embryo
The Jacksonian Appeal
The Spoils System
President of All the People
Sectional Tensions Revived
Jackson: “The Bank… I WILL KILL IT!”
Jackson’s Bank Veto
Jackson Versus Calhoun
Indian Removals
The Nullification Crisis
Boom and Bust
Jacksonianism Abroad
The Jacksonians
Rise of the Whigs
Martin Van Buren: Jacksonism Without Jackson
The Log Cabin Campaign
October, Week Three
The Making of Middle-Class America
Tocqueville and Beaumont in America
Tocqueville in Judgment
A Restless People
The Family Recast
The Second Great Awakening
The Era of Associations
Backwoods Utopias
The Age of Reform
“Demon Rum”
The Abolitionist Crusade
Women’s Rights
October, Week Three and Four
An American Culture
In Search of Native Grounds
The Romantic View of Life
Emerson and Thoreau
Edgar Allan Poe
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Herman Melville
Walt Whitman
The Wider Literary Renaissance
Domestic Tastes
Education for Democracy
Reading and the Dissemination of Culture
The State of the Colleges
Civic Cultures
American Humor
Unit Three
November, Week One
Westward Expansion
Tyler’s Troubles
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty
The Texas Question
Manifest Destiny
Life on the Trail
California and Oregon
The Election of 1844
Polk as President
War with Mexico
To the Halls of Montezuma
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Fruits of Victory: Further Enlargement of the United States
Slavery: The Fire Bell in the Night Rings Again
The Election of 1848
The Gold Rush
The Compromise of 1850
November, Week Two and Three
The Sections Go Their Ways
The South
The Economics of Slavery
Antebellum Plantation Life
The Sociology of Slavery
Psychological Effects of Slavery
Manufacturing in the South
The Northern Industrial Juggernaut
A Nation of Immigrants
How Wage Earners Lived
Progress and Poverty
Foreign Commerce
Steam Conquers the Atlantic
Canals and Railroads
Railroads and the Economy
Railroads and the Sectional Conflict
The Economy on the Eve of Civil War
November, Week Four
The Coming of the Civil War
The Slave Power Comes North
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Diversions Abroad: The “Young America” Movement
Stephen Douglas: “The Little Giant”
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Know-Nothings, Republicans, and the Demise of the Two-Party System
“Bleeding Kansas”
Senator Sumner Becomes a Martyr for Abolitionism
Buchanan Tries His Hand
The Dred Scott Decision
The Lecompton Constitution
The Emergence of Lincoln
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
John Brown’s Raid
The Secession Crisis
December, Week One
The War to Save the Union
Lincoln’s Cabinet
Fort Sumter: The First Shot
The Blue and the Gray
The Test of Battle: Bull Run
Paying for the War
Politics as Usual
Behind Confederate Lines
War in the West: Shiloh
McClellan: The Reluctant Warrior
Lee Counterattacks: Antietam
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Draft Riots
The Emancipated People
African American Soldiers
Antietam to Gettysburg
Lincoln Finds His General: Grant at Vicksburg
Economic and Social Effects, North and South
Women in Wartime
Grant in Wartime
Grand in the Wilderness
Sherman in Georgia
To Appomattox Court House
Winners, Losers, and the Future
December, Week Three
Reconstruction and the South
Presidential Reconstruction
Republican Radicals
Congress Rejects Johnsonian Reconstruction
The Fourteenth Amendment
The Reconstruction Acts
Congress Supreme
The Fifteenth Amendment
“Black Republican” Reconstruction: Scalawags and Carpetbaggers
The Ravaged Land
Sharecropping and the Crop-Lien System
The White Backlash
Grant as President
The Disputed Election of 1876
The Compromise of 1877
Unit Four
January, Week One
In the Wake of War
Congress Ascendant
The Political Aftermath of War
Blacks After Reconstruction
Booker T. Washington: A “Reasonable” Champion for Blacks
White Violence and Vengeance
The West After the Civil War
The Plains Indians
Indian Wars
The Destruction of Tribal Life
The Lure of Gold and Silver in the West
Big Business and the Land Bonanza
Western Railroad Building
The Cattle Kingdom
Open-Range Ranching
Barbed-Wire Warfare
January, Week Two
An Industrial Giant
Essentials of Industrial Growth
Railroads: The First Big Business
Iron, Oil, and Electricity
Competition and Monopoly: Railroads
Competition and Monopoly: Steel
Competition and Monopoly: Oil
Competition and Monopoly: Retailing and Utilities
American Ambivalence to Big Business
Reformers: George, Bellamy, Lloyd
Reformers: The Marxists
The Government Reacts to Big Business: Railroad Regulation
The Government Reacts to Big Business: The Sherman Antitrust Act
The Labor Union Movement
The American Federation of Labor
Labor Militancy Rebuffed
Whither America, Whither Democracy?
January, Week Three
American Society in the Industrial Age
Middle-Class Life
Skilled and Unskilled Workers
Working Women
Farmers
Working-Class Family Life
Working-Class Attitudes
Working Your Way Up
The “New” Immigration
New Immigrants Face New Nativism
The Expanding City and Its Problems
Teeming Tenements
The Cities Modernize
Leisure Activities: More Fun and Games
Christianity’s Conscience and the Social Gospel
The Settlement Houses
Civilization and Its Discontents
Semester One Finals
February, Week One
Intellectual and Cultural Trends
The Knowledge Revolution
Magazine Journalism
Colleges and Universities
Revolution in the Social Sciences
Progressive Education
Law and History
Realism in Literature
Mark Twain
William Dean Howells
Henry James
Realism in Art
The Pragmatic Approach
February, Week One
Politics: Local, State, and National
Political Strategy and Tactics
Voting Along Ethnic and Religious Lines
City Bosses
Party Politics: Sidestepping the Issue
Lackluster Leaders
Crops and Complaints
The Populist Movement
Showdown on Silver
The Depression of 1893
The Election of 1896
The Meaning of the Election
February, Week Two
The Age of Reform
Roots of Progressivism
The Muckrakers
The Progressive Mind
“Radical” Progressives: The Wave of the Future
Political Reform: Cities First
Political Reform: The States
State Social Legislation
Political Reform: The Woman Suffrage Movement
Political Reform: Income Taxes and Popular Election of Senators
Theodore Roosevelt: Cowboy in the White House
Roosevelt and Big Business
Roosevelt and the Coal Strike
TR’s Triumphs
Roosevelt Tilts Left
William Howard Taft: The Listless Progressive, or More Is Less
Breakup of the Republican Party
The Election of 1912
Wilson: The New Freedom
The Progressives and Minority Rights
Black Militancy
February, Week Three
From Isolation to Empire
Isolation or Imperialism?
Origins of the Large Policy: Coveting Colonies
Toward an Empire in the Pacific
Toward an Empire in Latin America
The Cuban Revolution
The “Splendid Little” Spanish-American War
Developing a Colonial Policy
The Anti-Imperialists
The Philippine Insurrection
Cuba and the United States
The United States in the Caribbean and Central America
The Open Door Policy
The Panama Canal
Imperialism Without Colonies
Unit Five
February, Week Four
Woodrow Wilson and the Great War
Wilson’s “Moral” Diplomacy
Europe Explodes in War
Freedom of the Seas
The Election of 1916
The Road to War
Mobilizing the Economy
Workers in Wartime
Paying for the War
Propaganda and Civil Liberties
Wartime Reforms
Women and Blacks in Wartime
Americans: To the Trenches and Over the Top
Preparing for Peace
The Paris Peace Conference and the Versailles Treaty
The Senate Rejects the League of Nations
Demobilization
The Read Scare
The Election of 1920
March, Week One
Postwar Society and Culture: Change and Adjustment
Closing the Gates to New Immigrants
New Urban Social Patterns
The Younger Generation
The “New” Woman
Popular Culture: Movies and Radio
The Golden Age of Sports
Urban-Rural Conflicts: Fundamentalism
Urban-Rural Conflicts: Prohibition
The Ku Klux Klan
Sacco and Vanzetti
Literary Trends
The “New Negro”
Economic Expansion
The Age of the Consumer
Henry Ford
The Airplane
March, Week One
The New Era: 1921-1933
Harding and “Normalcy”
“The Business of the United States Is Business
The Harding Scandals
Coolidge Prosperity
Peace Without a Sword
The Peace Movement
The Good Neighbor Policy
The Totalitarian Challenge
War Debts and Reparations
The Election of 1928
Economic Problems
The Stock Market Crash of 1929
Hoover and the Depression
The Economy Hits Bottom
The Depression and Its Victims
The Election of 1932
March, Week Three
The New Deal: 1933-1941
The Hundred Days
The National Recovery Administration (NRA)
The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
The New Deal Spirit
The Unemployed
Literature in the Depression
Three Extremists: Long, Coughlin, and Townsend
The Second New Deal
The Election of 1936
Roosevelt Tries to Undermine the Supreme Court
The New Deal Winds Down
Significance of the New Deal
Women as New Dealers: The Network
Blacks During the New Deal
A New Deal for Indians
The Role of Roosevelt
The Triumph of Isolationism
War Again in Europe
A Third Term for FDR
The Undeclared War
March, Week Five after Spring Break
War and Peace
The Road to Pearl Harbor
Mobilizing the Home Front
The War Economy
War and Social Change
Minorities in Time of War: Blacks, Hispanics, and Indians
The Treatment of German and Italian Americans
Internment of the Japanese
Women’s Contribution to the War Effort
Allied Strategy: Europe First
Germany Overwhelmed
The Naval War in the Pacific
Island Hopping
Building the Atom Bomb
Wartime Diplomacy
Allied Suspicion of Stalin
Yalta and Potsdam
Unit Six
April, Week One
The American Century
The Postwar Economy
The Containment Policy
The Atom Bomb: A “Winning” Weapon?
A Turning Point in Greece
The Marshall Plan and the Lesson of History
Dealing with Japan and China
The Election of 1948
Containing Communism Abroad
Hot War in Korea
The Communist Issue at Home
McCarthyism
Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Eisenhower-Dulles Foreign Policy
McCarthy Self-Destructs
Asian Policy After Korea
Israel and the Middle East
Eisenhower and Khrushchev
Latin America Aroused
The Politics of Civil Rights
The Election of 1960
April, Week Two
From Camelot to Watergate
The Cuban Crisis
The Vietnam War
“We Shall Overcome”: The Civil Rights Movement
Tragedy in Dallas: JFK Assassinated
Lyndon Baines Johnson
The Great Society
Johnson Escalates the War
The Election of 1968
Nixon as President: “Vietnamizing” the War
The Cambodian “Incursion”
Détente with Communism
Nixon in Triumph
Domestic Policy Under Nixon
The Watergate Break-in
More Troubles for Nixon
The Judgment on Watergate: “Expletive Deleted”
The Meaning of Watergate
April, Week Three
Society in Flux
A Society on the Move
The Advent of Television
At Home and Work
The Growing Middle Class
Religion in Changing Times
Literature and Art
The Perils of Progress
The Costs of Prosperity
New Racial Turmoil
Native-Born Ethnics
Rethinking Public Education
Students in Revolt
The Counterculture
The Sexual Revolution
Women’s Liberation
April, Week Four
Running on Empty: The Nation Transformed
The Oil Crisis
Ford as President
The Fall of South Vietnam
Ford Versus Carter
The Carter Presidency
A National Malaise
Stagflation: The Weird Economy
Families Under Stress
Cold War or Détente?
The Iran Crisis: Origins
The Iran Crisis: Carter’s Dilemma
The Election of 1980
Reagan as President
Four More Years
“The Reagan Revolution”
Change and Uncertainty
AIDS
The New Merger Movement
“A Job for Life”: Layoffs Hit Home
A “Bipolar” Economy, a Fractured Society
The Iran-Contra Arms Deal
Review: Last week of April and first week of May
The Following Unit “Misdemeanors and High Crimes” will conclude the APUSH
curriculum. However, many of the themes and topics will be presented after the APUSH
Exam while students are working on their final projects. Scheduling in May will dictate
the presentation of this unit.
Misdemeanors and High Crimes
The Election of 1988
Crime and Punishment
“Crack” and Urban Gangs
George H.W. Bush as President
The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe
The War in the Persian Gulf
The Deficit Worsens
Looting the Savings and Loans
Whitewater and the Clintons
The Election of 1992
A New Start: Clinton
Emergence of the Republican Majority
The Election of 1996
A Racial Divide
Violence and Popular Culture
Clinton Impeached
Clinton’s Legacy
The Economic Boom and the Internet
The 2000 Election: George W. Bush Wins by One Vote
Terrorism Intensifies
September 11, 2001
America Fights Back: War in Afghanistan
The Second Iraq War
The Election of 2004
The Imponderable Future
Advanced Placement Grade
Will be determined by taking the College Board Exam on Friday Morning, May
6, 2016. Location TBA from 8-12:30. The exam consists of 80 multiple-choice
questions. 1 document based essay question and 2 free response essay questions.
The College Board grades the exam. The fee for each exam is $91, with schools retaining
a $9 rebate per exam (Rebates are available, and check to see if you are exempt).
Required Materials
1. Your brain: a.k.a. paper, a pencil, pen, spiral notebook
2. Notebook: Two three-ring binders (One per Semester)
- Tabs: You organize stuff to best fit your personality.
- I prefer chronological order
3. *A spiral notebook for this class only!!! (There will be notebook checks!)
Communication
Some assignments will be placed on my website in order to conserve paper. Also,
this year I am implementing a group list serve for assignments and discussion.
Daily Expectations
Be proud of your work.
Be prepared (Both mentally and physically).
- A spiral notebook for notes
- ALL students will take notes and keep an organized notebook
Turn in your homework BEFORE the bell rings.
Proper Heading:
After August, papers without proper heading will not be accepted for credit. ALL
graded assignments must have a title in the middle of the page and the following
information in the upper right hand corner:
Your first AND last name
Period #
Classroom Behavior Expectations and Policies:
 Students are expected to follow Rangeview and Aurora Public Schools
Regulations.
 Respect others; including their property and space.
