Mr. Christian Rollino
christian_rollino@ecsonline.org
AP U.S. History Syllabus
2015-2016
Advanced Placement United States History is a college level, chronological and thematic
survey course in United States History covering the time period from Colonial America (1491) to
the present. The Advanced Placement program in United States History is designed to provide
students with the analytic skill and factual knowledge to deal critically with the problems and
issues in United States History. The course prepares students for intermediate and advanced
college courses by making demands equivalent to those made by full year introductory college
courses. Students will learn to asses historical materials—their relevance to a given interpretive
problem, their reliability, and their importance, and to weigh the evidence and interpretations
presented in historical scholarship. Throughout the course students will be provided with the
opportunity for instruction in the learning objectives in each of the seven themes as described in
the AP U.S. History curriculum framework.
Course Objectives:
-Student will acquire fundamental and advanced knowledge of United States political, social,
economic, constitutional, cultural, diplomatic, environmental, and intellectual history.
-Students will develop mastery of the four historical thinking skills: Chronological Reasoning,
Comparison and Contextualization, Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence, and
Historical Interpretation and Synthesis.
-Students will demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the content, concepts and themes unique
to United States History.
-Students will develop the ability to think and reason analytically as demonstrated through
argumentative and persuasive essay and expository writing of document based and free response
essay questions, short answer responses as well as article reviews, and book reviews.
-Students will demonstrate mastery of the content and their ability to synthesize historical
material through stimulus based multiple choice questions.
Required Texts:
Gonick, Larry. The Cartoon History of the United States. Harper Collins, New York, 2005.
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant: A History
of the Republic. 14th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2010.
Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States 1492-Present. HarperCollins. New York,
2003.
Course Requirements:
-Students will create and maintain and AP U.S. History notebook. The notebook will be of a
spiral 5-subject type and contain the following sections: class notes, historical period reading
journal, class activities, document analysis, test preparation and review.
-Students will maintain a reading journal of their assignments. This journal will contain the
homework assignments which are to be turned in on the dates indicated on the student syllabus.
The reading journal will include process skill assignments including, but not limited to: outlines,
levels of questions, using subheadings, review questions from the student workbook, historical
heads, and other interactive reading strategies as assigned. After review by the instructor or his
designate, these assignments will be returned to the students and placed in the AP notebook in
the section, reading journal. The reading journal will count up to 30% of the final grade.
-There will be a minimum of four examinations each quarter-three midterm and one final exam.
Expect weekly quizzes on the required textbook reading. The examination format will include
stimulus based multiple choice questions, free response and document based essay questions as
well as short answer responses. The final examination each quarter will be comprehensive.
Examinations will count up to 40% of the final grade.
-Students will submit written responses and evaluations of primary and secondary sources,
(usually referred to as “article reviews”). These analytic writing assignments are based on the
historical texts and history articles and will comprise up to 30% of the final grade. Specific due
dates will be announced in the student syllabus available at the beginning of each quarter.
-Late assignments will receive a lowered grade. All assignments will be graciously accepted
until 4:00 p.m. on the due date designated in the student syllabus. Assignments may be
electronically transmitted – some assignments will require students to use Turn-it-in.com.
-All students enrolled in AP U.S. History are encouraged but not required to take the Advanced
Placement United States History Examination. The AP test will be administered during the first
part of May each year. Scheduled Date 5/6/2016
- Changes to the Syllabus/Required readings may change at instructor’s discretion
Grading policies:
- Grading will follow ECHS standard grading policy.
-Grades will be calculated on a 4.0 scale, using the requirements outlined above. Grades for
objective work will be determined using standard deviation. Written work will be evaluated on
the clarity and strength of the thesis, quality of the supporting details, and strength of the analytic
and evaluative arguments presented. All written work will be evaluated using an appropriate
score based rubric.
Course Outline/Units of Study
First Quarter 10 Weeks-August 25-October 30
Unit I Period I: 1491-1607
Central Focus:
On a North American Continent controlled by American Indians, contact among the
peoples of Europe, the Americas, and West Africa created a new world.
Essential Questions:
1:1
Before the arrival of Europeans, native populations in North America developed a wide
variety of social, political, and economic structures based in part on interactions with the
environment and each other.
