Download US History (Advanced Placement)

WATERTOWN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
STANDARD-BASED STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
FOR GRADE 11
U.S. History (Advanced Placement)
The Advanced Placement US History course is divided into specific units of study. Learning
Outcomes are provided for each unit and state what students are expected to know and be able to know
at the end of each unit. A writing component is included in the 11th Grade AP U.S. History course.
By the end of Grade 11, Advanced Placement students will be able to write at least 20 typed, final
draft 2-3 page essays on essential questions included in the AP U.S. History learning outcomes.
By the end of this course:
UNIT ONE: COLONIZING A CONTINENT
‰ Compare and contrast the reasons and motivations for the settlement of each of the five main
British colonies, and describe the relationship of each of the five settlements with the Native
Americans of that region.
UNIT TWO: MASTERING THE NEW WORLD
‰ Identify and discuss four conflicts among different peoples and nations in the New World between
1675 and 1715.
UNIT THREE: THE MATURING OF COLONIAL SOCIETY
‰ Name the major immigrant groups coming to the colonies in the early eighteenth century, describe
their social backgrounds, find their destinations on the map, and summarize their relative
opportunities for social and economic advancement.
‰ Explain the major events and message of the Great Awakening, including its comparative impact
on New England and the southern colonies and its effects on colonial political life.
UNIT FOUR: BURSTING THE COLONIAL BONDS
‰ Outline the steps in the crisis with England between 1763 and 1776 leading to the War for
American Independence.
‰ Make an oral presentation, including a visual aid, showing the importance of an event leading to
the War for Independence.
UNIT FIVE: A REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE
‰ Assess the extent to which the American Revolution, on balance was good or bad for slaves,
northern farmers, Loyalists, Native Americans, wealthy Patriots, and ordinary citizens.
UNIT SIX: CONSOLIDATING THE REVOLUTION
‰ Analyze how the Constitution changed and strengthened the government that had existed under the
Articles of Confederation.
‰ Describe the different political and social perspectives of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists.
‰ Make a chart contrasting the major differences between the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution over their primary purpose, the quality and style of language, political ideology,
assumptions about human nature and ends of government, and how to achieve political change.
UNIT SEVEN: CREATING A NATION
‰ Compare and contrast the differing ideological positions and visions of the Federalists and the
Democratic-Republicans in the 1790’s.
‰ Analyze and evaluate the reasons for the dominance of Federalists party principles in the 1790’s.
UNIT EIGHT: SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC
‰ Discuss the validity of the American claim that the War of 1812 was the “second War of American
Independence”.
UNIT NINE: CURRENTS OF CHANGE IN THE NORTHEAST AND THE OLD NORTHWEST
‰ List and explain major functions contributing to economic growth and explain how changes in
transportation were of crucial importance from 1820 to 1860.
‰ Define the cult of domesticity and explain the reasons for its development and describe new views
of childhood.
UNIT TEN: SLAVERY AND THE OLD SOUTH
‰ Explain the distribution of slaveholders and nonslave holders in the South.
‰ List five ways in which the slaves protested and resisted their situation.
‰ Develop arguments for and against slavery from the perspective of southern slaveholders, nonslave
holding southerners, northern whites, slaves, and freed blacks.
UNIT ELEVEN: SHAPING AMERICA IN THE ANTEBELLUM AGE
‰ Trace the changing development of the American political party system (and political culture)
from 1824 to 1840.
‰ Show the relationship between women’s right and abolitionism.
UNIT TWELVE: MOVING WEST
‰ Define Manifest Destiny.
‰ List the sequencE of events resulting in the acquisition of Texas, New Mexico, California, and
Oregon.
‰ Locate on a map and date the major territorial acquisitions of the United States between 1803 and
1853.
‰ Discuss, with specific evidence to support your main points, the quote: “Manifest Destiny was a
policy for whites only”.
UNIT THIRTEEN: THE UNION IN PERIL
‰ Select three or four specific events and developments in the 1850s that you think were the most
significant in Civil War. Defend your choices and explain why you think other events and
developments were less significant.
UNIT FOUR: THE UNION SEVERED
‰ Analyze why the North won the war and the South lost it.
UNIT FIFTEEN: THE UNION RECONSTRUCTED
‰ Show how the diverse goals of the white southerners, freedmen, and white northerners came into
conflict and assess to what extent each group achieved its various goals by the end of the
Reconstruction.
UNIT SIXTEEN: THE FARMER’S WORLD
‰ Develop an essay that discusses this statement: The American farmers’ problems stemmed from
their success at adapting to the modern industrial world.
UNIT SEVENTEEN: THE RISE OF SMOKESTACK AMERICA
‰ Discuss the idea that ethnicity bound American workers together at the same time that it prevented
them from forming a united front against their bosses. Discuss the statement, giving suitable
evidence.
