AP World History Syllabus



AP World History

2011-2012 Course Syllabus

Mr. O’Brien

Room: 274

Email: teobrien@cps.edu

Phone: 773-544-6186

Office Hours: 3:00-4:00 p.m Monday-Thursday (or by appointment)

Course Description

Welcome to AP World History. This course is the equivalent of a college level world history class. The course culminates with the AP Exam on May 17, 2012. Students who pass the AP Exam may earn college credit. All students will take the AP World History test, as it is a course requirement.

This class offers a true global approach to understanding the history of our world, beginning around 8,000 BCE and ending at the end of the 20th century. Studying 10,000 years of history in one school year is no easy task. While it is impossible to learn about everything that happened in these 10 ,000 years, it is possible to study continuity and change over time, make comparisons between cultures, and study some general themes that can help us synthesize what we are able to learn. In order to analyze these common threads and subsequent changes over time, we will utilize a thematic approach throughout the class. These themes will be discussed in more specific detail throughout the year. Specifically we will use the following five themes as outline in the AP World History course description:

The Five AP World History Themes:

1. Interaction between humans and the environment (demography and disease, migration, patterns of settlement, technology)

2. Development and interaction of cultures (religions, belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies, science and technology, the arts and architecture)

3. State-building, expansion, and conflict (political structures and forms of governance, empires, nations and nationalism, revolts and revolutions, regional, transregional, and global structures and organizations)

4. Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems (agricultural and pastoral production, trade and commerce, labor systems, industrialization, capitalism and socialism)

5. Development and transformation of social structures (gender roles and relations, family and kinship, racial and ethnic constructions, social and economic classes)

Historical Thinking Skills

The study of history requires a set of specialized skills, well beyond the simple memorization of names and dates. To ‘think historically’ means that you are able to employ these skills, as necessary, in order to analyze whatever topic we happen to be studying at the time. You will use each of these skills throughout the course of the year:

1. Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence (making arguments and supporting them with evidence from primary and secondary sources)

2. Chronological Reasoning (historical causation, change and continuity over time and periodization)

3. Comparisons and Contextualization

4. Historical Interpretation and Synthesis

Primary text and document reader:

Ways of the World: A Brief Global History, 1st Edition, by Robert W. Strayer (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009).

Documents in World History Vols. 1 and 2 by Stearns, et al. (Longman, 2008)

Outside readings and resources used in the course:

2003–2011 AP World History Essay Questions, Rubrics and Student Samples (AP

Central)

McNeill, J.R. and William H. McNeill. The Human Web: A Bird’s Eye View of World History (W.W. Norton, 2003)

Mitchell, Joseph R. and Helen Buss Mitchell, ed. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in World History (McGraw Hill, 2007)

Pomeranz, Kenneth and Steven Topik. The World That Trade Created (A.E. Sharpe, 1999)

Stearns, Peter N. et al. Experiencing World History (New York University Press, 2000)

General Course Requirements

• Prepare to take the AP Exam on Thursday, May 17.

• Actively participate in class and complete all assignments thoroughly and promptly.

• Attend class daily, arriving on time.

• Make up work when absent—contact instructor and send assignments due electronically if possible; make prior arrangements for planned absences.

• Keep a well-organized and complete binder and notebook for the entire year and bring to class daily.

• Ask instructor for help if needed.

• Challenge yourself to work hard and maintain high standards.

• Take advantage of opportunities to redo work for mastery of the content and skills of the course

Learning Targets/Literacy Strategies

In addition to the course content objectives College Readiness Standards (score band 24-27) will be addressed throughout the year to support achievement and learning. The reading standards that we will target this year are as follows:

|Main Idea and Author’s Approach |Supporting Details |Sequential, Comparative, and |Meanings of Words |Generalizations and |

| | |Cause-Effect relationships | |Conclusions |

|Identify a clear main idea or |Locate important details |Order sequence of events in |Use context to |Draw subtle |

|purpose of any paragraph or |in more challenging |uncomplicated passages |determine the |generatlizations and |

|paragraphs in uncomplicated |passages. | |appropriate meaning of|conclusions about |

|passages | |Understand relationships between people,|some figurative and |characters, ideas and so |

| |Locate and interpret |ideas and so on in uncomplicated |non-figurative words, |on in uncomplicated |

|Infer the main idea or purpose of |minor or subtly stated |passages |phrases and statements|literary narratives |

|straightforward paragraphs in more|details in uncomplicated | |in uncomplicated | |

|challenging passages |passages. |Identify clear relationships between |passages. |Draw simple |

| | |characters, ideas, and so on in more | |generalizations and |

|Summarize basic events and ideas |Discern which details, |challenging literary narratives | |conclusions about people, |

|in more challenging passages |though they may appear in| | |ideas and so on in more |

| |different sections |Understand implied or subtly stated | |challenging passages |

|Understand the overall approach |throughout a passage, |cause-effect relationships in | | |

|taken by an author or narrator |support important points |uncomplicated passages | | |

|(e.g., point of view, kinds of |in more challenging | | | |

|evidence used in more challenging |passages. |Identify clear cause-effect | | |

|passages) | |relationships in more challenging | | |

| | |passages | | |

Course Outline

UNIT I. Foundations, c. 8000 BCE to 600 BCE (3 weeks)

Weeks 1-3 (September 7-September 22)—13 days

Focus questions: What is “civilization”? Who is “civilized”? Does change occur by diffusion or independent invention?

Topic 1. Locating world history in the environment and time

Topic 2. Developing agriculture and technology

Topic 3. Basic features of early civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, Shang; Mesoamerican and Andean

UNIT II. 600 BCE to 600 BCE (3 weeks)

Topic 1. Major Belief Systems: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Confucianism, and Daoism; polytheism and shamanism

Topic 2. Rise and fall of classical civilizations: Persia, Greece, Rome, Han China, and Mauryan and Gupta India

Topic 3. Interregional trade networks by 600 CE and spread of belief systems

Weeks 4-6 (September 26-October 14)—14 days

UNIT III. 600–1450 (7 weeks)

Weeks 7-13 (October 17-December 2)—28 days

Topic 1. The rise and spread of Islam

Topic 2. Trade networks—Indian Ocean, Silk Road, Sahara Desert

Topic 3. Medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire

Topic 4. Mongol expansion across Eurasia and urban destruction in Southwest Asia, Black Death

Topic 5. The Sui, Tang and Song dynasties in China

Topic 6. The worlds of the 15th century—Ming China, Incas and Aztecs, beginnings of European exploration

UNIT IV. 1450–1750 (5 weeks)

Weeks 14-18 (December 5-January 20)—24 days

Topic 1. “Southernization” in Western Europe and the Scientific Revolution and Renaissance; Change—Reformation and Counter Reformation

Topic 2. Encounters and conquest: European colonization of the Americas

Topic 3. Encounters and exchange: Indian Ocean trade network and the global flow of silver

Topic 4. Labor systems in the Atlantic World—The Africanization of the Americas (slave trade, plantation economies, resistance to slavery)

Topic 5. Expansion of Global Economy and Absolutism: Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, Bourbons, Tokugawa, Qing and Romanov

Topic 6. Effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade on demography in West Africa, resistance to the Atlantic slave trade, and expansion of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa

Semester Two

UNIT V. 1750–1900 (6 weeks)

Week 20-25 (January 30-March 14)—29 days

Topic 1. European Enlightenment, American, French, Haitian, and Latin American Revolutions, Napoleon

Topic 2. British Industrial Revolution and deindustrialization of India and Egypt

Topic 3. Industrialization and imperialism

Topic 4. Political and social movements: nationalism, abolitionism and women’s suffrage

Topic 5. Reactions to industrialization and modernization in China, Ottoman Empire, Russia and Japan

UNIT V. 1900–2000 (6 weeks)

Weeks 26-31 (March 7-April 29)—25 days

Focus questions: How do ideological struggles provide an explanation for many of the conflicts of the 20th century? To what extent have the rights of the individual and the state replaced the rights of the community? How have conflict and change influenced migration patterns internally and internationally? How have international organizations influenced change?