1:2
European overseas expansion resulted in the Columbian Exchange, a series of
interactions and adaptations among societies across the Atlantic.
1.3
Contacts among American Indians, Africans, and Europeans challenged the worldviews
of each group.
Content of the Unit
Native American cultures before European contact
European Colonization of North American: France, Great Britain, Spain
Merging of Cultures: Native Americans, Africans, Europeans
Thematic Learning Objectives
Colonialism
Ethnocentrism
Transformations
Exchange
Migration
Environment
Identity
Ideas
Beliefs
Culture
Reading Assignments:
American Pageant :
Chapter 1: New World Beginnings 33,000 BCE – 1769 CE
Chapter 2: The Planting of English America 1500 - 1733
Chapter 3: Settling the Northern Colonies 1619 - 1700
Gonick:
Prologue: Who Found it?
Zinn:
Chapter 1: Columbus, the Indians and Human Progress
Schweikart:
Prologue: Interview with Larry Schweikart, March 2005
Essential Documents:
Bartolome de Las Casas. “The Destruction of the Indies: A brief account”
Auchincloss, Kenneth. “When Worlds Collide”
Haines, Michael R., etal. “Twentieth Century estimates of the Aboriginal
population of North American Indians.” (chart)
Columbus, Christopher. “From a letter to the King and Queen of Spain”
Indian and Non-Indian Populations (chart)
Chumash Indian Literature
Activities:
Ask students to bring to class images of American Indians from movie clips, news
articles or advertisements. Ask students to determine what images of American Indians present.
Further the discussion by asking student to categorize the images from earliest to most recent.
Continue the conversation by asking student to agree or disagree that 1491 rather than 1492 is
the best possible date to start the AP U.S. history course. Have students suggest other possible
starting points and labels might be. Discuss the implications of starting points in studying U.S.
history, and demonstrate why the world was fundamentally different after 1492. (CR 10)
Ask students to make a list of the different ways that native people interacted with
their environments, and then discuss how theses interactions shaped American Indian institutions
and values. (ENV-2) (CR 4)
Students will write a 50 word response to the article “When Worlds Collide”
focusing on how the arrival of the Europeans created a new world order. (CR-12)
After reading chapter one in Zinn and chapter one in Schweikart students will
compare the authors points of view on U.S. history in a class discussion. (CR-6)
Students will write an in class essay on the impact of European immigration on
the lives of Native Americans in the 16th Century. (CR-12)
Media Resources:
Africans in America Part I. The Terrible Transformation. PBS, 1988.
We Shall Remain: America Through Native Eyes. PBS 2009
Methods of Assessment:
Article Review: (refer to Appendix). After reading “Columbus in History
(xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/Columbus/col3.html) students will complete a review of this article.
(CR 13a) (CR-6), (CR-8)
Essay: In what ways and to what extent was long distance trade in exotic goods an
important phenomenon in North America, Europe and Africa?
Unit II Period 2: 1607-1754
Central Focus:
Europeans and American Indians maneuvered and fought for dominance, control and
security in North America, and distinctive colonial and native societies emerged.
Essential Questions:
2.1
Differences in imperial goals, cultures, and the North American environments that
different empires confronted led Europeans to develop diverse patterns of colonization.
2.2
European colonization efforts in North America stimulated intercultural contact and
intensified conflict between various groups of colonizers and native peoples.
2.3
The increasing political, economic and cultural exchanges within the “Atlantic World”
had a profound impact on the development of colonial societies in North America.
Content of the Unit:
Colonial North America
Population growth and immigration
Transatlantic trade and mercantilism
Growth of plantation economies
Slavery in Colonial America
Mercantilism/Economic theory
Society and Culture in Colonial America
Southern, Middle, and Northern Colonies
The impact of religion in North American Colonies
Thematic Learning Objectives: (CR-3), (CR-8)
Colonialism
Mercantilism
Slavery
Ethnocentrism
Protestantism
Reading Assignments
American Pageant:
Gonick:
Chapter 4: American Life in the 17th Century 1607 - 1692
Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution 1700 - 1775
Chapter 6: The Duel for North America 1608 - 1763
Chapter 1: In which England plants this and that
Chapter 2: New colonies and baby chickens
Zinn:
Chapter 2-Drawing the Color line
Chapter 3-Persons of Mean and vile condition
Schweikart:
Chapter 2: Colonial Adolescence
American Record: Merrell, James H. “The Indians New World”
Morgan, Edmund S. “The Labor Problem at Jamestown”
Randall, Willard, Nahra. “Anne Marbury Hutchinson: This Great and
Sore Affliction.”