UNIT EIGHTEEN: POLITICS AND REFORM
‰ Define the following terms: Gospel of Wealth, social Darwin, reform Darwinism, pragmatism,
Social Gospel, Gilded Age.
‰ Analyze the significance of the election of 1896 for American politics.
UNIT NINETEEN: BECOMING A WORLD POWER
‰ Identify two or three major foreign policy pronouncements that influenced nineteenth-century
American policies.
UNIT TWENTY: THE PROGRESSIVE CONFRONT INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM
‰ Assess the success of the progressive movement by analyzing its achievement and limitations.
UNIT TWENTY-ONE: THE GREAT WAR
List four things that made American neutrality in World War I almost impossible.
Assess Wilson’s successes at the Versailles Peace Conference and his failures at home.
UNIT TWENTY-TWO: AFFLUENCE AND ANXIETY
‰ Describe the postwar mood in America and the strikes, race riots, and palmer raids of 1919 and
1920.
‰ Outline the development, distribution, and discrepancies of prosperity in the 1920’s.
‰ Outline the foreign policy currents of the United States during the 1920s.
‰ Analyze the impact of the automobile and other technological developments on American social
and economic life in the 1920s.
UNIT TWENTY-THREE: THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL
‰ Give three reasons for the deepening economic depression and three measures Hoover took to stem
the Depression.
‰ Characterize the first New deal from 1933 to 1935 and name several measures of relief, recovery,
and reform passed in the first hundred days.
‰ Show how the Social Security Act and the Works Progress Administration exemplified the move
of the second New Deal toward goals of social reform and social justice.
‰ Explain the significance of the Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) and its impact on
organized labor.
‰ Evaluate the New Deal as the realization of progressive dreams.
UNIT TWENTY-FOUR: WORLD WAR II
‰ Explain the reasons for the interment of Japanese-Americans and contrast the policy with that
toward Italian-Americans and German Americans.
‰ Assess the economic impact of the war on black and Hispanic-Americans and women.
‰ Describe the political and diplomatic concerns that become important at the war’s end, especially
the controversy over opening a second front, and explain the agreements the United States and the
Soviet Union reached at Yalta.
‰ Explain why the United States used the atomic bomb and evaluate the decision militarily,
diplomatically, and morally.
‰ Explain the statement that World War II as the “last good war”. Indicate what the statement means
and the extent to which you agree with it.
UNIT TWENTY-FIVE: POSTWAR GROWTH AND SOCIAL CHANGE
‰ Describe the postwar economic boom and its effects in the corporate world, workers’ world, and
agricultural world, as well as on the environment.
‰ Describe the demographic growth patterns of the united States in the post war years and state the
appeal of suburban living and the automobile for the American people.
‰ Give some examples of cultural conformity in the 1950s, particularly in women’s lives and
describe the values espoused by cultural rebels.
‰ Describe the lives of those who did not benefit from this period of affluence.
UNIT TWENTY-SIX: CHILLS AND FEVER DURING THE COLD WAR
‰ Describe the conflicting political and economic goals of the United States and the USSR for the
postwar world, and how these clashing aims launched the Cold War.
‰ Define containment and explain the development and meaning of the Truman Doctrine, the
Marshall Plan, and NATO.
‰ Outline the major events and give significance of the confrontations in Cuba under Kennedy, the
war in Vietnam under Johnson and Nixon, and the improvement of relations with China and
Russia under Nixon.
‰ Show the relationship between the Cold War and the emergence of internal loyalty programs and
the second Red Scare in the United States.
UNIT TWENTY-SEVEN: HIGH WATER AND EBB TIDE OF THE LIBERAL STATE
‰ Define the meaning of John Kennedy’s “New Frontier” and describe the tone, achievements, and
failures of his administration.
‰ Define Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” and describe how well it achieved or failed to achieve
its goals.
‰ Tell the story of the presidential elections of 1952, 1960, 1968, 1972, and 1976, including the story
of Watergate.
UNIT TWENTY-EIGHT: THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL REFORM
‰ Describe the major confrontations over civil rights in the 1960s, and compare and contrast
Kennedy’s and Johnson’s responses to the black struggle for equality with the policies of
republican presidencies from Nixon to Bush.
‰ Explain the reasons for the shift in the civil rights movements from its nonviolent phase to the
black power militancy of the late sixties.
‰ State the major goals of feminist leaders and show the similarities between women’s and civil
rights movements.
‰ Select one film, one novel, and one song or musical group, showing how each reflected the mood,
values, and social concerns of each of the decades: the 1960s, the 1970s, and the 1980s.
UNIT TWENTY-NINE: THE REVIVAL OF CONSERVATISM
‰ Assess the achievements and failures of the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations in both
domestic and foreign policy.
‰ Identify and analyze what you think have been the three or four most profoundly significant
changes affecting the lives of the American people in the past 50 years.