Course Outline

 

US History Honors:

Course Overview:

This course is a challenging full-year survey that provides students with a comprehensive view of American history from the industrial revolution of the late nineteenth century to recent events. Readings are drawn from The American Odyssey: A History of the United States. Online lessons help students organize study, explore topics in depth, review in preparation for assessments, and practice advanced skills of historical thinking and analysis. Activities include analyzing primary sources and maps, creating timelines, completing projects and written assignments, and conducting independent research. Students complete independent projects each semester.

Course Outline:

HONORS MODERN U.S. HISTORY A

Unit 1: Founding a Nation

Students review the origins of the United States from the founding of the English colonies through the increased tensions and Enlightenment thought that led to the American Revolution. They explore the issues the new nation faced in forming a government and reinforce their knowledge of how the American system of government works under the United States Constitution.

• Semester Introduction

• The New England Colonies

• The Middle and Southern Colonies

• New Ideas

• The Road to Revolution

• Toward Independence

• Independence

• Governing the New Nation

• Creating a More Perfect Union

• Our Constitution

Unit 2: Defining a Nation

Early presidents, George Washington in particular, set the nation on a sound course. The country grew in area, population, diversity, and industry. But that growth, and questions about federalism and the institution of slavery not answered by the Constitution, led eventually to the horror of civil war. The Civil War kept the nation whole— though at a terrible cost— ended slavery and pushed the United States into the modern era.

• Setting a Course

• Visions for a Nation

• Growing in Area

• Growing in Power

• New Politics

• Reforming

• Expanding

• Growing Apart

• Debate and Division

• Disunion

• Terrible War

• Reconstructing a Nation

Unit 3: Entering the Modern Era

During the late 1800s, the nation experienced tremendous growth in many areas. Students follow the enormous migration across the Great Plains and its impact on Native Americans, and the rise of new ways of manufacturing and doing business. They see the hardships factory and mine workers faced, and the demands for reform that came from diverse segments of society.

• Settling the Great American West

• The Changing West

• The End of a Way of Life

• New Industries Emerge

• Meeting Challenges

• Inventors and Industrialists

• How Big is Too Big?

• The Price of Industrialization

• Seeking a Better Way

• What to Do?

Unit 4: A New Century

The arrival of millions of immigrants and the rapid growth of cities in the late 1800s changed the face and landscape of the United States. Students study the early years of the modern age, our modern political system, and a modern approach to reform.

• Beacon of Hope

• The Immigrant Experience

• A Different Experience

• Cities Grow

• Urban Issues

• Cities Life

• Populists

• Progressives

• Confronting Reality

• Taking on Power

• The Power of One

Unit 5: New Directions

During the last years of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century, the United States stepped onto the world stage. In this unit, students trace the rise of the nation's power from the emergence of American imperialism just before 1900 through the end of the Great War and beyond. They examine as well, the hopes, demands, and challenges African Americans and women faced as they sought equality at home.

• Less Than Equal

• Different Visions

• Demanding a Voice

• An American Empire

• Presidents and Policies

• American Giant

• Shaping a Nation

• The Great War

• The War at Home

• Assessing the Great War

Unit 6: Turning Points

The United Sates emerged from World War I a major world power. The horror of the war left many people around the world disillusioned and bitter, while others reveled in the music, fads, and fashions of a new age. Students will complete a research project in this unit and then continue their study of the inter-war era as the economic bubble of the 1920s gave way to the Great Depression.

• Embracing the Peace

• A New Culture

• Action and Reaction

• The Harlem Renaissance

• Choosing a Research Project

• Choosing a Presentation Format

• The Annotated Bibliography

• The Process Paper

• Conducting Research

• Continuing Research

• Completing the Project

• The Bubble Bursts

• Depression

• Seeking Solutions

Unit 7: Semester Review and Test

Unit 8: Honors Project

HONORS MODERN U.S. HISTORY B

Unit 1: Facing Crisis and War

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's recovery plan, the New Deal, forever changed the way Americans thought about government. But his programs did not end the Great Depression. Only when World War II began in Europe and the United States joined the Allies after the attack at Pearl Harbor did the economy fully recover. Students will trace FDR's presidency through the Great Depression and World War II. They will see the hardship of the 1930s and the heroic efforts from men and women of all races and backgrounds that finally brought victory in Europe and Japan.

• Semester Introduction

• Confronting the Crisis

• New Strategies

• Reflections

• Lasting Programs

• Discuss: Legacy of the New Deal

• War Clouds

• Going to War

• The War at Home

• Fighting on Two Fronts

• Horror Uncovered

• War's End

Unit 2: Postwar America

World War II transformed the United States into the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation. That position brought new responsibilities. Students will witness the dangers of the atomic age and the tension between communist and democratic countries that threatened the very existence of humankind. They will explore life in the United States during the 1950s as television and the automobile transformed American society. They will demonstrate their understanding of the era by producing an online magazine reflecting the news and the new trends of the times.

