AP United States History Syllabus



AP United States History II

Instructor: Mrs. Nicole Esposito

Room 224

Contact information: nesposito@longbranch.k12.nj.us

Extra help hours: Everyday After School or by appointment

Syllabus: ADVANCED PLACEMENT UNITED STATES HISTORY

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is intended to be an intensive study, at the college level, of American History. It is also designed to prepare students for the Advanced Placement exam, which will be given on May 11, 2012. The course will provide students with an investigation of important political, economic, and social developments in American history from the pre-colonial time period to present day. It is a reading and writing intensive course that will require dedication and time on the part of the student who seeks to master it. Students will be engaged in activities that call upon their skills as historians (i.e. recognizing cause and effect relationships, various forms of research, expository and persuasive writing, and reading of primary and secondary sources, comparing and contrasting important ideas and events). Students should learn to assess 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 this course, the students will also be expected to review themes that are present within the units of study. These thenes are designed to encourage students to focus on historical change over time.

Course Objectives:

The following skills will be incorporated into the course:

• Recognizing principle themes in American History and drawing conclusions

• Analyze historical evidence based on primary and secondary source documents

• Examine and express historical analysis in writing free responses and Document Based questions scoring above a 3 on the rubrics

• Experience the equivalent to a full year college level course with vigorous reading schedules and writing assignments

• Achieve above a 5 or above on timed writing samples by utilizing historical arguments in both free responses and DBQ’s and by demonstrating growth throughout the year in analytical writing

• Work independently and in groups to solve problems and articulate arguments based on historical facts

• Score a 3 or above on the United States History AP exam

Revised 2009 New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards for Social Studies:

• Standard 6.1 U.S. History: America in the World applies to grades P-12; at the P and K-4 levels, content is organized by strand only; at the 5-8 and 9-12 levels, content organized by era and strand.

• Standard 6.2 World History/Global Studies applies only to grades 5-12; at both the 5-8 and 9-12 levels, content organized by era and strand.

• Standard 6.3 Active Citizenship in the 21st Century applies to grades P-12; at all levels (P, K-4, 5-8, and 9-12) content is organized by strand only.

Course Readings will include the following:

✓ Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy. The American Pageant 13th edition, (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

• Thomas Bailey and David Kennedy. The American Spirit Volume I and II 11th edition, (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

• 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America; Steven Gillon

• A Short History of the United States: From the Arrival of Native American Tribes to the Obama Presidency; Robert V. Remini

• Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History, Volumes One and Two; Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle

• Selected readings from other related materials that will be handed out as the course proceeds.

Required Technology:

1. E-mail: Each student is required to have an e-mail address and computer access. All e-mails should be professional in nature. Please create appropriate school e-mail for this class if you do not have one. When sending e-mails, please remember to put your name in the e-mail and subject line. At no time should students send “spam” or chain emails to the teacher. Please keep all communication professional and appropriate.

2. Nice Net Registration: Each student is required to register for Nice Net and maintain an active conferencing e-mail and password.

• This website will be used during class. The class will set up their accounts during the first week of school. However, below is the information that is needed:

▪ Go to and click on “join a class”

▪ Type in the Class Key: Z304077A23

▪ Click on conferencing to see the class assignments

Required Materials:

1. Notebook: You must have a 3-ring binder for this course (2” is recommended). It will include class notes, notes on the textbook and outside readings, charts, and writing assignments. Spiral notebooks will not be accepted as they do not afford you the opportunity to insert class handouts and will result in the loss of important materials. The binder will be divided into sections as follows:

o Do Nows

o Notes

o Projects/Group Assignments

o Homework

o Writing/Free Response

2. Individual tabs/dividers must be included in notebook for each unit.

3. Pen or pencil in class everyday

4. Highlighter

5. Monthly Calendars: This will be used for organizational purposes especially due dates. These will be provided for you, if you do not have one.

Grading Breakdown per Marking Period:

Tests, Quizzes, Projects: 30%

Homework: 25% *Note: While students must prepare for and take the AP exam, your

Class participation: 20% school grade will NOT be based upon the score you receive

Writing: 25% on the exam.

