Download AP World History Course Syllabus

AP World History Course Syllabus
AP World History Syllabus, 2016-17
Instructor: Michael Sharp
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 502.228.0158 Ext. 608
Textbook: World Civilizations: The Global Experience
Welcome to AP World History! I am very excited about this class and the
opportunity to study World History together. I hope that we will successfully
accomplish three main goals this year. First of all, each student will gain a
meaningful education in the history of the world and understand its significance in
the world where we live. My second goal is that every student would successfully
complete the AP exam in World History. Thirdly, I really want you to enjoy this
class. I firmly believe that all students learn more when they are enjoying
themselves. I will do all I can do to make this course interesting, fun, and challenging but your
enthusiasm is a vital part of achieving this goal. Let’s have a memorable and successful year.
Official Course Description for AP World History:
Advanced Placement World History emphasizes the evolution of global processes and contacts,
in interaction with different types of human societies. The course builds on an understanding of
cultural, institutional, and technological precedents that, along with geography, focuses
primarily on the past thousand years of the global experience. This course highlights the nature
of change and continuity in international frameworks, their causes and consequences. The
student uses critical-thinking skills to demonstrate an understanding of major ideas, eras,
themes, developments, and turning points in world history. The course emphasizes and
develops close reading, writing, and research skills that are necessary for success in the class.
Course Overview:
AP World History takes a global perspective of the world and human history, surveying 10,000
years of human experience, from 8000 BCE to the present. Accordingly, we must use a more
thematic approach, focusing less on discrete events and individuals and more on interactions
between societies, comparisons between societies, issues of change and continuity, and
analysis of historical processes. Rather than studying an event like the American Revolution in
great detail, in this course we will examine how the American Revolution is similar to and
different from other events during the same period in other societies. Additionally, we look at
what changed during the revolutionary upheavals of the period, what stayed the same, and
how the American Revolution was part of a broader process taking place in the world beginning
in the late eighteenth century.
AP World History is a college level course taught to high school students. Accordingly, it is a
challenging course. You are taking an equivalent two semesters of a college level World History
course in approximately 32 weeks. There will be a great deal of reading for this course and
much of it will be quite challenging. Additionally, we will be writing different types of analytical
essays that require you to compare societies, analyze change over time, and use historical
documents. Throughout the course, you will develop your critical thinking skills and your ability
to demonstrate them through writing. In order to do well, it is imperative that you manage your
time well. Do not get behind!
A key goal is to be fully prepared to take the AP World History Exam in May 2017. If you score
well on this exam, you may receive college credit, depending on where you decide to go to
school.
Resources:
Main Textbook: Adas, Michael, Marc J. Gilbert, Peter Stearns and Stuart B. Schwartz. World
Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP Edition. 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007.
Document Reader: Gosch, Stephen S., Erwin P. Grieshaber and Peter Stearns. Documents in
World History. Vols. 1 & 2. 3rd ed. New York: Longman, 2003.
Additional Readings and Resources:
2002 AP® World History Released Exam (College Board)
AP® World History Exam Free Response Questions, Scoring Guidelines, and Sample Responses,
various years (apcentral.collegeboard.com)
AP® World History Best Practices. College Board, 2002.
Andrea, Al and James Overfield. The Human Record: Sources of Global History, vols. 1 and 2,
4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.
Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Exemplary Lessons Initiative, 2003-2004. Washington, D.C.: United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2004.
Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1987.
Curtis, Kenneth R., Franklin M. Doeringer, William Bruce Wheeler and Merry E. Wiesner.
Discovering the Global Past: A Look at the Evidence, vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 2002.
Gonick, Larry. The Cartoon History of the Universe: Volumes 1 –7, From the BIG BANG to
Alexander the Great. New York: Broadway Books, 2001.
Hirschfield, Jane and Mariko Aratani, trans. The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi
and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan. New York: Vintage Classic, 1990.
