Course Description
AP U.S. History is a two-semester survey of American History from the age of exploration and discovery to the present. The course is developed as a complete web-based course with multimedia instruction, assignments, discussion and quizzes delivered on-line. Emphasis is placed on critical and evaluative thinking skills, essay writing, interpretation of original documents, and historiography.
Prerequisites
Teacher or counselor recommendation and/or a B grade or better in recent social studies course and good writing skills.
Course Goals and/or Major Student Outcomes
The course will prepare students take and successfully pass the College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. History Exam.
Course Objectives
After successful completion of the course of study the student will be able to demonstrate the following skills and knowledge.
• Demonstrate comprehension of a broad body of historical knowledge.
• Express ideas clearly in writing.
• Work with classmates to research an historical issue.
• Interpret and apply data from original documents.
• Identify underrepresented historical viewpoints.
• Write to persuade with evidence.
• Compare and contrast alternate interpretations of an historical figure, event, or trend.
• Explain how an historical event connects to or causes a larger trend or theme.
• Develop essay responses that include a clear, defensible social studies thesis statement and supporting evidence.
• Effectively argue a position on an historical issue.
• Critique and respond to arguments made by others.
• Raise and explore questions about policies, institutions, beliefs, and actions in an historical context.
• Evaluate primary materials, such as historical documents, political cartoons, and first-person narratives.
• Evaluate secondary materials, such as scholarly works or statistical analyses.
• Assess the historical significance and cultural impact of key literary works (e.g. Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Jungle, The Grapes of Wrath).
Course Outline
Semester I
Unit 1: Colonial Period
- Chapter 1: Discovery and Settlement of the New World 1400 – 1500
Lesson 2: Europe and the Impulse for Exploration
Lesson 3: Spanish Exploration
Lesson 4: French Exploration
Lesson 5: English Settlements
- Chapter 2: English Colonies 1600 – 1650
Lesson 7: Middle and Southern Colonies
Chapter 3: American Society Takes Shape 1650 – 1763
Lesson 8: Population Growth
Lesson 9: Cultural Changes
Lesson 10: French and Indian Wars or 7 Years War: 1754-1763
Unit 2: American Revolution
- Chapter 4: Road to Revolution 1763 – 1775
Lesson 12: Philosophy of American Revolution
- Chapter 5: The American Revolution 1775 – 1783
Lesson 14: The War
Lesson 15: Articles of Confederation
Lesson 16: Challenges to the Confederation
Unit 3: Republican Experiment and Federalist Era
- Chapter 6: The Constitution and the New Republic 1787 – 1800
Lesson 18: Federalists versus Anti-Federalists
Lesson 19: George Washington
Lesson 20: John Adams
Unit 4: Republicans in Power
- Chapter 7: Jeffersonian Republicanism 1800 – 1816
Lesson 22: War of 1812
- Chapter 8: Nationalism and Economic Expansion 1816 – 1826
Lesson 24: Economic Revolution
Lesson 25: King Cotton
Lesson 26: Westward Expansion
Unit 5: Jacksonian Era
- Chapter 9: Age of Jackson 1828 – 1848
Lesson 28: Nullification Crisis
Lesson 29: The Bank of the United States
Lesson 30: Indian Removal
Unit 6: Manifest Destiny and War
- Chapter 11: American Culture and Reform 1800 – 1860
Lesson 32: Reform Crusades
- Chapter 10: Territorial Expansion and Sectional Issues 1820 – 1860
Lesson 34: Decade of Crisis
Lesson 35: The Approaching War
Unit 7: Civil War and Reconstruction
- Chapter 12: Civil War, 1861 – 1865
Lesson 37: Abolition of Slavery
Lesson 38: Effects of War on Society
- Chapter 13: Reconstruction, 1865 – 1877
Lesson 40: End to Reconstruction
Required Text:The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, 12th Edition
Thomas A. Bailey, David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen
Houghton Mifflin Company
Key Assignments (online exercises, quizzes, problem and labs on the following topics):
The course assignments are organized by chapter with each semester containing of 13 chapters. Each chapter contains the following assignments:
1) Readings – Required readings for the week from the primary textbook, The American Pageant, as well as a list of additional readings from supplemental texts. Reading assignments cover all topics in the course outline.
2) Lessons – Two or more on-line multimedia lessons that provide instruction cover all topics in the course outline.
3) Writing Assignments – There is a single writing assignment listed for each chapter.
4) Assessments – There is a multiple-choice assessment for each Chapter. They typically contain 18-25 questions and a styled after the questions used on the College Board’s Advanced Placement U. S. History exam. These are designed to be self-tests to help students assess their understanding of the material and focus their study.
5) Discussion Questions – There is a discussion question assigned for each chapter that designed to drive class discussion about the current chapter as well as introduce concepts in the upcoming chapter. Discussions are managed by a on-line discussion board software and student participation is required.
Assessment Methods and/or Tools
There is a midterm exam for each semester that contains 15 multiple-choice questions and one essay question (modeled after the College Board Exam’s FRQs) and a cumulative final exam with 30 multiple-choice questions and one essay question (modeled after the College Board Exam’s DBQs)
(Syllabus courtesy of: http://www.wisconsinvirtualschool.org/pdfs/USHist%20AP%20Syllabus.pdf )
