WARRIOR RUN SCHOOL DISTRICT WARRIOR RUN HIGH SCHOOL AP UNITED STATES HISTORY CURRICULUM PREPARED BY: RICHARD T. NORNHOLD, JR. JUNE 2007 Warrior Run High School AP United States History Syllabus Scope: The course is taught as a survey of the history of The United States from the Pre-Columbian Period to today, with the major emphasis on the years 1763 to 1988 which span our history from the emergence of an American identity to the end of the Cold War and the resurgence of Conservatism. The course seeks to achieve a number of outcomes based on the Academic Standards established by the state of Pennsylvania and consistent with the Advanced Placement Curriculum. These include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Recognizing continuity and change in United States history by examining the growth and changing role of the American political and economic system as well as the foundations and evolution of American culture. Developing critical thinking skills and a deeper appreciation of the complexity of historic issues and their relationship to current events by examining primary and secondary written, oral and physical evidence. Understanding the role of conflict and compromise and how individuals have shaped American history through working together and also by challenging each other. Developing critical thinking skills and a deeper appreciation of the complexity of historic issues and their relationship to current events by evaluating historical interpretation of events. Preparation to be successful on the Advanced Placement United States History test through: a.) mastery of content relevant to the test b.) frequent practice in writing analytical and interpretive essays with special emphasis on the documents based essay (DBQ) The basic framework of the course centers on eight units each of which include chapter tests, at least one seminar and its associated primary and secondary sources and a unit test which includes a DBQ or a free-response essay based on the types used 2 in the AP test. Students spend a great deal of time evaluating their own and their classmates’ writing using the AP rubric. Due to the exigencies of scheduling in the high school, the course meets one period daily during the first semester and then switches to a double period daily during the second semester. This results in more student projects during the second semester. Students are also required to write a term paper as a joint project with the English Department. Course Materials: Kennedy, David, Lizabeth Cohen and Thomas Bailey. The American Pageant. 12th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. (This is the course’s basic text used along with its associated website and other supplemental materials provided by the publisher.) AP reading list developed by the instructor and the high school librarian. Secondary and primary source readings as assigned by the instructor for discussion of seminar topics. Some representative examples will be included in the Course Sequence. A variety of Internet sites and interactive web activities chosen or created by the instructor. Representative examples will be included in the Course Sequence. Course Activities: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Lecture and PowerPoint presentations by the instructor class discussion / seminars Joint English and History term paper Selected videos and video clips Library and internet research Interactive PowerPoint activities Student essays and written reports. Student created dramatizations, PowerPoint presentations and visuals Readings and assignments from the textbook Readings and assignments from teacher selected supplementary sources 3 Expected Levels of Achievement: 1. Student will maintain a 65% or better average on all assigned work. To receive AP credit and the associated weighting factor for the final GPA, an overall grade of 85% must be maintained. 2. Students are expected to complete all assigned work on time and participate consistent with their abilities in all activities. 3. Students are expected to be prepared for class and keep a notebook. 4. Students are expected to maintain good attendance and accept responsibility for make up work. 5. All 11th grade students are expected to complete a term paper, which is a joint project of the History and English Departments. 6. Completion of a summer assignment prior to the start of the school year is also a prerequisite for participation in the AP course. Methods of Evaluation: 1. Class participation as observed by the instructor and by the 2. 3. 4. 5. completion of a variety of in class tasks assigned by the instructor. Chapter tests, unit tests and written assignments. Participation in seminars as observed and recorded by the instructor. Student projects selected from teacher and/or student created lists and approved by the teacher. Student self-evaluations and student evaluations of their peers. Curriculum Calendar, Content and Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed: Unit 1 Founding the New Nation Instructional time 25 days The American Pageant Chapters 1 and 2 (included in the summer assignment) and chapters 3-8. Group Activity – comparison of a Native American creation story to Genesis in the King James Version of The Bible. Develop a thesis and content outline for a compare and contrast essay. Students work with a partner to write a “sophisticated and well 4 developed” thesis based on their comparison of the creation stories and what they might tell us about the two cultures that have come into contact in the New World. Students also prepare a content outline listing information from the creation stories and relevant content from the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the text that would support their thesis. The class compares, analyzes and rates each thesis for the extent of its development. This is their first introduction to a simplistic thesis vs. a well-developed thesis. Unit DBQ: “To what extent had the colonists developed a sense of their identity and unity as Americans by the eve of the Revolution?” The Unit test is always followed with a lesson or two in which the classes’ responses to the DBQ portion of the test are analyzed. Especially following the first few DBQ’s the class is given a handout of each person’s first paragraph and asked to evaluate the thesis and look for indications of sophisticated analysis and development. After every DBQ the documents used in the essay are also analyzed by the group to examine different possible interpretations and uses in the essay. Seminar topics: 1. Was colonial culture uniquely American? 