Topic 1. World War I and the Paris Peace Treaty

Topic 2. Depression and Authoritarian Responses

Topic 3. World War II and the Holocaust

Topic 4: Rise and spread of communism in Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam and Korea

Topic 5. United Nations and Decolonization

Topic 6. Cold War, Imperialism, and the End of the Cold War

Review for Exam

Weeks 32-34 (April 30-May 16)—13 days

AP Exam—Thursday, May 17

Teaching Strategies

Discussion—Much of what you learn in this class will come through class discussions, based on either homework or class readings. The teacher will play the role of facilitator in these discussions, posing challenges and questions. The expectation is that you have completed the reading assignment and come to class ready to participate.

Textbook reading and note taking—The majority of the homework in this course will consist of reading from the textbook. Homework assignments from these readings will include MEL-Con writing assignments, Cornell notes and short compare/contrast essays.

Skills practice—A major focus of this course will be building critical reading and thinking skills through targeted skills practice exercises, based on the ACT College Readiness Skills. These will take place both during class and as homework.

Debate—As often as possible, we will engage in class debates over controversial topics in World History. In particular, we will be using a series of lessons from the Choices curriculum, in which you will argue in favor of a particular policy option at a key turning point in World History. As with discussions, the teacher will play the role of moderator in these debates.

Primary document analysis—A large part of this course will consist of analyzing primary documents from the past, such as paintings, poems, speeches and letters. From time to time we will practice writing Document Based Questions (DBQs), using a collection of sources on a particular topic.

Lecture—A small portion of most classes will be set aside for lecture, usually accompanied by a Power Point presentation. Lectures will be designed to enhance—not replace— what you have read for homework or what we have discussed in class.

Student Evaluation

Writing Assignments (30 %)—We will write several times a week in a variety of different forms. Every unit will include at least 1 essay similar to the essay questions you will be required to complete on the AP test. In particular, you will practice writing 3 types of essays:

1) Document Based Questions (DBQ)—you will be given a series of documents that you will use to answer a prompt

2) Change and Continuity over Time (CCOT)— you will write essays in which you analyze change and continuity over time in a particular region. Here is a sample prompt:

“Pick one of the following regions and analyze the continuities and changes in the region’s connections to the world trading systems from 1450 to 2000. Be sure to explain how alterations in the framework of international trade interacted with regional factors to produce continuities and changes throughout the period.

China Sub-Saharan Africa

Latin America Middle East

3) Comparison—you will write essays in which you compare developments in two societies or regions. Here is a sample prompt:

Unfree labor systems were widely used for agricultural production in the period 1450–1750. Analyze the major similarities and differences between TWO of the following systems:

Caribbean slavery North American slavery

West African slavery Russian serfdom

Test and Quizzes (30 %)—From time to time there will be quizzes based on the homework reading. Every unit will end with a unit test with questions similar to the ones you will find on the AP test. There will also be a 1st Semester and 2nd Semester final exam and at least 1 full-length practice AP test.

Participation (25 %)—You are expected to be an active participant in this class. A large part of this includes contributing to class discussions, but it also means being an active listener and note taker.

Homework (15 %)—The majority of the time spent in class will consist of discussion, writing and document analysis. This means that you will be on your own to complete the reading assignments, without which you will find yourself lost.

Daily Materials

Every day you must come prepared with the following materials:

1) Your textbook

2) Your AP World History binder (at least 1 inch thick)

3) Your AP World History spiral notebook

4) A pen (and a pencil on any day we will be taking a test)

Homework Policy

Homework will be assigned daily and graded according to the course homework rubric. It is expected that Westinghouse High School students turn in all assignments on time, completed in their entirety and of the highest quality.  Assignments not completed by the due date are automatically late and will only be worth a maximum of fifty percent of its original value. Teachers will not accept late work after it has been graded and/or reviewed in class. If you have an excused absence you may turn your work in at the beginning of the period on the day you return to school. If you miss a class for other than an excused absence (i.e. class cut), any work (including quizzes, exams and major projects) due that day will be not be accepted.

The grading scale for Westinghouse High School is:

100%-90% = A 89%-80% = B 79%-70% = C 69%-60% = D 59%-0 = F

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I have read the syllabus for United States History and am aware of the scope, sequence, expectations, and procedures for this course.

Parent/Guardian Signature: ________________________________ __________ Date: ___________

Student Signature: __________________________________________________ Date:_____________

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