Current Poverty in America Article
Dictators Chart
About this AP Courses
The aim of the AP U.S. History portion of this course is to provide the student with a learning experience equivalent to that obtained in most college introductory U.S. History courses. It is an intense study of U.S. history from the age of exploration to the present. The course is designed to give students tools need to think, discuss and write like historians. Students will analyze historical material, synthesize information across time, and evaluate primary and secondary resources. The reading in this course is at the college level in terms of content and amount.
AP United States History focuses on developing students’ abilities to think conceptually about U.S. history from approximately 1491 to the present and apply historical thinking skills as they learn about the past. Seven themes of equal importance — identity; peopling; politics and power; work, exchange, and technology; America in the world; environment and geography; and ideas, beliefs, and culture — provide areas of historical inquiry for investigation throughout the course. These require students to reason historically about continuity and change over time and make comparisons among various historical developments in different times and places.
The AP U.S. History course is structured around themes and concepts in nine different chronological periods from approximately 1491 to the present:
• Period 1: 1491–1607
• Period 2: 1607–1754
• Period 3: 1754–1800
• Period 4: 1800–1848
• Period 5: 1844–1877
• Period 6: 1865–1898
• Period 7: 1890–1945
• Period 8: 1945–1980
• Period 9: 1980–Present
Grading
AP Weighted Courses Grade Points
99-100A +6.0
96-98A 6.0
93-95A- 5.667
91-92B+ 5.333
88-90B 5.0
85-87B- 4.667
83-84C+ 4.333
80-82C 4.0
77-79C- 3.667
75-76D+ 3.333
73-74D 3.0
70-72D-2.667
Below 70F 0.00
AP United States History focuses on developing students’ abilities to think conceptually about U.S. history from approximately 1491 to the present and apply historical thinking skills as they learn about the past. Seven themes of equal importance — identity; peopling; politics and power; work, exchange, and technology; America in the world; environment and geography; and ideas, beliefs, and culture — provide areas of historical inquiry for investigation throughout the course. These require students to reason historically about continuity and change over time and make comparisons among various historical developments in different times and places.
The AP U.S. History course is structured around themes and concepts in nine different chronological periods from approximately 1491 to the present:
• Period 1: 1491–1607
• Period 2: 1607–1754
• Period 3: 1754–1800
• Period 4: 1800–1848
• Period 5: 1844–1877
• Period 6: 1865–1898
• Period 7: 1890–1945
• Period 8: 1945–1980
• Period 9: 1980–Present
Grading
AP Weighted Courses Grade Points
99-100A +6.0
96-98A 6.0
93-95A- 5.667
91-92B+ 5.333
88-90B 5.0
85-87B- 4.667
83-84C+ 4.333
80-82C 4.0
77-79C- 3.667
75-76D+ 3.333
73-74D 3.0
70-72D-2.667
Below 70F 0.00
TextBooks
Tindall, George B., and Shi, David E. America: A Narrative History. Brief 7th ed. New York: W.Norton & Company, 2007
Newman, John J., and Schmalbach, John M., eds. United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination. New York: Amsco School Publications, 2006
Belmont, Laura A., eds. Speaking of America. Vol 1: To 1877. 2nd ed. California: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007
Belmont, Laura A., eds. Speaking of America. Vol 2: Since 1877. 2nd ed. California: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007
Online Texts
In addition to the above texts this course includes a diverse use of primary sources consisting of written documents, maps, images, quantitative data (charts, graphs, tables), and works of art. Also this course requires students to read and work with secondary resources written by historians and scholars interpreting the past.
Historical Thinking Skills
Certain tools are needed in order to understand history. It is my hope that you will be equipped with tools that will help you formulate you own understanding of historical events and differentiate between fact and interpretation. The following list are the historical thinking skills you will be learning to use:
Chronological Reasoning |
Comparison and Contextualization |
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Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence |
Historical Interpretation and Synthesis |
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Historical Tools
- Historical argumentation
- Appropriate use of relevant historical evidence
- Historical causation
- Patterns of continuity and change over time
- Periodization
- Comparison
- Contextualization
- Interpretation
- Synthesis
Seven THEMES
THe AP EXAM (May 8th)
Question Type Number of Questions Timing Percent of total exam score
Multiple Choice 55 questions 55 minutes 40%
Short-Answer Essay 4 questions 45 minutes 20%
Document-Based Question 1 question 60 minutes 25%
Long Essay Question 1 question 35 minutes 15%
Major Assignments and Exams
Essay on each of the Historical Thinking Skills
Essays will be document based or long essay form
Each Exam will have a short essay question
Essays will be document based or long essay form
- Historical Argumentation (Due Mid-September)
- Interpretation (Due end of September)
- Appropriate use of Historical Evidence (Due End of October)
- Historical Causation (Due End of November)
- Patterns of Change and Continuity over time (Due Mid-December)
- Periodization (Due end of January)
- Comparison (Due end of February)
- Contextualization (Due end of March)
- Synthesis (Due end of April)
Each Exam will have a short essay question
- Period 1: 1491–1607 (Early September)
- Period 2: 1607–1754 (End of September)
- Period 3: 1754–1800 (End of October)
- Period 4: 1800–1848 (End of November)
- Period 5: 1844–1877 (Before Christmas Break)
- Period 6: 1865–1898 (End of January)
- Period 7: 1890–1945 (End of February)
- Period 8: 1945–1980 (End of March)
- Period 9: 1980–Present (End of April)