AP World History
Course Description: The purpose of an Advanced Placement (AP) Course is to complete a high school course that also qualifies as an introductory college world history course. Successful completion of the AP exam will replace some introductory college world history courses. My course is based on a global perspective of the world and human interactions from 8000 bce to present day, using the five themes outlined in the AP® World History Course Description consistently throughout the course. Students refine their analytical abilities and critical thinking skills in order to understand historical and geographical context, make comparisons across cultures, use documents and other primary sources, and recognize and discuss different interpretations and historical frameworks. The course imposes a heavy reading and writing load throughout the year, and the demands on students are equivalent to a full-year introductory college course. Continuity and change will be addressed in the themes of each unit.
Topics to be covered will emphasize non-western history by focusing on the interactions of peoples in different places and times. Students will be expected to understand specific content as well as comparisons over time and place.
Students will be treated like college students in that they will be expected to complete the majority of the reading the writing assignments outside of class. Reading assignments from the textbook will serve as a foundation for developing higher level thinking skills. Use of primary sources and some secondary sources will be used to develop and refine analytical skills. Through the use of primary sources students will work to identify point-of-view, bias and content, and then to apply that knowledge to support an argument. These skills will help to prepare the students for the free-response portion of the AP exam, specifically the document-based questions (DBQ’s).
Specifically, the following AP World History themes will be used throughout the course to identify these broad patterns and processes that explain change and continuity over time.
The Six AP World History Themes:
1. The relationship of change and continuity from 8,000 bce to the present.
2. Impact of interaction among and within major societies.
3. Impact of technology, economics, and demography on people and the environment.
4. Systems of social structure and gender structure.
5. Cultural, religious, and intellectual developments.
6. Changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and political identities, including the emergence of the nation-state.
Habits of Mind:
In addition to learning the content of world history, students will also work to develop the following skills:
1. Constructing and evaluating arguments: using evidence to make plausible arguments.
2. Using documents and other primary data: developing the skills necessary to analyze point of view, context, and bias, and to understand and interpret information.
3. Assessing issues of change and continuity over time, including the capacity to deal with change as a process and with questions of causation.
4. Understanding diversity of interpretations through analysis of context, point of view and frame of reference.
5. Seeing global patterns and processes over time and space while also connecting local developments to global ones and moving through levels of generalizations from the global to the particular.
6. Comparing within and among societies, including comparing societies’ reactions to global processes.
7. Being aware of human commonalities and differences while assessing claims of universal standards, and understanding culturally diverse ideas and values in historical context.
Teaching Strategies:
Lectures
In our 90-minute classes, I find it unproductive to lecture more than half the time. I usually talk for only 20 to 30 minutes. Almost all of my lectures are accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation.
Discussions
I train students using the Socratic seminar method from the first week of school. To scaffold to the level I would like, I start with fishbowls with students peer-grading each other, and I model how to facilitate using the Socratic method. To create a
fishbowl discussion, I merely split the students into two groups, where one group first discusses a prompt in an inner circle, while the outer circle observes silently. When the inner circle is done, I solicit critiques from the outer circle observers. The two groups then switch places, and the new inner circle is given a related, but new prompt. Eventually, students come prepared with their own prompts and can ideally lead a whole-class discussion.
Group Work
I often put students in groups to process primary-source documents or large amounts of content, usually with the goal of generating theses and outlines for sample questions that I have written on the board. The processing is accomplished through various exercises that focus on a selected set of skills. For example, the groups might focus on how to determine and analyze point of view, or on how to group a set of documents.
Students will be assessed in a variety of ways through formative and summative assessments such as: Benchmarks, teacher made tests/quizzes, essays, research papers, journal articles, and projects/presentations, webquests etc.
Make-Up Procedures
It is the responsibility of the student to make-up all missed work. Be sure to check with me, the teacher, to see what you missed in class. Your grades along with your missing assignments will be displayed on the desktop computer in the back of the classroom for you to see at all times. You will be given sufficient time to turn in all missed work. If you do not have your work the day it is due, then you can turn in the assignment for a late grade. One day late will result in a loss of one letter grade. After one day late, then you can receive half credit for each late assignment.
Missing Class
If you miss class during a day when a participation grade is being taken, then you will have to complete an extra credit assignment to make-up for the missing participation grade. It is your job to find out what you missed.
Extra Credit
There will be opportunity for extra credit. I will determine what will be suitable for an extra credit assignment but I am always open to your ideas of what you would want to do for extra credit.
Beginning of Class
At the beginning of each class you will be given a DO NOW question which you must give a response to. At the end of the week you will turn these assignments in for a homework grade.
Notes
THIS IS A NOTE TAKING CLASS!!!!!!! The student is responsible for taking all notes given in class. You are responsible for all material covered in class for your quizzes and exams. If you miss a day of notes there will be an extra of copy of notes on both of the desktop computers in the back of the room.
Homework:
1. Turn in assignments on time.
2. DO NOT COPY. Homework assignments are meant to reinforce the lesson that was just taught to you. Copying is a waste of time and is of no benefit to you. Plus you risk receiving a zero or splitting the grade in two with your comrade. This includes cheating on a project, exam, homework, quizzes basically all assignments.