Grading and Homework Policy Information:

(Note: “Late work” refers to work that is being turned in late because it was not completed on time, even though the student has not been absent. “Makeup work” refers to work that is being turned in late because a student has an excused absence).

Homework is an essential tool for practicing what has been taught and determining what has been learned. The rigor of the AP course is due in great part to the requirement of time management and avoidance of procrastination to complete work in a timely fashion. All assignments are due on their announced date. In order for me to consider excusing your absence to extend a due date there must be a note from a parent/guardian explaining that absence. Assignments handed in late will lose credit as follows: 1 day late: 20% off, 2 days late: 30% off, 3 days late: 50% off. No assignments will be accepted more than 3 days late.

Absences: If you miss class due to an absence from school or due to a school related event, such as Teen Pep, Band, Dance, performance practices and/or Guidance Appointments you are still responsible for the work missed. If there is homework due that day, you must make sure you submit it before 3:00pm by e-mail. Also since you are missing important information from class, you will be required to get all missing work from either a student in the class or the teacher. After you review all missing work, you will be required to write a 1 page summary explaining the information in your own words. This will determine if you understand the missed material or not. This assignment will be graded and counted as your missed class work. If you choose not to complete the assignment, then you will receive zeroes for the class work that was completed on that day.

• In the case of an extended absence, the teacher will consult the school and family to determine a plan of action to make up course work.

Quiz Grades: Quizzes may be announced or unannounced and are meant to be a brief assessment tool. If a student is absent with an excused absence, make up quizzes are to be completed on the day the student returns. No quiz may be made up after 3 days time. If a quiz is missed due to a tardy to class, then student must make the quiz up before 4 pm on that day. If the quiz is not made up, then it is a zero.

Tests: If you miss a scheduled exam you must make it up the next day you attend school. Thereafter, you will lose 25% credit for each day the exam is not taken.

• Please note that the makeup test may not be the same as the original test, as students should not have the opportunity to share information about the contents of the test with those who were absent.

Class Cuts: A class cut results in a zero grade for that day. If an exam was scheduled for that day, makeup tests will not be given to a student. Intentionally missing class to avoid having to take a test will be considered cutting. If a student knows he/she will be absent in advance, they should arrange a time to take the test in advance. This helps a student to stay on target with the current chapter or unit and avoids piling up of work in multiple classes upon returning to school.

The A.P. Exam:

The exam is 3 hours and 5 minutes in length and consists of two sections: a 55-minute multiple-choice section and a 130-minute free-response section. The free-response section begins with a mandatory 15-minute reading period. Students are advised to spend most of the 15 minutes analyzing the documents and planning their answer to the document-based essay question (DBQ) in Part A. Suggested writing time for the DBQ is 45 minutes.

Parts B and C each include two standard essay questions that, with the DBQ, cover the period from the first European explorations of the Americas to the present. Students are required to answer one essay question in each part in a total of 70 minutes. For each of the essay questions students choose to answer in Parts B and C, it is suggested they spend 5 minutes planning and 30 minutes writing. Both the multiple-choice and the free-response sections cover the period from the first European explorations of the Americas to the present, although a majority of questions are on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (College Board)

AP Exam Date: Friday, May 11, 2011 at 8:00 a.m.

For information regarding the exam, check out the College Board syllabus:



• All students are required to visit this site and print out and review the topic outline, which can be found on pages 11 to 22 in the PDF document. This outline must be stored in the front of the 3-ring binder.

Course Curriculum Calendar:

The course was designed to be taught using three groups, which will be used as a time-line throughout the year:

Group One – Exploration to 1789 (27 days) : Units 1 and 2

Group Two - 1790 to 1918 (59 days): Units 3-8

Group Three – 1918 to Present (49 days): Unites 9-11

Group One: Exploration to 1789

Unit 1: (Chapters 1-5)

