AP United States History Course Syllabus
Advanced Placement U.S. History is a college-level introductory course that examines the
nation’s political, diplomatic, intellectual, cultural, social, and economic history from 1491 to the
present. A variety of instructional approaches are employed and a college-level textbook is
supplemented by primary and secondary sources.
AP US History Texts
Kennedy, D. M., Cohen, L., & Bailey, T. (2002). The American Pageant – A History of the
Republic (15 th Edition). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Course Pacing Outline
Quarter 1
Unit 1: 1491-1607
The American Pageant, Chapters 1-2
Overview: The period from before Columbus arrived in the Americas to the founding of the
English colony at Jamestown covers the interaction of Native American, European, and African
cultures to create a “new” world.
Content: Geography and environment of the Americas; Native American diversity in the
Americas before the arrival of Europeans; Spain in the Americas; conflict and exchange;
English, French, and Dutch settlements; and the Atlantic economy.
Unit 2: 1607-1754
The American Pageant, Chapters 3-6
Overview: The mixtures of people from various heritages living in different geographic settings
created colonies with distinctive cultures, economies, and populations.
Content: Growing trade; unfree labor; political differences across the colonies; conflict with
Native Americans; immigration; early cities; role of women, education, religion and culture; and
growing tensions with the British.
Unit 3: 1754-1800
The American Pageant, Chapters 7-10
Overview: Wars over empires provided the context for the American Revolution and the
founding of the United States, including the political struggles to form a “more perfect union.”
Content: Colonial society before the war for independence; colonial rivalries; the Seven Years’
War; pirates and other democrats; role of women before, during, and after 1776; Articles of
Confederation and a Constitution; early political rights and exclusions.
Quarter 2
Unit 4: 1800-1848
The American Pageant, Chapters 11-16
Overview: The promise of the new republic played out during a period of rapid economic,
territorial, and population growth that tested the political institutions that held the nation
together.
Content: Politics in the early republic; parties and votes; reforms and social movements; culture
and religion; market capitalism and slavery; growth of immigration and cities; women and
Seneca Falls; and, cultural trends; transcendentalism and utopianism
Unit 5: 1844-1877
The American Pageant, Chapters 17-22
Overview: A war with Mexico intensified the conflict over slavery and states’ rights, which led
to the Civil War and then to struggles to reconstruct the Union and address the legacy of slavery.
Content: Tensions over slavery; reform movements; politics and the economy; territorial
expansion and the Mexican War; the Civil War, rights of freedmen and women, the
Reconstruction Era and Freedmen’s Bureau; and the KKK. Focus on white supremacy before and
after the Civil War; The rights of freedmen and women; reconstruction, Freedmen’s Bureau.
Unit 6: 1865-1898
The American Pageant, Chapters 23- 27
Overview: Industrialization, the rapid growth of cities, and a large new wave of immigration
transformed the American economy, society, culture, and regional identities.
Content: The 1877 Railroad strike; rise of labor unions and the Populist Party; general themes of
industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and imperialism; and Indian wars, the
Spanish-American War, and conquests in the Pacific.
Quarter 3
Unit 7: 1890-1945
The American Pageant, Chapters 28-35
Overview: While the United States responded to the impact of industrialization during the
Progressive Era and New Deal years, it also became deeply involved in world affairs during
World Wars I and II.
Content: The formation of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the American
Federation of Labor (AFL); industrialization and technology, mass production and mass
consumerism, and radio and movies; Harlem Renaissance; Native American culture and
boarding schools; political parties and the transition from classical liberalism to New Deal
liberalism with the capitalist crisis of the 1930s; and World War II, demographic shifts, the role
of women and nonwhites, and battles for economic rights.
Unit 8: 1945-1980
The American Pageant, Chapters 36-39
Overview: The United States assumed a world leadership role during the Cold War while society
became more divided over issues of economic and social justice, especially for minorities and
women.
