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GUIDELINES

 

Materials: (needed for class)

  • Textbook: Colton, Palmer. A History of the Modern World
  • 3 Ring Binder – You will need to take extensive notes and also save a considerable number of Xeroxed handouts.
  • A supply of lined paper, pens, pencils
  • Highlighters!!!

 

Grading: Students will be assessed on the following:

  • Quizzes
  • Essays: Document-Based and Free-Response
  • Tests: Chapter and Unit
  • Homework/Classwork
  • Oral Presentations
  • Research Papers
  • Final Research Project: Will be counted as a final exam and will represent 20% of the semester grade

 

AP European History Exam: Students enrolled in this course will be expected to take the nationally administered AP European History Examination that will be given on Friday, May 6, 2016 (12PM Session)  This is a three-hour exam made up of two free-response essay questions, one document-based essay question and 80 multiple-choice questions.

 

Note: To adequately master the AP examination all class work and graded assignments need to be mastered at 90% or above.

 

All written work is to be turned in on time.

A writing assignment (essay) turned in on time may be corrected and redrafted for a higher grade.

 

According to current school policy a passing grade for this course in 65%.

 

Important connections:

 

 

EUROPEAN HISTORY

 

Course Outline/Syllabus

 

Grade: 12

Level: Advanced Placement (AP)

 

 

Materials Needed:

  • Textbook: Palmer, R.R., Joel Colton, and Lloyd Kramer. A History of the Modern World. Boston:McGraw Hill, 2002.
  • Textbook’s Supplemental Materials

 

Readings: (key)

  • Caliguire, Augustine, Roberta Leach and Lawrence Ober, SJ. Advanced Placement European History I and II. Rocky River, OH: The Center for Learning. 1991.
  • Perry, Marvin, Joseph Peden, and Theodore Von Laue. Sources of the Western Tradition, Volume II: From the Renaissance to the Present. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2006.
  • Sherman, Dennis. Western Civilization, Sources, Images and Interpretations: From the Renaissance to the Present. New York: McGraw Hill. 2004.
  • Sherman, Dennis and Joyce Salisbury. The West in the World: A Mid-Length Narrative History Renaissance to Present. Boston:McGraw Hill. 2004.
  • Wiesner, Merry, Julius Ruff, and William B. Wheeler. Discovering the Western Past. A Look at the Evidence, Vol. II: Since 1500. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2004.

 

Instructional Strategies:

  • Require students to have a three-ring binder.
    • Organize a system to keep notes, assignments, formative and summative assessments in numbered order in the three-ring binder.
    • Instruct students to take notes using Cornell method, demonstrating with models and with guided outlines for first chapter of text.
    • Develop critical reading skills using before, during and after reading strategies.
    • Using supplementary readings from primary and secondary sources, students will be instructed on methods of  highlighting and annotating main ideas, key details, etc.
    • Using textbook passages and readings from primary and secondary sources, students will be instructed on methods identifying point of view, summarizing, paraphrasing and précis writing.
    • To reinforce citing sources in MLA format, students will be required to cite sources used to complete daily assignments, and essays as well as formal research papers.
    • Using textbook and readings from primary and secondary sources, students will be introduced to methods of critical reading, interpretation, analysis and evaluation of historical documents daily.
    • Instruct and assign students to complete research assignments to review and reinforce research process and MLA format.
    • Instruct and assign students to present evidence to support positions using power point presentation, debate, panel or group discussion procedures to review and reinforce these skills.
    • Instruct students in format and process of free response and document-based essays.
    • Instruct students to read, interpret and create maps, charts, graphs, and political cartoons as formative assessments.
    • Instruct students on the process of interpreting maps, chart, graphs and pictorial representations to use as evidence in free response and document-based essays.

 

Content: (Students will learn…)

 

  • Orientation (1 week) following completion of assigned summer work

Essential Questions:

  • How has the geography of Europe determined its political development and orientation?
  • What are the philosophical foundations upon which the political development of Europe is based?
  • What are key issues concerning European states today?

Content

  • Physical and political geography of contemporary Europe
  • Legacy of ancient Greece and Rome
  • Analysis of views of major Renaissance thinkers: Petrarch, Bruni, della Mirandola and Machiavelli
  • Review of major historical developments and key contemporary issues concerning selected European countries.
  • Unit I: 1450-1600  (4 weeks)

Essential Questions

  • What political, social and economic factors contributed to the weakening of the medieval Church?
  • How did the Renaissance help free humanity from religious restrictions?
  • What was the Reformation and how did this movement contribute to the weakening of the Church and the rise of the nation state?
  • How did the advance of navigation technology geographically reorient commercial development and political leadership in Europe?
  • How did the exploration and conquest of the Americas and Asia lead to the strengthening of secular governments?

Content

  • 14th Century disasters that provoked the Renaissance
  • European Renaissance and Reformation
  • Age of Exploration
  • Early Monarchies
  • Unit II: 1600-1715  (4 weeks)

Essential Questions

  • What effect did the wars of religion have on France?
  • How did the Thirty Years War affect the geography and political development of the German states?
  • How did the rise of absolute monarchy in France lead to the establishment of France as the cultural center of Europe?
  • What led to the rise of the Dutch Republic and what impact did it have?
  • What was the cause and final outcome of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution?
  • What developmental progress can be identified in Europe with the Peace of Utrecht in 1715?
  • How was Eastern Europe transformed from 1648-1715 and how did Austria, Prussia and Russia emerge as great powers?

