AP US History Summer Assignment FALL 2026

 

Welcome to AP US History!

APUSH is a tremendously rewarding survey course study of American History that replicates a college-level history course.  As such, there will be a large amount of reading, writing, and historical analysis you will be expected to perform, both in class and at home.  Due to the nature of the course, it is difficult to get through all of the required information in time for the APUSH exam in May. Because of this, a summer assignment is necessary to help you understand

APUSH Historical Period 1 (Exploration and Colonization) so that we can jump straight into Period 2 (The British Colonies) when school starts. The assignments below will help you better understand the themes and key concepts of Period 1. Your entire summer assignment will be due the 3rd day of class, and there will be a quiz and test within the first week of school.

 

Textbook information

In order to be successful in the class, you will need to read and take notes. We do not spoon feed content in APUSH, you are expected to read your book and take notes, and then come to class with that basic factual knowledge, which you’ll use in a variety of activities.

Because you are expected to read, we will be using the book AMSCO Advanced Placement United States History, instead of the much more dense district issued book The 2018-2020 editions of the book are all fine; even 2016-2017 could work if the later editions just can’t be found, although the content just won’t go as far (this isn’t a problem though, as we will only make it to roughly the early 2000s). Do NOT pick up the most recent 4th edition from the publisher, as it is completely revised, and will not match up with what we do in class. This book was chosen because it is a smaller, less daunting reader-style book that covers everything you need to know and includes sample questions, both multiple choice and writing, as well as a full length practice test. It is a far easier read than the district textbook, and best of all, since you’ve purchased it, you can annotate and highlight to your heart’s content.

While a new copy is nice, it is unnecessary. You can save money by buying a used copy from Half Price Books, Amazon, Thriftbooks, or any other used book retailer. Looking at Amazon right now, there are plenty of used copies of the 2016-2020 editions. I do suggest looking at the description to try to get as clean a copy as you can so that it doesn’t interfere with your own annotations. 

If you want a new, clean copy of the book, click the link here for their “Classic edition”.

However, while a new copy is nice, it is completely unnecessary. You can save money by buying a used copy at Half Price Books, Amazon, Thriftbooks, or any other used book retailer. Looking at Amazon right now, there are plenty of used copies of the 2016-2020 editions. I do suggest looking at the description to try to get as clean a copy as you can so that it doesn’t interfere with your own annotations.

You can also use the digital version of the book if you’d prefer, although you’ll still need to hand write notes. BUT you can certainly annotate the book digitally if you’d like. I recommend using something like the Kami Annotation Tool to help with this. I’ve used this one in my Masters classes, and find it works well, but there are other options too.

* We start using the book from Day 1, so you need to have your copy when school starts.*

The district issued textbook is American History 15th Edition by Alan Brinkley (Publisher: McGraw Hill), but we don’t recommend it because it is too dense for this kind of a survey course. You may certainly use this book if you choose, just be aware that it is a much more dense book and will require quite a bit more reading.

 

Supplies

For supplies we recommend 

• a 1-2in binder (some students do one binder per semester, while others take all of the first semester material out in January and just reuse that binder for second semester)
• 10 tabs (we use one for each of the 9 historical periods, and then there are usually 1-3 units within each historical period, but I think tabs are only sold in packs of 5 or 10)
• the usual black or blue pens, and pencils
• and of course the AMSCO book referenced above

The Summer Assignment

There are multiple parts, so spread this out a bit over the summer, and don’t try to squeeze it all in the weekend before school starts.

 

1 Read and take thorough notes over pages 1-14 from the AMSCO book. (You’ll start on

Chapter 2 once school starts) This is a college-level course and is much more detail heavy than AP World, so you must read and take notes over the readings in order to help you memorize and better understand the material. You will be expected to discuss and write about the information from the readings the first week of school.

We do have reading quizzes over each chapter of the book, and everything from the chapter is fair game on both quizzes and tests, so definitely take notes from the Historical Perspective and other boxes. Aside from that, they give very good insight into historical events through various lenses/perspectives, which is a big part of APUSH.

(Studies show that handwritten notes help you retain info better and longer than typed notes.) While you don’t need to write down the vocab, it is highly recommended that you familiarize yourself with those terms as you may see them on quizzes and tests.