2. What was the major cause of the American Revolution? Was it really a revolution? (Sample readings list for typical seminar: excerpts from historians, Crane Brinton, Theda Skocpol, Martin Lipset, and John C. Miller defining the concept of revolution; excerpt from Thomas Paine, Common Sense; Timothy D. Hall, Central Michigan University, The American Revolution and the Religious Public Sphere; excerpt on James Otis and Patrick Henry from Henry William Elson, History of the United States of America; Stamp Act Congress, 1765, The Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress; excerpt from Stephen Hopkins, 1764, The Rights of Colonists Examined; excerpt from Martin Howard, 1765, A Letter from a Gentleman at Halifax … upon a Pamphlet entitled “The Rights of Colonists Examined”) 3. To what extent were our Founding Fathers democratic and to what extent were they self-interested? Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed – 8.1 8.2 7.1B 7.3 7.4 5.1ABC 5.3ABEK 5.4A 6.3B 6.4BCG 5 Unit 2 Building the New Nation Instructional time 38 days The American Pageant Chapters 9-15 Activities: 1. Web quest topic – During the 1830’s, as abolitionists became more outspoken in the North, Southerners defended their “peculiar institution” by arguing that their slaves were happier and better treated than workers in Northern industries. Assess the validity of this argument in pre-Civil War America. 2. Group activity – Students working with a partner pick a theme from the reform era of early 19th century America such as The 2nd Great Awakening, temperance, women’s rights, Utopianism, etc. Each team then presents a report to the class outlining key ideas, people and the influence of their topic on American life and culture. The team must also find a current event topic with a relationship to their reform era theme. Unit DBQ: “ ‘Reform movements in the United States sought to expand democratic ideals.’ Assess the validity of this statement with specific reference to the years 1825-1850.” Seminar topics: 1. What was the true cause of the War of 1812? 2. When Andrew Jackson vetoed the renewal of the Second Bank of the United States in 1832, he argued that it had become a nondemocratic institution “dangerous to the liberties of the people” and primarily benefiting wealthy stock holders. Assess the validity of this argument. (Sample readings – Andrew Jackson, Veto of the Bank Renewal Bill. July 10, 1832. Daniel Webster, Speech to the United States Senate Urging an Override of the Veto. July 1832. Gareth Davis, The Destruction of The Second Bank of the United States; Rational and Effects. Various readings from student research on the 2nd BUS and from Andrew Jackson on the Web edited by Tim Spalding.) Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed – 8.1 8.2 8.3 7.3 6.1D 6.2H 5.1 5.3 Unit 3 Testing the New Nation Instructional time 15 days 6 The American Pageant Chapters 16-19 Activity – comparison of the speeches by Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun on the Compromise of 1850 Unit DBQ: “By the 1850’s the Constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity, had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created.” Using the documents and your knowledge of the period 1850-1861, assess the validity of this statement. Seminar topic – Assess the role of each of the following as a cause of the Civil War: slavery as a moral issue, expansion of slavery, regional economic differences, lack of effective political leadership, and states’ rights vs. federalism. (Sample readings – Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address. James McPherson, A War That Never Goes Away. Andrew Curry, The Better Angels. The South Carolina Secession Declaration. Selected Statistics on Slavery: 1860 Census. Excerpts from Helen Bosanquet, Free Trade and Peace in the Nineteenth Century. James DeBow, DeBow’s Review: On the Views of Nonslaveholders. 1860.) Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed – 8.1 8.3 7.1B 7.3 6.1A 6.4 5.1 5.3 Unit 4 Civil War and Reconstruction Instructional time 9 days The American Pageant Chapters 20-22 Activity – analysis of political cartoons and a sharecropper’s contract from the Reconstruction Period Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed – 8.1 8.2 8.3 7.1B 5.3G Unit 5 Forging an Industrial Society Instructional time 21 days The American Pageant Chapters 23-26 Activities 1. Students work in teams to create a documents based essay. Students write an appropriate essay question based on a theme from one of the chapters in the unit, find appropriate primary sources to use as documents for the essay and also provide a scoring rubric, outside information list and a summary of possible analysis and inferences that might be derived from the 7 documents. Students administer and score the DBQ’s they have created. Some sample student DBQ’s from this unit: a. To what extent did farmers and factory workers agree on politics and trusts? How did their individual lives differ throughout the Gilded Age? b. How did the rush of immigration and urbanization of America during 1865-1900 affect the country politically, socially and economically? Were the changes for better or worse? Explain thoroughly. c. Discuss the effect that trusts and the completion of the transcontinental railroad had on America’s working class. d. “During the Gilded Age, the Republican and Democratic parties grew so similar in policy that presidential campaigns resorted to mud-splattering.” Assess the validity of this statement. 