I. Searching for the Far East, the three G’s and religious turmoil

a) Earliest Americans

b) Portugal vs. Spain

c) Conquest of Mexico

II. Europeans Arrive (1492-1690)

a) Spain/Dutch/France

b) Religious turmoil in England

c) British (Jamestown and Roanoke)

d) Bacon’s Rebellion, Pilgrims and the indentured servant

III. Colonial Times (1690-1754)

a. Three colonial regions

b. Mercantilism, salutary neglect

c. Industrialization in England and the Navigation Laws

d. Salem Witch Trials

Unit 2: (Chapter 6-9)

IV. Pre-Revolutionary Era

a. England battles with France

b. Paris Treaty of 1763 and its resulting impact on the colonies

c. Indian uprisings

V. Revolutionary Era

a.) English debt and America’s response

b.) Continental Congress and the path to war

c.) The Revolutionary War and an unlikely outcome

d.) The failure of the Articles of Confederation (Shay’s Rebellion)

e.) Land Ordinance of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance of 1787

f.) The Constitution, Federalists and Ratification

Themes reviewed in Unit 1 and 2

• Early Inhabitants of the Americas

• Patterns of Change: Coming of Europeans

• Worlds Collide: Europe, Africa, and America

• The emergence of American cultural traits and the factors that contributed to them

• Emerging regional patterns and how they evolved

• Colonists reevaluate relationship with Great Britain and the colonists

• Slavery and the Revolution

• How does the American Revolution fit into the world developments of the time period

• Development of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights

• Emergence of Political Parties

• Conflict between national power and states’ rights

• Legacy of George Washington

Suggested Assignments:

• Reading and student created outlines of chapters 1-9 to be handed in according to the reading schedule.

• Free Response Question Samples:

o Compare and contrast social and economic life in seventeenth century New England with that of the Chesapeake colonies.

o Examine the conflict of the French and Indian War in the duel for North American practice (AP free response 2004).

o Explain how the talented American peace delegation of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay negotiated a successful treaty with the British gaining not only independence, but also a favorable North American boundaries and fishing rights.

o Compare the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and Constitutional Governments

• DBQ Samples Question Topics:

o Discuss the differences between the northern, middle, and southern English colonies.

o The election of 1800 and the result of the Federalists losing office analyzed through primary source documents.

• Essential Questions:

o Did the American Indian empires of Mesoamerica, the Southwest and the Mississippi survive? How?

o How did a culture class help to form America?

o Did slavery cause racism or did racism cause slavery?

o Who suffered and who gained as a result of the American Revolution?

o Were the conflicts between Jefferson and Hamilton based on fundamental ideological differences or were they disagreements over the means to achieve the same ends?

• Handouts:

o Article “The Founding Wizard” John Steele Gordon

o Excerpts from: Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History, Volumes One and Two; Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle

• Additional Major Assignments/Assessments:

o Oral Presentation

o British Policy Assimilation Report

o Breaking down the DBQ

Group Two: A Nation Grows Up (1790 – 1918)

Unit 3: (Chapters 10-12)

I. The early republic (1789-1800)

a) A struggle for identity

II. The age of the Jeffersonian Republic

a) Marbury vs. Madison

III. The War of 1812

a. A hero is made

b. War hawks

c. Henry Clay

IV. The Era of Good Feelings

a. An American System

b. McMulloch v. Madison and the rise of the Federal Government

Unit 4: (Chapter 13-15 and 17)

V. The Transformation of the Economy

a. Charles Dickens American Notes handout

VI. Politics, Religion, and Reform Movements

a) Cult of Domesticity

VII. Territorial expansion and manifest destiny

b) Indian Removal

c) Era of Good Feelings

d) Age of Democracy

e) Second National Bank

f) Lowell System

g) Trail of Tears

h) Indian Removal Act of 1830

i) Americans in Texas

a) War with Texas

b) Lone Star Republic

c) Mexican Session

d) Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

e) The Alamo

Unit 5: (Chapters 16, 18-19)

VIII. Slavery and the rise of the South

a) Cotton become king

IX. Sectional Struggles

a. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

X. War is Inevitable

a) Dred Scott Decision

Unit 6: (Chapters 20-23) The Civil War Era

XI. The Civil War Era

a) The social and political impact

b) The military confrontation

c) Reconstruction

Unit 7: (chapters 24-26, 28)

