AP World History Guidelines

World History I (9th Grade)
World History II (10th Grade)

Overview

We offer a two-year course in world history to ninth and tenth grade students. The decision to make world history a two-year course is in alignment with our mission statement and core principles. Our curriculum is built on integration across disciplines. Interdisciplinary projects allow students to view topics from a variety of perspectives. For example, the 9th and 10th grade language arts classes (World Literature I and World Literature II) mirror the topics and themes from world history. Art history, mathematical advancements, and scientific discoveries (from Biology and Chemistry) are also connected to the history units. An emphasis is placed on a wide variety of reading across the subject areas. In order to successfully cover topics in depth, the course is split into two academic years. As part of the class, all students will participate in the National History Day competition as an individual or a group to explore one aspect of world history in depth. Students will be given the option of taking the AP World History Exam at the end of their sophomore year. Students choosing to take the AP Exam will participate in review sessions in addition to the standard course work.

AP World History Themes

The AP World History themes will be encountered throughout the course in discussions, primary source readings, essay questions, and extended projects. These themes include:

1) The relationship of change and continuity from 8000 BCE to the present.
2) Impact of interaction among and within major societies.
3) Impact of technology, economics, and demography on people and the environment.
4) Systems of social structure and gender structure.
5) Cultural, religious, and intellectual developments.
6) Changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes towards states and political identities, including the emergence of the nation-state.

Guiding Questions

In addition to themes presented in the AP World History curriculum, students will analyze a larger question throughout the year that guides their studies across the different disciplines. This will help students see unity and contrasts throughout the subject areas.

The 9th grade guiding question is: What does it mean to be civilized?
The 10th grade guiding question is: How do individuals shape the world?

AP “Habits of Mind”

The AP World History course addresses habits of mind or skills needed for any rigorous history course and those specifically required by a world history course.

Thus, students should be able to:
1) Construct and evaluate arguments using evidence
2) Use documents and other primary data, develop the skills necessary to analyze point of view, context, and bias, and to understand and interpret information
3) Develop the ability to assess issues of change and continuity over time.
4) Handle a diversity of interpretations through analysis of context, bias, and frame of reference.
5) See global patterns over time and space while also acquiring the ability to connect local developments to global ones and to move through levels of generalizations from the global to the particular.
6) Develop the ability to compare within and among societies, including comparing societies’ reactions to global processes.
7) Assess claims of universal standards yet remain aware of human commonalities and differences; put culturally diverse ideas and values in historical context, not by suspending judgment but developing understanding

Periodization

9th grade course work will cover:
1) Formations of Civilizations: Foundations, from 8000 BCE to 600 CE
2) Expanding Zones of Exchange and Encounter: The World from 600 to 1450

10th grade course work will cover:
1) Emergence of the First Global Age: The World from 1450 to 1750
2) Age of Revolutions and Empire: The World from 1750 to 1914
3) A Technological Age: The World from 1914 to the Present Day

Teaching Methods

Students will gain knowledge and critical thinking skills through a variety of different formats. Students will work on note-taking skills from oral presentations and written work. Discussion will be an important part of understanding class materials. In preparation for discussion, students will be required to make entries into a journal based on readings, artwork, current events, and questions posed by the teacher. Students will also read a variety of primary sources and historical novels and write journal entries about them. Portfolio projects will help students gain a variety of skills including website design, analytical essay writing, museum display creation, film analysis, library research, debate preparation, and historiographical analysis. Students will work on some projects as individuals and others as groups. The purpose of the projects is to allow students to analyze and make connections between diverse ideas. Some projects will require students to synthesize and evaluate large amounts of material such as creating an annotated timeline of the greatest cultural achievements of the early Islamic caliphates. Others will require students to compare varying historical views of one event, like the fall of the Roman Empire.

Assessment

Each student’s grade will be based on their overall portfolio. Included in the portfolio will be the following items:

1) In-class Activities: With each unit, students will complete activities for their portfolios that connect the material with another discipline or a real-world situation. Projects will be graded using a rubric. Some of these projects will be practice essays in one of the three different AP formats: comparison, change over time, and document-based. These projects will range in value from 50-100 points based on the extent of the activity.

2) Tests: There will be 3 tests per trimester and each will be worth 100 points. Students will be given approximately a week’s notice before all tests. Students who miss a test due to an unexcused absence should be prepared to take the test upon their return to school. Students who miss a test due to an excused absence have two days to schedule a make-up time.

3) Reading Quizzes: There will be several quizzes per trimester and each will be worth 5-25 points. Quizzes will be announced at least one day before they are given. These quizzes will follow the same make-up policy as tests. Sometimes pop “Quick Quizzes” will be given for the students’ use in assessing what they do and do not know. No grade will be given for these quizzes.

4) Journal: The student will keep a journal in which daily homework activities will be kept. Ideas from the journals will be a major source of classroom discussion. The teacher will periodically collect journals to read and assess. The journal will be worth a total of 100 points at the end of each trimester.

5) Participation: All students will begin with 50 daily points for the trimester. For each day that they are not prepared for class, they will lose points. In addition, students who choose to be disruptive or not participate in class discussions will lose daily points.

6) Exam: At the end of each trimester, students will take a 150 point test on the larger themes and topics covered to that point. Each trimester we will focus on writing one style of AP essay. Students will then be required to write one essay in this style on the trimester exam.

Student grades will be determined by adding all the points the student has earned and dividing by the total points possible. Students will keep track of their own progress on their grade record sheet. This sheet should be kept in the student’s portfolio or notebook, and parents are welcome to check this sheet and other portfolio work any day before or after school.

Texts

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999. Used in 9th and 10th grades

Stearns, Peter N., et al. World Civilizations: The Global Experience. 5th edition. AP version. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Textbook for 9th and10th grades

9th Grade Additional Reading

Lord of the Flies by William Golding 9th- summer reading
Antigone by Sophocles 9th – fall
Life of Charlemagne by Einhard 9th – early spring
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 9th – late spring

Students will also be responsible for primary source readings from Paul Halsall’s “Internet History Sourcebook Project” at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/

Other 9th grade readings primarily covered in other subjects include: Life of Pi, Ishmael, “Genesis” from The Bible, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, Things Fall Apart, The Song of the Dodo, The Journey of Man, Beowulf, Once and Future King, Romeo and Juliet, The Alchemist, Their Eyes were Watching God

10th Grade Additional Reading

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 10th –summer reading
Salt: A History of the World by Mark Kurlanksy 10th – fall
Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya 10th – winter
Brave New World/Fahrenheit 451/On the Beach choice 10th – spring
Iron and Silk by Mark Salzman 10th – spring

Other 10th grade readings primarily covered by other subjects include: Kite Runner, The Prince, The Divine Comedy, Othello, Hard Times, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Stranger, Cry, the Beloved Country, The Good Earth, House Made of Dawn

Students will also be responsible for primary source readings from Paul Halsall’s “Internet History Sourcebook Project” at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/

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