• A War of Words and Ideas

• Confronting Communism

• The Cold War Abroad

• Eisenhower at the Helm

• From War to Peace

• New Places to Live

• A New American Dream

• A New Frontier

• Your Magazine Project

Unit 3: Trauma at Home and Abroad

In 1961, John F. Kennedy told the world Americans would "assure the survival and the success of liberty." The 1960s tested that resolve. Students will explore the complexity of U.S. engagement in Southeast Asia, the hopes and hardships of the civil rights movement, the triumphs of greater liberty and democracy, and the thrill of seeing an American walk on the moon.

• The Beginning of Change

• Demanding Change

• How to Achieve Equality?

• I Have a Dream

• New Directions

• Other Paths

• Discuss: Nonviolent Resistance vs. Law and Order

• Crisis

• War in Vietnam

• Escalation

• A Different Kind of War

• Those Who Served

• Reflections on War

Unit 4: Turmoil

The Cold War nearly erupted in nuclear war in the early 1960s as the superpowers faced off in Cuba. Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, fears of communist expansion led the United States into its longest war, a war that would tear the nation apart and take a terrible toll in lives and in the country's image abroad and at home. Students will meet the people and groups who emerged during these tumultuous years, some demanding an end to war, some demanding civil rights for every group in the American mosaic, and some demanding answers to White House secrecy, corruption, and scandal.

• Culture and Counterculture

• Tragedies

• Women on the Move

• Voices for Change

• Complex Times

• The Watergate Scandal

• Discuss: Impeachment

• Transition

Unit 5: Modern Turning Points

Students will choose a topic from any period in American history between 1930 and about 1980 and produce a project in one of four formats. The theme of the project, regardless of topic or format, will be "turning points in American history, 1930 -1980." Then, they will study the end of the twentieth century as the United States rose to the position of a superpower militarily and economically, and faced social, cultural, and political challenges.

• The Research Project, Part 1

• The Research Project, Part 2

• The Research Project, Part 3

• The Research Project, Part 4

• A Changing Mood

• Reaganomics

• Cold War Warriors

• Discuss: The Collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union

• Legacies

• The Research Project, Part 5

• The Post-Cold War World, Part 1

• The Post-Cold War World, Part 2

• The Post-Cold War World, Part 3

Unit 6: Toward a New Millennium

In this last unit of Modern U.S. History, students will study the events of the very recent past. As they do, they must keep in mind that historians will continue to study and debate these events for decades before they can draw conclusions. This is a "first rough draft" of our nation's most recent chapter.

• A New Age

• Demographics Close to Home

• Discuss: Immigration Trends

• The Clinton Years

• Divisions

• Looking at North America, Part 1

• Looking at North America, Part 2

• Looking at North America, Part 3

• Looking at North America, Part 4

• The Research Project, Part 6

• The Research Project, Part 7

• Challenges at Century's End

• Entering a New Millennium

• New Realities

• War and Disaster

• Looking Ahead

Unit 7: Semester Review and Test

Students prepare for and take the semester test.

Unit 8: Honors Project

 

US History AP:

This 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.

AP United States History is designed to prepare students for the rigor of scholarship and writing expected in college-level courses. Students study history as a series of interconnected events rather than as isolated dates, learning to critically analyze the cause and effect relationships of those events. As students’ progress through the course, they learn to find and assess primary documents as well as secondary sources. Finally, students learn to incorporate outside sources into persuasive essays that demonstrate logical reasoning and present evidence to support the author’s conclusions.

1. AP Exam

• AP Exam

• The DBQ

• DBQ part 2

• DBQ Scoring Rubric

1. Unit 1: Exploration & Colonization

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• The World Before 1492

• Essay: Columbus and the Columbian Exchange

• The First Americans

• Assignment: European Discovery of the New World

• Exploration and Discovery

• Essay: Spanish Discovery of the New World

• Colonization

• Assignment: Colonization

• Origins & Nature of New World Slavery

• Assignment: Indentured Servitude and Slavery

• Religion in the Colonies

• Assignment: Puritans

• Review

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 2: Toward Revolution

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• Patterns of Change

• Assignment: Toward Revolution

• The American Revolution

• Assignment: The Revolutionary War

• Religion, Race & Gender

• Essay: The Constitution

• Assignment: Impact of the Revolution

• The Founders

• Assignment: Who Were the Delegates

• Review

• Review part 2

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 3: Nation Building

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• The Critical Period: America in the 1780s

• U.S. Constitution & The Bill of Rights

• Assignment: Ratification the Constitution

• The First New Nation

• Assignment: Burr-Hamilton Duel

• Anti-Slavery

• Review

• Review part 2

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

1. Unit 4: Growing Pains

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• Jeffersonian Republicanism