Essential Documents:
Frethorne, Richard. “Letter to his father and mother.”
Carver, John, etal. “The Mayflower Compact”
Winthrop, John.
“A Model of Christian Charity.”
Rawson, Edward, etal. “The First Thanksgiving Proclamation”
Ships List of Immigrants
Two views of the Middle Passage Henretta, P. 94
Activities:
Students will create a graphic organizer comparing the three colonial geographic regions
Geography, Economy, Religious, Political Social and Cultural Aspects (refer to
Appendix) (CR 11)
Students will complete an outline map of the 13 British colonies in North America (refer
to Appendix (CR1)
Using APPARTS analyze the documents listed above, to be followed by a class
discussion of the similarities and differences in development in colonial society
(CR5)
Media Resources:
In Search of History: The Salem Witch Trials. The History Channel, 1996.
We Shall Remain: America Through Native Eyes. PBS 2009
The Patriot. Columbia Tristar. 2000
The Last of the Mohicans. Twentieth Century Fox, 1992.
Reel Injun; On the trail of the Hollywood Indian. Lorber Films 2009
Methods of Assessment:
Document Based Essay Question, “Although New England and the Chesapeake region
were both settled largely by people of English origin, by 1700 the regions had evolved into two
distinct societies. Why did this difference in development occur?” (AP U.S. History
examination, 1993. (CR5)
Unit III Period 3: 1754-1800
Central Focus:
British imperial attempts to reassert control over its colonies and the colonial reaction to
these attempts produced a new American republic, along with struggles over the new nation’s
social, political and economic identity.
Essential Questions:
3.1
Britain’s victory over France in the imperial struggle for North America led to new
conflicts among the British government, the North American colonists, and American Indians,
culminating in the creation of a new nation, the United States
3.2
In the late 18th century, new experiments with democratic ideas and republican forms of
government, as well as other new religious, economic, and cultural ideas challenged traditional
imperial systems across the Atlantic world.
3.3
Migration within North America, cooperative interaction and competition for resources
raised questions about boundaries and policies, intensified conflicts among peoples and nations,
and led to contests over the creation of a multiethnic, multiracial national identity.
Content of the Unit
Population growth and immigration
Transatlantic trade and mercantilism
Growth of plantation economies
The Enlightenment in North America
The French and Indian War
The imperial crises and resistance to Britain
The War for Independence
Realizing an American identity
Creating a new nation-Confederation
The Constitution of 1787
Crafting Republican government
The new nation
Thematic Learning Objectives (CR-3), (CR-8)
Enlightenment
Revolution
Confederation
Federalism
Republicanism
Sovereignty
Sectionalism
Reading Assignments:
American Pageant:
Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution 1763-1775
Chapter 8: America Secedes from the Empire 1775-1783
Chapter 9: The Confederation and the Constitution 1776-1790
Chapter 10: Launching the New Ship of State 1789-1800
Gonick:
Chapter 4: Mighty Beefs from Little Beavers Grow
Chapter 5: In Which Happiness is Pursued, Gun in Hand
Chapter 6: Shoes, Myths, The Constitution, Etc.
Schweikart:
Chapter 3: Colonies No More
Chapter 4: A Nation of Law 1776-1789
Zinn:
Chapter 4: Tyranny is Tyranny
Chapter 5: A Kind of Revolution
Essential Documents:
Navigation Acts, September 13, 1660
The Stamp Act of 1765
“Join or Die” 1754
“Common Sense” Thomas Paine 1776
“ Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania-John Dickinson
“America as a land of Opportunity” Benjamin Franklin, 1751
Pordence Punderson 1758-1784. “The first, second and last stages of mortality. Henretta,
p. 116.
Hamilton and Jefferson “Views on the creation of the National Bank.”