For your note taking, we do recommend 2 column notes, but not necessarily Cornell. The left side will be for reading notes from the AMSCO book, while the right side will be for notes/annotations to your reading notes using the Norris lecture videos (you’ll see more about this in step 3

The AMSCO book is organized in such a way that it makes note-taking easy:

AMSCO notes Subheading Notes ● Notes ● Notes Summary of the section	Video notes Slide title Write down information from the Norris/Heimler video and note anything that is mentioned here and in the AMSCO book
You’ll be taking reading quizzes for each chapter in the book (yes, all 31) and are required to

turn your chapter notes in with each one.

 

3. There is no one perfect textbook that has everything you need to know for APUSH, so in order to help reinforce what you’ve read in AMSCO and be fully prepared for unit tests and the AP Exam, students are expected to watch companion lecture videos. There are two options to choose from; Adam Norris and Heimler’s History. This is not optional, the vast majority of students who do well in this course take notes over both the book and these videos. Here is the Adam Norris lecture video over the pre-Jamestown period and the Heimler APUSH Unit 1 Playlist. As you watch, add things to your reading notes using that right hand column suggested in step 2. Anything that shows up in both the AMSCO book and the video is clearly important and should be emphasized in your notes; highlighting, *stars*, color coding, whatever will help it stand out. But understand that anything brought up in AMSCO and the videos is essential information and may show up on the Unit tests and/or the APUSH exam.

 

3. Annotate historical essays. Gilder Lehrman is a fantastic historical organization which we’ll use fairly extensively to help prepare for your exam. For this step, you’ll be reading and annotating 3 essays about content from Period 1: Exploration and Colonization. The essays can be found here.

You’ll need to Share your document with me, so follow the instructions in the header when the document opens. You’ll also find instructions on how to annotate in Google Docs.

Below you will find some hand written annotation samples from previous years debates, which you’ll be doing in class.

3. • Sample 1
   • Sample 2
   • Sample 3          

             

3. Next you need to answer the 5 Historical Thinking Questions from Unit 1: Exploration and Colonization, which you’ll find below.. These answers are hand-written in whole complete sentences and must completely answer the question. “Completely” meaning 3-4 sentences minimum, in order to fully explain your answer. We will have these types of questions for every Unit, which will help you to see the key historical concepts within each of the 9 APUSH Periods. It is essential that you answer these questions with specific historical evidence. Answers for these questions shouldn’t be longer than a half a page max; get to the point, answer the questions being asked, don’t wander.

 

 

Unit 1 Historical Thinking Questions

1. 1. Comparison: Compare the regional differences among Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans.

 

1. 2. Comparison: How did patterns of settlement differ among the Spanish, English, French, and Dutch immigrants?

 

1. 3. Historical Causation: What were the causes and effects of the beginning of importation of African slaves into the Americas?

 

1. 4. Periodization: Within the context of the time period, what was the impact of mercantilism on the European colonization of North America?

 

1. 5. Historical Causation: Identify the positive and negative impact of the Columbian Exchange on both European and native populations in North America.

 

 

The following links will help you answer the questions:

Adam Norris videos - These videos were created by an APUSH teacher and are basically a lecture/PowerPoint over each chapter in your textbook; and need to be watched after you’ve read the AMSCO pages. Students that have been most successful are those that have had their AMSCO notes handy while watching. Things that are mentioned in both the book and the video should be noted, highlighted, underlined, something, because clearly that information is important.

The Chapter 1 video will be the most useful for these questions.

 

Gilder Lehrman APUSH site - The top half of the page has videos for various APUSH skills. The bottom half has links to each Historical Period, each period has videos that give a good overview of each of the APUSH Historical Periods

 

So to review, here is what is due the first week of school

1. Digitally annotated essays from the Gilder Lehrman site (located above in Step 4)
2. Complete answers to the five short answer questions (located above in Step 5) 3. Be ready for the summer assignment test

 

If you have any questions during the summer, please feel free to email Mr. Kirk. I look forward to an exciting new school year with you. 

 

Mr. Kirk – trevor.kirk@fortbendisd.gov