Marcus Patton
Social Studies Teacher
<- Back
Advanced Placement United States History
Syllabus
Advanced Placement United States History Syllabus and Guidelines Fall Semester 2005 INSTRUCTOR: Marcus Patton telephone: 404) 370-4420 voice mailbox 230 fax: (404) 370-4434 e-mail: marcus_patton@decatur-city.k12.ga.us (The best way to reach me is by e-mail) COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to provide college-level experience and preparation for the Advanced Placement (AP) exam on May 5, 2006. An emphasis is placed on interpreting documents, mastering a significant body of factual information, and writing critical essays. Topics include: life and thought in colonial America, revolutionary ideology, constitutional development, Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy, nineteenth-century reform movements, Manifest Destiny, the Civil War and Reconstruction, immigration, industrialism, Populism, Progressivism, World War 1, the Jazz Age, the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War 2, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War era. TEXTBOOK: The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, 11th edition, 1998 COURSE REQUIREMENTS: CLASS PARTICIPATION You must participate in class by taking notes, engaging in class discussions about the issues raised by the material covered, and completing all class assignments. HOMEWORK Homework will consist of occasional written assignments, daily reading of the text, and daily review of class notes. CALCULATION OF GRADES Course grades will be calculated as follows: 35% tests 25% essays 20% class assignments 5% final examination 15% state-mandated end-of-course test MAKE-UP OF MISSED ASSIGNMENTS Make-up tests must be completed within three days of your return to school. Essays and projects that were assigned in advance are due the day you return. In-class assignments that are missed because of an absence must be turned in within two days of your return to school. An unexcused absence will result in a zero on assignments and tests scheduled for that day. It is your responsibility to discover what assignments were missed due to absence and to complete all assignments by the due date. ESSAY FORMAT & REQUIREMENTS Essays must be typed or written in dark ink and must be double-spaced. Document-Based Question (DBQ) essays are graded on content, use of documentary and outside supporting evidence, grammar, spelling, and evidence of critical thinking. Essays must be turned in on the day assigned. There are no grace periods. TEST FORMAT & REQUIREMENTS Most tests will consist of multiple-choice questions similar to those found on the multiple-choice portion of the AP US History Examination. You are responsible for bringing a No. 2 (HB) pencil with which to mark your answers. It is prohibited and is considered cheating under the DHS discipline code to use tests given in previous semesters in this class for study aids.
Reading Schedule
READING SCHEDULE: Specific assignments will be made in class. What follows is a projection of the chapters in The American Pageant that will be covered as the semester progresses. Additional reading will be assigned. Week of August 15 - August 19 Chapter 1 New World Beginnings, 33,000 BC - AD 1769 Chapter 2 The Planting of English America, 1500 - 1733 Chapter 3 Settling the Northern Colonies, 1610 - 1700 Week of August 22 - August 26 Chapter 4 American Life in the Seventeenth Century, 1607 - 1692 Chapter 5 Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution, 1700 - 1775 Week of August 29 - September 2 Chapter 6 The Duel for North America, 1608 - 1763 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 Week of September 5 - September 9 Chapter 10 Launching the New Ship of State, 1789 - 1800 Chapter 11 The Triumphs and Travails of Jefferson Democracy, 1800 - 1812 Chapter 12 The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism, 1812 - 1824 Week of September 12 - September 16 Chapter 13 The Rise of Jacksonian Democracy, 1824 - 1830 Chapter 14 Jacksonian Democracy at Flood Tide, 1830 - 1840 Week of September 19 - September 23 Chapter 15 Forging the National Economy, 1790 - 1860 Chapter 16 The Ferment of Reform and Culture, 1790 - 1860 Chapter 17 The South and the Slavery Controversy, 1793 - 1860 Week of September 26 - September 30 Chapter 18 Manifest Destiny and its Legacy, 1841 - 1848 Chapter 19 Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848 - 1854 Chapter 20 Drifting Toward Disunion, 1854 - 1861 Week of October 3 - October 7 Chapter 21 Girding for War: The North and the South, 1861-1865 Chapter 22 The Furnace of Civil War, 1861 - 1865 Week of October 10 - October 14 Chapter 23 The Ordeal of Reconstruction, 1865 - 1877 Chapter 24 Politics in the Gilded Age, 1869 - 1889 Chapter 25 Industry Comes of Age, 1865 - 1900 Week of October 17 - October 21 Chapter 26 America Moves to the City, 1865 - 1900 Week of October 24 - October 28 Chapter 27 The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, 1865 - 1890 Chapter 28 The Revolt of the Debtor, 1889 - 1900 Chapter 29 The Path of Empire, 1890 - 1900 Week of October 31 - November 4 Chapter 30 America on the World Stage, 1899 - 1909 Chapter 31 Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt, 1901 - 1912 Chapter 32 Wilson Progressivism at Home and Abroad, 1912 - 1916 Week of November 7 - November 11 Chapter 33 The War to End War, 1917 - 1918 Chapter 34 American Life in the "Roaring Twenties," 1919 - 1929 Week of November 14 - November 18 Chapter 35 The Politics of Boom and Bust, 1920 - 1932 Chapter 36 The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1933 - 1938 Week of November 21 - November 25 Chapter 37 Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War, 1933 - 1941 Chapter 38 America in World War II, 1941 - 1945 Week of November 28 - Deceember 2 Chapter 39 The Cold War Begins, 1945 - 1952 Chapter 40 The Eisenhower Era, 1952 - 1960 Week of December 5 - December 9 Chapter 41 The Stormy Sixties, 1960 - 1968 Chapter 42 The Stalemated Seventies, 1968 - 1970 Week of December 12 - December 16 Chapter 43 The Resurgence of Conservatism, 1980 - 1996 Week of December 19 - December 23 Chapter 44 The American People Face a New Century