McCannon, John. How to Prepare for the AP World History. Haupage, NY: Barron’s Educational
Services, 2005.
Norton, Jennifer. Teaching About the Holocaust in AP History Classes: A Document Based
Approach. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Reilly, Kevin. Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader, vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2004.
Teaching About the Holocaust: A Resource Book for Educators. Washington, D.C.: United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2001.
Wilkinson, Endymion, trans. The People’s Comic Book: Red Women’s Detachment, Hot on the
Trail and Other Chinese Comics. Garden City, New York: Anchor Press, 1973.
Williams, William, ed. DBQ Practice: AP Style Document-Based Questions Designed to Help
Students Prepare for the World History Examination. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School
Service, 2004.
Course Planner:
The course will be divided into 5 major units based on the periods suggested by the AP World
History Course Description. Each unit will be further divided into smaller weekly units as shown
in the course planner below. All of the assigned readings are tentative. They will change.
I. Foundations: 8000 BCE to 600 CE
A. What is history? What is a civilization? What is “worldview?” The pre-classical world
Reading: Stearns, 7-29; Documents, vol. 1, 7-11, 21-2, 31-4
Activities:
• Mental Mapping
• Introduction to the “AP Habits of Mind”
• The New World History activities
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar on essential questions
• Video: “Guns, Germs and Steel” Episode 1
B. Classical civilization in China and India. Universal religions.
Reading: Stearns, 34-67; Documents, 54-8 and 95; Excerpts from Cartoon History of the
Universe.
Activities:
• Lecture: Enduring patterns of civilization in China and India
• AP Themes posters
• Inner/ Outer Circle Seminar on essential questions
• Comparison Analysis: social, religious, and political systems in classical China and India
C. The classical Mediterranean and the decline of classical civilizations.
Reading: Stearns, 69-111; Documents, 126.
Activities:
• Lecture: Mediterranean contributions to the modern world
• Lecture: Did “civilization” really fall in any of the classical core areas?
• Inner/Outer Circle seminar: Social inequality in the classical world
• Comparative essay: Compare and contrast the decline of civilization in India or China with the
Mediterranean at the end of the classical period. Take home.
• Map: Connections in the classical world
II. The Post-Classical Period: 600 CE to 1450
A. Islam and World Religions.
Reading: Stearns, 121-190; Documents, 193-7, 266-70.
Activities:
• Lecture: The Arabs and Islam
• Lecture: Islamic accommodation in Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: world religions and the missionary impulse
• Comparison Analysis: What are the similarities and differences between Islamic and Christian
accommodation of pagan beliefs?
• Change/Continuity Analysis: Islam in sub-Saharan Africa
• Map: The spread of world religions
B. Eastern and Western Europe in the Post-Classical Period. Gender.
Reading: Stearns, 192-236; Documents, 243-7; Handout: “The Ecloga on Sexual Crimes.”
Activities:
• Lecture: Medieval Europe vs. Islamic Civilization
• Lecture: Gender in Eastern and Western Europe in the post-classical period
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: Gender in Eastern and Western Europe in the post-classical
period
• Comparative essay: Compare and contrast Eastern and Western Europe in social, political,
economic or cultural terms. Take home.
C. Tang-Song China. East Asia. Mongols.
Reading: Stearns, 263-333; Documents, 200-1, 217; Excerpts from Ink Dark Moon.
Activities:
• Lecture: Tang-Song China innovations and conservatism
• Lecture: The Mongols and the Plague
• PowerPoint® Presentation: Sinification in east Asian art and architecture
• Heian era waka poems and activities
• Document Based Question Practice: Point of view in and grouping of documents on the
spread of Buddhism in China
• Visual document analysis: comparing two views of the Mongols
D. The Americas before Conquest. The West in the 15th century.
Reading: Stearns, 239-61 and 335-48; Documents, 278-9, 283-4.