2. Analysis of a political cartoon from the Presidential Election of 1896. Unit DBQ: “How successful was organized labor in improving the position of workers in the period from 1875 to 1900? Analyze the factors that contributed to the level of success achieved.” Seminar – Which is a more accurate description of the wealthy industrialists of the Gilded Age, “Robber Barons” or “Captains of Industry?” (Sample readings – excerpt from John Tipple, “Big Businessmen and a New Economy,” The Gilded Age. Morgan (ed.) Syracuse University Press, 1970. Excerpt from Alfred Chandler, “The Beginnings of ‘Big Business’ in American Industry.” Business History Review. 1959. Excerpts from Henry George, Social Problems. 1883. Excerpt from Andrew Carnegie, Wealth. 1889. J. Bradford DeLong, Robber Barons. 1998. Patrick Spooner, Why We Are Rich … the Great Legacy of America’s Robber Barons. 1998.) Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed – 8.1 8.2 8.3 7.3 7.4 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 5.1A,C 5.3 Unit 6 The Progressives and Boom to Bust Instructional time 21 days The American Pageant Chapters 27-32 8 Activity – Interactive PowerPoint on child labor with hyperlinks to Lewis Hines’ photographs for The National Child Labor Committee from 1908-1912. Unit DBQ: “You are the editor of the Watsontown Tribune, a respected newspaper in the Central Susquehanna Valley. Write an editorial expressing your opinion on whether or not the United States Senate should ratify the Treaty of Versailles with its commitment to the League of Nations. Remember you must rely on your knowledge of history up to 1920 and the provided documents. You have no knowledge of future events; you may only deduce future outcomes of this decision.” Seminar topics 1. Were the Progressives Imperialists? 2. Using the treatment of World War I dissenters as a case study, what limits, if any, should be placed on freedom of speech during times of war? (Sample readings – Excerpt from Oliver Wendell Holmes dissent in Abrams v. United States, 1919, World War I Protesters Should Be Guaranteed Freedom of Speech. Excerpt from John H. Wigmore. Abrams v. U.S. :Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Thuggery in War-Time and Peace-Time. Illinois Law Review. March 1920. Excerpt from Eugene Debs’s Canton, Ohio Speech 1918. Section 3 of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917. Summary of the ruling in Schenk v. The United States (1919). Excerpt from Ward Churchill’s essay “Some People Push Back” On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. 2005.) Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed – 8.1 8.3 8.4D 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Unit 7 Depression to Cold War Instructional time 16 days The American Pageant Chapters 33-37 Activities 1. 2. Students are divided into two debate teams ( U.S. v. Soviet Union) and research and debate “Who was responsible for starting the Cold War?” Students develop “ top 10” lists for 20th Century America (examples: 10 best Presidents, 10 greatest medical breakthroughs, 10 most important writers) then working with a 9 partner they choose a list and do a PowerPoint presentation justifying their choices to be included on the list. 3. Analysis of a political cartoon from the New Deal Era. 4. Sample free response question for Chapter 33 test: “Describe the relationship between American tariff policy, war debts, and reparations and the Great Depression. Explain why the federal government adopted the tariff and debt repayment policies it did. Assess the wisdom of these policies.” Unit DBQ: “Analyze the responses of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration to the problems of the Great Depression. How effective were these responses? How did they change the role of the federal government?” Seminar topics 1. Was the New Deal a Great Achievement? (Sample readings – Barton J. Bernstein, “The New Deal Achieved Little” excerpt from Towards a New Past. Random House, 1968. William E. Leuchtenburg, “The New Deal Was a Great Achievement” excerpt from Fifty Years Later: The New Deal Reevaluated. Temple University Press, 1985. The New Deal: Measures for Relief, Recovery and Reform, a brief summary of the government programs enacted as part of FDR’s New Deal from ercir.syr.edu. Jim Powell, “Tough Questions for Defenders of the New Deal,” The Wall Street Journal. November 2003. 2. Was the use of the atomic bomb against Japan justified? Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed – 8.1 8.3 8.4 7.3 6.4 5.1 5.4 Unit 8 Modern America Instructional time 20 days The American Pageant Chapters 38-41 Activities – most of the activities in the final unit are review activities in preparation for the AP test. These include a variety of student and instructor created games such as History Jeopardy, History Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, interactive PowerPoint quizzes, and practice tests. Unit DBQ: Use your knowledge of the decades of the 1960’s and 70’s and your interpretation of Documents A-K to construct a coherent essay on the following question. “1968 was a turning 10 point for the United States.” To what extent is this statement an accurate assessment? Seminar topics 1. Should the Electoral College be abolished? 2. Could the fall of South Vietnam have been prevented? 3. Will history forgive Richard Nixon? Pennsylvania State Standards Addressed – 8.1 8.3 8.4C,D 7.3A,B,D 5.1A,B,C,E 5.2 5.3 5.4 11