APUSH

University of Colorado Denver

Course Syllabus

Course: History 1361: U.S. History to 1876

History 1362: U.S. History since 1876

Location: Montrose High School; Room 142

Instructor: Kurt Scriffiny

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Phone: 970-275-5691

Email Address: Kurt.Scriffiny@mcsd.org

Academic Dishonesty: Students are required to know, understand, and comply with the CU Denver Academic Dishonesty Policy as detailed in the Catalog and on the CLAS website. Academic dishonesty consists of plagiarism, cheating, fabrication and falsification, multiple submission of the same work, misuse of academic materials, and complicity in academic dishonesty. If you are not familiar with the definitions of these offenses, go to

http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/CLAS/faculty-staff/policies/Pages/DefinitionofAcademicDishonesty.aspx. This course assumes your knowledge of these policies and definitions. Failure to adhere to them can result in possible penalties ranging from lowering a grade on an assignment to dismissal from the University; so, be informed and be careful. If this is unclear to you, ask me. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Ethics Bylaws allow the instructor to decide how to respond to an ethics violation, whether by lowering the assignment grade, lowering the course grade, and/or filing charges against the student with the Academic Ethics Committee.

Student Code of Conduct: As members of the University community, students are expected to uphold university standards, which include abiding by state civil and criminal laws and all University policies and standards of conduct. These standards are outlined in the student code of conduct which can be found at: http://thunder1.cudenver.edu/studentlife/studentlife/introduction.html

Required Textbook: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Each unit students will receive various primary document handouts that can also be found at class website.

Course Description:

History 1361: Provides an introduction to the major forces, events and individuals that shaped the historical development of American society, beginning with the European settlement of America and concluding with the Civil War, reconstruction and the early growth of an industrial order.

History 1362: Provides an introduction to the major forces, events, and individuals that shaped the historical development of American society from the Civil War to the present.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Students will master a broad body of historical knowledge

2. Students will demonstrate and understanding of historical chronology

3. Students will use historical data to support a position

4. Students will differentiate between historiographical schools of thought

5. Students will interpret and apply data from primary documents

6. Students will effectively use the analytical skills of evaluation, cause and effect, compare and contrast

7. Students will work effectively with others to produce artifacts and solve problems

Learning Outcomes:

1. Historical causation

2. Patterns of Continuity over time

3. Periodization

4. Comparison

5. Contextualization

6. Historical argumentation

7. Appropriate use of relevant historical evidence

8. Interpretation

9. Synthesis

Evaluation/Grading Procedures:

Essay – 30%

Reading quizzes – 5%

Tests – 35%

Topical projects – 10%

Final – 20%

Grading Scale

A 90.0-100%

B 80.0-89.9%

C. 70.0-79.9%

D 60.0-69.9%

F Below 60%

Grading – All grading will be done using an AP scale of 1-5. After attending multiple AP course trainings and seeing students performance on exams I have a solid idea of what is expected to be successful on a course exam (either CU or AP) and the grades given will reflect that knowledge. A grade of either a one or a two on an assignment will be a failing grade. Students who receive these scores are expected to treat the assessment as a rough draft/practice and reassess when fully prepared. A three equates to the lowest passing grade that is possible on the AP test and this level of work will have a value of 75% in the grade book. A four on the AP test equates to solid subject knowledge or good content skills and will equate to a 90% in the grade book. Fives on the AP test are rare and demonstrate both depth of knowledge and breadth of ability, as such they are not easy to earn, especially if students are not willing to redo assessments. In the grade book fives equate to 100%.

Although homework other than reading is rare the weekly expectations for time are significant. The curriculum and test, for both CU and AP, demands that all era’s of US History are covered, understood, and connected. In the textbook this equates to 32 chapters. In the course of the year this equates to 3-4 class periods. This means that you should be reading, note taking, and thinking about approximately 1.5 chapters per week. As only about half the material in the book is taught and discussed in the classroom this time is mandatory for success.

Students will be expected to be critical thinkers about material and discuss ideas with their peers in class. Much of history is not 2+2 =4 but understanding ideas and linking ideas in order to form educated opinion and draw conclusions. When looking at both sets of learning outcomes above it is easy to see that willingness to discuss ideas with others is a significant part of this class.

Per angusta ad augusta.

Course and Exam Description

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-us-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf

The course description posted above is the outline we will be following for the purpose of exams and class outline. It is also the one followed by the textbook.

Textbook

https://tutor.openstax.org/enroll/993558/Life,-Liberty,-and-the-Pursuit-of-Happiness-Spring-2021

The link above will give you access to the book we are using for this class.