Paper and pencil

In this activity, you’ll draw a history of yourself, and then you’ll reflect upon the scale at which you examined your own history. This will help show you how your own personal narrative has a lot in common with much larger history narratives. This activity also introduces the concept of both temporal (time) and spatial (geographical) scale. This will help you understand why historians will occasionally zoom out (in terms of both time and geography) to create a larger context for understanding a single history.

Take 5 minutes to draw a “history of you”—your own personal history. This won’t be graded, and you shouldn’t get stressed out about whether you’re a good artist. You can use text to label your pictures, stick figures for people, however you want to do it is fine.

Ever ask yourself, “How am I ever going to use this stuff?”. Examining what makes history usable and useful is exactly what Bob Bain does in this video. He presents an example from his own history class where students explored the history of the city of Detroit. By looking at historical documents, talking to grandparents and yes, even reading a little history, they developed a deeper sense of their own city today.

The World History Project places tremendous emphasis on connecting the people, places and events of history into narratives. This video introduces the idea of the frames, or narratives, of the course and how we envision you using them during the year.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

We recommend always skimming the transcript and reading the questions before you watch the video (a good habit to use in reading, too!). This pre-viewing strategy will help you know what to look and listen for as you watch the video. Because these videos move quickly, it will help you a lot if you know what to listen for. If there is time, your teacher may have you watch the video one time without stopping, and then give you time to watch again to pause and find the answers.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following question as you watch this video:

1. Bob Bain describes a long debate that politicians and educators have “waged war” over, about what should be taught in the history classroom. What are the two sides and what do they argue?
2. What was the big driving question Bains’s students in Detroit studied?
3. What did students do over the course of the school year, after they shared the stories they collected?
4. What did looking at multiple narratives help students do?
5. According to Bob Bain, what makes history usable?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. What stories do we have about the world since 1750? How do we know these aren’t just made up stories? How might we use evidence to test them?
2. How might looking at the history of the world since 1750 help you understand the future better?

From young children to world leaders, we are strongly impacted by stories. Our understanding of the world comes from the stories we hear and tell. This is why it’s so important that we consider more than just one story. A single story gives us an incomplete picture of different communities. These incomplete pictures lead to stereotypes which can be harmful. Also, powerful people and groups have more control over which stories get told and how they are told. Because of this, it’s important to use stories to empower people, as stories have a huge personal, social, and political impact.

This is one of two videos introducing you to the idea that history is made up of narratives, or accounts, of the past. This specific video can help you to understand the value of having multiple accounts, from multiple perspectives. You will soon be introduced to three accounts of world history, or “frames”. You will also learn how to use evidence to test the validity of those accounts.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

Before you watch the video, open and skim the transcript. Additionally, you should always read the questions below before you watch the video (a good habit to use in reading, too!). These pre-viewing strategies will help you know what to look and listen for as you watch the video. If there is time, your teacher may have you watch the video one time without stopping, and then give you time to watch again to pause and find the answers.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following question as you watch this video:

1. What kinds of characters did Adichie write about as a young girl, and what did these characters do? Why is it significant that Adichie chose to write about those characters and their lives?
2. Why did it matter that Fide’s brother had made a beautiful patterned basket? How did that affect Adichie’s understanding of the story of Fide’s family?
3. What expectations did Adichie’s roommate have about Nigeria and Africa more broadly? According to Adichie, what gave her roommate these expectations? How does it relate to Adichie’s previous point about the story of Fide’s family?
4. Why did Adichie’s professor think her novel lacked authenticity?
5. What did Adichie witness during her trip to Guadalajara that surprised her? Why was it surprising to her? What did this make her realize?
6. Why would starting a story with “secondly” affect different communities? What are examples that Adichie gives?
7. Why did Adichie tell the student that it was a shame that young Americans were serial murderers? What was different about Adichie’s understanding of America versus the student’s understanding of Nigeria?
8. Adichie describes negative experiences she and her family and friends have experienced in Nigeria, including poor healthcare and education, limited water, repressive governments, and poverty. She also mentions war crimes and unemployment. How, according to Adichie, do these stories fit into the stereotype of Africa as a “continent full of catastrophes.”? What, according to Adichie, is the problem with stereotypes?
9. What are some examples Adichie gives of stories that challenge stereotypes?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Adichie claims that power affects which stories are told, how they are told, and which stories become “definitive” accepted and believed. Using evidence from the video and anything else you have learned in this unit, give an example of a story which has been accepted because a powerful group had told it in a certain way.
2. Adichie argues that beginning a story with “secondly” can completely change the story. How does order and context affect stories? Using evidence from this unit or other historical contexts, give an example of a story which can become a completely different story if you change the context or order.

