ADVANCED PLACEMENT WORLD HISTORY

Syllabus

PURPOSE

The Advanced Placement program in World History is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials of World history. The course prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college survey courses. In this pursuit, the acquisition of factual knowledge is the beginning point of the process, not the end. Students will learn to interpret and evaluate the relative significance of primary and secondary source material, and to present their evidence and conclusions clearly and persuasively in an essay format.

BASIC AND SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS

Basic text: World Civilizations- Sterns et al..

Supplemental Texts will be supplied.

OUTSIDE READING

Students will be assigned to a reading group for the duration of the course and will be allowed to choose from works of literature that will serve as their windows to various cultures throughout the semester. Their reading, comprehension, and application will be graded both individually and as part of the group assignment. Both myself and their fellow group members will grade them on their level of participation. Additionally, scholarly essays and primary source readings will be distributed throughout the year for assignments. Many of them are posted on the class’s website. You would be well advised to keep up with your reading assignments. If you wait until the last minute you may find yourself overwhelmed by the volume of information.

Realizing that it is essential that every student MASTER the information of this time period, the first three take home tests will be mandatory (Chapters 1-8). Following that, virtually all take home tests will be optional. Whether they are optional or mandatory, all take-home tests are to be done individually, without assistance from anyone else. Any violation of the honor pledge at the top any test paper will result in a MINUS 100 points being factored into the students quarter grade.

TESTS AND ESSAYS

Tests will generally consist of a multiple choice section and an essay section of equal weight. Each test is likely to cover a significantly greater volume of material than many students have previously experienced. These tests will emphasize factual information, multiple causation/multiple outcome, and the concept of change over time and will require students to interpret and evaluate the events of history and support their conclusions with relevant specific factual information. There are likely to be no more than seven to eight major grades per quarter. That means that each major grade has a significant impact on the quarter grade. Students need to be aware of this and responsibly prepare for each major assignment.

In addition to test essays, two to three additional in-class or out-of-class essays will be required per quarter. Each will count as a major grade. Pop quizzes will be used only if it is apparent that students need additional incentive to responsibly keep up with reading assignments. A mandatory take home test is required with the first unit. Following that, optional unit take home tests may be completed by students for a major grade.

Students are to work independently on take home tests with no sharing of information,

HOMEWORK

Homework will consist almost exclusively of reading assignments, with an occasional outside essay. Students who are having difficulty with the course may need to initiate additional reinforcing activities. As students, you are responsible for completing and mastering assignments on time.

MAKE-UP WORK

Attendance in class is absolutely essential to the successful completion of the course and to the attainment of a passing grade on the National Advanced Placement Examination. Students returning from excused absences are responsible for completing missed assignments promptly. Be aware that the instructor is under no obligation to accept work after its assigned due date.

ADDITIONAL HELP

The AP experience may place greater demands on students than those to which they have become accustomed. It is likely that you will need to meet with the instructor from time to time to overcome problems you are having. I welcome those opportunities to help you one-to-one, and I encourage you to make arrangements to see me if you're experiencing difficulty. Mandatory conferences will be scheduled with those students experiencing significant difficulty.

Optional afterschool test review sessions will be offered after each major test.

NATIONAL ADVANCED PLACEMENT EXAMINATION

The Advanced Placement Program of the College Board affords students the opportunity to receive college credit for AP classes by successfully passing a national examination offered in May. The AP World History Examination consists of one hundred multiple-choice questions, one document-based question, and one free response question. The multiple-choice section and the essay section (DBQ and free response) each make up fifty percent of the grade.