ADVANCED PLACEMENT UNITED STATES HISTORY
COURSE REQUIREMENTS 2013-2014
Teachers: Stuart Dodge
Texts: The American Pageant, 14th edition, by Thomas Bailey, et. al.
A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn
Fast Track To A 5: Preparing for the AP United States History Exam, by Mark Epstein
Due to the special nature of Advanced Placement classes, students must make specific
commitments. After reading the following expectations and responsibilities your signature indicates
agreement to these commitments. Your parent(s) or guardian must sign also, indicating his/her
understanding and support of the requirements of APUSH. Advanced Placement United States may be the
most demanding, challenging and time-consuming classes you will ever have. The work load and time
commitments are similar to a college level class. However, it will also be one of the most rewarding and
fun classes you have had…just ask a former APUSH student!
Course Content:
Advanced Placement United States History surveys the history of the United States beginning with
the native inhabitants and ending with international affairs and domestic changes in the post World War
Two era. At the core of the text is a vision of democratic history, one not confined to the deeds of the
great and powerful but also with the experience of the ordinary and not so great peoples who formed the
United States.
This Course is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of U.S. History and to provide
students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems
and materials in United States History. This program prepares you for intermediate and advanced college
courses by making demands upon you equivalent to those made by a full-year introductory college course.
Students should learn to assess historical materials; develop relevance to a given interpretive problem,
determine reliability, and importance, and to weigh the evidence presented in historical scholarship. The
APUSH course develops the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed
judgement and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in essay format.
In addition, it is the expectation of CHS that each and every student takes the nation AP US
History Examination on May 14th 2014. The College Board exam can earn you a full year of college
credit in U.S. History depending upon which college / university you chose to attend. If you are thinking
of not taking the exam, please talk to me first; I can be very persuasive.
Course Expectations:
My expectations for this class and my APUSH students are very simple; I expect only the best.
This class has three primary goals. One is to prepare you for the Advanced Placement History exam that
takes place in May. The second is to make you a better informed, more perceptive student who will be
able to: analyze materials; understand why things happen and what their consequences might be; and
understand positions that differ from your own (and in some cases support them). Finally, this class will
act as a stepping stone to your senior year - a year in which you will be expected to embody good
citizenship - and this material should give you a running start in that area. Please remember that this class
mirrors a first year college United States History survey course. Preparation for the national AP exam, as
well as course requirements, will necessitate striking a balance between learning factual knowledge and
increasing critical thinking skills of analysis, interpretation, synthesis and evaluation. You will have to
make sacrifices. It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is
necessary. -Winston Churchill
as of:3/12/16
Homework:
APUSH is a demanding course requiring homework almost every weeknight, and often on the
weekends and vacations as well. Each and every chapter must be read, a chapter summary assignment
written and a quiz taken after each chapter. We will cover approximately 42 chapters by the end of April..
Students desiring a grade of “A” or “B” will need to spend a minimum of 5 - 10 hours a week on
assignments, readings and review. Assignments turned in late will receive a 50% deduction, but are still
expected to be turned in. Assignments turned in incomplete, in any manor, will receive a 50% deduction.
Assignments not turned in will receive ZERO points. Extra preparation and study is necessary to prepare
for the national AP exam. Begin planning and preparing now to take the exam in May. I strongly
recommend purchasing a course review guide from a local book store.
Grading:
All APUSH assignments, quizzes and exams are graded on a point system. Students may check
their grades on-line at any time. Because of the strenuous amount of work and difficult nature of the
Advanced Placement class, final grades and exam grades will be earned as follows:
A = 100 – 90%
B+ = 84 – 80 %
B - = 74 – 70 %
A- = 89 – 85%
B = 79 – 75%
C = 69- 60%
Students who receive a “3” on the national exam will receive a 10% grade increase for a single
semester of their choice. Students who receive a “4” will receive an “A” for a single semester of their
choice and students who receive a “5” on the national exam will receive an “A” for both semesters. It is
the student’s responcibility to inform the teacher the following semester if they have earned this grade
change. All grade changes must take place by October 1st. However, PLEASE do not simply plan to
“slide” through the class and then pass the exam. I can tell you from 22 years of experience, you must
work very hard to pass the national excam. You will get out what you put in.
A.P. History Notebook:
All written work, graded assignments, notes and handouts must be kept in an AP History
notebook. This notebook will be collected and graded at the end of each semester. It will be graded on
completeness, organization, and the content. Do not throw anything away! This notebook will become
your study guide for the AP exam and is worth 100 points each semester. I may also call for surprise
notebook checks and award extra credit. Please refer to the notebook assignment page.
Materials:
The main text for the course is The American Pageant by Kennedy et al. Pageant is a well
respected, highly used, traditional text. You will also be assigned readings from Howard Zinn’s, A
People’s History of the United States. Zinn’s history is an alternative viewpoint of American history,
written from the common person’s standpoint. You will also be given your own copy of an AP study
guide. As if this weren’t enough, I hope you do some outside reading, watch the local and world news and
last but not least, form a study group to help decipher the loads of information we will be covering.