• Assignment: Federalists and Jeffersonians

• War of 1812

• Assignment: War of 1812

• The Era of Good Feelings

• Jacksonian Democracy

• Assignment: Jacksonian Democracy

• Review

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 5: Defining America

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• Westward Expansion

• Assignment: Westward Expansion

• Essay: The Alamo

• Indian Removal

• Essay: Indian Removal

• Religion and the Early Republic

• Pre-Civil War Culture

• Assignment: An Industrializing Nation

• Pre-Civil War Reform

• Review

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 6: Nation Divided

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• Pre-Civil War South

• Assignment: Sectional Conflict

• Assignment: Escalating Crisis

• The Impending Crisis

• Essay: John Brown

• The Civil War

• Essay: Secession

• The Civil War part 2

• Assignment: The Civil War

• Reconstruction

• Assignment: Reconstruction

• Along the Color Lines

• Assignment: After Slavery

• Review

• Review part 2

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Rise of Industry

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• Closing the Western Frontier

• Industrialization and the Working Class

• Essay: Industrial America

• The Huddled Masses

• Assignment: Immigration

• Making of Modern America

• Assignment: Responses to Industrialism

• Struggle for Women’s Suffrage

• Assignment: Women’s Roles

• Review

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 8: Politics in the Gilded Age

 

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• The Gilded Age

• Essay: Organized Labor

• United States Becomes a World Power

• Assignment: Imperialism

• The Political Crisis of the 1890s

• Assignment: Urban Political Machines

• Review

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 9: Progressivism & the Great War

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• The Progressive Era

• Assignment: Progressive Reform

• World War I

• Essay: Progress and Poverty

• World War I part 2

• Assignment: World War I

• Review

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 10: The 1920’s and 1930’s

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• The Jazz Age: The American 1920s

• Essay: 1920s

• Controversies of the 1920s

• Assignment: Controversies of 1920s

• 1930s

• Assignment: Great Depression & the New Deal

• Review

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 11: Rise of a Super Power

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• America at War: WWII

• Assignment: World War II

• Japanese Internment

• Essay: Japanese Internment

• Post-War America: 1945-1960

• Assignment: McCarthyism

• Korean War

• Cold War Years

• Assignment: Cold War

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. Unit 12: Finding Our Way

• Introduction

• Assignment: Theme Discussion

• The Tumultuous 1960s

• Assignment: Turbulent Times

• Civil Rights Movement

• Essay: Civil Rights Organizations

• Vietnam War

• Assignment: Tumultuous 1960s

• The Vietnam War part 2

• Essay: Vietnam War

• 1970s

• Assignment: Nixon and Watergate

• The 1980s

• 1990s

• Assignment: Twentieth Century

• 21st Century

• Quiz: Multiple-Choice Test

• Essay: Essay Test

 

1. AP Exam Review

• Preparing for the AP Exam

AP US Government and Politics:

 

Course Overview:

This course is the equivalent of an introductory college-level course. Students explore the operations and structure of the U.S. government and the behavior of the electorate and politicians. Students gain the analytic perspective necessary to evaluate political data, hypotheses, concepts, opinions, and processes and learn how to gather data about political behavior and develop their own theoretical analysis of American politics. Students also build the skills they need to examine general propositions about government and politics, and to analyze specific relationships between political, social, and economic institutions. Students prepare for the AP Exam and for further study in political science, law, education, business, and history.

Course Outline:

Unit 1: Foundations of American Government

This unit introduces the study of American politics, presents three important ways of looking at the American political system, and examines the constitutional foundations and federal framework of American politics. Students see how the political institutions that make up our system (interest groups, political parties, and Congress) are shaped. In the College Board's topic outline, the content in this unit maps to Constitutional Underpinnings of United States Government (Considerations that influenced the formulation and adoption of the Constitution; Separation of powers; Federalism; Theories of democratic government).

• Politics in a Democracy

• Constitutional Foundations

• Federalism

Unit 2: Political Beliefs and Attitudes

This unit focuses on political beliefs and attitudes and how they shape the American political process. Students explore the political norms and values shared by most Americans and the important ways in which we distinguish ourselves politically from one another. In the College Board's topic outline, the content in this unit maps to II. Political Beliefs and Behaviors (Beliefs that citizens hold about their government and its leaders; Processes by which citizens learn about politics; The nature, sources, and consequences of public opinion; Factors that influence citizens to differ from one another in terms of political beliefs and behaviors).

