Highlands High School s2

Highlands High School 450814-Advanced Placement U.S. History 2009-2010 Course Syllabus

Instructor: Michael Hils Home phone: 859-781-8835

Grade level: 11

Credit: 1 Social Studies Credit

Prerequisite: First Screening: 50 percentile – PSAT verbal (or comparable scores on recent tests); Grade of A or B in World Civilization or AP World History. Second Screening: Writing sample and a reading comprehension test (scored and evaluated by AP teachers). Third Screening: Teacher recommendations.

Co-Requisite: Application is required. Summer work is required. Near the conclusion of the course, students must sit for the AP U.S. History exam.

Description: The AP U.S. History course is designed to provide students with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in U.S. history. The program prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses. Students should learn to assess historical materials - their relevance to a given interpretive problem, reliability, and importance – and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. This AP U.S. History course should thus develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in essay format.

Course Standards: Students will: 1. Be exposed to the historical content of American History from Discovery to the Present. 2. Be trained to analyze and interpret primary sources, including documentary material, maps, statistical tables, and pictorial and graphic evidence of historical events. 3. Learn to take notes from printed material, lectures, discussions, and visuals. 4. Critically read text assignments, supplemental text assignments, and primary source documents. 5. Write document-based essays (DBQ’s) and standard (b/c) essays, analytical papers, and research papers. 6. Be able to express themselves with clarity and precision through analytical essays. 7. Correctly cite sources and credit the phrases and ideas of others. 8. Learn to access historical materials, their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importance. 9. Experience a rigorous curriculum that will prepare them for advanced college courses. 10. Increase their self-confidence, motivation, and academic orientation, particularly in the area of U.S. History.

Grading: The grade will be calculated mostly from multiple choice tests (every 2-3 weeks) and in- class essays. Since the AP exam consists of 80 multiple choice questions and 3 essays, then that is how most of the grade for the course will be determined. Multiple choice questions on tests will be worth 2 points each. Hence, an 80 question test will be worth 160 points. Essays will initially be worth 9 points each (similar to the AP exam’s 0-9 scale) and will increase in value throughout the year. There are relatively few “easy” grades that earn credit merely by completion of the assignment. Materials: Text: The American Pageant by Bailey, Kennedy, and Cohen (13th edition). Students should bring their text to class every day as well as paper (preferably a notebook) and a writing utensil. In addition, it is highly recommended that students obtain at least one AP prep book (such as Princeton Review available at Barnes & Noble for $18) that contains review sections and practice AP exams.

Course Requirements: It is imperative to keep up with the reading of the textbook and supplementary readings on a daily basis. Students are recommended to carefully read approximately 10-15 pages of the text each night and to take notes over the reading, if necessary. Students will receive a worksheet packet for each chapter of the text, but these worksheets do not cover everything that they need to know. Multiple choice tests will typically be around 80 questions in 55 minutes. There will be 6-8 graded DBQ’s throughout the year, each taking an entire class period to answer. Standard essays will be written every couple of weeks (occasionally unannounced) and will take approximately half of a class period. Essays will almost always be written during class in order to simulate an AP testing environment. Most of our class time each day will consist of intense discussion. We will use the text daily as well as occasional supplementary readings provided by the instructor. Short video clips will be used frequently as well, typically from documentaries compiled over the years by the instructor. Current political events will be discussed as they relate to history.

Course Content/Calendar:

First Semester Early Colonization - Chapters 1-4 2 weeks American Revolution - Chapters 5-8 3 weeks The New Nation/Constitution - Chapters 9-11 3 weeks War of 1812/Nationalism/Age of Jackson/Reform, Etc. - Chapters 12-15 3.5 weeks South & Slavery/Manifest Destiny/Failure of Compromise - Chapters 16-19 3.5 weeks Civil War & Reconstruction - Chapters 20-22 3 weeks

Second Semester Gilded Age/Industry/ Movement to the City - Chapters 23-25 2 weeks The Great West/Agriculture/Expansionism/Progressivism/TR - Ch. 26-28 2.5 weeks Wilson/WW I/Roaring Twenties - Chapters 29-32 2.5 weeks Great Depression/WW II - Chapters 33-35 2.5 weeks Cold War/Truman/Eisenhower/Korean War (1940’s 50’s) – Chapters 36-37 2 weeks 1960’s & 70’s/JFK/Civil Rights/Vietnam/LBJ/Nixon/Counterculture – Ch. 38-39 2.5 weeks 1980’s-Present/Reagan/Conservatism/Bush/Clinton/War on Terror – Ch. 40-42 1 week

Multiple choice tests (usually around 80 questions) will occur at the completion of each unit. Essays will be given at various times both during and after completion of the units. The teacher reserves the right to change this syllabus or alter the course content based on necessity. Tests and essays will be graded as soon as possible. All students are required to take the AP exam on the second Friday in May.