SYLLABUS DEVELOPMENT GUIDE
AP
®
European History
The guide contains the following information:
Curricular Requirements
The curricular requirements are the core elements of the course. A syllabus
must provide clear evidence of the requirement based on the required evidence
statement(s).
The Unit Guides and the “Instructional Approaches” section of the AP
®
European
History Course and Exam Description (CED) may be useful in providing evidence for
satisfying these curricular requirements.
Required Evidence
These statements describe the type of evidence and level of detail required in the
syllabus to demonstrate how the curricular requirement is met in the course.
Note: Curricular requirements may have more than one required evidence statement.
Each statement must be addressed to fulll the requirement.
Clarifying Terms
These statements dene terms in the Syllabus Development Guide that may have
multiple meanings.
Samples of Evidence
For each curricular requirement, three separate samples of evidence are provided.
These samples provide either verbatim evidence or clear descriptions of what
acceptable evidence could look like in a syllabus.
Curricular Requirements
CR1
The teacher and students have access to a college-level European history
textbook, diverse primary sources, and multiple secondary sources written by
historians or scholars interpreting the past.
See page:
3
CR2
The course provides opportunities to develop student understanding of the
required content outlined in each of the units described in the AP Course and
Exam Description (CED).
See page:
5
CR3
The course provides opportunities to develop student understanding of the
course themes.
See page:
7
CR4
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical Thinking
Skill 1: Developments and Processes.
See page:
10
CR5
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical Thinking
Skill 2: Sourcing and Situation.
See page:
11
CR6
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical Thinking
Skill 3: Claims and Evidence in Sources.
See page:
13
CR7
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical Thinking
Skill 4: Contextualization.
See page:
14
CR8
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical Thinking
Skill 5: Making Connections through the application of the three historical
reasoning processes (comparison, causation, continuity and change).
See page:
15
CR9
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical Thinking
Skill 6: Argumentation.
See page:
17
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 1
The teacher and students have access to a college-level European
history textbook, diverse primary sources, and multiple secondary
sources written by historians or scholars interpreting the past.
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must include the following:
1. Title, author, and publication date of a college-level European history textbook.
2. Specic examples of primary sources from each category, clearly identied:
Textual (documents)
Visual (images or artwork)
Maps
Quantitative (charts, tables, graphs) student-generated sources are
not acceptable
3. Specic examples (title and author) of at least two scholarly secondary sources
beyond the course textbook (e.g., journal articles, critical reviews, monographs).
Clarifying Terms
Primary source: a source that originates with or is contemporary with the period of study
Quantitative sources and maps: sources do not have to be created during the time being
studied but should relate to the topic under study
Scholarly secondary source: an analytical account of the past, written after the
event, and used to provide insight into the past (e.g., journal articles, critical reviews,
monographs, etc.)
Samples of Evidence
1. This course uses a college-level textbook entitled The Making of the West, 4th edition,
by Lynn Hunt, et al., published by Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2012.
Textual: excerpts from Locke’s Two Treatises on Government, Hobbes’ Leviathan,
Frederick the Great’s Antimachiavel, James I’s On the Trew Law of Free Monarchies.
Visual: baroque art vs. the art of the Dutch masters—analysis and art tour (including
Rubens, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Gentileschi).
Quantitative: charts, graphs, statistics, and demographic analysis of society during
the First Industrial Revolution.
Maps: maps showing the extent of the Hapsburg empire in the 16th and 17th
centuries and maps showing gains and losses of the French during the Wars of
Louis XIV.
Secondary scholarly sources: excerpts from Von Laue’s Why Lenin? Why Stalin? Why
Gorbachev?: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet System and from Tina Rosenberg’s The
Haunted Land: Facing Europe’s Ghosts After Communism.
2. The syllabus cites a college-level textbook by author, title, and publication date,
e.g., Lynn Hunt, et al., The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures (5th ed., 2016).
The syllabus cites or describes at least one specic primary source assigned for
analysis by the students from each of the four required categories, e.g., Olympe de
Gouges, “Declaration of Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen,” 1791 (textual
document); map of Europe 1789–1815 (map); tables illustrating the spread of railways
in Europe (quantitative evidence); and Pablo Picasso, Guernica (visual).
