Social Studies Department

Essential Knowledge and Skills

The Advanced Placement program in United States History is an introductory college-level course that is designed to provide students with the analytic skills and factual knowledge to deal critically with the problems and materials in United States History. The course stresses detailed, in-depth knowledge, critical thinking, and expression through strong rhetorical skills. Students will learn to assess historical materials - their relevance to a given interpretative problem, their reliability, and their importance, and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. The course prepares Students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to a full-year introductory college course. The Advanced Placement U.S. History course explores major themes in United States history in a chronological survey covering the period from Colonial America (1492) to contemporary America (1990s). The course follows the guidelines provided by the College Board.

Indicators of Student Learning

Upon the completion of this course, students will:

Communication

• Express historical ideas in oral and written form using correct terminology

• Write competent academic essays and evaluate them with Advanced Placement rubrics.

• Synthesize information to answer questions, solve problems, and communicate ideas in United States history.

• Connect prior knowledge and new information to expand understanding of major themes in United States history.

• Develop a comprehensive written and oral vocabulary of people, places, and events in United States history.

• Share ideas and information in small groups and general class discussion.

• Use writing as a learning tool, e.g., journals, learning logs, paraphrasing, summarizing, research reports, notebooks.

Content

• Explain the pattern of exploration and colonization of the Americas.

• Explain the impact of Native American, African, and European cultures on each other.

• Trace the development of the revolutionary movement in England’s North American colonies.

• Discuss the philosophy and implementation of constitutional principles to government throughout the development of the United States.

• Examine the role of violence in promoting political change in the United States.

• Compare and contrast the economic, social, and political systems that developed regionally in the United States.

• Trace the development of market capitalism in the United States.

• Explain the significance of the agricultural and industrial revolution on the United States.

• Identify the major causes and effects of the Civil War.

• Investigate the effects of industry and big business on economic, political, and social life from the end of the Civil War to World War I.

•Examine the emergence of the United States as a world power through its involvement in World War I and World War II.

• Assess the consequences of globalism on the United States.

• Determine the causes and effects of the Cold War on the United States.

• Trace the quest for equality and rights in the United States.

• Examine the impact of immigration and diversity on the United States.

• Examine the impact of interdependence and terrorism on the United States

Technology

• Use a word processor to produce well-formatted papers.

• Create individual written projects using appropriate production software.

• Collaborate with peers to use technology to compile and produce projects, models, and other creative works.

• Create and give multi-media presentations.

• Use the Internet as an effective research tool

• Use on line resources to review for examinations

Assessment

Upon the completion of this course, students will:

• Demonstrate competency in content by passing various written exam formats, including true and false, multiple choice, identification, and short-answer questions.

• Demonstrate competency in writing college-level essays

• Demonstrate competency in communication by using appropriate technology to express ideas clearly and understandably in written and visual formats.

• Demonstrate competency in analyzing and interpreting historical documents.