Activities:
• Lecture: Aztec Religion and the Cult of Terror
• Lecture: The World of 1250 vs. the World of 1450
• “Travel and Interchange” Activities, pt. 2
• DBQ essay: Christian and Muslim attitudes toward merchants and trade. Take home.
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: “Troubling Civilizations,” 250-1 of Stearns
• Comparative essay: TBA, timed and in-class.
• Map 3: The World to 1450
III. The Early Modern Period: 1450 to 1750
A. The West. The New Global Economy. Towards European Dominance.
Reading: Stearns, 359-401; Documents, vol. 2, 24-5, 28-31.
Activities:
• Lecture: The New Global Economy and Western Domination
• Lecture: Economic Change in Europe and its Effect on Social Systems
• Change/Continuity Analysis: Western Europe, 1450 to 1750
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: “Causation and the West’s Expansion,” pp. 365-6 in Stearns
B. Latin America, the Atlantic Economy and the African Slave Trade.
Reading: Stearns, 419-71; Documents, vol. 2, 81-3.
Activities:
• Lecture: Social organization in Europe and the Americas
• Video: “Guns, Germs and Steel,” Episode 2
• Comparison Analysis: European impact in sub-Saharan Africa vs. Latin Americas
• Change Analysis: The Americas, 1450 to 1750
• “The Encounters of 1492” activities
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: Worldviews, European vs. Amerindian
• DBQ: The Flow of Silver, 1570-1750, take home
• Map: The Atlantic Economy
C. Russia and the Muslim Empires.
Reading: Stearns, 403-17 and 473-97; Documents, vol. 2, 47-50.
Activities:
• Lecture: Westernization in Russia, process and results
• Lecture: Decline in Islamic Empires in the early modern period and the rise of the West
• Comparison Analysis: Westernization in Russia and the Ottoman Empire
• Change/Continuity Analysis: Russia, 1450 to 1800
• DBQ: TBA, in class and timed
D. Asia in Transition. Review, 8000 BCE to 1750.
Reading: Stearns, 499-522; Documents, vol. 2, 74-77.
Activities:
• Lecture: European effect on Asian civilization in the early modern period
• Comparison Analysis: Isolationism in Ming China and Tokugawa Japan
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: Excerpts from The Hagakure or Way of the Samurai
• Period Review Maps
• Change& Continuity Over Time Essay: Japanese or Korean political organization from 600 CE
to 1750, take home
IV. The Very Long Nineteenth Century: 1750 to 1900
A. Latin America, from colonies to independence
Reading: Stearns, 589-614; Documents, vol. 2, 195-8, 260-7.
Activities:
• Lecture: The challenge of colonial heritage in Latin America
• Lecture: The economies of Latin America in relation to the West
• Change Analysis: Latin America from colonies to independent states
• Change-Over-Time Essay: Labor systems in Latin America, 1750 to 1900, take home.
• Visual document analysis: violence in Latin American painting
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: Underdevelopment
B. Industrialism, Imperialism and Western Hegemony
Reading: Stearns, 535-87; Documents, vol. 2, 115-7, 126-7, 185-7, 215-6.
Activities:
• Lecture: Post-industrial political alignment in the West
• Lecture: European imperialism from 1450 to 1900
• Visual Document Analysis: Images of imperialism
• Change Analysis: political, social and cultural impact of industrialization
• Change-Over-Time Essay: TBA, in-class and timed.
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: Contrasting viewpoints on imperialism
C. Empires in transition: China, Russia, Ottoman and Japan
Reading: Stearns, 617-61; Documents, vol. 2, 160-4, 168-70, 189-92.
Activities:
• Lecture: Chinese and Islamic responses to western challenges
• Lecture: Industrialization and the state in Russia and Meiji Japan
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: Chinese and Japanese responses to western pressures
• Comparative Essay: TBA, in-class and timed
• Visual Document Analysis: Images of westerners in Meiji period art
• Map: The World to 1900
V. The Twentieth Century: 1900 to the present
A. The Great War and its Consequences
Reading: Stearns, 662-725; Documents, vol. 2, 255-7, 262-4, 318-9, 358-60, 377-8.
