Histories of the United States

Components of Each Curriculum Unit 

Historical Thinking Skills (HTS): For each chapter, students will either take a vocabulary quiz or work on one of the historical thinking skills worksheets, which will be used to launch into class discussion. The following HTS Activities will be used (this is not an exhaustive list, only a sampling of types of activities that will be used):  

• Inductive Learning – students take random, disparate, unorganized terms and create an organization by figuring out a grouping they could use to support answering an essay question on that topic. HTS will count as a daily grade. 

• Deductive Learning – students take a broad topic and create specific details that they could use to support answering an essay question on that topic.  

• Six Degrees of Separation – students are given six specific events from that unit; they then connect each random event with an explanation. Students then decide whether there is more continuity or change within the six events.  

• Defining the Period – students are given a historical period, then come up with a start date/event and an end date/event, explaining why they selected the ones they did. Students then come up with specific characteristics that define that period and then come up with characteristics that go against the common conception of that period.  

• Cause and Effect – students develop causes and effects of specific events, then order them in importance.  

• Chronological Reasoning – students are given a set of 15 random events and must put 10 of them in order.  Students then explain how each event caused the next event to happen.  

• Compare and Contrast – Students fill out a Venn diagram comparing similarities and differences between multiple people, places, or things. 

Class Discussion: In each unit, students will participate in a Socratic Class Discussion. Students will be provided a Key Concept Guide for each study period before reading the chapter. Students will then come to class prepared to discuss the Key Concepts. Students must take notes on each chapter using the Key Concept Guide.  Additional Activities: Students will participate in a small group seminar or a class debate over a number of both primary and secondary source readings. 

Assessments: The course is divided into nine periods, consisting of approximately two to five chapters in each textbook.  Students will be assessed through the Key Concept Guide, CBAs (Curriculum Based Assessments), period exams, and writing/discussion. 

• Key Concept Guide: For each study period, students will take graphically organized notes within the Key  Concept Guide. Notes will be due at the end of each period of study. 

• Map and Vocabulary Tests: These assessments will test general knowledge of each study period; they will be short-answer and multiple-choice questions. 

• Period Tests: There will be a test after each study period. The test will consist of 15 to 55 questions (we will start small and work our way up to 55 by the second semester), which will model the new multiple-choice test questions on the AP Exam. These involve a stimulus, such as a written passage, picture artwork, or graph, with multiple-choice questions grouped in sets centered on the Conceptual  Framework. 

• Quick Writes: To be ready to take AP History courses, students must be prepared to write essays in historical format. This requires students to create a Thesis Statement from a prompt that takes a stand to answer the question. Students will learn how to write a thesis statement and support it with historical evidence to write a long essay or a Document-based Question essay. The emphasis here is writing a satisfactory Thesis Statement, providing evidence in bullet points, and not writing a full multi-page essay. A Quick Write builds a  roadmap with the thesis as the guide for the essay and is supported with relevant historical facts that would be used in explaining the answer to the prompt. Quick Writes will be incorporated into weekly lessons with at least two per nine-week grading period. 

• Essays (LEQ’s and DBQ’s): Students will write in-class formal timed essays, both Long Essays and Document  Based Questions. Students will also practice writing by doing “Quick Writes” as described above. These require students to brainstorm prompts, outline their essays, construct a thesis statement, and provide historical evidence to support their Thesis. Students will also practice writing by doing “DBQ Breakdowns” about once a unit.  These require students to engage with documents similar to what would be found on a DBQ, assessing the following for each document: point of view, purpose, historical context, and intended audience.  

  • These essays will be graded according to the AP guidelines. 

    • The AP Rubric will be used in grading essays. The following scale will be used for the DBQ: 

    • 7=100% 6=93% 5=86% 4=79% 3=72% 2=65% 1=58% 0=0% 

    • The AP Rubric will be used in grading essays. The following scale will be used for the Long Essay: 6=100% 5=92% 4=84% 3=76% 2=55% 1=60% 0=0% 

• Short Answer (SAQ’s): Students will answer at least one short answer question for each chapter. These will normally be once every three weeks as a warm-up activity. 

• Semester Exams: The first-semester exam will be comprehensive. There will also be a semester exam in May, with instructions given out two weeks before the exam. However, if a student takes the AP Exam, the student is exempt from the Spring Semester Exam.