3
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
The syllabus cites, by author and title, at least two interpretive scholarly secondary
sources beyond textbooks, such as (1) Georges Lefebvre, The Coming of the French
Revolution (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015), and (2) Paul Kennedy,
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (New York: Vintage, 1989).
3. The syllabus cites Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, 4th ed., published 2012.
Primary sources from each required category are included, such as excerpts from
Machiavelli’s The Prince (textual), J. M. W. Turner’s “Rain, Steam, and Speed” (visual),
a map of the territorial settlements of the Congress of Vienna (map), and a table of
casualties in WWI (quantitative).
At least two secondary scholarly sources are cited, such as excerpts from Jacob
Burckhardt’s Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy and Peter Burke’s The Italian
Renaissance.
4
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 2
The course provides opportunities to develop student understanding
of the required content outlined in each of the units described in the
AP Course and Exam Description (CED).
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must include an outline of course content by unit title or topic using any
organizational approach to demonstrate the inclusion of required course content.
Note: If the syllabus demonstrates a dierent approach than the units outlined in the
AP European History Course and Exam Description (CED) (e.g., thematic approach),
the teacher must indicate where the content of each unit in the CED will be taught.
Samples of Evidence
1. The syllabus includes the nine AP European History content units as outlined in the
AP Course and Exam Description:
Unit 1: Renaissance and Exploration
Unit 2: Age of Reformation
Unit 3: Absolutism and Constitutionalism
Unit 4: Scientic, Philosophical, and Political Developments
Unit 5: Conict, Crisis, and Reaction in the Late 18th Century
Unit 6: Industrialization and Its Eects
Unit 7: 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments
Unit 8: 20th-Century Global Conicts
Unit 9: Cold War and Contemporary Europe.
2. The syllabus includes the major topics studied from each of the required historical
periods outlined in the AP Course and Exam Description. For example, in the Cold
War and Contemporary Europeunit (Unit 9), the following topics are included:
Contextualizing Cold War and Contemporary Europe
Rebuilding Europe
The Cold War
Two Super Powers Emerge
Postwar Nationalism, Ethnic Conict, and Atrocities
Contemporary Western Democracies
The Fall of Communism
20th-Century Feminism
Decolonization
The European Union
Migration and Immigration
Technology
Globalization
20th- and 21st-Century Culture, Arts, and Demographic Trends
Continuity and Change in the 20
th
and 21
st
Centuries
5
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
3. The syllabus includes the required course content organized in a dierent sequence
than that presented in the AP Course and Exam Description and species where the
required content is taught.
Unit 1: 1945–Present (AP Units 8, 9)
Unit 2: The Renaissance and Reformation (AP Units 1, 2)
Unit 3: Expansion of Europe (AP Unit 3)
Unit 4: The Age of Absolutism (AP Unit 3)
Unit 5: The Age of Enlightenment (AP Unit 4)
Unit 6: The Age of Rebellion and Change (AP Unit 5)
Unit 7: The Napoleonic Era (AP Unit 5)
Unit 8: Industrialism and Social Change (AP Unit 6)
Unit 9: Nationalism (AP Unit 7)
Unit 10: Imperialism (AP Unit 7)
Unit 11: Progress and Belle Epoque (AP Unit 7)
Unit 12: WWI and the Russian Revolution (AP Unit 8)
Unit 13: The Interwar Years and WWII (AP Unit 8)
6
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 3
The course provides opportunities to develop student understanding
of the course themes, as outlined in the AP Course and Exam
Description (CED).
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must include seven student activities (e.g., essays, classroom debates,
oral presentations, etc.), each of which is appropriately related to one of the seven
themes.
¨ Each activity must be labeled with the related theme. All course themes must be
represented in these activities.
Samples of Evidence
1. Interaction of Europe and the World
Classroom Conference on Imperialism: Through a classroom seminar, students
will investigate the causes of the new imperialism of the late 19th century and
the consequences of European involvement in Africa and Asia on Europe and
on the colonies.
Economic and Commercial Development
Think, Pair, Share: Students will examine Dutch nancial data, records from the
Bank of Amsterdam, political cartoons on Tulipmania, a map showing trade patterns,
and a short video on the Dutch Golden Age to build an argument that addresses the
strengths and weaknesses of capitalism in the Dutch Republic.
Cultural and Intellectual Developments
Students will read excerpts from the following:
Kant’s What Is Enlightenment?