• Political Culture

• Public Opinion in America

Unit 3: Political Parties, Elections, Interest Groups, and the Media

Students examine the linkage institutions in the American political system—political parties, elections, interest groups, and the mass media. They look at the function and structure of political parties, the history of the two-party system, and the ways it encourages a relatively moderate ideological climate. They see how interest groups seek to influence public policy how the mass media provides most Americans with much of their political information. In the College Board's topic outline, the content in this unit maps to II. Political Beliefs and Behaviors (The ways in which citizens vote and otherwise participate in political life); III. Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Mass Media (Political parties and elections; Interest groups; The mass media).

• Political Parties

• Campaigns and Elections

• Interest Groups

• The Media

Unit 4: Institutions of American Government

Students look at the structure, functions, and interactions of the three branches of the federal government. They learn about Congress, the presidency, the federal bureaucracy, the federal judiciary, and the checks and balances that determine how these institutions relate to each other. In the College Board's topic outline, the content in this unit maps to IV. Institutions of National Government (The Congress, the Presidency, the Bureaucracy, and the Federal Courts).

• Congress

• The Presidency

• The Bureaucracy

• The Courts

• Checks and Balances

Unit 5: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

Students learn the difference between civil liberties and civil rights. In the study of civil liberties, they look at First Amendment issues and the rights of criminal defendants. In the study of civil rights, they look at the struggles for racial and gender equality in America and the role of the courts in shaping these struggles. In the College Board's topic outline, the content in this unit maps to VI. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

• Civil Liberties

• Civil Rights

Unit 6: Public Policy in American Government

Students examine the basic products of our political process—policies. They learn about domestic policy, and how different types of policies have different types of politics. The political debate over an issue such as agricultural policy, and the participants in such a debate, will be distinct from the debate over welfare reform. Then they learn issues of foreign policy. In the College Board's topic outline, the content in this unit maps to V. Public Policy (Policy making in a federal system; The formation of policy agendas; The role of institutions in the enactment of policy; The role of the bureaucracy and the courts in policy implementation and interpretation; Linkages between policy processes).

• Domestic Policy

• Foreign and Defense Policies

Unit 7: Preparing for the AP Exam

Students review what they have learned and take the final exam.

• Review and Exam

• Final Course Exam

 

Honors World History:

 

Course Overview

In this challenging survey of world history from prehistoric to modern times, students focus in depth on the developments and events that have shaped civilization across time. The course is organized chronologically and, within broad eras, regionally. Lessons address developments in religion, philosophy, the arts, science and technology, and political history. The course also introduces geography concepts and skills within the context of the historical narrative.

Course Outline:

SEMESTER ONE

Unit 1: Civilization Begins

The human story begins in the distant past, long before written language. Many details of our earliest history remain unknown. But tantalizing clues buried in the earth have helped shape a fascinating tale. The earliest people lived by hunting animals and gathering wild food. After the discovery of farming, they settled down. They built towns, which grew into cities. And they faced difficult questions. Who would perform important tasks, like growing crops and building canals? Who would be in charge? How should society organize itself? And how will people remember their own history? The answers, as well as brand-new questions, arose with the world’s first civilizations.

• Semester Introduction

• Finding Our Past

• Settling Down

• The First Civilization

• The Gift of the Nile

• Civilization on the Nile

• Early Civilizations in India and China

• Looking at Civilizations

• The First Empires

• Egypt Builds an Empire

• Expanding Empires

Unit 2: Civilizations Flourish

Mighty empires dominated vast regions, but after 1500 B.C., small trading kingdoms flourished, too. Minoans and Phoenicians plied the Mediterranean trading many goods and spreading culture and new ideas. Other peoples migrated across wide areas. The Hebrews, founders of Judaism, followed the Fertile Crescent to Canaan. The Aryans settled in northern India and introduced the ideas that became Hinduism. Centuries later, India saw the rise of Buddhism and in China, a great teacher named Confucius introduced a philosophy that has shaped the lives of millions. The classical eras in India and China set enduring artistic standards.

• Mediterranean Traders

• The Hebrews and Early Judaism

• South Asia and Hinduism

• The Birth of Buddhism

• India's Golden Age

• Classical China and Confucianism

• China's Dynasties

• Exploring Further

Unit 3: The Western Classical World

Two civilizations on the northern Mediterranean Sea shaped the Western world. Classical Greece produced arts and sciences whose impact is still evident. Moreover, they invented democracy. Greek achievements inspired the Romans, who reached new heights in engineering and created the framework for representative government. During the early years of the Roman Empire, a new religion emerged in a distant eastern outpost of Rome’s vast territory. Eventually embraced by Rome, the faith based on the teachings of Jesus would long survive the empire. The legacy of classical Greece and Rome remains strong today.