Activities:
• Lecture: The causes and consequences of the Great War
• Lecture: The role of Western education in emerging nationalism in colonies
• Alliances simulation
• Paris Peace Conference simulation
• Visual Document Analysis: WWI propaganda
• Comparison Analysis: Mexican, Chinese and Russian revolutions
B. Depression and the Second World War.
Reading: Stearns, 726-76; Documents, vol. 2, 279-80.
Activities:
• Lecture: Global impact of the Great Depression
• Lecture: Genocide in World War II, Japanese actions in Asia and the Holocaust
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: The Decision to Drop the Bomb
• Video: excerpts from “Triumph of the Will”
• Document Analysis: Roles in the Holocaust
• Visual Document Analysis: Soviet Anti-Nazi WWII propaganda
• DBQ Essay: TBA, in-class and timed
• Practice AP Exam
C. The Cold War, Third World Nationalism and Decolonization.
Reading: Stearns, 779-860; Documents, vol. 2, 284-6, 307-9, 388-91.
Activities:
• Lecture: Changing roles of women in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle after WWII
• Lecture: Relations between core areas and dependent zones, post-independence
• Video: Excerpts from “Dr. Strangelove”
• Visual Document Analysis: Latin American revolutionary propaganda
 “Decolonization: Struggle for National Identities, 1900-2001” activities
• Comparative Essay: TBA, in-class and timed
D. The Pacific Rim in the Twentieth Century. The World, 1990 to the present. Globalization.
Reading: Stearns, 863-924; Documents, vol. 2, 290-2, 410-4.
Activities:
• Lecture: Post WWII development in the Pacific Rim and the continuation of Asian traditions
form previous periods
• Lecture: How important was the Cold War?
• Document Analysis: The People’s Comic, Cultural Revolution Comic Books
• Inner/Outer Circle Seminar: Change and Continuity in China after the Communist Revolution
• Comparison Analysis: North and South Korean War Monuments
• AP Themes posters, part 2
• Review Maps
AP Themes and Habits of Mind
The AP Themes and Habits of mind influence the selection of material covered in this course,
the teaching strategies I use and assessments you will encounter. These AP Themes are as
follows:
1. Interaction between humans and the environment
• Demography and disease
• Migration
• Patterns of settlement
• Technology
2. Development and interaction of cultures
• Religions
• Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
• Science and technology
• The arts and architecture
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
4. Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems
• Agricultural and pastoral production
• Trade and commerce
• Labor systems
• Industrialization
• Capitalism and socialism
5. Development and transformation of social structures
• Gender roles and relations
• Family and kinship
• Racial and ethnic constructions
• Social and economic classes
We will develop vitally important habits of mind in this course as we examine primary sources,
maps, scholarly articles and other resources, and as we do various activities in class.
The AP ® Habits of Mind are as follows:
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 and context, and to understand and interpret information
3. Assessing continuity and change over time and over different world regions
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 connecting local
developments to global ones
6. Comparing within and among societies, including comparing societies’ reactions to global
processes
7. Considering human commonalities and differences
8. Exploring claims of universal standards in relation to culturally diverse ideas
9. Exploring the persistent relevance of world history to contemporary developments
Teaching Strategies:
Lecture: I will lecture nearly every day. My lectures are organized around themes that will help
you understand the content better. Additionally, you will develop good note taking skills that
will serve you well later in your academic career.
Discussion: We will have class discussions each week. Generally they will be Inner/Outer Circle
Seminars. In this kind of discussion, some students sit in an inner circle while others sit in an
outer circle. Those students sitting in the inner circle discuss the topic, source material, or issue,
while those in the outer circle take notes. At the end of the discussion, students in the outer
circle evaluate and critique those students sitting in the inner circle. Then, the two groups swap
positions and repeat the seminar.
