WHAT MAKES THIS
AN “AP” CLASS
www.historystartsnow.net
OUR WEBSITES
Google classroom - aka “the g-class”: Used only for the transaction of (most) assignments.
www.historystartsnow.net: daily updates and links to study helps (linked on your g-class)
Albert.io - test prep tool
AP Classroom - required of all students
AP Classroom
apclassroom.collegeboard.org
GET A TEST-PREP BOOK
The Four Pillars of APUSH
9 time periods
8
themes
Thinking skills
Key Concepts
The 9 Time Periods
An organizational tool, they serve as “Units” in this class.
A test will follow each Time Period and will include all of the previously covered time periods. I combine Periods 1 and 2 into one unit, but after that each unit is one time period.
If I broke my life, my history, into Periods it would look like this …
Period 1: Ages 1-6 Birth, life with family in the Philippines and Nepal
Period 2: Ages 7-12 Childhood growing up in Whittier, CA
Period 3: Ages 13-19 Fell in love with running and XC, friendships, formation
Period 4: Ages 20-29 College, marriage, Riverside, career, death of my mom
Period 5: Ages 30-50 King High School, fatherhood
Period 6: Ages 51-60 Retirement from coaching, “empty nest”, end of my running life
8 THEMES THAT RUN THROUGH ALL 9 TIME PERIODS
THEME 1: AMERICAN AND NATIONAL IDENTITY (NAT) This theme focuses on how and why definitions of American and national identity and values have developed among the diverse and changing population of North America as well as on related topics, such as citizenship, constitutionalism, foreign policy, assimilation, and American exceptionalism.
THEME 2: WORK, EXCHANGE, AND TECHNOLOGY (WXT) This theme focuses on the factors behind the development of systems of economic exchange, particularly the role of technology, economic markets, and government.
THEME 3: GEOGRAPHY AND THE ENVIRONMENT (GEO) This theme focuses on the role of geography and both the natural and human-made environments in the social and political developments in what would become the United States.
THEME 4: MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT (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.
THEME 5: POLITICS AND POWER (PCE) 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.
THEME 6: AMERICA IN THE 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.
THEME 7: AMERICAN AND REGIONAL CULTURE (ARC) This theme focuses on the how and why national, regional, and group cultures developed and changed as well as how culture has shaped government policy and the economy.
THEME 8: SOCIAL STRUCTURES (SOC) This theme focuses on how and why systems of social organization develop and change as well as the impact that these systems have on the broader society
HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS
HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS
HISTORICAL THINKING SKILLS
KEY CONCEPTS
“KEY” -- Important, crucial, necessary, … etc
“Concepts” - Ideas.
Notice there is no mention of “facts.” Memorizing an encyclopedia of facts is not the point of APUSH. It’s being able to identify, discuss and make arguments about major concepts that show up in history. (Remember the water bottle analogy?)
AND NOW WE BEGIN….
“The discovery of America” the Enlightenment thinker Adam Smith said in 1776 “was one of the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind.” Smith spoke of European discovery … but the initial discovery of America took place centuries earlier by migrants from Asia. But of that European landfall, “there can be no doubt that when Columbus made landfall in the West Indian islands in 1492, he set in motion some of the most pivotal developments in human history. Immense changes soon followed in both the Old and New Worlds; the consequences of these changes are still with us today.”