The College Board's AP Modern World History class is meant to prepare students for the rigors of a college level history course. I can tell you, this class is no joke. Students must develop serious content knowledge while also developing the specific skills necessary to make effective historical arguments.
The course is broken up into four separate time periods:
The course is broken up into four separate time periods:
- 1200 - 1450: The Late Post - Classical Period
- 1450 - 1750: The Early Modern Period
- 1750 - 1900: The Modern Period
- 1900 - Present: The Contemporary Period
Each time period is broken up into separate units that cover specific aspects of the era:
- 1200 - 1450
- The Global Tapestry
- Networks of Exchange
- 1450 - 1750
- Land Empires
- Transoceanic Interconnections
- 1750 - 1900
- Revolutions
- Consequences of Industrialization
- 1900 - 2000
- Global Conflict
- Cold War & DeColonization
- Globalization
Each unit focuses on both content and a specific set of themes; the College Board wants students to make connections between different eras within these themes in order to make comparisons and to begin recognizing patterns of causation and continuity & change.
- Humans and the Environment
- Recognize how environments shape human societies and vice versa. This will include weather patterns, geologic formations, animals, disease, and the like.
- Cultural Developments & Interactions
- This concept is very important to the College Board. Recognize how interaction between societies impacts cultural, economic, and political norms. This may develop as a result of trade and it will often include the spread of technology and religion.
- Governance
- Recognize that governments develop, change, and decline over time as a result of various historical forces. Consider methods rulers use to maintain control of their subjects and how & why these methods change over time.
- Economic Systems
- Recognize patterns of production, consumption, and exchange. These patterns develop, intensify, and expand over the course of history, often with one group controlling the production and consumption of other groups. This theme is often a catalyst for cultural development.
- Social Interactions & Organization
- Recognize the way that societies group their members and how it varies across time and space. This often changes as a result of cultural interactions.
- Technology & Innovation
- This theme tends to encompass all of the above themes. Recognize that humans adapt to new environments and situations through technological innovation. These innovations often spread through economic systems and as a result of cultural interactions.
A key focus of the course is teaching students how to think and do history like a historian. The goal of these skills is to prepare students to critically consider historical issues, processes, and primary & secondary sources with a critical slant.
- Developments & Processes
- Be able to identify and explain historical concepts, developments, & processes.
- Simply put, recognize how and or why something occurred at a specific point in history.
- Sourcing & Situation
- Be able to identify and explain a source's point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience.
- While this will come up on different parts of the AP Test, it is crucial for high level success on the DBQ.
- Claims and Evidence in Sources
- Be able to identify and explain a primary or secondary source's argument.
- Recognize the evidence a source uses to support an argument.
- Be able to compare the arguments of separate sources.
- Explain how evidence may impact a source's argument.
- Contextualization
- Be able to identify and analyze the historical context of a historical development or process.
- Recognize how a process or event fits within a larger historical context.
- Making Connections
- Recognize patterns between separate historical patterns and processes.
- Be able to explain how historical developments relate to one another.
- Argumentation
- Be able to make a historically defensible claim.
- Support a claim with specific factual information.
- Use historical reasoning to explain how your evidence supports your claim.
The historical reasoning skills are the foundation of the AP Modern World History Exam. Students must develop these skills in order to explain the impact of historical processes and developments on one another.
- Comparison
- In regards to specific historical developments & processes students should be able to:
- describe similarities & differences between them.
- explain specific similarities & differences.
- explain the significance of these similarities and differences.
- describe similarities & differences between them.
- In regards to specific historical developments & processes students should be able to:
- Causation
- In regards to specific historical developments & processes students should be able to:
- describe causes & effects.
- explain the relationship between the causes & effects.
- explain the difference between primary & secondary causes & effects.
- explain the difference between short-term & long-term causes & effects.
- explain how a specific historical context influenced specific historical developments.
- explain the historical significance of various causes & effects.
- In regards to specific historical developments & processes students should be able to:
- Continuity & Change
- Students should be able to:
- describe & explain patterns of continuity & change over time.
- explain the historical significance of specific historical developments in relation to larger patterns of continuity & change.
- Students should be able to: