Advanced Placement World HistoryCourse Description Welcome to Advanced Placement World History.  In APWH you will develop a greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts including interactions over time. The course highlights the nature of changes in international frameworks and their causes and  consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies.  AP World History is the equivalent of a college-level survey course in world history. Like college students, you are expected to read the assigned pages in the textbook as listed in the unit calendars.   Students refine their analytical abilities and critical thinking skills in order to understand historical and geographical context, make comparisons across cultures, use documents and other primary sources, and recognize and discuss different interpretations and historical frameworks.  We will use the following AP World History themes throughout the course to identify the broad patterns and processes that explain change and continuity over time.  

 

The Six AP World History Themes

1. The relationship of change and continuity from 8,000 BCE to the present.

2. Impact of interaction among and within major societies.

3. Impact of technology, economics, and demography on people and the environment.

4. Systems of social structure and gender structure.

5. Cultural, religious, and intellectual developments.

6. Changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and political identities, including the emergence of the nation-state.  

The course imposes a heavy reading and writing load throughout the year, and the demands on students are equivalent to a full-year introductory college course.  The primary text for the course is The Earth and Its Peoples, by Richard Bulliet et. al., Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 3rd AP ed., 2004. Nightly readings are assigned from this text.  Student resources for textbook are available at: http://college.hmco.com/students  

Documentary readers for the course include the following:  The Human Record, by Alfred Andrea and James Overfield, Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 5th Ed., 2004.  The Western Heritage,  Volumes I and II, Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, Frank M. Turner, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 2001 Western Civilization, Sources, Images and Interpretations, From the Renaissance to the Present, Fourth Edition, Dennis Sherman, Boston, McGraw Hill, 2004 From these resources students will learn to analyze and interpret primary sources such as diary entries and letters, as well as maps, tables, works of art, and pictures.  This will be done most often as homework assignments that will correspond to the daily reading from the Bulliet text.  Additionally, the Western Civilization reader provides secondary sources which offer varying interpretations of historical events—the ability to analyze and interpret this evidence will also comprise a focus of the course.  Beyond that, journal articles on a variety of world history topics will also be provided as a way to supplement the text.  You also will become expert at identifying point of view, context, and bias in these sources.  

General information on APWH requirementsAttendance—Attendance is mandatory.  Significant absences can (and should) affect your grade.   

Daily work—reading quizzes, document readings, timed writing (free response questions or FRQ’s and document based questions or DBQ’s), peer editing, discussion, notes, in class assignments/activities, research days in the library, presentations, time lines, reviews, short term projects,  and unit tests. 

Grade information—B’s and C’s are common nine weeks grades in an AP class.  Shoot for the A always but remember you are dealing with a heavier workload.  Eventually the class will seem easier but only because you have gotten better.   

 

Course Outline/calendar—2007-08

August 20 to September 5

Part One—The emergence of Human Communities to 500 BCEChapters 1-3River valley, eastern and western hemispheric civilizations, Mediterranean and Middle east Themes 1, 3, 4chapter quizzes, unit examessays  (FRQ, DBQ)  2004 Buddhism DBQdaily readingsarticles and summaries/analysisdocument readings and analysischapter notespolitical cartoons

 

September 6 to 24

Part Two—Cultural Communities between 1000 BCE and 600 CEChapters 4-7Greece, Iran, Rome, Han China, India, and Southeast AsiaThemes 1, 2chapter quizzes, unit examessays  (FRQ, DBQ)  2006 Part B FRQdaily readingsarticles and summaries/analysisdocument readings and analysischapter notespolitical cartoons

September 25 to October 12

Part Three—Competition among cultural communities, 600-1200Chapters 8-11Islam, Christian Europe, East Asia, AmericasThemes 1, 2, 3chapter quizzes, unit examessays  (FRQ, DBQ)  2002 DBQ on Christianity and Islamdaily readingsarticles and summaries/analysisdocument readings and analysischapter notespolitical cartoons 

October 15 to November 7

Part Four—Interregional patterns of culture and contact, 1200-1550Chapters 12-15Mongols, Africa, Asia, Latin West, Maritime RevolutionThemes 1, 2, 4, 5chapter quizzes, unit examessays  (FRQ, DBQ)  2003 Part B FRQdaily readingsarticles and summaries/analysisdocument readings and analysischapter notespolitical cartoons 

November 8 to December 10

Part Five—the Globe encompassed, 1500-1750Chapters 16-20European Renaissance, American colonial societies, Atlantic system and Africa, SW Asia, Northern EurasiaThemes 1,  4, 5, 6, chapter quizzes, unit examessays  (FRQ, DBQ)  2006 DBQ on global flow of silver, 2005 Part C FRQdaily readingsarticles and summaries/analysisdocument readings and analysischapter notespolitical cartoons  

December 11 to January 28

Part Six—Revolutions, 1750-1870Chapters 21-25Atlantic Revolutions, First Industrial Revolution, Nation building, New British empire, age of imperialismThemes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6,chapter quizzes, unit examessays  (FRQ, DBQ)  daily readingsarticles and summaries/analysisdocument readings and analysischapter notespolitical cartoons  

January 29 to February 29

Part Seven—Global diversity and dominance, 1850-1945Chapters 26-30New balance of power, new imperialism, imperial crises, Old Order collapses, early independence movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin AmericaThemes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 chapter quizzes, unit examessays  (FRQ, DBQ)  2005 DBQ on Islam in South Asia and North Africa, 2002 Part C FRQdaily readingsarticles and summaries/analysisdocument readings and analysischapter notespolitical cartoons 

March 3 to April 4

Part Eight—Global community, 1945 to the presentChapters 31-33Cold War, decolonization, end of the Cold War, globalizationThemes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6chapter quizzes, unit examessays  (FRQ, DBQ)  2003 DBQ on 19C & 20C Global economics, 2002 FRQ Part Bdaily readingsarticles and summaries/analysisdocument readings and analysischapter notespolitical cartoons 

April 14 to May 14

Review  

May 15, 2008 Exam