• Greek Beginnings

• Rival City-States

• War, Glory, and Decline

• Greek Art and Literature

• Lovers of Wisdom

• Alexander the Great

• The Roman Republic

• Rome's Expansion and Crisis

• From Republic to Empire

• Roman Society and Culture

• The Rise of Christianity

• The Roman Empire Crumbles

Unit 4: Regional Civilizations and Cultures

Civilization developed in different parts of the world at different times. Some civilizations built on earlier civilizations; some developed in isolation. In Africa and the Americas, civilizations developed long after the complex societies of East Asia and the Mediterranean did. In Asia Minor, Byzantine civilization rose from the remains of the Roman Empire and kept alive the Greco Roman legacy while developing a unique culture and influencing a vast new country, Russia. In the same region, the new religion of Islam gave rise to a new empire whose achievements helped shaped the modern world.

• North African Societies

• South of the Sahara

• Societies in the Americas

• The Byzantine Empire

• Byzantine Civilization

• Russia Rises

• The Rise of Islam

• The Spread of Islam

• Muslim Culture and Life

Unit 5: Regional Transitions

In seventh-century China, many years of conflict and division gave way to a long period of accomplishment and innovation. But the peace was shattered in the 1200s by fierce nomadic invaders—the Mongols. Meanwhile, in Korea and Japan, people built on Chinese influences to develop their own distinct cultures.

In Europe, the Roman Empire was gone. Tribes and rulers competed for territory, and Christianity continued to spread. The Middle Ages had begun, a time that is often called an "Age of Faith." How did the Christian church provide a source of social unity during the Middle Ages? What explains the church's increasing political power?

• China's Tang and Song Dynasties

• The Silk Road

• The Mongols

• Korea and Japan Rising

• Charlemagne Forges an Empire

• Life in the Middle Ages

• Europe's Age of Faith

• The Crusades

• The Culture of the Middle Ages

• The Rise of Monarchs

• Crises

• Powerful People

Unit 6: Patterns of Civilization

As the Middle Ages continued in Europe, large empires were developing elsewhere in the world. In Africa, prosperous trading kingdoms, fueled by their trade in gold, grew into empires. Muslim traders brought their religion and culture along with their goods to the people of sub-Saharan Africa, and East African cities welcomed traders from all corners of the known world.

Meanwhile, three new Islamic empires emerged to rule much of Asia, bringing together diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious traditions. China and Japan took a different path, as rulers in those countries closed their flourishing empires to outside contact.

• West African Kingdoms

• Eastern and Southern African Kingdoms

• New Muslim Empires

• China's Ming and Qing Dynasties

• Japan's Tokugawa Shogunate

• Looking Back

Unit 7: Changing Worlds

As the Middle Ages wore on in Europe and mighty empires rose and fell in Africa and Asia, great changes appeared on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In Mesoamerica, people built lavish cities and erected huge temples. Eventually, these people fell under the control of the Aztecs. In South America, the Inca built a great empire high in the Andes Mountains. What were the people of the Americas like? What happened to them when Europeans arrived?

Meanwhile, Italian city-states once devastated by plague prospered through trade with Byzantine and Muslim traders. The exchange brought new ideas to Europe. How did these new ideas lead to great changes?

• The Aztec Empire

• The Empire of the Inca

• The Renaissance Begins in Italy

• Artistic Genius

• Beyond Italy

• The Elizabethan Age

Unit 8: Semester Review and Test

Students review what they have learned and take the semester test.

Unit 9: Honors Project

Over the course of 11 weeks, students work on a world history honors project. They choose a topic, conduct, and analyze research, and communicate their ideas and conclusions in the format of their choice, with appropriate citations.

SEMESTER TWO

Unit 1: Entering the Modern Era

What do we mean by the Modern Era? The European Renaissance brought new ideas and discoveries. Spurred by the desire for riches, adventure, and knowledge, Europeans launched an age of exploration. They found a world entirely new to them. The transformations in thinking that characterized the Renaissance and Age of Exploration extended to religious thought as well. The Protestant Reformation brought conflict and cultural changes.

What were the consequences of new global connections? What impact did such dramatic changes in religious practices have? By 1700, the world was a vastly different place from what it had been in 1500.

• Semester Introduction

• Europeans Set Sail

• Conquest and Colonies

• Global Contact

• The Results of Global Contact

• The Protestant Reformation

• The Catholic Reformation

• Religious Wars and the Rise of Absolutism

• England's Monarchy and Its Limits

Unit 2: Revolution and Empire

Many historians say the modern world was born in the 1500s. It was then that a revolution in the way scholars looked at the natural world led to the scientific method and to modern science and mathematics. That change in thought processes, and the natural laws of science that followed, spilled into other areas of life. Political thinkers began to apply the idea of natural law to society and government. What came to be known as the Enlightenment, in turn, helped spur political revolutions in Britain’s North American colonies, in France and across Europe, and in Latin America. The modern world had taken shape.

