Ask questions!
Participate often. Participation includes, but is not limited to
Asking questions
Responding to questions
Sharing your own thoughts
Reacting to the thoughts of your classmates in a respectful manner
Participation allows you to be more invested in the course and have a greater understanding of the ideas and concepts we are studying. Furthermore, it will increase your enjoyment of the class.
Be prepared to work with others. Nearly every class period you will be working with your peers, so it is of vital importance that you be a willing participant. You may be asked to take on several different roles throughout the year, such as being a good leader, an active listener, or even a mediator between two classmates
Push yourself. Embrace the challenge of the class. Do not simply be an empty seat. If all you desire out of this class is a good grade, the class will prove difficult. If you approach the course with a genuine desire to learn and expand your understanding of U.S. History, the class will not only be more enjoyable but will go by much quicker. Few things feel better than approaching a subject with a curious and inquiring mind.
Feel free to reach out to Mr. Bustos if you have questions about something we learned in class, or if you see a parallel between something we are studying and a contemporary issue and would like further insight.
In anticipation of the APUSH exam, there are several skills that you will need to develop throughout the year. These are the cognitive abilities historians use in their craft and the tools of the trade. Through the reading and analysis of primary and secondary sources, our ultimate goal is to fine tune these tools throughout the year leading up to the AP test.
Identifying and explaining historical developments and processes. Pointing out changes that take place in political, cultural, economic, and societal institutions and explaining what factors led to those changes
Being able to place a source in the proper historical context. Taking a look at who the source is, where they are in time and place, what factors might have influenced them, and what they have to say
Being able to look at historical figures and events not as standalone entities independent of influence, but a culmination of factors leading up to it.
Using historical reasoning to analyze patterns and connections between and among historical developments
Being able to formulate an argument based on available information.
Content in APUSH is anchored to 7 distinct themes that will be used throughout the course. These themes will be used to organize ideas and allow students to track continuity and change over time
This theme focuses on the formation of both American national identity and group identities in U.S. history. Students should be able to explain how various identities, cultures, and values have been preserved or changed in different contexts of U.S. history, with special attention given to the formation of gender, class, racial, and ethnic identities. Students should be able to explain how these sub-identities have interacted with each other and with larger conceptions of American national identity.
Students should be able to:
Explain how ideas about democracy, freedom, and individualism found expression in the development of cultural values, political institutions, and American identity.
Explain how interpretations of the Constitution and debates over rights, liberties, and definitions of citizenship have affected American values, politics, and society.
Analyze how ideas about national identity changed in response to U.S. involvement in international conflicts and the growth of the U.S.
Analyze relationships among different regional, social, ethnic, and racial groups, and explain how these groups’ experiences have related to U.S. national identity.
Students should examine ongoing debates over the role of the state in society and its potential as an active agent for change. This includes mechanisms for creating, implementing, or limiting participation in the political process and the resulting social effects, as well as the changing relationships among the branches of the federal government and among national, state, and local governments. Students should trace efforts to define or gain access to individual rights and citizenship and survey the evolutions of tensions between liberty and authority in different periods of U.S. history.
Students should be able to:
Explain how and why political ideas, beliefs, institutions, party systems, and alignments have developed and changed.
Explain how popular movements, reform efforts, and activists groups have sought to change American society and institutions.
Explain how different beliefs about the federal government’s role in U.S. social and economic life have affected political debates and policies.
This theme focuses on the development of American economies based on agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing. Students should examine ways that different economic and labor systems, technological innovations, and government policies have shaped American society. Students should explore the lives of working people and the relationships among social classes, racial and ethnic groups, and men and women, including the availability of land and labor, national and international economic developments, and the role of government support and regulation.
Students should be able to:
Explain how different labor systems developed in North America and the U.S., and explain their effects on workers’ lives and U.S. society.
Explain how patterns of exchange, markets, and private enterprise have developed, and analyze ways that governments have responded to economic issues.
Analyze how technological innovation has affected economic development and society.
This theme explores the roles that ideas, beliefs, social mores, and creative expression have played in shaping the United States. Students should examine the development of aesthetic, moral, religious, scientific, and philosophical principles and consider how these principles have affected individual and group actions. Students should analyze the interactions between beliefs and communities, economic values, and political movements, including attempts to change American society to align it with specific ideals.
Students should be able to:
Explain how religious groups and ideas have affected American society and political life.
Explain how artistic, philosophical, and scientific ideas have developed and shaped our society and institutions.
Explain how ideas about women’s rights and gender roles have affected society and politics.
Explain how different group identities, including racial, ethnic, class, and regional identities, have emerged and changed over time.
This theme focuses on why and how the various people who moved to, from, and within the United States adapted to their new social and physical environments. Students examine migration across borders and long distances, including the slave trade and internal migration, and how both newcomers and indigenous inhabitants transformed North America. The theme also illustrates how people responded when “borders crossed them.” Students explore the ideas, beliefs, traditions, technologies, religions, and gender roles that migrants/immigrants and annexed peoples brought with them and the impact these factors had on both these peoples and on U.S. society.
Students should be able to:
Explain the causes of migration to colonial North America and, later, the U.S., and analyze immigration’s effects on U.S. society.
