Download World History AP - West High School

World History AP
West High School
20401 Victor Street
Torrance, CA 90503
Stephen A. Martin
Room #3201
(310) 533-4299 x7736
[email protected]
Introduction
This class is designed to prepare you for the World History Advanced Placement Exam
as well as to help you develop a greater understanding of the evolution of global
development and contacts over time. The course highlights the nature of changes, their
causes and consequences, makes note of important continuities, while directly comparing
and contrasting major societies.
To help identify and analyze the patterns and developments of history, the class uses the
six AP World History Themes listed below:
1. The relationship of change and continuity from 8000 BCE to the present.
2. The impact of interaction among and within major societies.
3. The impact of technology, economics, and demography on people and the
environment.
4. The systems of social structure and gender structure.
5. The cultural, religious, and intellectual developments.
6. The changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and
political identities, including the emergence of the nation-state.
Textbook and Materials
World Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP Edition, by Peter N. Stearns et. al., New
York: Pearson Longman; 4th ed., 2005.
(In assignments, this book is referred to as your “textbook” or “TB”.)
AP Student Review Manual, by Peter N. Stearns et. al., New York: Pearson Longman.
(In assignments, this book is referred to as your “workbook” or “WB”.)
Summer Assignment
Introduction: Welcome to World History Advanced Placement (WHAP) and your
summer assignment. The most important advice I can give you at this point is the
following: EVERYTHING you do between now and the AP exam (administered in midMay) is preparation for that exam. If you skip a chapter, a section, an assignment, a
question, a lecture, then you run the risk of not being fully prepared for the exam in May.
Knowledge is power!
All of the following assignments (reading and writing) should be completed by Friday,
September 11, 2009. All written assignments should be completed in a “homework
notebook” that is used exclusively for this class. There will be times when I ask you to
turn in this notebook so I may examine and comment on your writing. You will also need
a separate notebook in which to take notes in class. I HIGHLY recommend that you do
not use loose-leaf notebook paper for any of these assignments.
Summer Assignment:
Unit I: Foundations; Rise of Agricultural
Civilizations (8000 BCE – 1000 BCE)
Read the following in the textbook:
Preface: pages xvii – xxiii
Prologue: pages xxix – xxx (See Note 1)
Part I Introduction: pages 2 – 5
Chapter 1: pages 6 – 29
Read the following in the workbook:
pages vi – ix and pages 1 – 7 & 9
Do the following from the workbook:
Prologue (Workbook page 8; Textbook
pages xxix – xxx)
Section Review: Questions A, B, C (½
page each)
Multiple Choice: all (See Note 2 below)
Chapter 1 (WB 10 – 16; TB 6 – 29)
Chapter Review: B, C, F, J (½ page
each)
Map Exercise: A, B, D
Multiple Choice: all
Essay: Outline B, C, D (See Note 4
below)
Part I Review (WB 17 – 19)
Unit Overview: B, D, E (½ page each)
Multiple Choice: all
Geography: I, II (See Note 3 below)
In addition to the above, read the “Introduction” pages to each of the remaining five
“Parts” of the textbook. (These are the grayish pages at the beginning of each period in
the book. Examples: pages 30-33, 112-119, etc.) In your homework notebook, following
the assignments for Unit I, outline the information in each of these “Introductions.”
Refer to your workbook page 1 (“Tips for Reading Your Text and Taking Notes”) for
ideas on how to outline these pages. Specifically, read the paragraphs under the following
headings: Notetaking can take many forms, Do not read and outline simultaneously!, and
Do not write everything down.
As you study Part I, consider the following:
Can you compare/contrast different river civilizations?
Can you compare/contrast the basic criteria for what makes a civilization?
Can you trace how daily life changed and remained the same (continuities) from the
beginning of this time period to the end?
To answer the above, consider the changes and continuities in labor systems, the status of
women, poor people (underclass).
Note 1: In each chapter in the workbook there is a vocabulary section. You need not write
the definition of each word, but it is assumed that you know the definition and can use the
word correctly. Every test you take (multiple choice and essay) assumes that you know
these words.
Note 2: Because nothing is easy, the multiple choice answer keys are at the end of each
unit. But wait, you say, that is easy. Well, it has been discovered that some of the answer
keys are wrong or mixed up. Check your answers with the answer key; when you think
the answer key is wrong, this is a great opportunity to ask a question in class, discuss
your reasoning, and otherwise impress you classmates and teacher with your study skills.
Note 3: Knowing the geography of the world is CRITICAL to doing well on the AP
exam. You will be given geography quizzes throughout the course. You should be able
to locate and identify on an outline map of the world the continents, major bodies of
water, and major physical features (given on WB p. 19) before the beginning of this
course. You will also need to identify other bodies of water, physical features, historical
cities, regions, societies, civilizations and states on an outline map of the world as we
progress through the course.
Note 4: The man who is the chief author of your textbook, Peter Stearns, was also a chief
writer/designer of the first World History AP exams. Therefore, what he says in the book
often appears on AP exams. Furthermore, the essay questions at the end of each chapter
are extremely important. To start, you should not write a full-fledged essay to each
question, merely an outline. A sample outline for essay question A (p.16) is what follows;
you should do your best to emulate this with your outlines. As the year progresses, you
will be required to write-out essays to selected questions in your workbook.
Thesis Statement (T.S.): Because human groups were small and lacked job specialization,
gender differences meant little until more complex societies were formed during the
Agricultural Revolution.
Description of typical Paleolithic society
Hunting and gathering
Little food surplus
Few inter-tribe conflicts
Therefore: women have quasiequal status with men
Agricultural Revolution (AR)
Domestication of animals and grains
Food surplus → job specialization
Increase in inter-tribe conflict
Therefore: women have domestic tasks
Specific Example: Sumer
Prior to AR, women gather food with men
After AR, women hidden in house, used in marriage to complete political or
financial alliances; divorce becomes taboo,
marriage comes with a dowry.