Content

  • Wars of Religion
  • Thirty Years War
  • Rise of Absolute Monarchies
  • Rise of the Dutch Republic
  • English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution
  • Establishment of  Prussia, Austria and Russia as major European powers
  • Unit III: 1715-1789 (3 weeks)

Essential Questions

  • What were the major developments of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century and how did they inspire the Age of the Enlightenment?
  • How did the Scientific Revolution contribute to human liberation and the continuation of progress in Europe and around the world? (What view of the world was put forth at this time?)
  • What was the Enlightenment, who were its major contributors and what major concepts and ideas were introduced?
  • What impact did Enlightenment thought have on human development?
  • In what ways did the baroque and neo-classical movements in art and music reflect traditional and emerging philosophies?
  • What major social, political and economic concepts were introduced?
  • How did European leaders respond to Enlightenment thought?

Content

  • Scientific Revolution
  • Enlightenment
  • Enlightened Despots
  • Unit IV: 1763-1815 (4 weeks)

Essential Questions

  • How did the Great War of the Mid-Eighteenth Century and the Peace of Paris affect the balance of power in Europe?
  • What were the economic effects of this conflict and subsequent peace?
  • What factors influenced the development of the British Reform Movement and what social, political and economic impact did this movement have on Great Britain?
  • What were the causes and results of the American Revolution and how did its outcome affect the British power base?
  •  What were the causes, major phases and final outcome of the French Revolution?
  • How did Napoleon Bonaparte rise to power and what were the social, political (and military) and economic results of his leadership?
  • To what degree were the people of France liberated by the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon?

Content

  • The Great War of the Mid-Eighteenth Century: The Peace of Paris, 1763
  • The British Reform Movement and the American Revolution
  • French Revolution
  • Napoleon’s France

 

Midterm Exam – Exam will simulate a Final AP Exam will multiple choice questions, Free-Response Questions and a DBQ (document-based essay).

 

  • Unit V: 1815-1850 (3 weeks)

Essential Questions

  • Following the defeat of Napoleon, how did the forces of “reaction” conflict with the forces of “progress” and what was the outcome?
  • How did the industrial revolution affect Great Britain and the rest of Europe?
  • What was “Liberalism” and how was the impact of this philosophy felt in Great Britain and throughout Europe?
  • What were the nature and the outcome of the revolutions that spread throughout Europe in 1848?
  • What was romanticism and what impact did it have on intellectual development, art and music?

Content

  • Reaction versus progress and the “dike and the flood” national and international.
  • The industrial revolution
  • The advent of the “isms”
  • The breakthrough of liberalism
  • The revolutions of 1832
  • The revolutions of 1848
  • Unit VI: (1850-1900) (4 weeks)

Essential Questions

  • As order was re-imposed following the revolutions of 1848, what major social and political changes were reflected? What had been achieved by the revolutions?
  • What power base did the newly organized European states reflect?
  • What changes were reflected in the world economy in the 19th century?
  • What was imperialism and what role did it play in the development of the European powers?
  • How did realism affect political, intellectual and cultural development?
  • What worldview motivated imperialism?
  • What positive and negative consequences did imperialism bring with it for Europe and for the rest of the world?

 

Content

  • Consolidation of large nation states
  • Bismarck and the founding of the German Empire
  • Dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary
  • The Third French Republic
  • Socialism and Labor Unions
  • Imperialism: nature, causes, consequences
  • Unit VII: (1900-1945) (4 weeks)

Essential Questions

  • What were the causes of The Great War?
  • What effect did the Great War have on the development of human progress?
  • What were the causes and results of the Russian Revolution?
  • How did the apparent victory of democracy collapse in the 1920s?
  • What were the nature and the causes of the rise of totalitarianism and fascism?
  • How were totalitarianism and fascism realized in Soviet Russia, Germany, Spain and Italy?
  • How did impressionism as an art form capture the zeitgeist of the early 20th  century?
  • What were the causes and results of World War II?

Content

  • The Great War Causes/Results
  • Weimar Germany
  • Worldwide Depression
  • The Rise of Fascism – Germany, Italy, Spain
  • The Rise of Totalitarianism – Soviet Union
  • Causes/Major Developments of World War II
  • Unit VIII (1945-2006)  (4 weeks)

Essential Questions

  • To what extent did the Allied victory in World War II revive the momentum of progressive development in Europe and the rest of the world?
  •  How has the advent of the atomic age affected human progress?
  • What were the causes and outcomes of the Cold War?
  • How have the fall of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe affected Europe as a whole?
  • How was the European Union created and what impact has it had on individual European states?
  • What are the prospects for nation states in the future?

Content

  • Political, social and economic changes after WWII
  • European response to the atomic bomb
  • Causes, major developments and effects of the Cold War
  • Rise of Mikhail Gorbachev, perestroika and glasnöst
  • The fall of the Soviet Union
  • The fall of the Berlin Wall and the liberation of Eastern Europe
  • The formation of European Union and prospects for the future
  • Prospects for the nation state and human progress.

 

 

 

Final Exam – A research paper will be assigned as the final assessment for this course.