United States History I Syllabus for 2018-2019
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Course

HIST-1301-DC009 United States History I

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: RDNG 0331-minimum grade of C or a score on a state-approved test indicating college-level reading skills

Course Description

A survey of the social, political, economic, cultural and intellectual history of the United States from the pre-Columbian era to the Civil War/Reconstruction period. United States History I includes the study of pre-Columbian, colonial, revolutionary, early national, slavery and sectionalism, and the Civil War/Reconstruction eras. Themes that may be addressed in United States History I include: American settlement and diversity, American culture, religion, civil and human rights, technological change, economic change, immigration and migration, and creation of the federal government.

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Notice to Students enrolled in an educational program for preparation of issuance of certain occupational licenses:

Students enrolled in an educational program in preparation for obtaining certain occupational licenses are potentially ineligible for such license if the student has been convicted of an offense. For further information, please contact:

Melodie Graves
Justice Involved Advocate
Student Service Center 117
mgraves24@actx.edu
806-371-5995
Make appointment at https://melodiegraves.youcanbook.me

You can also contact the Legal Clinic, or the faculty member in charge of the educational program that you seek to enroll in. The further information you will receive will include notification to you of your right to request a criminal history evaluation letter from the licensing authority in order to clarify your particular situation.

Hours

(3 sem hrs; 3 lec)

Class Type

Dual Credit Course

Syllabus Information

Textbooks

Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A Bailey. The American Pageant. 14th ed. Boston: Cengage

Learning, 2008.

Supplies

No supplies available

Student Performance

Lecture and Discussion of Topics: Students will participate in discussions based on course topics. Reading quiz content is embedded in class discussions.

Primary Source Analysis: Students analyze primary sources using notecards on which they identify, analyze, and evaluate each of the sources. Students analyze the sources for two or more of the following features: historical context, purpose and intended audience, the author’s point of view, type of source, argument and tone.

Author’s Thesis Paper: Students are provided with opposing viewpoints expressed in either primary or secondary source documents, and in writing, must determine the following:

The Thesis:

• What is the main argument of each author? The Evidence:
• Look at the supporting evidence and analyze whether the authors interpret that evidence logically. Do they clearly support the thesis?

Critical Analysis:

• What do the sources add to your own understanding of the topic?
• What points are strongly made and well-documented?

Final Analysis: (Your opinion is expressed here without the use of any form of the pronoun “I.”)

• Which of the sources makes the most convincing case and why?

For each source, complete the thesis, evidence, and critical analysis sections.

You Be the Judge (YBTJ): Students analyze disparate primary source documents on the same topic. Students then compare and contrast the viewpoints expressed in the documents, and—supported by the evidence presented, and in the context of the historical period—determine which authors made a stronger case.

History in the Making Assignments: Students will compare how the issues they are studying were covered by American history textbooks in the past. They will then assess the extent to which earlier interpretations differ from that presented in their text.

Document-Based Questions (DBQs): Students, working in groups, will read the sources provided with the DBQ and debate the DBQ posed. In some cases, they will write on the DBQ as indicated in the course schedule below and in accordance with AP standards for DBQs. 

Chronological Reasoning Lesson: Students are provided with ten events, in no particular chronological order, which they will then place in order, naming the decade in which each occurred.

Students will complete the exercise by providing the following:

1. Identify the period in which these occur;
2. Identify continuity and change over time exemplified by the selections; and
3. Identify the theme(s) under which these issues and developments might be categorized.

Unit Exams: An exam will be given at the end of each unit. The exam will have three components: analytical multiple-choice questions (MC), analytical short-answer questions (SA), and either a long-essay question or a document-based question (DBQ) that requires a thesis statement supported with evidence and analysis. Each component of the exam will emphasize the application of the following historical thinking skills to answer the question. Information from prior units is often a critical component of the response:

1. Analyzing Historical Sources and Evidence
   1. Analyzing Evidence: Content and Sourcing
   2. Interpretation
2. Making Historical Connections
   3. Comparison
   4. Contextualization
3. Chronological Reasoning
   5. Causation
   6. Continuity and Change over Time
4. Creating and Supporting a Historical Argument
   7. Argument Development

 

Essays: Students will be asked to write college-level essays that require a thesis statement and supporting evidence drawn from course materials. 

The above boldfaced activities are organized around AP U.S. History’s major themes—American and National

Identity (NAT), Politics and Power (POL), Work, Exchange, and Technology (WXT), Culture and Society (CUL), Migration and Settlement (MIG), Geography and the Environment (GEO), and America in the World (WOR)—and are designed to develop students’ historical thinking skills.

Students Rights and Responsibilities

Student Rights and Responsibilities

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If you are an active staff or faculty member according to Human Resources, use "Exchange". All other students, use "AC Connect (Google) Email".

Expected Student Behavior

No behavior expectations available

Grading Criteria

Students’ grades will be determined by teachers, peers, and self-evaluation. Students are responsible for keeping track of their own grades. Graded work will include reading quizzes, logs, unit exams, revised writings, and projects. Specific assignments and activities are described in the unit outline below.

Daily Grades: Students will be encouraged to take notes which they will be able to use to answer multiple choice and true/false questions at the conclusion of each section.  These assessments will be compiled and graded each week and will constitute 20% of their grade.

Reading Quizzes: Students will periodically take reading quizzes on the chapter assignments. These quizzes are worth 20% of the overall grade.

Unit Tests: Students will take unit tests (as explained above) at the conclusion of each unit, constituting 40% of the overall grade.

Projects and Maps: Quizzes on maps and project grades will be taken occasionally throughout the class, constituting 20% of the overall grade.

Attendance

No attendance information available

Calendar

Additional Information

Unit 1: 1491-1607

The American Pageant, Chapters 1-3

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 2-4

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 5-10

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 and a Constitution; and early political rights and exclusions.

Unit 4: 1800-1848

The American Pageant, Chapters 11-13

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, territorial expansion and the Mexican War.

Unit 5: 1844-

The American Pageant, Chapters 14-21

Content: Tensions over slavery; reform movements; politics and the economy; cultural trends; transcendentalism and utopianism; 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.

Unit 6: 1865-

The American Pageant, Chapters 22- 28

Content: The rights of freedmen and women; reconstruction, Freedmen’s Bureau and 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.

Unit 7: 1890-1945

The American Pageant, Chapters 29-35

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: 1945-1989

The American Pageant, Chapters 36-39

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.

Unit 9: 1980-present

The American Pageant, Chapters 40-42

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?