Rousseau’s The Social Contract
Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws
Voltaire’s Candide
Smith’s Wealth of Nations
Bentham’s The Principles of Morals and Legislation
Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments
After participating in a document jigsaw, students will engage in a discussion of
the following question: “What is the spirit of the Enlightenment?”
States and Other Institutions of Power
Students will read and interpret two articles about Napoleon’s rule: “Napoleon,
the Man,” History Today, June 15, 2013, and “Napoleon and His Collaborators:
The Making of a Dictator,” Woloch, Excerpts.
After reading the articles and participating in a jigsaw discussion of the articles,
students will work in teams and have a debate: “Was Napoleon a child of the
revolution or a ruthless tyrant?”
Social Organization and Development
Display Fair: The Changing Demographic Trends in Europe. Students will examine
charts, graphs, primary sources, and artwork to analyze the ways in which life
in Europe changed during the 17th and 18th centuries. Pairs of students will be
assigned a topic such as the agricultural revolution, cottage industries, population
growth, everyday life, disease, etc.
7
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
National and European Identity
Unication Comparison Activity: Students will build Italian and German unication
ladders in groups and then compare the two processes using Venn diagrams. After
individually completing their diagrams, students will participate in a Smart Board
activity comparing events/developments in Italy and Germany.
Technological and Scientic Innovations
Analysis of primary sources (Bacon’s Novum Organum, Descartes’s Meditation on the
First Philosophy, and Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding)
After reading excerpts from the sources by Bacon, Descartes, and Locke, students will
create a written and/or video conversation among the three thinkers concerning the
scientic method, human thought, and the ways in which each challenged prevailing
patterns of thought.
2. The syllabus includes a brief description of the following student activities related to
each course theme:
Students debate the eects of the Columbian Exchange. (Interaction of Europe
and the World)
Students write a comparative essay on the First and Second Industrial
Revolutions. (Economic and Commercial Developments)
Students deliver presentations on leading intellectuals from the Enlightenment,
explaining their challenge to traditional sources of knowledge. (Cultural and
Intellectual Developments)
Students write comparative essays on the unications of Italy and Germany.
(States and Other Institutions of Power)
Students engage in a class discussion comparing the 18th- and 20th-century
family. (Social Organization and Development)
Students debate whether nationalism was the most important cause of WWI.
(National and European Identity)
Students write an essay on the eects of new transportation and other
technological innovations on daily life in 19th-century Europe. (Technological
and Scientic Innovation)
3. Theme 1: Interaction of Europe and The World (INT)
Students will construct graphs and tables to illustrate the economic and demographic
consequences of European imperialism in Africa in the 19th century.
Theme 2: Economic and Commercial Developments (ECD)
Students will write research papers on the impact of industrialization on diet and
standards of living in Western Europe between 1815 and 1914.
Theme 3: Cultural and Intellectual Developments (CID)
Students will contrast Enlightenment beliefs in reason with Romantic visions of
nature by creating a graphic organizer.
Theme 4: States and Other Institutions of Power (SOP)
Students will examine the Concert of Europe and, using a debate format, evaluate its
strengths and weaknesses.
Theme 5: Social Organization and Development (SCD)
Students will examine various struggles for equal rights in voting by researching
primary and secondary source documents on the subject and create their own DBQ.
8
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Theme 6: National and European Identity (NEI)
Students will research and present the changing identity and status of a selected
German state within the Holy Roman Empire from 1500 to 1700.
Theme 7: Technological and Scientic Innovation (TSI)
Assigned groups will research separate aspects of the impact of computer technology
on economic, social, political, and cultural life in the modern world, then debate
whether, on balance, that technology has been a positive or negative development.
9
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 4
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical
Thinking Skill 1: Developments and Processes, as outlined in the AP
Course and Exam Description (CED).
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must provide a brief description of at least one activity (e.g., essays,
classroom debates, oral presentations, etc.) in which students identify and explain
historical developments and processes.
¨ At least one activity must be labeled Skill 1.
