Course Syllabus

Wellesley High School, Britta Hiester (hiesterb@wellesleyPS.org)

OFFICE HOURS/EXTRA HELP: I have a part-time schedule and am not usually at WHS all day. On days 1-4, I arrive at about 8 AM and have contractually scheduled Office Hours once per week from 2:35-3:10, generally on Day 6 or Day 7. Click here for my schedule. I update it weekly to show additional times I am available (LOOK FOR PINK BOXES).

Welcome to the AP Modern World History Canvas page! Here you will find the information, assignments, links, and materials you will need for this course.

• Each day’s agenda is posted on “The Launch.” The agendas contain information about assignments as well as links to handouts and resources.
• Old agendas will be available on “The Launch Archive.”  (not posted yet)
• The Student Materials folder is where you can find digital versions of any resource you receive on paper if you prefer that to finding links on the agenda. 
• The CANVAS CALENDAR OR ASSIGNMENTS both show the same information about which assignment is due when. 

 

 

“AP World History: Modern is an introductory college-level modern world history course. Students cultivate their understanding of world history from c. 1200 CE to the present through analyzing historical sources and learning to make connections and craft historical arguments as they explore concepts like humans and the environment, cultural developments and interactions, governance, economic systems, social interactions and organization, and technology and innovation.” (AP Central).

The scope, pace and assessments of the course are designed to prepare students to take the AP History: Modern exam in the spring.

Please note that information about signing up to take the AP Exam itself will be sent out later in the semester by the school's testing coordinator. Enrollment in the exam is not automatic.

MATERIALS

• Textbook: Adelman, Jeremy, Elizabeth Pollard, Clifford Rosenberg, Robert Tignor, and Alan Karras. Worlds Together Worlds Apart (with Sources). 3rd AP Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2024.
• AP Classroom: Some assignments will require you to log-in and use resources or assessments available on AP Classroom, so you will need to know or have access to your log-in info.

• Supplementary materials available in paper and digital form--these will be identified on “The Launch” and available as noted at the top of this page.
• In class each day please have a working writing utensil, highlighters in four colors: orange, yellow, green and blue, your charged laptop, your organized binder or folder with your course handouts, your notes (in a notebook or organized in your binder), paper to take notes, and your textbook, unless notified otherwise.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

We will collaborate, but work you submit and notes you take are assumed to be your own unless you state otherwise. In general, acknowledge what you owe to others and be clear about when it’s appropriate to share your own work with other students. You should review the school’s policy on academic integrity on pages 43-45 of the Student Handbook. Violations of the policy can result in you earning no credit, and consequences grow stiffer if violations pile up over your time at WHS. Keep in mind that assignments are intended to give you structured learning opportunities, so copying or cribbing from another student or from a chat-bot erodes the value of those opportunities.

• When you use others’ exact words in your own work, use “quotation marks” and cite your source. 
• When you use someone’s idea, give credit. 
• When you get help on an assignment, acknowledge that. 
• NOTE: Providing dishonest help (helping someone else cheat) is also a violation of academic integrity. 
• NOTE:  The Student Handbook states that “Students may not use an artificial intelligence program to aid their work on an assignment unless explicitly directed to do so by their instructor.”

GRADE CALCULATIONS

Year-Long Grade 

• Terms 1-4: 22% each
• Final: 12%

50% of each term grade is based on 6-8 “Minor Assignments”

• e.g. short reflections, creative challenges, graded class discussions, quizzes on content from individual assignments, prompt practice, knowledge checks 

50% of each term grade is based on 2-3 “Major Assignments” 

• e.g. tests, essays, projects, quizzes on content from several assignments   

You will have the opportunity to resubmit one Major Assignment each term to earn up to 85% of that assignment's possible credit. To qualify for a resubmission opportunity, you must have submitted on time an honest attempt at completing the assignment. When you may resubmit work, you will have 1 week after receiving a score to do so. This allows time to use feedback, and possibly office hours and/or the SS Lab, which you should do.

Each assignment is worth a certain number of points, which reflects its relative weight within its  category. Late work can not receive credit after 1 cycle has passed. Powerschool automatically translates letter grades into numbered equivalents and calculates your score. 

HOMEWORK

Homework is a required component of this course. You are expected to be able to organize your time, your notes and your assignments in a responsible and effective manner. Though not all class activities or homework assignments will be “graded,” they all matter. Use all assignments as opportunities to develop and refine your knowledge and be prepared to apply and reflect on assigned content during class situations and quizzes. Always bring your notes or assignments to class unless directed otherwise. 

ATTENDANCE

It is your responsibility to be on time, to submit collected homework, get assignments and handouts, and reschedule any assessment you miss when out of class. Be in touch with me the day you return to school and plan to catch up with your new work within a week. Be ready to take a quiz or test you miss or turn in any papers or projects that were due the day you return from an absence, unless we have arranged otherwise in advance. This is high school; you are expected to shoulder this level of responsibility. 

