AP United States History – Summer Assignments/Information

Dear AP United States History student,

Congratulations on what I hope has been a very successful year for you. Now it's time to get really serious – start thinking about college, and start the last half of high school. As you probably know, this class is going to be a lot of work, but if you do it right, you will have fun too. You need to get started this summer to be prepared when school starts so there are a few assignments that you must complete before the first day of school. The reading is fairly straightforward and shouldn’t take a tremendous amount of time. It consists of one novel, a portion of a secondary source that approaches American history from a different point of view, and your textbook. 

Your summer assignment is as follows:

1. Read Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of your textbook, American Pageant AP Edition, 15th edition. Because the AP Exam occurs in EARLY MAY, we are often pressed for time. These early chapters will be reviewed in class but we will move through them very quickly, therefore, you must have already read them in order to keep up with the rest of the class. There will be a reading exam on these chapters (Unit 1) when school begins (tentatively scheduled for the second Wednesday of the school year).

2. Read Pages 1-58 (Chapters 1-3) of A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. This presents American history in a different context than is usually presented in elementary, secondary and even college textbooks. It will probably raise a lot of questions as to why history is presented differently in this book than it is in your textbook. Keep track of questions that you have as you read it as this will be a major part of our classroom discussion. Pages 1-58 coincide roughly with Unit 1 and questions on this reading will be on your Unit 1 exam (tentatively scheduled for the second Wednesday of the school year).

3. Answer the Chapter Objective Questions for Chapters 1-5 (attached).

Please remember chapter outlines consists of all three parts. 

1) Vocabulary/Key Terms Define the terms and explain the significance (who, what, when where why, how it matters) 

 

2) Read and outline the chapter in your own words w/SPRITE (Social Causes, Political Issues, Religious Movements, Intellectual Advances, Technological Advances, Economic Issues) in Cornell Note Format [updated from REPS].

 

3) Objective Questions
***
Identify and briefly discuss any of the “Sprite of American History” that appear in the chapter. I doubt that there will be any chapters that do not include some if not all of the SPRITE of American History. 
SPRITE =
Social Causes, 
Political Issues, 
Religious Movements, 
Intellectual Advances, 
Technological Advances, 
Economic Issues

Formerly REPS=
Religious Movements 
Economic Issues 
Political Issues 
Social Causes
***
Third: Essential Questions 
1)Answer the essential questions.
2) Upload your work to the google classroom. Link your google drive to schoology. Turn your work in on schoology

***When loading your work you MUST include a proper heading in the top right hand corner on each page with your name. Do not turn in someone else's work. Both students will earn 0's.***

4. Read Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara. This is a fictional novel about the coming of the American Revolution and it is told from the perspectives of several key individuals of the time, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John and Abigail Adams, and General Thomas Gage. Due at the start of Unit 3 (approximately day 21 of the school year).

IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU ALSO COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING: 

5. Read Chapters 3 through 5 of your textbook and answer the Chapter Objective Questions for Chapters 3-5 (attached). These are due the third week of school but beginning of the year “craziness” and work for other classes may mean that you have more time over the summer. 

6. Begin reading Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is one of the most politically influential books in our history. Many people of the time believe that it helped to start the Civil War. It centers on the issue of slavery in the South in the time period before the war. When you read it you will see why it moved so many people in the North to such violent action. This should be read by Unit 7 (Mid-October) but time constraints and work for other classes may mean that you have more time during the summer.

I want you to know that I do NOT give easy tests and quizzes. You start off the school year taking AP level tests so please do not be discouraged if your initial exam scores are significantly lower than you may be used to receiving. You should be more concerned with progress over time than individual exam scores. The points in the class are constructed so that about 60% of the points available are from things other than tests and exams (including your final).

I’d also like to give you a brief description of the AP Exam that you will take in the spring. There is a multiple choice section, a short answer section, and an essay section. The multiple choice section is worth 40% of your overall AP Exam grade, the short answer section is worth 20%, and the essay section is worth 40%. For the essay section, you are required to write TWO essays. One is mandatory and the other you will have a choice of two essay questions. This mandatory essay question has documents that are to be used to support your writing and is generally referred to as the “document based question” or the DBQ. The other questions are standard essay questions and may appear like extended versions of the “Objective questions” that you answer in paragraph form as homework for class. The short answer section will be very like the “Objective Questions” that make up the bulk of your written homework. Overall, the exam itself is difficult because you can earn college credit for taking this course while you are in high school. It is very possible for everyone to pass the AP exam in the spring and equally possible for everyone to earn a 5 (the highest score possible) but it will require a tremendous amount of effort that must begin now. Please take it seriously and understand that the harder you work this summer the easier it will be in the fall.

Chapter Objectives

The chapter reading objectives are collected on the day of each unit test (approximately every 1-2 weeks) and are graded. The purpose of answering these questions is to make sure that you understand the important information in each chapter as you read. The answers to the questions may require information from just part of the chapter or from the entire chapter so it is to your advantage to read the entire chapter first and then write out the answers to the chapter objectives. These are not complete essay questions but I do expect answers to be written in paragraph form. This assignment must always be completed individually and in your own words. Your first two sets of questions are attached.