Analyze causes of internal migration and patterns of settlement in what would become the U.S., and explain how migration has affected American life.
This theme examines the role of environment, geography, and climate in both constraining and shaping human actions. Students should analyze the interaction between the environment and Americans in their efforts to survive and thrive. Students should also explore efforts to interpret, preserve, manage, or exploit natural and man-made environments, as well as the historical contexts within which interactions with the environment have taken place.
Students should be able to:
Explain how geographic and environmental factors shaped the development of various communities, and analyze how competition for and debates over natural resources have affected both interactions among different groups and the development of government policies.
In this theme, students should focus on the global context in which the United States originated and developed as well as the influence of the United States on world affairs. Students should examine how various world actors (such as people, states, organizations, and companies) have competed for the territory and resources of the North American continent, influencing the development of both American and world societies and economies. Students should also investigate how American foreign policies and military actions have affected the rest of the world as well as social issues within the United States itself.
Students should be able to:
Explain how cultural interaction, cooperation, competition, and conflict between empires, nations, and peoples have influenced political, economic, and social developments in North America.
Analyze the reasons for and results of U.S. diplomatic, economic, and military initiatives in North America and overseas.
This period is basically everything that happened prior to the arrival of the English. The start of the period, 1491 (the year before Christopher Columbus “sailed the ocean blue”), is really shorthand for “before the Europeans showed up.” The end of the period is 1607, the year that the English landed in Jamestown, Virginia and founded the first permanent English settlement in the New World. In a nutshell, this period focuses on Native Americans and on early, non-English exploration of the New World, especially that of the Spanish.
The big concepts for this period are:
Native American societies, especially the way they adapted to their environments
Spanish exploration and the affect it had on native populations (e.g., disease, warfare, the encomienda system)
The Columbian Exchange
The next period is largely focused on European (including the British this time) exploration and settlement. The beginning date is the founding of Jamestown, as discussed above. The end date is the start of the French and Indian War, which totally changed the game in the British colonies.
The big concepts for this period are:
Motivations for and patterns of immigration by the Spanish, English, Dutch, and French
Interactions between Europeans and Native Americans
Characteristics of the 13 British colonies (including regional distinctions between the Southern, Middle Atlantic, and New England colonies)
Economic policies: mercantilism, the slave trade, salutary neglect
Here we start to focus exclusively on the British colonies that will turn into the United States. The starting year, 1754, is the beginning of the French and Indian War. This marked the end of salutary neglect and the beginning of growing tensions between the colonies and Great Britain. The period takes you through the tumultuous revolution and its aftermath to the year 1800, in which the new democracy is solidified by its first official peaceful transfer of power between two political parties.
The big concepts for this period are:
Britain’s attempt to tighten control on the colonies following the French and Indian War
Building colonial resentment towards British policies (especially taxes)
The Revolutionary War
The Articles of Confederation (and the reasons for their failure)
The Constitution (drafting, contents, and ratification debate)
The Washington and Adams administrations, as well as the election of 1800
Relations between the young U.S. and European powers, as well as Native Americans
The U.S. was growing in territory and strength, but faced internal threats to its stability.
The big concepts for this period are:
Evolution of political parties
Westward expansion (including Louisiana Purchase)
Growing sectionalism and tensions over the expansion of slavery (e.g., Missouri Compromise)
Growth of the abolitionist and women’s rights movements
Industrial Revolution and the growth of railroads
Period 5 centers on the Civil War—its causes, events, and aftermath.
The big concepts for this period are:
Westward expansion (Manifest Destiny, Mexican American War)
Increased immigration (especially from Ireland and Asia) and the resulting tensions
Growing tensions over slavery and states’ rights
Civil War (major events, advantages/disadvantages of each side, outcome)
Reconstruction
This is the Gilded Age, where America was bright and shiny on the outside (industrial growth, wealth, railroads, big cities, population growth) and dark and grimy underneath (terrible working conditions, socioeconomic stratification, racism, political corruption).
The big concepts for this period are:
Industrialization and the growth of big business (and all the good and bad that came with that)
Migration: immigration and urbanization
Racial tensions and segregation
This period sees the United States starting to get pulled onto the world stage in a big way for the first time.
The big concepts for this period are:
Progressive reforms
Imperialism
World War I
The Great Depression (causes, effects, the New Deal)
World War II
In the aftermath of World War II, the United States emerged as one of two major world powers. The Cold War dominated foreign policy, while domestically, the U.S. went through many social changes.
The big concepts for this period are:
Cold War
Civil Rights Movement
Increasing polarization of society between liberal and conservative ideologies
Period 9: 1980-Present
This period begins with the election of Ronald Reagan and goes to contemporary times
End of the Cold War
War on terrorism
Technological development
Environmental issues
Part A: MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)
55 minutes
55 multiple choice questions utilizing both primary and secondary stimuli
40% of total score
Examples/Practice
Part B: SAQ (Short Answer Questions)
50 minutes
4 Questions (12.5 minutes per question)
20% of total score
Examples/Practice
Part A: DBQ (Document Based Questions)
1 DBQ Question
55 minutes
25% of total score
Part B: LEQ (Long Essay Question)
Choice of 2 questions to answer
35 minutes
15% of total score