Lecture Notes:
Studies show students that write down what they are learning/reading are more successful in the
classroom. Therefore, lecture notes ARE REQUIRED and will be collected and graded (on a completion
basis) on the day of the unit exam. If a student is absent, they may copy notes from another student.
ALL LECTURE NOTES MUST BE DONE IN A STUDENT’S OWN HANDWRIING.
as of:3/12/16
Teacher Contact:
If the student or the parent would like to contact me I can be reached at school at 566-2458. I
would be more than happy to answer any questions or schedule a meeting to address any concerns. I can
also be reached by e-mail: sdodge@upsd.wednet.edu
Attendance:
Attendance is more than very important. Although you may be able to make up notes, assignments and
quizzes, there is no way you can make up the discussion, questions and amazing stories I tell in class. I
guarantee that there is a direct correlation between your grade and your attendance. Just be here!
Units:
What follows is a breakdown of the year into 9 units and their corresponding required readings from your
textbooks. We will cover at least one chapter a week. Each unit concludes with a unit exam and in-class
or take-home essay.
Unit
Dates
Theme
Bailey Zinn
Epstein (pp)
Unit 1: 1492-1692
From Discovery to Colonization
1-4
1, 2
63-73
Unit 2: 1607-1783
The Revolutionary Era
5-8
4, 6
75-106
Unit 3: 1783-1824
Confederation, Constitution, and the New Republic
9-12
5
107-145
Unit 4: 1824-1860
The Rise of Jacksonian Democracy
13-17
7
155-171
Unit 5: 1793-1854
Disunion and Civil War
18-22
9,10
171-209
END OF FIRST SEMESTER
Unit 6: 1869-1899
The Rise of the World Power
23-27
11, 12
209-225
Unit 7:
The Progressives and The Great War
28-30
13
227-295
Unit 8: 1919-1938
The Roaring 20’s, Depression,New Deal and War
31 - 35 15,16
297-345
Unit 9: 1960-1996
The Cold War & Modern America
36-40
345-411
1899-1918
17, 18
A final thought…
Please don’t let the tone of this syllabus scare you off. Yes, this is a hard class. However, I know that
when it is all said and done, you will have enjoyed your time in my class and feel as if you have learned a
little about American History. The bottom line is that, even if you don’t like history, I guarantee that you
are going to have some fun.
A final, final thought…
You will get out of this class what you put into this class. Being a successful AP student is all about time
management. There WILL come a point where you simply can’t do everything that is asked of you.
However, if you are constantly cutting corners and missing readings, it will become a problem. You may
be able to fool yourself, your parents and your teachers, but you can’t fool the AP exam.
as of:3/12/16
Tenitative
Course Schedule
A majority of your assigned work will be comprised of four types of assesment.
This class will also have other types of in-class assignments and discussions. Some
assignments will be used as informal teacher assesment and will not be included in the
gradebook but should stay in your notebook.
Each chapter will be assigned a TWO
PAGE summary followed by a chapter
quiz. Summaries are due on the below
listed quiz dates. Summaries will be
date stamped on quiz days. Stamped
summaries will be turned in on unit
exam days.
Chapter Quiz Chapter
Quiz
summary Date summary
Date
1
9/9
22
TBA
2
9/13
23
1/31
3
9/18
24
2/5
4
9/23
25
2/10
5
10/4
26
2/14
6
10/9
27
3/3
7
10/14
28
3/6
8
10/18
29
3/11
9
10/30
30
3/14
10
11/4
31
3/26
11
11/8
32
3/31
12
11/14
33
4/3
13
11/27
34
4/8
14
12/4
35
4/11
15
12/9
36
TBA
16
12/18
37
TBA
17
1/10
38
TBA
18
1/14
39
TBA
19
1/17
40
TBA
20
TBA
41
TBA
21
TBA
42
TBA
as of:3/12/16
Each unit is composed of 3-5 chapters.
Unit exam will be composed of upto
100 multiple choice questions and a
Vocabulary Exam On each MC exam
date, the assigned stamped chapter
summaries will be collected.
Unit Exams
(chapters)
Unit #1 (ch.1-4)
Unit #2 (5-8)
Unit #3 (9-12)
Unit #4 (13-15)
Unit #5 (16-19)
Unit #6 (23-26)
Unit #7 (27-30)
Unit #8 (31-35)
Unit #9 (36-42)
Exam
Date
9/24
10/18
11/8
12/8
1/25
2/18
3/11
3/31
TBA
Each unit will have an assigned essay.
FR/DBQ.
FR #1
DBQ #1
FR #2
DBQ #2
FR #3
DBQ #3
FR #4
DBQ #4
Date
9/27
10/24
11/20
12/13
1/27
2/27
3/20
TBA
APUSH
2013-2014 Course Requirements
Student/Parent Signatures
My signature below indicates that I have read and understand all course requirements. I also understand
that this is an Advanced Placement course and it may require a greater time commitment and work load
than a more traditional United States History class.
Student signature
Parent signature
Student printed name
Class Period: 1
Please circle
2
Parent printed name
3
Questions/Comments:
as of:3/12/16
4
5
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