Our first unit test is on Thursday!

Thursday’s Agenda Get here ASAP!!!!! You will then…. 1. Turn in your grademakers and SPRECT sheet 2. Pull out a No. 2 pencil and take the multiple choice portion of the test. 3. Sit quietly until time is called. 4. Turn in your test. 5. Pull out a blue or black ink pen and some paper and take the essay portion of the test. 6. Sit quietly until time is called. 7. Turn in your essay and get ready for Friday.

What’s the test going to be like?

Multiple Choice 55 questions in 55 minutes. The questions are divided into sets of one to sic questions based on a primary or secondary source, historian’s argument, or historical problem. They assess your ability to understand and interpret the source material AS WELL AS your knowledge of the historical issue being discussed. For example…

Multiple Choice Some of the answers you’ll get just by looking at the source material. Don’t think too hard on these! The answer will be 100% verified by the source! Others will ask you to draw on your knowledge related to the source. For these questions YOU MUST KNOW THE CONTENT!!!!!!

“For I knew that they were a people who could be more easily freed and converted to our holy faith by love than by force, gave to some of them red caps, and glass beads to put round their necks, and many other things of little value, which gave them great pleasure, and made them so much our friends.…It appeared to me to be a race of people very poor in everything.…They have no iron, their darts being wands without iron, some of them having a fish’s tooth at the end….They should be good servants and intelligent, for I observed that they quickly took in what was said to them, and I believe that they would easily be made Christians as it appeared to me that they had no religion.”  - Christopher Columbus, 1492 The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during his First Voyage, 1492–93) and Documents Relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real (London: Hakluyt Society, 1893), 37–38.   1. In the passage above, Columbus likely mentioned the American Indians’ interest in glass beads and weapons: a. to demonstrate the social diversification among societies in these areas. b. as an example of their largely mobile and nomadic lifestyles. c. to prove the cultural inferiority of racially mixed populations. d. because it exemplified the very different worldview of American Indians.

APUS Exam: Writing Section Three parts: 1. 4 Short answer questions 2. A DBQ 3. A free response essay

For our first test, we will practice the Free Response Essay. - You will be given two possible questions. You will pick one. You will then have 35 minutes to write an answer. - You need to bring paper on which to write, and a blue or black ink pen to do that writing.

What are the questions like?

“Geography was the primary factor in shaping the development of the British colonies in North America.” Assess the validity of this statement for the 1600’s. (Taken from the 2005 Form B APUS Exam) Analyze the differences between Spanish settlements in the Southwest and English colonies in New England in the seventeenth century in terms of TWO of the following: Politics Religion Economic Development (Taken from the 2006 APUS Exam)

Early encounters between American Indians and Europeans colonists led to a variety of relationships among the different cultures. Analyze how the actions taken by BOTH American Indians and European colonists shaped those relationships in TWO of the following regions. New England Chesapeake Spanish Southwest New York and New France (Taken from the 2008 APUS Exam) Compare and contrast the ways in which economic development affected politics in Massachusetts and Virginia in the period from 1607 to 1750. (Taken from the 2005 APUS Exam)

How do you do well on the FRQ?

If nothing else, you must have a thesis statement! A quality thesis statement does three things: 1. It fully addresses all parts of the question 2. It organizes your essay by establishing a broad topic for each body paragraph (Mapping thesis) 3. It takes a position regarding the prompt. It allows you to make an argument. Then, you support that position / argument in the body paragraphs with lots of relevant historical information. The more details the better! End with a concluding paragraph that restates your thesis and briefly summarizes your argument.