2006/2007

Course Description and Requirements:

Prerequisite: Junior Status.  This is an in-depth look at the history of the United States through the four main strands of history: social, religious, economic, and political.  This class will consist of a combination of teacher and student led instruction as well as a variety of outside sources: textbooks, primary sources, guest lecturers, etc. The goal of this course is to create a deep understand of US History and to take and successfully pass the Advance Placement Test for U.S. History on May 2003.

Core Text and Reading Materials:

Kennedy, David. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, twelfth ed. Lexington, MA: Houghtin Mifflin Co., 2002.

Textbook Site

As you well know by now, this is a college level course for which you can possibly obtain credit if you pass the AP test with a three or above.  Reading is assigned according to the time period to be done by the motivated student.  It will always be expected that the reading has been completed no matter what barriers exist. The textbook reading is the core knowledge base for this class and it is very important that you read critically and we discuss major time periods and events as a class.

Requirements:

Due to the advanced nature of this course and the caliber of the material that we will be dealing with, this class will be substantially more challenging than the normal U.S. History curriculum.  You will be expected to come to class prepared and with the previous days homework complete.  Not having accomplished this will put you behind, which is not a place to be in this class.  We have a strict schedule to keep and must work together to achieve the goal of understanding U.S. History in detail and ultimately passing the AP exam.