Group Work: Often you will work with your peers in small groups. In these small groups you will
do a variety of things including analyzing primary sources for point of view or grouping, doing
comparisons of societies, analyzing change over time or continuity, or peer editing of essays.
Student Evaluation
The course grade will be based on assigned point values of the following:
1. Exams, Quizzes and Essays
A. Exams will be made up of multiple-choice questions. You will have a Unit Exam for each unit
of study for the course. Exams will consist of multiple choice questions.
B. Over the course of the year, you’ll be taking several Unit Exams. These exams will be a
mixture of multiple-choice questions as well as occasionally an assessment using a map
modeled on the map assignments described below. These will always be cumulative, meaning
that they will cover material from the beginning of the course up to that point.
C. We will have timed Quizzes covering our topics of study throughout each Unit. You won’t be
called upon to answer questions each time we have an oral quiz. However, if I call on you, you
will be required to answer. You won’t receive advance notice of oral quizzes.
D. You will also be writing timed in-class analytical essays dealing with comparisons between
societies, analysis of change and continuity over time as well as analysis of documents. You may
or may not receive the questions or prompts for these essays beforehand, but you will usually
receive advance notice that they will be taking place.
2. Assignments
A. There will be a variety of the following assignments for the course:
 Outlining: you will be responsible for making outlines of all the textbook reading assignments.
 Essential questions: a group of questions related to the content we will be covering for that
period. You must answer these questions in an extended response. A typical essential question
might be: “What transformations occurred in the economies of both dependent and core zones
as a result of colonialism?”
 Document analysis: short readings of primary documents. You will analyze each document
using a rubric that will be explained to you. Often you will be asked to compare documents.
 Visual document analysis: photographs, paintings, posters or other visuals. Like the document
analysis, you will analyze each visual using a rubric that will be explained. Often you will be
asked to compare visuals.
B. Take Home Essays: There will be practice essays that you will write and revise through
several drafts. The essays will be of the same type as the in-class essays.
C. Map work: You will construct maps that show various historical geographic features relevant
for a given period or society on which we are working. Additionally, your maps will show
movement of people, ideas, goods, etc. and connections between societies. Lastly, you will
show changes and continuities on your maps. Generally, the maps will be done outside of class.
D. Final Project: Following the AP Exam there is a Youtube Project. This project will be
completed in and out of class. The project will require research that will capstone a significant
element/event/person/era of the course. You will receive an instruction sheet for the project
following the AP Exam to be completed before the end of the Spring Semester on a TBD due
date.
3. Final Exam: The second semester final will cover the whole year, including both Fall and
Spring semesters. The exam will be multiple-choice questions, a cumulative map exercise, and a
document analysis exercise.
Grades will be on the following scale:
A 90-100%
B 80-89%
C 70-79%
F 0-69%
Supplies:
You will need to get the following supplies for this class:
• Three-ring Binder and/or a Two-pocket folder. Use this to store all the weekly packets,
handouts, and readings for the class. You’ll also bring this everyday.
• A set of colored map pencils of at least 8 colors.
• 100 4 x 6 Index cards. You will use these to make your own flash cards for use in studying
terms and vocabulary.
• An AP World History Exam Study Guide. There are several good manuals available locally
and/or online. You should purchase this guide at the beginning of the school year. Each student
is encouraged to utilize the review book as an additional aid to prepare for weekly Quizzes and
Unit Exams.
Class Policies:
• We will follow all of the relevant school policies regarding attendance, tardies, late work,
missing work, etc.
• You are expected to be respectful and attentive in class. If respect or attention becomes an
issue, first we’ll talk. If that doesn’t fix the problem, contact will be made with parents so we
can work out a solution together.
• Additional policies and/or changes to aforementioned policies will be verbally announced by
the instructor.
NOTE: This syllabus is intended to give the student guidance in what may be covered during
the course and will be followed as closely as possible. However, the instructor reserves the
right to modify, supplement and make changes as the course needs arise including student
evaluation.
“History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”
-David C. McCullough