As you know, there is a glossary of words in for this course that all students need to know to be able to take part in the course. However, you’re not all students, and there are a lot of words in the course, so it’s highly likely you’re going to come across a bunch of words you don’t know that are not in the glossary. This repeated activity will help you become more familiar with a process for how to independently learn the meaning of new words.

Throughout the course, you’ll very likely encounter new and unfamiliar words. Some of these words will be addressed as part of the whole class vocabulary activities; however, many more of those words will not. Take out the Vocab Tracker and follow your teacher’s directions about how to look up that word. Any time you encounter a word you don’t know in the course, add it to this tracker! By the end of the year, your personal lexicon will be huge, you’ll be a better writer, and you’ll very likely be better prepared for standardized tests.

Vocabulary has to be more than just a list of words to memorize and groan about. These words represent big (and sometimes medium-sized) concepts critical to the unit. And, it turns out, just memorizing the definition doesn’t necessarily help you understand what the word means. To really get the meaning of each word, you need to see it in a variety of contexts. In this unit, as in each unit in the course, there are three types of vocab activities. Early in each unit, there’s a word wall (such as the one here), which will help you become familiar with the words for that unit. Later in each unit, there’s a second activity that’s a deeper exploration of some of those words. In this unit, for example, that second activity is live concept mapping. Finally, every unit includes a vocab tracking activity, where you can keep a personalized list of words that are new to you.

Reading, writing
This activity is focused on helping you learn course vocabulary, which is one way to ensure you’re able to fully engage with the WHP course content. This is especially true for the readings in the course. If you don’t understand the words you’re reading, you won’t be able to glean the main ideas of texts, and therefore may miss out on important aspects of the topic you’re studying. Additionally, as you build up your vocabulary, you will become an even better writer.

In this activity, you’ll work with your class to create a word wall using the Unit 1 vocabulary. You’re going to do this throughout the unit by adding one word at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed with a big list of new words all at once.

Your teacher will assign a vocab card to each of you. Once you get yours, pretend that you have the MOST important word to help you understand Unit 1, and prepare to argue why that is. Look at your vocab word and take a few minutes to look it up in the Unit 1 Vocab Guide and then examine the unit itself (click around and quickly skim the content) to see where in the unit your word might be most applicable. Once you’ve done your research, get ready to argue for why your word is the “best” one to start with. After everyone has given a pitch on their word, you’ll all decide which word should make it onto the wall first.

Your teacher may add some fun twists to this assignment, so be sure to listen closely for directions!

This activity uses a fun fable to introduce you to the AP themes that you’ll focus on in later units. By using the story as a mnemonic device (a mnemonic device is a strategy that helps you remember something), you’ll be able to recall the meaning of the themes, which will prepare you to address them throughout the course, and ultimately on the AP^® World History: Modern exam.

In this activity, you’re introduced to the themes you’ll explore throughout the course. After reading a fun story that incorporates each of the themes, you’ll identify each one within the story.

Your teacher will kick things off by reading either “Barkus Aurelius and the Canines” or “Peter the Pup and the Canine Kingdom” to you (or will ask you to read one of the stories individually). There are six themes hidden in the story, and along with your class, you’re going to find them all. These six themes are the ones used in the AP^® World History: Modern course. They’re designed to help you make connections among historical developments throughout time. The history of the world is no small thing, and these themes help us focus on aspects of this vast history.

Take out the AP Themes PIECES chart (included in the worksheet) and review each theme with your class. As you go, try to come up with examples from the story that connect to each theme. Fill out the AP Themes Intro worksheet so you have examples to reference as needed.

Themes are ideas that help us to group information together and sort it out so that we can see how human experiences changed, or stayed the same, over time. The AP^® World History: Modern Course and Exam Description recommends that students think about the past through six themes dealing with the environment, culture, governance, economics, social organization, and innovation. In this article, we introduce the themes and use them to connect tiny events (eating porridge) at the beginning and end of this course to try to figure out what they mean.

This article has a single purpose—to introduce you to the six themes of the World History Project AP (WHP AP) course and to demonstrate how they can be used.

In a lesson that follows, we’re going to introduce you to a reading strategy called Three Close Reads, which you will use with most, if not all, articles in the course. However, for this article we really want you to focus in on the AP themes. Use these guiding questions to help you develop your understanding of the themes as you read:

1. What change over time is suggested by the political knowledge of the two porridge-makers in this article, as described by the Governance/Politics (P) theme?
2. How would you describe changes in Technology and Innovation (I) over time, as described in this article?
3. How are the Economic Systems ($) of the two porridge-makers apparently different?
4. Based on their activities, how can we describe the differences in Cultural Development and Interaction (C) of the porridge-makers?
5. How can we explain the differences between the porridges cooked in thirteenth-century China and twenty-first-century South Africa using the theme of Humans and the Environment (E)?
6. How would you describe the differences between the Social Interactions and Organizations (S) of the two porridge-makers?
7. If you analyzed your own life through the six themes in this article, what might you say about yourself under each theme?

