STUDENT _______________________________ COURSE 20210: AP United States History (1)

Advanced Placement United States History: Semester 1 (Fall)

I. Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be prepared to earn a passing score of three (3) or better on the College Board AP US History Exam. Students will analyze significant issues and conflicts during major periods of US history, taking into account multiple perspectives. Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of topical eras according to chronologically history as well as recurring themes throughout the study of time periods.

II. Activities

• To present their analyses, students will be required to write frequent in-class and take home essays modeled after the College Board AP exams:  free response questions (FRQ’s) and the document based questions (DBQ’s.)
• Students will prepare for the multiple choice part of the Exam by taking regular unit exams, midterms and final exams.
• Students will record historical information and analyze the course material. Activities will include chapter not taking, primary source analysis, questions on assigned readings, interpretation of political cartoons and reading and analysis of a variety of primary and secondary sources; students will also be required to watch documentary films and take notes from these sources.
• Summer reading and writing assignments are required. (Chapters 2-4 of The Americans)

III. Course Content: Semester 1
Students will build a systematic base of factual knowledge of United States History from Native Americans’ first encounter with Europeans through Industrialization of the Gilded Age.

• “Discovery” and Settlement of the New World 1492-1650
• America and the British Empire
• Colonial Society in the Mid 18th Century
• Road to Revolution, 1754-1775
• Constitution and the New Republic, 1776-1800
• The Age of Jefferson, 1800-1816]
• Antebellum Nationalism and Economic Expansion
• The Age of Jackson, 1828-1840
• Antebellum Culture, Religion and Reform
• Territorial Expansion & Sectional Crisis, 1820-1860
• The Civil War, 1861-1865
• Reconstruction to 1877
• End of the Western Frontier
• Industrialization of the Gilded Age, 1865-1900

IV. Resources
The adopted text is America’s History, by Henretta (Bedford/St. Martin’s Press)
Primary resources are drawn from a variety of sources.
Library and reference sources include various books, magazines, documentary film, atlases, almanacs, and the Internet.

V. Assessment
Students will be assessed on the learning outcomes primarily by multiple choice exams and essays. Grading will be based on these scores as well as on student notebooks and class participation.

VI. Duration
The agreement is effective until the end of the Fall semester.

VII. Progress Monitoring
Progress will be monitored weekly by teacher and reported through trimester grading periods.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
I accept the terms of this agreement

Student ____________________________________________ Date Started _____________________

Staff ______________________________________________ Date Completed ___________________

Other _____________________________________________ Credits Attempted__________________

Parent _____________________________________________ Credits Earned ______Grade_________