AP World History Summer Assignment

Advanced Placement World History
Summer Assignment
samuelharris@nisd.net

Welcome to AP World History, a challenging course that will cover World History from the Paleolithic Era through the “thawing” of the Cold War. AP history courses have a heavy reading requirement. To help get a running start on this, your summer assignment is to start your World Civilizations reading and note taking. You will be issued a copy at prep day in August.

For the first day of class you should read Chapters 1 and 2, which cover human prehistory, river valley civilizations, and the classical era of Chinese civilization.

As you take notes, pay attention to the chapter subsection titles as they will help you understand the main idea of that section. A good basic notes style is to copy the unit, chapter, section, subsection titles and then write main ideas, key developments and summaries under those titles. Make sure you look at “figures” and the timeline at the beginning of each chapter as they point out especially important items. Marking turning points and key people and using graphic organizers are important ways of managing information. It is mandatory that you include at least 2 graphic organizers and 1 turning point per chapter. I also suggest making use of a highlighter.

see student example

If you have a large framework for understanding World History, it will help you remember all the detailed examples. Because of this, you should always read the brief unit introduction and think about gender roles, demography and environment, technology, migration, trade, and labor system. Where there major changes or continuities (things that stayed the same)? How do the specific historical examples from each chapter fit into these themes and how do they compare with other regions of the world?

Reading check quizzes will be given all year. These quizzes will vary between announced/unannounced and open notes/no notes

I expect at least 3-5 pages for each chapter. Notes may be kept in a spiral for notes only, or on loose paper in a ring binder for notes and handouts. Notes must be handwritten.

Lengthy notes are available online as are many other tools that may be helpful if they are reliable. These notes are not a substitute for your own notes. You must always indicate where any borrowed information is found, even if it has been paraphrased or rewritten by you. Make sure you cite sources correctly.

This is an all or nothing assignment: if your notes are not detailed enough, I will give them back to you to finish and they will be counted late ten points for each day it takes you to complete them.

Please feel free to email me with any questions you have on this or any other assignment throughout the year. This will be a challenging course but you are up to the task if you work hard and seek out help when you need it. By the end of the course, you should be a more effective reader and writer, have higher literacy in World History and culture, and be better prepared for the analytical work required for success in the professional world.