Advanced Placement United States History
2008-2009 Course Description
Dr. Brown
429-2300, ext. 321
Introductory Description:
The Advanced Placement United States History course is designed for students who have demonstrated both ability and interest in the study of history. It follows the syllabus of the College Board in historical coverage, and it is the equivalent of a full-year college-level introductory survey. The course examines political, economic, cultural, social, and intellectual developments within the American experience. Throughout, students devise interpretations, analyze historical problems, and express both in verbal and written forms.
Expectations:
To complete the requirements of the Advanced Placement United States History course, students must be serious about their commitment to the course. Students are required to read all homework assignments thoroughly. These will include chapters from the textbook, Gary Nash, The American People , and selected passages from various primary sources found on-line. Students are provided with study sheets for each chapter, which are found on Dr. Brown’s page located on the Humanities Department web site. Download these guides, print them out, and fill them out as you read each chapter. They will make your preparations for the Advanced Placement exam in May much easier. Students receive a monthly assignment planner, which also appears on the web site, which helps them keep track of their many readings and assignments. Lastly, students should come to class prepared to participate in an on-going discussion—a dialogue as it were. Only through conscientious work, planning, and participation will each student succeed in the course and on the exam.
Evaluation:
A number of assessments go into evaluating each student’s performance in the course. There will be 9 multiple-choice unit exams. Each will consist of 40 questions. They will deal with long blocks of time, such as the period from 1607 to 1754, and 1880 to 1920. These periods are widely considered significant “periodicities” among working historians and relate to moments like the founding of Colonial America or the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. A student’s grade on this portion of the class is NOT based on a 100% model; instead, and in keeping with the scoring of the multiple-choice section on the actual Advanced Placement exam, students will be scored on an 83% scale. This means that the closer you come to scoring 83% of the multiple-choice questions correctly, the closer you will be to earning an “A” for the section. Thus, a natural “curve” is built into the grading process for this segment of your evaluation. Students will also complete several DBQ and essay exams that follow the models used by the graders from the College Board. Detailed feedback is provided on each DBQ essay on a standard form, which will allow students to assess their strengths and weaknesses, particularly in conjunction with their use of primary sources. Students will complete a number of homework assignments throughout each trimester. Questions will appear on assignment planners, and each response, which should be a paragraph in length, will receive a possible 5 points. If a student fails to hand in a homework paragraph, that student will lose a point a day for each “school day” that the assignment remains tardy. Students will NOT produce an assignment each day, but a rotating schedule will mean that a student produces an assignment every third day. This is intended to keep students accountable for their reading. Lastly, each student will produce three pieces of writing over the course of the year. One is due each trimester. In the first trimester, students will produce a short paper based on the summer reading; in the second trimester, students will write a brief professional book review based on an outside source from a list located on my web site; in the third trimester, students will produce a 10-page research paper (this will be the most significant writing they do during the year).
Grades Per Trimester:
25% Essay Tests
25% Multiple-Choice Tests
20% Classroom Participation
15% Homework Paragraphs
15% Written Assignments