Chapter Terms

Each unit will also have a set of terms that are handed out as a review guide. These terms are the people, places, events and concepts that are central to the study of United States History. The AP Exam stresses critical thinking, which is more than just remembering facts and dates. It is knowing the “how” and the “why” of a particular event. However, knowing facts and dates is essential to being able to explain why certain events happened and the long lasting implications of those events. You will be required to research each term (in small groups based on what class period you are in) and type up brief definitions that address who/what, when, how and why the person/event is important. Although this assignment may be completed with a small group of students (generally four), all students are still responsible for KNOWING all of the terms and may have quizzes on them at any time. This list is available online but your groups will not be assigned/chosen until the first week of class because all students in a group must be in the same class period.

A Special Note on TIME MANAGEMENT

College professors frequently assign all the work for a course on the first day of class and it is up to the students to complete the work and turn it in without reminders. Since you can earn college credit in this class and it is an “Advanced” level course, a similar procedure is used. You are given assignments to cover approximately one week and it is up to you to complete them and turn them in on the due date. Time management is very important to this class, as it is NOT POSSIBLE to review all of the terms, complete the readings, the chapter objectives, and study for a test in one evening. Work on your assignments a little each day to keep the workload manageable. I cannot stress this nearly enough – do not fall behind in the work – time management, time management, TIME MANAGEMENT! :)

AP US History Chapter Objectives – Chapters 1-3 (Summer) and 4-5 (to get ahead if you wish)

The following questions should be answered in paragraph format but are NOT to be considered as full essay questions. Each answer should contain about 7-10 sentences (but more may be necessary). Make sure you are answering the question that is being asked and that you are addressing ALL PARTS of each question. For example, Chapter 1, question 3 asks you to “describe the developments in Europe and Africa that led up to Columbus’ voyage to America.” Your answer should contain several developments (not just one) such as the influence of the Crusades, the publication of Marco Polo’s accounts of his journey to China, and the creation of better maps at the beginning of the Renaissance to make the unknown less fearful, etc. Make sure you address both developments in Europe AND developments in Africa!

The answers to these questions need to be written IN YOUR OWN WORDS. This assignment is vital practice for your AP Exam essays – both the new shorter free-response format and the traditional essay. The information is you need to answer these is contained entirely in your textbook although you may use other resources as well. 

Chapter 1:
1. Describe the geological and geographical conditions that set the stage for North American history.
2. Describe the origin and development of the major Indian cultures of the Americas.
3. Explain the developments in Europe and Africa that led up to Columbus’s voyage to America.
4. Explain the changes and conflict that occurred when the diverse worlds and peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas collided after 1492.
5. Describe the Spanish conquest of Mexico and South America, and of the later Spanish colonial expansion into North America.
6. Describe the major features of Spain’s New World Empire, including relations with the native Indian populations.

Chapter 2:
1. Explain why England was slow to enter the colonization race and what factors finally led it to launch colonies in the early seventeenth century.
2. Describe the development of the Jamestown colony from its disastrous beginnings to its later prosperity.
3. Describe the cultural and social interaction and exchange between English settlers and Indians in Virginia and the effects of the Virginians’ policy of warfare and forced removal on Indians and whites.
4. Compare the tobacco-based economic development of Virginia and Maryland with South Carolina’s reliance on large-plantation rice-growing and African slavery based on West Indian models.
5. Identify the major similarities and differences among the southern colonies of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Chapter 3:
1. Describe the Puritans and their beliefs, and explain why they left England for the New World.
2. Explain how the Puritans’ theology shaped the government and society of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
3. Explain how Massachusetts Bay’s conflict with religious dissenters, as well as new economic opportunities, led to the expansion of New England into Rhode Island, Connecticut, and elsewhere.
4. Describe the conflict between colonists and Indians in New England and the effects of King Philip’s War.
5. Summarize early New England attempts at intercolonial unity and the consequences of England’s Glorious Revolution in America.
6. Describe the founding of New York and Pennsylvania, and explain why these two settlements as well as the other middle colonies became so ethnically, religiously, and politically diverse.
7. Describe the central features of the middle colonies, and explain how they differed from New England and the southern colonies.

*** OPTIONAL SUMMER WORK – UNIT 2 – Due after the start of the school year (approximately week 3) so you may wait on these if you wish.

Chapter 4:
1. Describe the basic economy, demographics, and social structure and life of the seventeenth-century colonies.
2. Compare and contrast the different forms of society and ways of life of the southern colonies and New England.
3. Explain how the practice of indentured servitude failed to solve the colonial labor problem and why colonists then turned to African slavery.
4. Describe the character of slavery in the early English colonies and explain how a distinctive African American identity and culture emerged from the mingling of numerous African ethnic groups.
5. Summarize the unique New England way of life centered on family, town, and church, and describe the problems that afflicted this comfortable social order in the late seventeenth century.
6. Describe family life and the roles of women in both the southern and New England colonies, and indicate how these changed over the course of the seventeenth century.

Chapter 5:
1. Describe the demographic, ethnic, and social character of Britain’s colonies in the eighteenth century, and indicate how colonial society had changed since the seventeenth century.
2. Explain how the economic development of the colonies altered the patterns of social prestige and wealth, and brought growing class distinctions and class conflict to British North America.
3. Identify the major religious denominations of the eighteenth-century colonies, and indicate their role in early American society.
4. Explain the causes of the Great Awakening, and describe its effects on American religion, education, and politics.
5. Describe the origins and development of education, culture, and journalism in the colonies.
6. Describe the basic features of colonial politics, including the role of various official and informal political institutions.
7. Indicate the key qualities of daily existence in eighteenth-century colonial America, including forms of socialization and recreation.