1. IB HL History Course Description
Daniel W. Blackmon
Coral Gables Sr. High School

2. General
International Baccalaureate Contemporary World History is the second part of a two year course of study and will culminate in the IB Examination in History in May.

3. General
Students receive scores from the International Baccalaureate on a scale of 1-7 for all examinations, rather than 1-5 which is used by the College Board.. A score of "4" for IB should be considered as a passing grade.

4. Prediction
I am very confident that this course will prepare students very well for the examination.

5. Components of the Final Mark
Paper 1 Document Based Question 20%
Paper 2 World History Topics 20%
Paper 3 Regional History 35%
Internal Assessment 25%

6. Paper 01 (One Hour)
A Document Based Question (DBQ): Students are actually given the choice of ONE of three DBQs. The topics for May 2001 are

7. Prescribed Subjects 1: The USSR under Stalin, 1924-1941
2: The emergence and development of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), 1946 to 1964
3: The Cold War, 1960 to 1979.

8. Paper 02 (One Hour Thirty Minutes)
World History Questions: This paper is written immediately after Paper 1. The student therefore has a block of 2.5 hours of essay examinations on the first day. Students are given 30 questions divided among 6 World History topics, and must write TWO essays, each from a different topic.

9. The World History Topics are:
Topic 1 Causes, Practices, and Effects of War in the Twentieth Century.
Topic 2 Nationalist and Independence Movements, Decolonization and Challenges Facing New States

10. The World History Topics are:
Topic 3 The Rise and Rule of Single Party States
Topic 4 The Establishment and Work of International Organizations

11. The World History Topics are:
Topic 5 The Cold War
Topic 6 The State and Its Relationship with Religion and with Minorities

12. Paper 03 (Two Hours Thirty Minutes)
History of the Americas: This is the Regional History examination, and will be taken the day after Papers 1 and 2. Students must write THREE essays out of 25 which are given. Beginning this year, IB has provided an outline of twenty-two topics, each of which will have at least one essay question.

13. The Internal Assessment
Twenty-five percent of the final mark given by IB in History is based on the Internal Assessment. This would normally (but not exclusively) be a research paper. The Internal Assessment is therefore an integral part of the IB program.
Students who fail to complete the Guided Coursework in a timely fashion will not pass the course.

14. World History Subjects
Turn of the century Intellectual/Cultural Trends
Origins and Course of World War I
The Russian Revolution
European Single Party States (Hitler, Stalin)
Origins and Course of World War II

15. World History Subjects
Origins and Course of the Cold War
Selected Twentieth Century Wars

16. Latin American History
We will not directly cover Canadian History
We will not cover US History, since you have had that last year.

17. Latin American Topics 2 Movements of independence
3 Evolution of new governments and confederation
4 Slavery in the Americas

18. Latin American Topics
9 United States Foreign Policy in Latin America, 1898 to 1945
10. Mexican Revolution
11. The Great Depression in the Americas

19. Latin American Topics
13. Latin American politics in the first half of the twentieth century.
19 Political and economic developments in Latin America after the Second World War

20. Focus
The focus will be on Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Cuba. The Mexican Revolution and Fidel Castro will receive special attention. These choices reflect the structure and emphasis of Paper 03.

21. Major Assignments
Individual project on Topic 1: Causes, Practices, and Effects of War in the Twentieth Century.
Individual project on Topic 3: The Rise and Rule of Single Party States
Group Internet project on the Holocaust

22. Major Assignments
Group Internet project on Topic 1: “The Great Patriotic War / World War II” multi-media, bi-lingual on-line textbook in partnership with the Belarusian State University Lyceum in Minsk, Belarus. [This is a multi-year project; each class will write one chapter]

23. Major Assignments
Group project on Latin America

24. Summary
This appears to be quite a lot of work. It is quite a lot of material, and I am always looking for better ways to cover the various subjects, make the class interesting and fun, and keep every one enthusiastic.

25. Summary
This is a very enjoyable course for me to teach, and one which my students seem to enjoy very much as well. It is my belief that the course is not as demanding as AP U.S. History.

26. Summary
There is no doubt in my mind whatever that we can prepare to be very successful on the IB examination.
I am looking forward very much to working with you this year.