 NO CELL PHONES. (This is not negotiable)
Policies for Absences and Make-up work:
 Assignments should be turned into the box at the beginning of class, unless
the agenda on the board indicates that we will be going over the assignment.
 Excused Absence: Students have TWO days to make up the work and may
receive full credit. Note: deadlines are posted multiple days ahead of time.
 Unexcused Absence: Unexcused late assignments are assessed, but marked
late in Infinite Campus with a maximum possible grade of “pp”.
 Excused Absences on test days: Late assessments are graded for full credit
and may be marked late in Infinite Campus.
Primary Textbook
Garraty, John A. The American Nation: A History of The United States. Twelfth
Edition. Pearson, Longman. New York. 2006.
Textbook weblink
o http://wps.ablongman.com/long_longman_lah_1/0,9867,1716440,00.html
 Load this page into your computer
Supplemental Resources
Newman, John. United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement
Examination. 2nd Revised Edition. AMSCO School Publications, Inc. New York.
2006.
Students will have read the top 100 Milestone Documents (Primary Sources) from:
 www.ourdocuments.gov
Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. Anniversary Edition. Harper
Perennial Modern classics. New York. 1999.
Possible Review Books:
 REA - United States History Advanced Placement Examination , Barrons AP
United States History, American History Fact Finder or any book with
alphabetical listing of key American history events.
 ARCO
 Acorn
 Princeton Review
Sue Pojer’s Website
o www.historyteacher.net
o http://www.marshfield.k12.wi.us/socsci/apush_2003/chapter_list.htm
 American Archives.com
 The Library of Congress
Outside reading
For any college level course, outside reading is extremely important. There is not
enough classroom time to cover all events or concepts in American History. The
readings are not required for factual knowledge but to provide the tools so
students may begin to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate historical events. The
readings for the class are given in the class schedule. Each student is expected to
keep up with the reading schedule. To pass the Chapter Exams and the Advanced
Placement Examination these readings are essential.
Class Policies
Survey Text: You are responsible for reading and studying the survey text. While
some of the text will be discussed in detail, much of it will be discussed through
independent learning.
Supplemental Readings: You will be given primary and secondary reading
materials (essays, articles, documents, etc.) within each unit that will deal with an
organizing concept that will be emphasized on the unit writing assignments, The
materials are to be read and eventually used to help construct and defend a thesis
within a timed written essay. These supplementary reading assignments will take
the form of individual reading and response to questions, group assignments and
seminar-type or group discussions.
Note taking: Good note taking skills are essential in an AP course. You are
required to take notes on lectures and discussions and I require a spiral notebook
for that purpose.
Each student will come prepared for class. This includes writing implement,
notebook and textbook. (Spiral or loose-leaf) This class will participate in many
activities. The instructor will provide the supplies needed for the activities.
AP Exam Description:
The AP History Exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes long and includes both a 105-minute
multiple-choice/short-answer section and a 90 minute free response section. Each section
is divided into two parts, as shown in the table below. Student performance on these four
parts will be compiled and weighted to determine an AP Exam score.
Section
Question Type
Number of
Questions
Timing
1
Part A: MC questions
Part B: Short-answer questions
Part A: DBQ
Part B: Long essay question
55 questions
4 questions
1 question
1 of 2 questions
55 minutes
50 minutes
55 minutes
35 minutes
2
Percentage
of Total
Exam Score
40%
20%
25%
15%
Study Sessions and Mock exams:
TBA
Semester Projects
Presidency Memorization Sheet
Primary Source Research Term Paper
Goal: Create a college level research paper
Group Semester Video Montage Project
A fun and historical conclusion to the course
Forest Gump Historical Analysis (May)
* Critical Thinking Synthesis Questions for the Course and the outlines are found at the
start of each textbook chapter. In an effort to reduce paper consumption, I’ve omitted
these headings from your syllabus. I realize that parents are intrigued at what content
will be presented in this course.
Name:
Homework #1:
Look over this syllabus at home and complete this page.
Website: http://kjsiebenthal.aurorak12.org/
Parents/guardians: I believe that _______________________ and you all make up a
team that must work together to ensure that every student is successful. Your child is
expected to adhere to school policies regarding academic honesty. APUSH is a
challenging course and should therefore help prepare your child for university level
coursework. Please read over the syllabus with your child and let me know if you have
any questions, comments, or concerns. When you are finished, please sign below and
have your child return this page to me. Keep my contact information for future reference.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at (303) 326-4645
or kjsiebenthal@aps.k12.co.us. It’s going to be fun!!!
_______________________________
Preferred names of Parent or Guardian
___________________________
Signature of Parent or guardian
Preferred method of communication:
Phone # _____________________
Best time to call ______________
E-Mail Address ____________________
Comments or suggestions: ________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
"'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure
permanently, half slave and half free."
- Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858
"Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration."
- Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931), 1903
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."
- Jimi Hendrix