• The Scientific Revolution

• The Enlightenment

• The American Revolution

• The French Revolution

• Radical Revolution

• The Age of Napoleon

• Latin American Independence Movements

• Nationalism in Europe

• The Growth of Western Democracies

Unit 3: Changing Expectations

Beginning in 1750, Western societies began transforming in an era we know as the Industrial Revolution. New machines allowed manufacturers to produce goods quickly and efficiently. New forms of transportation and communication connected people, cargo, and information as never before. New inventions eased life for many, and new ways of doing business led to a growing middle class.

For millions, however, the Industrial Revolution brought terrible living conditions and dangerous work in smoke-belching factories. It also led industrializing nations to seek resources and markets in other lands, launching a new era of imperialism.

• The Industrial Revolution Begins in England

• The Industrial Revolution Spreads

• Business, Labor, and a New Middle Class

• New Ways of Thinking

• Taking Action

• A Rising Standard of Living

• European Scramble for Empire

• Asia Divided

• Non-European Nations Compete

Unit 4: War, Revolution and Crisis

Although the twentieth century dawned with optimism and confidence, tensions soon arose among European nations. Their race for arms and territory would lead to the most terrible war the world had ever seen—the Great War. What were the costs of the Great War? What would result from the peace treaty ending the conflict?

Before the Great War ended, a Communist revolution transformed Russia. Nationalism in India and the Middle East sparked protests against colonial rule after the war and brought change. By the 1930s, the world faced a new crisis—an economic depression that had started in the United States and spread around the globe. What changes would arise out of this crisis?

• Toward a World War

• The Great War

• The Tide Turns

• War's End

• The Russian Revolution

• India Takes a Different Path

• Nationalism in the Middle East

• Uncertainty in the Postwar World

• The Great Depression

• The Rise of Dictators

Unit 5: World War II Reshapes the World

When the First World War ended in 1918, many tensions and problems were left unresolved. In 1939, lingering tensions and resentments erupted into another worldwide war, which was even more destructive than the Great War.

World War II began with Hitler’s attempts to create a massive German empire in Europe. The war ended only after nearly six years of devastation and death. Germany was defeated, but the cost was enormous. Millions had died around the world and millions more in Hitler’s campaign of genocide. And the world faced a new reality— a bomb capable of unimaginable destruction.

Aggression, Appeasement and War

• The Allies Turn the Tide

• Discovering the Horror

• The Allied Victory

• Securing the Peace

• The Cold War Begins

• The Cold War Spreads

• The West in the Postwar

• Beyond the Cold War

Unit 6: The Contemporary World

In recent decades, the world has changed at a dizzying pace. Latin American nations fought to expand their economies, but many fell prey to dictators and outside intervention. In China, communism spurred industrialization but destroyed lives and traditions. Elsewhere in Asia and in Africa, colonialism collapsed in the face of strong nationalist independence movements, but many new nations fell into civil, tribal, and religious wars. In some regions, extremists turned to terrorism in response to poverty and anger. Nevertheless, democracy is growing worldwide, and the future presents not only challenges, but promise.

• Postwar Latin America

• Dictators in Control

• Directions in Latin America

• Preparing a Presentation

• China Since 1945

• South Asia Since 1945

• Southeast Asia Since 1945

• East Asia Since 1945

• The End of Colonialism in Africa

• Challenges in Modern Africa

• New Nations in the Middle East

• Ongoing Struggles in the Middle East

• New Threats and Responses

Unit 7: Looking Back and Ahead

One of the most significant trends today is globalization— the increasing interaction and integration of the world's economies and cultures. Beginning in the 1990s, advances in computer technology accelerated globalization. Other technological advances have led to a slow but steady improvement in the standards of living worldwide. Despite these advances, poverty, hunger, and disease remain major challenges.

• Wrapping Up

• Global Interaction and Interdependence

• Social and Environmental Challenges

• Technology, Science, and the Standard of Living

• Finalizing the Project

Unit 8: Semester Review and Test

Students review what they have learned and take the semester test.

Unit 9: Honors Project

Over the course of 11 weeks, students work on a world history honors project. They choose a topic, conduct, and analyze research, and communicate their ideas and conclusions in the format of their choice, with appropriate citations.

 

AP World History:

 

Course Description:

 

The purpose of the AP World History course is to develop the greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts in different types of human societies. This understanding is advanced through a combination of selective factual knowledge and appropriate analytical skills. The course highlights the nature of changes in global frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies. It emphasizes relevant factual knowledge, leading interpretive issues, and skills in analyzing types of historical evidence.

The primary intent of the AP World History course is to teach the history of the world from a truly global stance rather than from the dominant perspective of Western civilization. This approach, therefore, places emphasis on worldwide historical processes and connections among the whole gamut of human societies. In order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of these events, students need both factual knowledge and the ability to critically assess such information. This course helps them on both fronts, teaching the historical facts in the context of how progressive changes–environmental, social, scientific, and political–influenced the various societies they touched, as well as how these groups interacted with each other. Students are exposed to many primary sources in an effort to show them how historical analysis works and how they can proceed to make their own informed interpretations of world events, both past, and present. Significantly, the course is organized by five defining time periods, not by geographical areas. This concept of “periodization” is a vehicle that facilitates seeing both the continuities and changes over time that form the framework for understanding world history.

1. The AP Exam

• Historical Thinking Skills

• Multiple-Choice Exam

• Document-Based Question (DBQ)

• Handout: Essay Writing Tips

• Handout: DBQ Tips

• Continuity and Change-over-time Question

• Handout: Generic Change-over-time Rubric

• Comparative Essay

• Handout: Comparative Step-by-Step

• Handout: Generic Comparative Rubric

• MLA Formatting MSWord 2007

• AP Exam Review Sources

  1. Unit 1: 800 BCE to 600 CE

• Introduction

• Handout: Unit 1 Key Terms

• Handout: Unit 1 Focus Questions

• Agriculture and Geography

• Handout: The Neolithic Revolution

• Handout: Neolithic Farming

• Handout: Evolution of Civilization

• Handout: Floodplain Civilization

• Handout: The Cosmic Calendar

• Handout: Early Mesoamerican Civilization

• Assignment: Olduvai Gorge

• Assignment: Paleolithic, Mesolithic & Neolithic Periods

• Essay: Landmark Discoveries

• Rise of City States

• Handout: Women in Egypt

• Handout: Major Civilizations: China

• Handout: Major Civilizations: Greece

• Handout: Major Civilizations: India

• Handout: Major Civilizations: Rome

• Handout: Major Civilizations: Others

• Handout: Persian Chart

• Assignment: Minoan Civilization

• Assignment: Mesopotamia

• Assignment: Civilizations Chart

• Assignment: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

• Assignment: Ancient India Geography

• Assignment: Aztec and Inca Civilizations

• Essay: Aztec & Incan Civilizations part 2

• First World Religions

• Handout: Islam: The Five Pillars

• Essay: Hinduism and Buddhism

• Assignment: Dharma and the Bhagavad Gita

• Assignment: Maya, Aztec & Incan Religion

• Assignment: Confucianism and Taoism

• Nature of Empire

• Handout: The Conrad Demarest Model of Empire

• Handout: Classical Civilizations

• Handout: Classical Greece

• Handout: Classical Rome

• Handout: Sparta

• Handout: Women in Sparta

• Handout: The Year One

• Handout: Politics in Rome

• Handout: End of the Classical Period

• Assignment: Ancient China Dynasties

• Assignment: Fall of Rome

• Assignment: Early Islamic Civilizations

• Essay: Early Islamic Civilizations part 2

• Quiz: Unit 1 Multiple Choice Exam

• Essay: Unit 1 Essay Exam

• DBQ: Romans and Barbarians

• Handout: DBQ: Romans and Barbarians

• Essay: DBQ: Romans and Barbarians

 

1. Unit 2: 600 to 1450 CE

• Introduction

• Handout: Unit 2 Key Terms

• Handout: Unit 2 Focus Questions

• Early World Empires

• Handout: The World in 1000 CE

• Handout: Life and Culture in 1000 EC

• Handout: The Mongols

• Handout: Women of the Mongol Court

• Handout: Middle Ages

• Handout: Japan, Korea, and Vietnam

• Handout: Byzantine Empire

• Handout: Arab Islamic Empires

• Assignment: Genghis Kahn and the Mongols

• Essay: Genghis Khan and the Mongols part 2

• Assignment: Comparing Russian and Byzantine Rulers

• Assignment: Powerful Medieval Women

• Essay: Powerful Medieval Women part 2

• Assignment: Asian Empires Art Exhibit

• Assignment: Chinese Confucianism in Japan and Korea

• Assignment: Islam: the Qur’an

• Assignment: Medieval Europe

• Essay: Medieval Europe part 2

• Essay: Feudalism WebQuest

• Trade Routes

• Handout: Trade 600 to 1450

• Assignment: Buddhism and the Silk Road

• Assignment: Khmer Empire: Angor Wat

• Early America

• Handout: The Americas in 1000 CE

• Handout: North America in 1000 CE

• Handout: Central and South America in 1000 CE

• Handout: Aztecs

• Handout: Incas

• Assignment: Maya, Aztec, and Incan Culture

• Assignment: Aztec Resistance to Spanish Conquest

• African Kingdoms

• Handout: Islam in Africa

• Handout: Islam in India

• Handout: Islamic Advancements

• Assignment: Timbuktu

• Quiz: Unit 2 Multiple Choice Exam

• Essay: Unit 2 Essay Exam

• DBQ: Buddhism in China

• Essay: DBQ: Buddhism in China

 