THE ADVANCED PLACEMENT UNITED STATES HISTORY EXAMINATION
The 2006 examination will take place on Friday, May 5, 2006. The examination is three hours and five 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 question (DDQ) 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. Suggested time to be spent on each of the essay questions they choose to answer in Parts B and C is five minutes of planning and 30 minutes of 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 the majority of questions are on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the multiple-choice section, approximately one-sixth of the questions deal with the period through 1789, one-half with the period 1790-1914, and one-third with the period 1915-present. Whereas the multiple-choice section may include a few questions on the period since 1975, neither the DBQ nor any of the four essay questions in Parts B and C will deal exclusively with this period. Together, the multiple-choice and free-response sections cover political institutions and behavior and public policy, social and economic change, diplomacy and international relations, and cultural and intellectual developments. Political institutions and behavior and public policy account for approximately 35 percent of the questions and social change for approximately another 35 percent. The remaining questions are divided between the areas of diplomacy and international relations, approximately 15 percent; economic developments, approximately 10 percent; and cultural and intellectual developments, approximately 5 percent. A substantial number of the social and economic history questions deal with such traditional topics as the impact of legislation on social groups and the economy, or the pressures brought to bear on the political process by social and economic developments. Because historical inquiry is not neatly divided into categories, many questions pertain to more than one area. The questions in the multiple-choice section are designed to test students' factual knowledge, breadth of preparation, and knowledge-based analytical skills. Essay questions are designed, additionally, to make it possible for students from widely differing courses to demonstrate their mastery of historical interpretation and their ability to express their views and knowledge in writing. The standard essay questions may require students to relate developments in different areas (e.g., the political implications of an economic issue), to analyze common themes in different time periods (e.g., the concept of national interest in United States foreign policy), or to compare individual or group experiences that reflect socioeconomic, ethnic, racial, or gender differences (e.g., social mobility and cultural pluralism). Although historiography is not emphasized in the examination, students are expected to have a general understanding of key interpretations of major historical events. When questions based on literary materials are included, the emphasis will not be on literature as art but rather on its relation to politics, social and economic life, or related cultural and intellectual movements. Answers to standard essay questions will be judged on the strength of the thesis developed, the quality of the historical argument, and the evidence offered in support of the argument, rather than on the factual information per se. Unless a question asks otherwise, students will not be penalized for omitting one or another specific illustration. The required DBQ differs from the standard essays in its emphasis on the ability to analyze and synthesize historical data and assess verbal, quantitative, or pictorial materials as historical evidence. Like the standard essay however; the DBQ will also be judged on its thesis, argument, and supporting evidence. Although confined to no single format, the documents contained in the DBQ are unlikely to be the familiar classics (the Emancipation Proclamation or Declaration of Independence, for example), but their authors may be major historical figures. The documents vary in length and are chosen to illustrate interactions and complexities within the material. The material will include - where the question is suitable - charts, graphs, cartoons, and pictures, as well as written materials. In addition to calling upon a broad spectrum of historical skills, the diversity of materials will allow students to assess the value of different sorts of documents. The DBQ will typically require students to relate the documents to a historical period or theme and, thus, to focus on major periods and issues. For this reason, outside knowledge is very important and must be incorporated into the student~s essay if the highest scores are to be earned. It should be noted that the emphasis of the DBQ will be on analysis and synthesis, not historical narrative. Scores earned on the multiple-choice and free-response sections each account for one-half of the student's examination grade. Within the free-response section, the DBQ counts for 45 percent; the two standard essays count for 55 percent. - adapted from "Advanced Placement Course Description: History" published by The College Board
top of page
United States History Honors
top of page
United States History
top of page