• Please review the attendance, tardy and class cut policies beginning on page 14 of the Student Handbook. I am required to post attendance in PowerSchool. I can only enter unexcused absences, so if your absence needs to be excused, please follow up with your house assistant. If you miss a quiz (or part of the time for a quiz) due to an unexcused tardy, you are not entitled to extra time to make it up.

ACCOMODATIONS

Please make sure you communicate with me to make sure your needs as a student and human are met. This might mean bringing a provision of an IEP or 504 plan to my attention and working with me to make necessary accommodations. If circumstances in your life are such that you need some flexibility, let's talk. I want to make space when possible for life's curve-balls, and my job is also to hold you accountable. It can be a tricky balance is is one best struck through open & honest collaboration.

LATE WORK

It’s up to YOU to look ahead at your schedule and communicate if you need an extension on an assignment you are working on outside of class. If you need an extension, request it via email or in person and propose a date/time for your submission. This date/time must be within a week of the original due date. All assignments will close after that point. Extensions must be requested at least 24 hours in advance of a deadline. 

Requests to reschedule in-class assessments are not extensions and need to be made in advance. I will adhere to the policies on page 43 of the Student Handbook.

A NOTE ABOUT FREQUENT EXTENSION REQUESTS/ABSENCES ON ASSESSMENT DAYS/FREQUENT NON-COMPLETION OF HW: This course has a very fast pace and it is vital to keep up. If you find you are falling behind, it is crucial that you speak up and make arrangements with your teacher, school counselor, family, friends who love you, that lovely neighbor next door, SOMEONE! who can help you structure your time and be efficient. This is not so hard for some students and really difficult for others. The FACT that TIME is hard for some folks is just that, a fact. And the thing about facts is that we have to face them. I will approach folks facing this fact with compassion, empathy, and with what is sometimes called “tough love.” You can not have an extension on every assignment. If you are often absent on assessment days, we will have meetings, likely involving your house office and folks at home. This is an important year to develop sound habits and part of my job is to call out concerning patterns if I notice them.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE STUCK ON A HW ASSIGNMENT

Take a breath, don’t panic, reread the directions & give it your best shot. In general, the purpose of HW is to do your best in a setting where you are on your own, so we can learn what your best looks like at that particular moment. In cases where I become aware of an error in the directions, a technology glitch, or something that really needs clarification, I will update the information on the Launch and in Canvas as soon as possible, and I don’t hold my errors against you. So before you email, check Canvas and/or the Launch. And if you email, please realize that I may not see your note until the next morning. But not to worry: come to class with an “honest attempt.” We’ll work the rest out.

EXTRA HELP

It is expected that you will find various components of this course challenging. When you are struggling, do not wait for an invitation to seek support! Make time to work with me or with another teacher in the Social Studies Resource Center. Can't get to the Resource Center? Check my schedule for times I am available---I update it weekly. I have a part time schedule and am not usually at WHS all day. So LOOK FOR PINK BOXES--no appointment is needed, just drop in. 

• NOTE: It’s fine to stick around after class to ask quick questions, compare schedules or check-in, but I won’t write you a pass to your next class--it’s not fair to your other teachers.

EMAIL

Let’s try to talk face to face when possible. That said, email is useful. I do not assume students check email, so I will communicate with you in class, on the Launch, and through Canvas. But I’m an adult with a paid job, so you can email me. Please be respectful and appropriate--yes, include a salutation and closing and avoid, “Hey Ms. Hiester!” If you are trying to find a time to connect, please check my schedule FRIST and propose a time it looks I might be available. If you have been absent, please focus your email on specific questions rather than on a general request for make-up work, which you can find yourself on Canvas and/or the Launch. I can be reached at: hiesterb@wellesleyps.org. I sometimes have very busy mornings and don’t see emails waiting in my inbox until later in the day, so if there is something you need me to know before the start of class, it’s fine to ask to check in when you come to the room. We can step into the hall if need be. 

TECHNOLOGY

You will sometimes be required to use your laptop in class. 

• When we use laptops, you must put it in "do not disturb" mode OR turn off all notifications.
• When we use laptops, the only applications or web pages that are to be open are the ones we are using for this class. During an assessment, it will be considered cheating to look at other tabs or apps, just as during a paper assessment, it would be cheating to look at notes.

Per school policy, you must put your cell phone in the designated classroom space and any smart-watches, headphones, earbuds & the like in your backpack so they are neither accessible nor visible to you during class. If you have a health-related or other reason to need access to your phone during class, you need to work with the nurses' office and/or your school counselor to get authorization.

My BOTTOM LINE

Your community, this country and the world need you and all your classmates to become skillful, knowledgeable and principled humans who know how to learn, work together, and make things happen. Much is and will be asked of us. So together, we must create and maintain a productive, positive learning environment for every person in our class so we can help each other be the people we need in the world. 

• Canvas Start Guide for Students
• Social Studies Lab Schedule
• WHS Color Block Schedule

SOCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT LUNCH SHIFTS

Day  1	Day 2	Day 3	Day  4	Day 5	Day  6	Day  7
2nd	1st	3rd	1st	2nd	1st	2nd