Samples of Evidence
1. The Age of Napoleon Student Presentations: Students will give presentations that
explain the political, social, economic, intellectual, religious, military, and artistic
characteristics of the period. (Skill 1)
2. Students will explore the processes leading to the emergence of Parliamentary
supremacy in the English constitutional system by creating a timeline showing the
conicts between monarch and Parliament during the 17th and 18th centuries. (Skill 1)
3. The syllabus requires students to create a graphic organizer dening the Renaissance,
the Enlightenment, and Romanticism as historical concepts. (Skill 1)
10
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 5
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical
Thinking Skill 2: Sourcing and Situation, as outlined in the AP Course
and Exam Description (CED).
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must describe at least one activity in which students analyze a
primary source for all the following features: author’s point of view, author’s
purpose, audience, and historical situation. The syllabus must cite (author and title)
or describe the primary source used for the activity. The source can be textual or
visual.
¨ At least one activity must be labeled with Skill 2.
AND
¨ The syllabus must describe at least one activity in which students analyze a
scholarly secondary source for at least one of the following features: author’s point
of view, author’s purpose, audience, and historical situation. The syllabus must cite
(author and title) or describe the secondary source used for the activity.
¨ At least one activity must be labeled with Skill 2.
Note: If sourcing acronyms are used (e.g., SOAPSTone), they must be dened at least once
in the syllabus.
Samples of Evidence
1. Students read excerpts from Cecil Rhodes’s Confession of Faith and J.A. Hobson’s
Imperialism, A Study and complete a sourcing analysis sheet for each, identifying
author’s point of view, author’s purpose, audience, and historical situation. Then,
they will write a paragraph on each reading that explains the main idea of each
reading along with an analysis of why each author holds their particular point of
view. Students will also consider why each of the authors has a dierent perspective
on imperialism. (Skill 2)
Students read excerpts from Von Laue’s Why Lenin? Why Stalin? Why Gorbachev?:
The Rise and Fall of the Soviet System to prepare for a small-group discussion in which
students assess the degree to which the author’s point of view and historical situation
might limit the use of the source. (Skill 2)
2. Students identify and explain the point of view, purpose, historical situation, and
audience for Cortez’s “Account of the Conquest of America” in a class discussion.
Then, in a short-answer response, students explain the signicance of the point of
view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience, including how these might limit
the use(s) of the source in understanding the Spanish activities in the Americas.
(Skill 2)
Students write an essay examining how the historical situation of authors may impact
dierent interpretations of the causes of World War I. Sources include an author
writing between the wars, Sidney Fay, The Origins of the World War, and another
author who wrote after World War II, Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August. (Skill 2)
Authors who wrote after World War II include B.H. Liddell Hart, A History of the First
World War (London: Pan MacMillan, 1992); A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second
World War: World War One and the International Crisis of the Early Twentieth Century
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); and, Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August
(New York: Presidio Press, 2004). (Skill 2)
11
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
3. After viewing representative clips from Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935),
and Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940), students are asked to write an in-
class paper addressing, within the overall historical context of the Nazi era, diering
purposes, intended audiences, and points of view advanced by each lmmaker.
(Skill 2)
Students will read the following excerpts from scholarly secondary sources: “The
Expansion of Europe,” Richard B. Reed; “The Eects of Expansion on the Non-
European World,” M. L Bush; and “Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North
America,” Gary Nash. After reading these sources, students will be asked to construct
a chart that identies and explains the point of view held by Europeans, non-
Europeans, and modern-day historians. They will then be asked to write summaries of
those dierent points of view regarding the impact of European expansion. (Skill 2)
12
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 6
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical
Thinking Skill 3: Claims and Evidence in Sources, as outlined in the
AP Course and Exam Description (CED).
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must provide a brief description of at least one activity (e.g., essays,
classroom debates, oral presentations, etc.) where students analyze an argument or
claim in one or more primary sources. The syllabus must cite (author and title) or
describe the primary source used for the activity.
¨ At least one activity must be labeled with Skill 3.
AND
¨ The syllabus must provide a brief description of at least one activity (e.g., essays,
classroom debates, oral presentations, etc.) where students analyze an argument or
claim in one or more scholarly secondary sources. The syllabus must cite (author
and title) or describe the secondary source used for the activity.
¨ At least one activity must be labeled with Skill 3.
Samples of Evidence
1. In pairs, students identify the evidence James I of England uses to support his claims
about rulers and their subjects in The True Law of Free Monarchies. (Skill 3)
Students read excerpts from Peter Burke’s The Italian Renaissance and identify and
describe the author’s claim about the Renaissance. (Skill 3)
2. Following a close reading of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, students
discuss what outside evidence supports and refutes the claims made in the document.
