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AP World History - Syllabus
Course Overview
Advanced Placement World History is a challenging course that is structured
around the investigation of selected themes woven into key concepts covering distinct
chronological periods. AP World History is equivalent to an introductory college survey
course. The course has a three-fold purpose. First, it is designed to prepare students for
successful placement into higher-level college and university history courses. Second, it
is designed to develop skills of analysis and thinking in order to prepare students for
success in the twenty-first century. Finally, it is the intent of this class to make world
history relevant. Students will be able to show mastery of the course goals by taking part
in the College Board AP World History Exam in May.
Course Design
The course relies heavily on college-level resources. This includes texts, a wide
variety of primary sources, and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. These
resources are designed to develop the skills required to analyze point of view and to
interpret evidence to use in creating plausible historical arguments. These tools will also
be used to assess issues of change and continuity over time, identifying global processes,
comparing within and among societies, and understanding diverse interpretations.
Students will participate in class discussions using the Socratic seminar format.
These discussions will help students develop thinking and speaking skills. In addition,
students will be responsible for preparing class presentations in order to develop and
practice high level habits of mind and broaden content knowledge. The course emphasis
is on balancing global coverage, with no more than 20% of course time devoted to
European history. This course is designed to be rigorous and rewarding, inviting students
to take a global view of historical processes and contacts between people in different
societies.
The five AP World History Themes that connect the key concepts throughout the
course and serve as the foundation for student reading, writing, and presentation
requirements are as follows:
Theme 1: Interaction Between Humans and the Environment
 Demography and disease
 Migration
 Patterns of settlement
 Technology
Theme 2: Development and Interaction of Cultures
 Religions
 Belief systems
 philosophies, and ideologies
 Science and technology
 The arts and architecture
Theme 3: State-building, Expansion, and Conflict
 Political structures and forms of governance
 Empires
 Nations and nationalism
 Revolts and revolutions
 Regional, transregional, and global structures and organizations
Theme 4: Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic Systems
 Agricultural and pastoral production
 Trade and commerce
 Labor systems
 Industrialization
 Capitalism and Socialism
Theme 5: Development and Transformation of Social Structures
 Gender roles and relations
 Family and kinship
 Racial and ethnic constructions
 Social and economic classes
Habits of Mind:
To help students successfully retain content and understand themes, AP World History
requires students to practice the following Habits of Mind.
Habits of Mind for any history course:
• Construction and evaluating arguments: using evidence to make
plausible arguments.
• Using documents and other primary data: developing the skills
necessary to analyze point of view and to interpret information.
• Developing the ability to assess issues of change and continuity over
time.
• Enhancing the capacity to handle diversity of interpretations through
analysis of context, bias, and frame of reference.
Habits of Mind specific to World History:
• Seeing global processes over time and space while also acquiring the
ability to connect global developments to global ones and to move
levels of generalizations from the global to the particular.
• Developing the ability to compare within and among societies,
including comparing societies' reactions to global processes.
• Developing the ability to assess claims of universal standards yet
remaining aware of human commonalities and differences; putting
culturally diverse ideas and values in historical context, not
suspending judgment but developing understanding.
Grade Distribution
Tests and Quizzes 60%
Graded Discussions and Projects – 30%
Homework – 10%