XII. The Change in Society

a) The gilded age and the rise of new wealth

o Lords of industry

o Gospel of Wealth

b) Industrial Revolution

c) Urban Society

o Jacob Riis

d) Populism and William Jennings Bryan

o Gold and Silver Populist movement

e) Progressivism

o Ida Tarbell

Unit 8: (chapters 27, 29-30)

XIII. Rise of Imperialism

a) Age of Teddy

b) America becomes a world power (1898-1914)

c) World War I (1914-1918)

o Supreme Court Cases

d) Wilson’s Fourteen Points

Themes reviewed in Units 3 - 8

• Transfer for power from one party to another

• Changes in party positions

• National growth of Nationalism

• Emergence of 2nd American Party System

• Emergence of the “Common Man” in politics

• Expansion geographically and economically (western migration)

• Reform movements and the American character

• Relations with the Native Americans

• Territorial Acquisitions

• War with Mexico

• Sectionalism

• Slavery

• Causes of Civil War

• Secession and war

• Reconstruction Issues

• Struggle for Equality

• Politics and Corruption in the Guilded Age

• Industrial Growth

• Rise of Organized Labor

• Success and Failures of Unions

• Immigration and Urbanization

• Populists and Progressives

Suggested Assignments:

• Reading and student created outlines of chapters 10-30 to be handed in according to the reading schedule.

• Readings on:

• War of 1812, Jeffersonian politics, division of nationalism and sectionalism, trail of tears

• John C. Calhoun Proposal to Preserve the Union, 1850

• Abraham Lincoln A House Divided Speech, First Inaugural Address, The Gettysburg Address

• Free Response Question Samples:

• Alexis de Tocqueville noticed the decline of deference and the elevation of popular sovereignty in America; access the validity of the statement the “self-made man”.

• Describe the evolution of American policies and actions toward Native Americans between 1816 and 1830. (2004)

• Was the conflict over the settlement of Kansas a rehearsal for the Civil War?

• Did the events that occurred from Lincoln’s election to the attack on Fort Sumter accelerate the inevitability of war?

• What impact did the frontier have on American Attitudes, behavior, and institutions? Is the frontier thesis” of Frederick Turner viable?

• Compare and Contrast the labor unions efforts from the 1900’s of the AFL and the KF of L; which using evidence do you think was most effective?

• DBQ Sample Question Topics:

• How do you account for the development of political parties of the United Sates during the period 1787-1800?

• Jacksonian Era

• Post civil War reconstruction

• What were the major issues, ideas, and events of the Progressive Era during the period 1900-1915?

• Essential Questions:

o Did the United States effectively prove its credibility in foreign affairs?

o How did the reform movements, of Antebellum America, relate to the political movements of the time?

o How did the concept of Manifest Destiny drive our political and social decisions?

o What were the main causes of the Civil War?

o How do we evaluate Reconstruction: a bad program that punished the South unfairly, or a good program that was undermined by a Racist South?

o Were the industrial leaders “robber barons or captains of industry”?

o How did Social Darwinism lead to Social Conservatism?

o How did World War I change the United States?

• Handouts:

o Excerpts from: Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History, Volumes One and Two; Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle

o Painting depicting the Trail of Tears

o Article by John L. O’Sullivan “The Great Nation of Futurity”

o Slavery documents

o Articles: “Editor Godkin Grieves” 1871 and “Booker T. Washington Reflects” 1901

o Excerpts from Uncle Tom’s Cabin

o Excerpts from Andrew Carnegie Wealth

o “The White Man’s Burden and its critics” by Jim Zwirk

o “White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling

• Additional Major Assignments/Assessments:

o Oral Presentation

o Creating a DBQ

o Packet on Marshall Court decisions

o Market Revolution: Class will be divided into groups each focusing on a different aspect of the Market Revolution. Each group conducts a 10 – 15 minute mini-lesson on assigned topic. The mini-lesson must include a visual, primary source document, lecture notes and a follow up homework assignment.

o Reform Movement Obituary Speech Day: Student will be assigned a reformer and they must research their person and create an obituary. On “Reformer Day” the students will read each obituary and the class must decided the identity of each obituary that is read.

o Mock Impeachment of Andrew Jackson

o Letter Writing 1850-1865: Students will be paired from a student in the class who represents either the North or the South. Letters will be written about key topics in a “pen pal” fashion. Some topics could include [The Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott Decision, John Brown’s Raid, Election of 1860]

o Class Debates: WWI Position Statement (On whether or not the United States claim that she was fighting a war to “make the world safe for democracy” was valid claim.)