(Skill 3)
In a class presentation, students will identify and describe the claim in “A Political
Interpretation of the Thirty Years’ War.” by Hajo Holborn, and identify the evidence
used to support it. (Skill 3)
3. In a graphic organizer, students compare the claims of Voltaire in Candide and Locke
in Two Treatises of Government on government, liberty, and human nature. (Skill 3)
In an in-class group exercise, students are asked to identify and describe the claims
of two excerpts on the short- and long-term eects of imperialism presented by
Eric Hobsbawm in The Age of Empire and David Landes in Eects of Imperialism, to
explain the evidence each author uses to support his argument, to compare the two
arguments, and to explain how one additional piece of evidence supports, modies,
or refutes each source’s argument. (Skill 3)
13
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 7
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical
Thinking Skill 4: Contextualization, as outlined in the AP Course and
Exam Description (CED).
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must provide a brief description of at least one activity (e.g., essays,
classroom debates, oral presentations, etc.) in which students analyze the context of
historical events, developments, or processes.
¨ At least one activity must be labeled with Skill 4.
Samples of Evidence
1. Contextualization Discussion: Identify and describe the historical context of the
Protestant Reformation. (Skill 4)
2. In groups, students examine one of William Hogarth’s illustrations on poverty in
British cities. Students view the image through the lens of industrialization and
describe how industrialization serves as a context for Hogarth’s work. (Skill 4)
3. Students complete a close reading of Lenin’s April Theses in preparation for a Socratic
seminar in which they will relate the 19th-century isms and the emancipation of the
serfs to Lenin’s plans outlined in the document. Students will also be asked to prepare
for the discussion by considering events and processes both inside and outside
Russia. (Skill 4)
14
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 8
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical
Thinking Skill 5: Making Connections through the application of
the three Historical Reasoning Processes (comparison, causation,
continuity and change), as outlined in the AP Course and Exam
Description (CED).
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must describe at least one activity (e.g., essays, classroom debates, oral
presentations, etc.) requiring students to analyze both similarities and dierences of
related historical developments and processes across regions, periods, or societies
(or within one society).
¨ At least one activity must be labeled with Skill 5: Comparison.
AND
¨ The syllabus must describe at least one activity (e.g., essays, classroom debates, oral
presentations, etc.) requiring students to analyze both causes and eects.
¨ At least one activity must be labeled with Skill 5: Causation.
AND
¨ The syllabus must describe at least one activity (e.g., essays, classroom debates, oral
presentations, etc.) requiring students to analyze historical patterns of both continuity
and change within one time period or across multiple time periods.
¨ At least one activity must be labeled with Skill 5: Continuity and Change.
Samples of Evidence
1. Students will compare and contrast the characteristics of Marxism, Leninism, and
Stalinism by lling out a chart that identies the specic characteristics of each
ism and lling out a Venn diagram comparing the three ideologies. Following their
individual work, students will compete in teams in a Smart Board activity to make
sure that they understand the similarities and dierences. (Skill 5: Comparison)
Students will examine the multiple political, economic, social, intellectual, and
religious causes of the Reformation. They will ll out a graphic organizer to identify
the causes. Following the completion of their graphic organizers, students will
participate in a discussion of the relative importance of the various causes. Finally,
students will identify the most important short-term and long-term eects of the
Reformation and provide evidence to support their claim. (Skill 5: Causation)
Students will read excerpts from “My Own Story” by Emmeline Pankhust and
“Women’s Liberation and the New Politics” by Sheila Rowbotham and excerpts from
their textbooks.
After reading the excerpts, students will make a T-chart showing the demands of
rst-wave European feminists and second-wave European feminists. Students will
then have a class discussion about the continuities and changes in the two women’s
movements and the reasons for those continuities and changes. (Skill 5: Continuity
and Change)
15
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
2. Using a gr aphic organizer, students compare and contrast the development of
absolutism in Western Europe with the development of absolutism in Eastern Europe
from 1450 to 1789. (Skill 5: Comparison)
Throughout the course, students create a graphic organizer in which they identify
multiple causes and consequences of major historical events such as the Atlantic
slave trade, European imperialism, and the development of the European Union.