1. Unit 3: 1450 to 1750 CE

• Introduction

• Handout: Unit 3 Key Terms

• Handout: Unit 3 Focus Questions

• Empire Building

• Handout: Exploration and Expansion

• Handout: Gunpowder Empires

• Handout: Russia

• Handout: Russia #2

• Handout: Three Islamic Empires

• Handout: China and Japan

• Handout: Ming-Qing China

• Handout: Unification of Japan

• Assignment: Transatlantic Slave Trade

• Assignment: Portugal’s Motives for Exploring Africa

• Assignment: Elizabethan Propaganda

• Columbian Exchange/Atlantic Trade

• Handout: Early Europe and Trade

• Handout: Europe 1450 to 1750

• Handout: Europe and New Worlds

• Handout: Africa

• Handout: Africa and Slavery

• Handout: A Space Odyssey

• Assignment: Spain in the New World

• Essay: Spain in the New World part 2

• Assignment: The Columbian Exchange

• Renaissance, Reformation & Enlightenment

• Handout: Art: Renaissance to Rococo

• Handout: Renaissance

• Handout: Reformation

• Handout: Reformation and the European Nation State

• Assignment: Exploring Renaissance Humanists

• Assignment: Reformation: Writing Propaganda

• Assignment: Creating an Enlightenment Quiz

• Enlightenment continued

• Quiz: Unit 3 Multiple Choice Exam

• Essay: Unit 3 Essay Exam

• DBQ: Puritan Influence

• Essay: DBQ: Puritan Influence

 

1. Unit 4: 1750 to 1914 CE

• Introduction

• Handout: Unit 4 Key Terms

• Handout: Unit 4 Focus Questions

• Political Revolutions

• Handout: Revolution

• Handout: The French Revolution

• Handout: Marie Antoinette

• Assignment: French Revolution Timeline

• Political Revolutions part 2

• Assignment: Battles of the Napoleonic Era

• Industrial Revolution

• Handout: Industrial Revolution

• Handout: Women in the Industrial Revolution

• Assignment: Life in Victorian England

• Assignment: Protesting the Corn Laws

• Essay: Adam Smith & Child Labor

• Imperialism & Rise of Nationalism

• Handout: Imperialism

• Handout: Opium Wars

• Handout: Middle East in Crisis

• Handout: China: Ming to Manchu

• Handout: Europe 1750-1914

• Assignment: Scramble for Africa

• Essay: Scramble for Africa part 2

• Assignment: Maps of Asia and Africa

• Essay: The White Man’s Burden

• Assignment: Origins of the Franco-Prussian War

• Essay: Origins part 2

• Assignment: The Unification of Italy

• Social Revolutions

• Handout: Women’s Rights

• Handout: Alexander II’s Reforms

• Essay: 19th Century Political & Intellectual Movements

• Essay: The Communist Manifesto

• Quiz: Unit 4 Multiple-Choice Exam

• Essay: Unit 4 Essay Exam

• DBQ: Indentured Servitude

• Essay: DBQ: Indentured Servitude

 

1. Unit 5: 1914 to Present

• Introduction

• Handout: Unit 5 Key Terms

• Handout: Unit 5 Focus Questions

• Communism, Fascism & Totalitarianism

• Handout: Stalin’s Genocide

• Handout: Rise of Fascism

• Handout: Communist China

• Assignment: Trotsky and Stalin

• Essay: Trotsky and Stalin part 2

• Assignment: The Chinese Cultural Revolution

• Assignment: Italian Fascism

• World Wars

• Handout: World in 1914

• Handout: WWI

• Handout: Nanking Genocide

• Handout: Post WWI World

• Assignment: WWI: Failure of European Diplomacy

• Essay: European Diplomacy part 2

• Assignment: The Schlieffen Plan

• Essay: The Versailles Treaty

• World Wars continued

• Handout: Nazi Genocide

• Handout: Independence Movements

• Assignment: WWII: 1936 in Review

• Assignment: Japanese Expansion

• Essay: The Holocaust and Hiroshima

• Cold War & Post-Colonialism

• Handout: The Cold War

• Handout: Decolonization

• Handout: Vietnam

• Handout: Armenian Genocide

• Handout: Bosnian Genocide

• Handout: Cambodian Genocide

• Handout: Nationalism in the Balkans

• Assignment: Glossary of the Arms Race

• Assignment: The Marshall Plan

• Assignment: Apartheid in South Africa

• Assignment: Arab-Israeli Conflict

• Globalization

• Assignment: 20th Century Latin American Dictatorships

• Essay: Modern Asia: Analyzing Conflicts

• Assignment: World Trade Organizations

• Quiz: Unit 5 Multiple-Choice Exam

• Essay: Unit 5 Essay Exam

• DBQ: Women and the Cuban Revolution

• Handout: DBQ: Women and the Cuban Revolution

• Essay: DBQ: Women and Cuban Revolution