Group Three: 1918 - Present

Unit 9: (Chapters 31-33)

I. The Age of Prosperity (1920s)

II. Depression and the New Deal (1929-1939)

III. Isolationism

IV. World War II (1939-1945)

a) Korematsu v. United States

Unit 10: (Chapters 36-40)

V. Cold War (1946-1991)

VI. Age of Consumerism (1950s)

VII. The Counter-culture Era (1960-1975)

o Nixon

o Vietnamization Policy

o Detente

VIII. Economic Change and Challenge (1974-1980)

o Reaganomics

IX. The Return of Conservatism (1980-Present)

Unit 11: (Chapters 41-42)

X. Post Cold War Era

XI. The Rise of Globalization

Unit 12: The Review for the AP U.S. History Exam

Themes reviewed in Units 9-11

• Post WWI compared to post-Civil War

• Social, Political, and Economic impact of war on American society

• Cultural Conflicts (native vs. foreign, rural vs. urban)

• Reign of the Republican Party

• Human suffering and response to the Great Depression

• Comparison of Wilson and FDR as neutrals, wartime leaders, allied partners, post-war planners

• The Home Front

• Impact of the New Deal

• Struggle for civil liberties and civil rights

• Checks and Balances within American politics

• The Vietnam Syndrome

• Human rights vs. strategic self interest in policy formation

• Relationship between foreign policy and economic stability

• Post Cold War World

• Culture Wars

• Election of 2000

• War on Terrorism

• America after September 11, 2001

Suggested Assignments:

• Reading and student created outlines of chapters 31-42 to be handed in according to the reading schedule.

• Free Response Question Samples:

• Although the United States officially adopted a policy of neutrality at the beginning of World War I, there was considerable pressure on the government to alter that stance. What were the key sources of that pressure?

• The New Deal: rate the terms of its success, using the programs and their accomplishments or failures.

• Assess the various response of the United States to the military aggression of Japan, Germany, and Italy in the 1930’s.

• Decipher the conflict between South East Asia and the United States as responded by Eisenhower and Kennedy.

• Discuss the significance of the 1992 election

• DBQ Sample Question Topics:

• WWI legacy

• Discuss the Great Depression and its impact on the United States

• New Deal Analysis

• Reaganomics

• Essential Questions:

o Was the era of the 1920’s a reproduction of the progressive era?

o Was the Great Depression a failure or a success of Capitalism?

o How did WWI and WWII affect the “home front”?

o How did the fear of Communism mold the decade of the fifties?

o How did the Cold War create the decades of the sixties and seventies?

o How has September 11, 2001 re-defined America’s identity?

• Handouts:

o Excerpts from: Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History, Volumes One and Two; Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle

• Additional Major Assignments/Assessments:

o Oral Presentation

o Creating an original DBQ (Group Project)

o Chart Making of Comparison of World War I and World War II focusing on the following (economic controls, labor relations, women and minorities, civil liberties, demographic changes, mobilization efforts, relations with allies, wartime goals)

o Class Debates

Please return this form by Friday, September 9th, 2011 for your first homework grade:

I have read and understand the scope and sequence, required materials, grading, and course expectations as they have been outlined for AP US History II by the course instructor, Mrs. Esposito. The preceding course description will be stored in the student’s 3-ring binder so that it may be referred to at all times.

________________________________

Student Name (Print)

________________________________ ____________________

Student Name (Signature) (Date)

________________________________

Parent/Guardian Name (Print)

________________________________ ____________________

Parent/Guardian Name (Signature) (Date)

Parent/ Guardian Contact Phone Number:

(H) _________________________

(Cell) _______________________

Parent/Guardian Contact E-mail:

___________________________________________________________________

(Please Print)

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download