APUSH

Advanced Placement United States History is a challenging course that is intended to be the equivalent of a freshman college course and can earn students college credit. Strong reading and writing skills, along with a willingness to devote considerable time to homework and study, are necessary to succeed. The APUS History course focuses on the development of historical thinking skills (chronological reasoning, comparing, and contextualizing, crafting historical arguments using historical evidence, and interpreting and synthesizing historical narrative) and an understanding of content learning objectives organized around seven themes.

Topics of study during first semester will include explorations and colonial America, revolution, development of the constitution, Jeffersonian and Jacksonain democracy, reform movements of the nineteenth century, Manifest Destiny, The Civil War, and postwar reconstruction. Second semester topics will include immigration, industrialization, Populism, Progressive movement, World War I, the roaring twenties, the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, and America in the twenty-first century. The course will fulfill South Carolina’s graduation requirement for United States History and Constitution. 

The course will also encompass a variety of teaching methods that will be used to guide students through this challenging and demanding course. Students need to make a strong commitment to this class to ensure success. This course will include in-class lectures and discussions as well as individual and group activities. The course will also require students to analyze primary and secondary sources. Each unit will encompass a variety of activities and assignments designed to aid the students’ knowledge of United States History. They include the following: Essay questions to be researched and outlined, document-based essay questions, Cornell Note taking, Terms/People/Events to be defined in notebook,  portfolios and an annotated timeline due at the end of each unit.