(Skill 5: Causation)
Students work in pairs to identify patterns in demography from c. 1900 to the
present in France, including age distribution, gender distribution, and percentage of
immigrants living in France as permanent residents or citizens, to explain tensions
within French society. (Skill 5: Continuity and Change)
3. The syllabus includes a student debate on the causes and eects of the 16th- and
17th-century Wars of Religion. (Skill 5: Causation)
Students engage in a class discussion of factors aecting women’s roles in the
19th and 20th centuries, focusing on continuity and changes over time. (Skill 5:
Continuity and Change)
Students complete a short-answer question comparing and contrasting the British
and German Empires on the eve of WWI. (Skill 5: Comparison)
16
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Curricular Requirement 9
The course provides opportunities for students to develop Historical
Thinking Skill 6: Argumentation, as outlined in the AP Course and
Exam Description (CED).
Required Evidence
¨ The syllabus must describe at least two activities (including at least one essay) in
which students do all of the following:
Make a historically defensible claim;
Support an argument using specic and relevant evidence;
Use historical reasoning to explain relationships among pieces of historical
evidence; and
Corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument using diverse and alternative
evidence in order to develop a complex argument.
¨ At least two activities must be labeled with Skill 6.
Samples of Evidence
1. Renaissance Brain Drain: In this activity, students practice the skill of using evidence
to build a thesis and address a prompt in a well-written essay. Steps:
The teacher and students break down a prompt about the Renaissance
(AP European History 2004 Exam, FRQ #5).
Students brainstorm everything they can think of that might help them answer
the question.
Students write all their ideas on a whiteboard.
As a class, students eliminate irrelevant facts that were written on the board.
Using the evidence left on the board, students work together in small groups to
write a thesis that responds to the prompt with a historically defensible claim
that establishes a line of reasoning.
Once each group has their thesis approved by the teacher, they will create an
essay outline on butcher paper that includes their thesis, topic sentences for each
body paragraph, and a list of evidence for each paragraph.
Students discuss the relationships among the pieces of evidence they
have selected.
Each group works together to write a paragraph that uses evidence to
corroborate, qualify, or modify their claim. (Skill 6)
Long Essay Question Practice, 2018 AP European History Exam: Evaluate the
extent to which the Italian Renaissance and Northern Renaissance were dierent
from each other.
Students will write an essay on this prompt and then do self- and peer-editing. They
will focus on the quality of the thesis, supporting evidence, historical reasoning, and
complexity, using the current rubric. (Skill 6)
2. Slave Trade Debate: The syllabus requires teams of students to develop a historically
defensible and evaluative claim on the causes and development of the slave trade,
to support their argument with specic and relevant evidence, and to use historical
reasoning to show relationships among their pieces of selected evidence in
preparation for a classroom debate. Following group presentations, group members
will use evidence to corroborate, modify, or refute the claim of at least one other
group. (Skill 6)
17
Syllabus Development Guide: AP European History
© 2020 College Board
Document-Based Question Practice (Causation), Writer’s Workshop on the 2010
AP European History Exam DBQ (Instability of Weimar Republic): For homework,
students will each read and summarize two documents and ll out a sourcing analysis
sheet. In class the next day, students will do a jigsaw activity so that they are all
familiar with all the documents. As a class, students will brainstorm ideas for outside
evidence that could be used in their essays. Finally, students will write the DBQ,
focusing on all the points in the current DBQ rubric. (Skill 6)
3. After reading relevant excerpts of The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman, The First
World War, Volume I: To Arms by Hew Strachan, and, The Real War 1914-1918 by
B.H. Liddell Hart, students individually draft a concise thesis sentence identifying
the major causes of the First World War. Working in groups, students then identify
specic evidence from the readings that support their arguments in an outline,
showing how that evidence demonstrates the historical thinking skill of causation.
Finally, they will make notes on additional pieces of evidence in the readings that
modify or refute their claims. (Skill 6)
Essay: Using primary and secondary sources concerning political changes in Eastern
and Western Europe between 1989 and 2019 (following the collapse of the Soviet
Union), students will construct an argument about exactly why those changes
occurred and write an essay about the long-term signicance of those changes,
specically addressing dierences in the perspectives and conclusions of various
authors. Students will be instructed to write their essays according to the LEQ
instructions in the exam, and the essays will be evaluated for claim, contextualization,
evidence, and analysis and reasoning. (Skill 6)
18