Content: The atomic age; the affluent society and suburbs; discrimination, Michael Harrington’s
The Other America (1962), and the African-American Civil Rights movement; Vietnam and U.S.
imperial policies in Latin America and Africa; the beat generation and the student movement; the
counterculture movement, the antiwar movement, the women’s movement, the Chicano
movement, the American Indian movement, and the gay and lesbian movements; summer riots
and the occupation of Alcatraz; LBJ’s “The Great Society” speech (1964) and the rise of the New
Right; Ronald Reagan and the rise of poverty; and the Cold War and U.S. role in the world.
Quarter 4
Unit 9: 1980-present
The American Pageant, Chapters 40-42
Overview: A renewed conservative movement challenged the efficacy of government at home
while the end of the Cold War, the spread of globalization, and the increase in terrorism
prompted the federal government to redefine its policies.
Content: Summary of Ronald Reagan’s domestic and foreign policies; George Bush Sr. and the
end of the Cold War; Clinton as a New Democrat; technology and economic bubbles and
recessions, race relations, and the role of women; changing demographics and the return of
poverty; rise of the prison industrial complex and the war on drugs; 9/11 and the domestic and
foreign policies that followed; and Obama: change or continuity?
ThemesofAPU.S.History
1. AmericanandNationalIdentity(NAT)
This theme focuses on how and why definitions of American and national identity and values
have developed, as well as related topics such as citizenship, constitutionalism, foreign policy,
assimilation, and American exceptionalism.
2. PoliticsandPower(POL)
This theme focuses on how different social and political groups have influenced society and
government in the United States, as well as how political beliefs and institutions have changed
over time.
3. Work,Exchange,andTechnology(WXT)
This theme focuses on the factors behind the development of systems of economic exchange,
particularly the role of technology, economic markets, and government.
4. CultureandSociety(CUL)
This theme focuses on the roles that ideas, beliefs, social morals, and creative expression have
played in shaping the United States, as well as how various identities, cultures, and values have
been preserved or changed in different contexts of U.S. history.
5. MigrationandSettlement(MIG)
This theme focuses on why and how the various people who moved to and within the United
States both adapted to and transformed their new social and physical environments.
6. GeographyandEnvironment(GEO)
This theme focuses on the role of geography and both the natural and human-made environments
on social and political developments in what would become the United States.
7. Americainthe World(WOR)
This theme focuses on the interactions between nations that affected North American history in
the colonial period and on the influence of the United States on world affairs.
Historical Thinking Skills
Skill 1: Developments and Processes: Identify and explain historical developments and
processes.
- 1.A Identify a historical concept, development, or process.
- 1.B Explain a historical concept, development, or process.
Skill 2: Sourcing and Situation: Analyze sourcing and situation of primary and secondary
sources.
- 2.A Identify a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.
- 2.B Explain the point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/ or audience of a source.
- 2.C Explain the significance of a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation,
and/ or audience, including how these might limit the use(s) of a source.
Skill 3: Claims and Evidence in Sources: Analyze arguments in primary and secondary
sources.
- 3.A Identify and describe a claim and/or argument in a text based or non-text-based
source.
- 3.B Identify the evidence used in a source to support an argument.
- 3.C Compare the arguments or main ideas of two sources.
- 3.D Explain how claims or evidence support, modify, or refute a source’s argument.
Skill 4: Contextualization: Analyze the context of historical events, developments, or
processes.
- 4.A Identify and describe a historical context for a specific historical development or
process.
- 4.B Explain how a specific historical development or process is situated within a
broader historical context.
Skill 5: Making Connections: Using historical reasoning processes (comparison, causation,
continuity and change), analyze patterns and connections between and among historical
developments and processes.
- 5.A Identify patterns among or connections between historical developments and
processes.
- 5.B Explain how a historical development or process relates to another historical
development or process.
Skill 6: Argumentation: Develop an argument.
- 6.A Make a historically defensible claim.
- 6.B Support an argument using specific and relevant evidence.
- Describe specific examples of historically relevant evidence.
- Explain how specific examples of historically relevant evidence support an
argument.
- 6.C Use historical reasoning to explain relationships among pieces of historical
evidence.
- 6.D Corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument using diverse and alternative evidence
in order to develop a complex argument. This argument might:
- Explain the nuance of an issue by analyzing multiple variables.
- Explain relevant and insightful connections within and across periods.
- Explain the relative historical significance of a source’s credibility and
limitations.
- Explain how or why a historical claim or argument is or is not effective.
Reasoning Processes
Comparison
- Describe similarities and/or differences between different historical developments or
processes.
- Explain relevant similarities and/ or differences between specific historical developments
and processes.
- Explain the relative historical significance of similarities and/ or differences between
different historical developments or processes.
Causation
- Describe causes and/or effects of a specific historical development or process.
- Explain the relationship between causes and effects of a specific historical development
or process.
- Explain the difference between primary and secondary causes and between short- and
long-term effects.
- Explain how a relevant context influenced a specific historical development or process.
- Explain the relative historical significance of different causes and/ or effects.
Continuity and Change
- Describe patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
- Explain patterns of continuity and/or change over time.
- Explain the relative historical significance of specific historical developments in relation
to a larger pattern of continuity and/or change.
Grading Categories
Grades will be calculated by total points based on percentages. And, student achievement will be
measured through a variety of methods, including, but not limited to the following:
➔ Tests: 30%
◆ Each grading period will consist of at least two AP style multiple choice exams.
Exams are generally 50 points each.
◆ Test percentage will increase to 35% after the 3rd quarter to compensate for the
lack of a quarterly during the 4th quarter.
➔ Essays: 30%
◆ Each grading period will consist of at least two major essays (DBQ or LEQ) and
multiple shorter writing assignments (Typically SAQ’s or writing assignments
that target historical thinking skills).
◆ Types of essays:
● Short Answer Question
● Long Essay Question
● Document Based Question
◆ Essay percentage will increase to 35% after the 3rd quarter to compensate for the
lack of a quarterly during the 4th quarter.
➔ Quizzes: 20%
◆ Quizzes will be sporadically assigned as students progress through assigned
readings.
➔ Quarterly: 10%
◆ There will be no quarterly during the 4th quarter. However, a final exam will be
administered for any student that attains less than a 70% average in the class. The
final exam will be worth 10% of the overall grade.
➔ Classwork/ Participation: 10%
◆ Students will receive 25/25 points at the beginning of each unit. They must keep
the 25 points by participating and completing all classwork/ assignments;
failure to do so will result in a loss of points.
Expectations:
- Students should complete all assigned readings/ homework assignments in a timely
fashion.
- Email:
- Communication with Mr. Hermida is best via email.
- Communicate via email appropriately- always include your full name, id number,
and period.
- Participate in class readings, discussions, group work, etc..
AP Exam Overview
**Cheating and Plagiarism Policy***
Policy on Academic Integrity and Responsible Use of AI in Course Assignments
Default Position: The default position is that AI should not be used in course assignments*
(including, but not limited to homework, worksheets, papers, presentations, research etc.) unless
explicitly directed by the assigning instructor. Work that utilizes AI without the explicit
permission of the instructor may receive a failing grade.
Original Contribution: Students must ensure that their assignments* demonstrate original
thinking, analysis, and interpretation of results. AI should only be used as a supportive tool, not
as a replacement for their ideas.
Proper Attribution: If AI-generated content or data is used significantly, students must provide
clear attributions, citing the AI tool or model used, the developer/organization, and relevant
dataset details.
Understanding AI Output: Students must fully comprehend AI-generated output before
incorporating it into assignments*. Oral defenses or other parallel assessments may be used to
validate such comprehension. In cases where the student is unable to provide a satisfactory
defense of the AI-generated output, the submitted output may receive a failing grade.
Source Validation: Students are responsible for verifying the reliability and credibility of AI
sources used in their assignments*. Students may be asked to present the original source(s) to the
instructor. Work submitted with AI-“hallucinated” sources, or failure to present cited sources
upon demand by the instructor, may receive a failing grade.
Instructor Guidance: Seek clarification and guidance from instructors if unsure about ethical
AI use or academic integrity concerns.
By upholding academic integrity and responsibly using AI in course assignments, students
develop ethical values, maintain credibility, and cultivate essential skills for lifelong learning.
________________________________ ______________ _________________
Student Signature Student ID Date
________________________________ _______________________________
Parent Signature Date
*** Syllabus is subject to change throughout the year by instructor***