Activities:
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale provides an illuminating portrait of one
woman’s experience in the late eighteenth century. Students will examine excerpts from Martha
Ballard’s diary at dohistory.org to get a sense of life in New England. Since Ballard’s entries are
taken from the period after the Revolution, students will compare the entries with the textbook’s
account of women’s lives in chapter four. What has changed for women by the late eighteenth
century? What has remained the same?. (CR 9) (CR-8)
Using APPARTS Students will examine 11 primary and secondary source documents on
the Battle of Lexington and Concord. After completing their analysis, they will complete a
document key which helps them to answer the question, “Who fired the first shot at the battle of
Lexington and Concord?” (CR 7) (CR-5)
Students will research the events leading to the American Revolution and complete the
chart The Path to Revolution (The Center for Learning Lesson 7, Handout 7) (CR 9)
Students will read Hector St. John Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer and
answer the question: If Crevecoeur describes what an American is, then what is a European?
(ID 1) (CR-6)
Students will compare the views of Hamilton and Jefferson on the Creation of the
National Bank (CR-6)
Media Resources:
Liberty! The American Revolution Part I: The Reluctant Revolutionaries PBS,
1997.
Methods of Assessment:
Essay:
Analyze the extent to which the American Revolution represented a radical
alteration in American political ideas and institutions between 1750-1781. (ID-1),
(POL-1), (CUL-2) (CR-8)
Document Based Essay:
To what extent had the colonists developed a sense of their identify and unity as
Americans by the eve of the Revolution? (1999 DBQ) (WXT-1), (WOR-1), (CUL-4)
In what ways did the French and Indian War (1754-63) alter the political,
economic and ideological relations between Britain and its American colonies? 2004 DBQ
(CR- 7), ( CR- 8), (WXT-1)
“From 1781-1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with
an effective government.” Using the documents and your knowledge of the period, evaluate this
statement.( 1985 DBQ) (CR 7) (WXT-6), (POL-5), (WOR-5)
Appendix I
The Process Skills
Critical Reading Skills
Levels of Questions
SOAPS (Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker)
APPARTS (Author, Place and Time, Purpose, Audience, Reasons, The Main Idea,
Significance)
Harvard Online
Using Subheadings
“One Pager”
Thematic Learning Objectives
Outlining
Analytical Writing Skills
Persuasive Analytical Essay
Argumentative Essay
Article Review
Book Review
Document Based Question
Thinking Skills
Recognize the temporal structure of events
Compare and contrast the differing ideas, values, behaviors, and institutions
Detecting bias in historical writing
Differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations
Consider multiple perspectives
Analyze cause and effect relationships
Utilize visual data in charts, graphs, maps, and graphic organizers
Recognize the significance of change over time
Read and critically evaluate historical narratives
Recognize connections between the past and the present
Defend an interpretation
Access and assess historical data electronically
Utilize visual, literary and musical sources
Appendix II
Teaching Methods and Learning Activities
Teacher Led Inquiry
Student Led Inquiry
Lecture
Power-Point Presentations by Students and Teacher
VHS and DVD Presentations and Analysis
Writing Essays, Article Reviews, & Book Reviews
Writing historical narratives
Conducting historical research
Study group Assignments
Student Presentations
Discussion
Simulation Activities
Philosophical Chairs
Environmental Charter High School
First Quarter Syllabus
AP U.S. History
American Pageant 14th Edition
APUSH Reading Journal – Chapter Notes/Outlines and Review
Chapter
Title
Date Due
1
New World Beginnings
September 8-9, 2014
2
The Planting of English America
September 14, 2014
3
Settling the Northern Colonies
September 21, 2014
4
American Life in the Seventeenth Century
September 28, 2014
5
Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution
October 5, 2014
6
The Duel for North America
October 12, 2014
7
The Road to Revolution
October 12, 2014
8
America Secedes from the Empire
October 19, 2014
9
The Confederation and the Constitution
October 19, 2014
10
Launching the New Ship of State
October 26, 2014
Test
Chapters
Date
Midterm I
1, 2, 3
September 14, 2014
Midterm II
4, 5, 6
October 12, 2014
Midterm III
7, 8, 9, 10
October 29-30, 2014