Cheating & Plagiarizing:
1. When writing a paper, students must make sure that they are citing their sources (giving the author credit). Any student caught plagiarizing will receive a zero on their paper. Citing must be completed in either APA or MLA format.
2. Cheating on exams, quizzes, homework, etc. is strictly prohibited. If caught, the students will receive a zero or I will split the grade in two.
Classroom Goals:
Topics to be covered will emphasize non-western history by focusing on the interactions of peoples in different places and times. Students will be expected to understand specific content as well as comparisons over time and place.
Students will be treated like college students in that they will be expected to complete the majority of the reading the writing assignments outside of class. Reading assignments from the textbook will serve as a foundation for developing higher level thinking skills. Use of primary sources and some secondary sources will be used to develop and refine analytical skills. Through the use of primary sources students will work to identify point-of-view, bias and content, and then to apply that knowledge to support an argument. These skills will help to prepare the students for the free-response portion of the AP exam, specifically the document-based questions (DBQ’s).
Specifically, the following AP World History themes will be used throughout the course to identify these broad patterns and processes that explain change and continuity over time.
The Six AP World History Themes:
1. The relationship of change and continuity from 8,000 bce to the present.
2. Impact of interaction among and within major societies.
3. Impact of technology, economics, and demography on people and the environment.
4. Systems of social structure and gender structure.
5. Cultural, religious, and intellectual developments.
6. Changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and political identities, including the emergence of the nation-state.
Habits of Mind:
In addition to learning the content of world history, students will also work to develop the following skills:
1. Constructing and evaluating arguments: using evidence to make plausible arguments.
2. Using documents and other primary data: developing the skills necessary to analyze point of view, context, and bias, and to understand and interpret information.
3. Assessing issues of change and continuity over time, including the capacity to deal with change as a process and with questions of causation.
4. Understanding diversity of interpretations through analysis of context, point of view and frame of reference.
5. Seeing global patterns and processes over time and space while also connecting local developments to global ones and moving through levels of generalizations from the global to the particular.
6. Comparing within and among societies, including comparing societies’ reactions to global processes.
7. Being aware of human commonalities and differences while assessing claims of universal standards, and understanding culturally diverse ideas and values in historical context.
Teaching Strategies:
Lectures
In our 90-minute classes, I find it unproductive to lecture more than half the time. I usually talk for only 20 to 30 minutes. Almost all of my lectures are accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation.
Discussions
I train students using the Socratic seminar method from the first week of school. To scaffold to the level I would like, I start with fishbowls with students peer-grading each other, and I model how to facilitate using the Socratic method. To create a
fishbowl discussion, I merely split the students into two groups, where one group first discusses a prompt in an inner circle, while the outer circle observes silently. When the inner circle is done, I solicit critiques from the outer circle observers. The two groups then switch places, and the new inner circle is given a related, but new prompt. Eventually, students come prepared with their own prompts and can ideally lead a whole-class discussion.
Group Work
I often put students in groups to process primary-source documents or large amounts of content, usually with the goal of generating theses and outlines for sample questions that I have written on the board. The processing is accomplished through various exercises that focus on a selected set of skills. For example, the groups might focus on how to determine and analyze point of view, or on how to group a set of documents.
Students will be assessed in a variety of ways through formative and summative assessments such as: Benchmarks, teacher made tests/quizzes, essays, research papers, journal articles, and projects/presentations, webquests etc.
Make-Up Procedures
It is the responsibility of the student to make-up all missed work. Be sure to check with me, the teacher, to see what you missed in class. Your grades along with your missing assignments will be displayed on the desktop computer in the back of the classroom for you to see at all times. You will be given sufficient time to turn in all missed work. If you do not have your work the day it is due, then you can turn in the assignment for a late grade. One day late will result in a loss of one letter grade. After one day late, then you can receive half credit for each late assignment.
Missing Class
If you miss class during a day when a participation grade is being taken, then you will have to complete an extra credit assignment to make-up for the missing participation grade. It is your job to find out what you missed.
Extra Credit
There will be opportunity for extra credit. I will determine what will be suitable for an extra credit assignment but I am always open to your ideas of what you would want to do for extra credit.
Beginning of Class
At the beginning of each class you will be given a DO NOW question which you must give a response to. At the end of the week you will turn these assignments in for a homework grade.
Notes
THIS IS A NOTE TAKING CLASS!!!!!!! The student is responsible for taking all notes given in class. You are responsible for all material covered in class for your quizzes and exams. If you miss a day of notes there will be an extra of copy of notes on both of the desktop computers in the back of the room.
Homework:
1. Turn in assignments on time.
2. DO NOT COPY. Homework assignments are meant to reinforce the lesson that was just taught to you. Copying is a waste of time and is of no benefit to you. Plus you risk receiving a zero or splitting the grade in two with your comrade. This includes cheating on a project, exam, homework, quizzes basically all assignments.
Cheating & Plagiarizing:
1. When writing a paper, students must make sure that they are citing their sources (giving the author credit). Any student caught plagiarizing will receive a zero on their paper. Citing must be completed in either APA or MLA format.
2. Cheating on exams, quizzes, homework, etc. is strictly prohibited. If caught, the students will receive a zero or I will split the grade in two.
Classroom Goals:
- Students will learn to communicate respectfully with each other in a variety of classroom settings.
- The classroom will become a community of learners.
- Students will develop a working understanding of social studies.