Advanced Placement United States History

Instructor Information Instructor: Mr. Blair Office Hours: Monday Friday: 3 10 PM Saturday Sunday: 10 AM 10 PM Email Address: ablair2391@yahoo.com Office Number: (440) 858 3163 Course Information Course Description: This course is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and enduring understandings necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in United States history. The program prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses. Students should learn to assess historical materialstheir relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importanceand to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. An AP United States History course should thus develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in an essay format. Course Format: Many classes will be devoted to lecture, usually on specific topics or contents. All students are accountable for all lecture material. All students MUST take notes. Material from lectures will appear on quizzes and tests, and occasionally all or part of a test or quiz will be open note YOUR OWN HANDWRITTEN OR COMPUTER-BASED NOTES only. BRING YOUR NOTES EVERY DAY TO CLASS. If you do not have your notes with you, you will nonetheless take the test or quiz as scheduled. Students are responsible for obtaining, from peers, lecture notes missed due to absences. Close attention to detail is critical! Grading Policies: Grades will be determined through a combination of quizzes, tests, homework assignments, marking period projects, discussion and collaboration-oriented activities, and class participation. All grades will be shown to students at the beginning of each week, so that the student may have a good grasp on where exactly he/she stands within the course.

Grading Scale: A+ 97.5-100% B+ 87.5-89.4% C+ 77.5-79.4% D+ 67.5-69.4% F 59.4% and below Quizzes and Tests: The question format for unit quizzes and tests is typically a combination of multiple choice and sentence completion or fill in the blank. No word bank is provided. Short answer or short essay quizzes will also be used. Periodically, essay tests are given, to assess student cumulative knowledge and analytical writing skills. With each section, students will receive a Study Guide. Chapter and unit quizzes and tests are based on this material. Homework: Students will do several types of homework assignments in addition to reading, including research, writing assignments, charts, maps, and timelines, and DBQs. A 91.5-97.4% B 81.5-87.4% C 71.5-77.4% D 61.5-67.4% A- 89.5-91.4% B- 79.5-81.4% C- 69.5-71.4% D- 59.5-61.4%

ne neatly. ust be double spaced and typed. DBQs: The document-based question (DBQ) require students to read, interpret, analyze, and synthesize primary source excerpts in a specific format in response to a given prompt. The DBQ essay is a major component of the Advanced Placement U.S History exam. All students enrolled in AP U.S. History will be required to complete DBQ assignments when given. Students are NOT required to take the national AP U.S. History exam that is offered each May. Participation: A general participation grade is worth 30 points per marking period. Unexcused tardiness to class, off-task or distracting behavior are examples of behaviors that will result in a loss of participation points. You can not earn participation points if you are not in class.

Late Work and Absences: All assignments must be submitted at the beginning of the class period. If the assignment is submitted later in the day, it is late. Ten percent will be deducted for every calendar day that an assignment is late. Please note that calendar days include weekend days. Late work is accepted for excused absences only. Students are responsible for obtaining all notes and information missed due to absence. Students must rely upon each other for this material. Students may ask about missed work before or after class, however, do not ask me for such until all other sources are exhausted. Specific questions and individual concerns are often best addressed via email. Generally speaking, students are expected to make up a scheduled quiz or test the day of return to class. Extended absences will be handled on an individual basis. An unexcused absence during the class of an assignment due date, a quiz or a test will result in a grade of zero on that assignment, quiz or test. If a student is absent from a class session, he/she must send an excuse via email within 12 hours before or after the lesson. Course Policies: Academic Integrity is expected. All work done in this class is to be original. If students are permitted to work with someone else on an assignment, or hand in an assignment identical to someone elses, it will be explicitly announced. Cheating includes copying the work of other students, as well as plagiarism. Copying from another student will result in negative consequences for both students. Plagiarism will result, at a minimum, in a zero on the assignment. All quotations, statistics, paraphrases, and original ideas or analyses must be correctly attributed to the original author. A claim of unintentional plagiarism does not relieve the student of the consequences. In a select few cases the student may be invited to resubmit a corrected assignment, although with penalty attached. Attendance is required. Be on time to class. Tardiness to class will result in the loss of participation points. All students are required to keep up with all class work according to the class schedule. Language conveys respect, or the lack thereof. Derogatory, defamatory, hostile or abusive language will not be permitted. Students are expected to act respectfully towards each other at all times.

Course Outline I. Founding the New Nation (33,000 B.C. A.D. 1783) A. New World Beginnings, 33,000 B.C.- A.D. 1769 B. The Planting of English America, 1500-1733 C. Settling the Northern Colonies, 1619-1700 D. American Life in the Seventeenth Century, 1607-1692 E. Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution, 1700-1775 F. The Duel for North America, 1608-1763 G. The Road to Revolution, 1763-1775 H. America Secedes from the Empire, 1775-1783 Building the New Nation (1776 1860) A. The Confederation and the Constitution, 1776-1790 B. Launching the New Ship of State, 1789-1800 C. The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic, 1800-1812 D. The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism, 18121824 E. The Rise of a Mass Democracy, 1824-1840 F. Forging the National Economy, 1790-1860 G. The Ferment of Reform and Culture, 1790-1860 Testing the New Nation (1820 1877) A. The South and the Slavery Controversy, 1793-1860 B. Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy, 1841-1848 C. Renewing the Sectional Struggle, 1848-1854 D. Drifting Toward Disunion, 1854-1861 E. Girding for War: The North and the South, 1861-1865 F. The Furnace of Civil War, 1861-1865 G. The Ordeal of Reconstruction, 1865-1877 Forging an Industrial Society (1865 1909) A. Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age, 1869-1896 B. Industry Comes of Age, 1865-1900 C. America Moves to the City, 1865-1900 D. The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, 1865-1896 E. Empire and Expansion, 1890-1909 Struggling for Justice at Home and Abroad (1899 1945) A. Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt, 1901-1912 B. Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad, 1912-1916 C. The War to End War, 1917-1918 D. American Life in the "Roaring Twenties," 1919-1929 E. The Politics of Boom and Bust, 1920-1932 F. The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1933-1939

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G. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War, 1933-1941 H. America in World War II, 1941-1945 Making Modern America (1945 2012) A. The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952 B. The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1960 C. The Stormy Sixties, 1960-1968 D. The Stalemated Seventies, 1968-1980 E. The Resurgence of Conservatism, 1980-1992 F. America Confronts the Post-Cold War Era, 1992-2004 G. The American People Face a New Century, 2004 - 2012