World history includes a lot of names, places, dates, events, and all kinds of other stuff. Historians use different tools to organize their narratives and make sense of all the complexity. The AP^® World History course uses six themes to help guide you through the 800 years from 1200 to the present. Organizing past events into themes can help group different events together so we can tell what changed, helping us make comparisons and connections between different regions and time periods. This video introduces the six themes and shows you some tricks for decoding AP exam questions.

The AP exam is going to ask a lot of questions surrounding the six themes. Knowing these six themes and how to spot them will help you when it’s time to take the exam. This video introduces you to the concept of a theme, then it dives deeper into each individual theme, providing examples and some key terms to watch for. Finally, it provides you some tips on how to use the themes to your advantage when preparing for the exam.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

We recommend always reading the questions before you watch the video (a good habit to use in reading, too!). This pre-viewing strategy will help you know what to look and listen for as you watch the video. Because these videos move quickly, it will help you a lot if you know what to listen for. If there is time, your teacher may have you watch the video one time without stopping, and then give you time to watch again to pause and find the answers.

Key Ideas—Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video.

1. According to this video, how do historians use themes?
2. According to this video, what’s one way that our environments shape human societies?
3. How does Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage connect to the theme of cultural developments and interactions? What other themes does the story of Mansa Musa connect to?
4. Why did Japanese merchants anger the aristocracy, and what was the result of this relationship?
5. According to this video, who do we have to thank for eyeglasses and contact lenses?
6. To which theme does Rachel’s example of the Aztec pochteca belong?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. This video introduces the six themes used on the AP exam. But that doesn’t mean there are only six possible themes. Suggest a seventh theme that you’d propose introducing to the AP^® World History exam. Why is the theme important? What’s one example you’d use to explain the theme? What are some key terms to watch for in exam questions about your theme? You don’t have to know anything about history to do this. Feel free to pick a theme that tells you something about your own life!

The World History Project AP (WHP AP) curriculum asks you to visit and revisit the AP themes throughout the course. The aim of the Themes Notebook is to keep you connected to the core themes of each unit. In Part 1 of the Themes Notebook, which you’ll complete early in each unit, you will evaluate each of the statements on the worksheet based on what you currently know. In Part 2, which comes later in each unit, the statements appear as questions. You will respond to these questions as you revise and refine your initial understanding of the unit’s themes. In both parts of this activity, you should focus on concepts rather than formal writing. The primary purpose of the Themes Notebook is to help you assess how your thinking is progressing, where you’re gaining mastery, and where you might need additional instruction.

Although it might seem that you haven’t learned enough yet to respond to the prompts, that’s OK! This activity is meant to help you think about what you might already know about the ideas and concepts of the unit. You’ll revisit the prompts at the end of the unit (although this time they’ll appear as questions), and you’ll get to see how much you’ve learned! This activity will also give you a preview of what’s to come, as you’re learning which themes you should pay attention to as you learn new content.

Note: Since you’ll be revisiting this worksheet at the end of the unit, be sure you hold onto it! If your teacher offers to collect your class’s worksheets, that’s probably your best bet.

Use the Themes Notebook worksheet to respond to the Part 1 prompts as best as you can. Be prepared to talk about these ideas with your class.

This activity introduces you to the WHP Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. This tool will show you a method for reading graphic biographies. Graphic biographies might look simple at first—after all, they have pictures!—but there’s a lot going on in these one-page comics. WHP graphic biographies provide you with new evidence at the scale of an individual life. You can use this evidence to support, extend, and challenge the course narratives. In this activity, you will learn how to read graphic biographies at three different levels: observe, understand, and connect. You will also learn how to use the Three Close Reads tool as a graphic organizer as you respond to the comics and become co-creators of them!

Graphic biographies use the visual tools of comics—images, fonts, boundaries, sequentially ordered panels, and gutters (the space between panels)—to tell a historical narrative. The graphic biographies in this course are collaborations between a trained historian and artist, and they should be read as secondary sources. But you also need to learn to interpret the layers of meaning in the art.

Begin by getting out your Three Close Reads for Graphic Biographies tool and opening the Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios – Introduction. You are going to read a comic about a woman named Ottilie Baader. You don’t need to know any history or have any experience reading comics. You will be guided through this first graphic biography. As you read along, you should practice filling out the tool. Feel free to record your responses in words or have fun and respond with art of your own. After all, the tool is designed to look like a blank comic book!

As an optional extension, your teacher may have you complete a three close reads of the “History and Memory – Graphic Biography” where you will consider the meaning of history and memory through one family’s story.