AP US History: Summer 2013: Assignment
This is a THREE PART SUMMER ASSIGNMENT Part I: Textbook Reading and Critical Thinking Questions Part II: Scholarly Essay Reading and Quotation Journal Part III: Online Moodle Assessments
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS: 1. All offline and online components of the summer assignment are due on the first day of school. 2. You may type or write the offline components. 3. Copies of the summer assignment and the links for the online components are on the moodle page. Instructions for accessing the moodle are below.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE SCHOOL THIS YEAR YOU NEED TO ENROLL IN THE ADVANCED PLACEMENT UNITED STATES HISTORY CLASS ON THE MOODLE
1. Go to http://www.bpsmoodle.org/moodle/ 2. Log into moodle using any previously created user name and password. If you have never logged into Moodle than use the following: Log in: your Student ID # Password: your UPPERCASE student password with *1a added to it (that’s asterisk, number 1, lowercase a)
3. Scroll down until you find the “Advanced Placement United States History” under the “history” section. 4. Click on it and when it asks you “Would you like to enroll in class now?” click yes. 5. IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS LOGGING IN….email me @ [email protected] and we will try to work through them.
PART I: American Pageant (textbook) reading and questions
1. Read the following chapters in the American Pageant, 14th Edition: Chapter 1 – New World Beginnings Chapter 2 – The Planting of English America Chapter 3 – Settling the Northern Colonies Chapter 4 – American Life in the 17th Century Chapter 5 – Colonial Society on the Eve of the Revolution Chapter 6 – The Duel for North America Chapter 7 – The Road to Revolution 2. As you finish reading each chapter provide answers to the Critical Thinking Questions that accompany each chapter. The Critical Thinking Questions are listed on the pages that follow. Please read the specific instructions with the questions for information about how to format your answers. When answering, thoughtfully explain your response using SPECIFIC FACTUAL INFORMATION from the chapter to support your answer. A good answer makes an argument by synthesizing relevant information from the chapter. I am looking for your ability to formulate a position (make an argument) when answering and support it with valid evidence that shows the sophistication of your knowledge.
PART II: Essay reading (packet) and Quotation Journal
1. Read the following essays in the packet: Myths That Hide the American Indian – Oliver La Farge The Middle Passage – Daniel P. Mannix and Malcolm Cowley George III, Our Last King – J.H. Plumb The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson – Bernard Bailyn
2. As you finish reading each essay complete your Quotation Journal. Instructions for doing the Quotation Journal follow the Critical Thinking Questions in this packet.
PART III: Assessments (It is recommended that you DO THESE LAST)
You have to complete TWO online assessments of your US history ability. Both assessments can be found on the moodle page. 1. Chapters 1-7 Multiple Choice Test This assessment will measure how thoroughly you completed the seven assigned chapters of reading and critical thinking questions from these chapters You have received a hard copy of all of the questions, use these to work out the answers prior to opening the test on moodle. You will be given 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete 100 multiple choice questions. Your grade for this assessment will be factored into your term 1 grade. 2. Diagnostic AP Exam This assessment is designed to give me an idea of what US History knowledge you already have. You will be given 55 minutes to complete 80 questions. This is an example of an actual multiple choice portion of the AP EXAM. Questions are based on the entirety of US history. Your grade for this assessment will NOT be factored into your term 1 grade. However, it is in your best interest to take this seriously and try your very best. American Pageant Critical Thinking Questions
INSTRUCTIONS: You may type the answers to these questions or write them out on white-lined paper. There is no length requirement when answering. However, the best answers use SPECIFIC, FACTUAL INFORMATION/EVIDENCE from the textbook when supporting EVERY PART of the question asked. Some questions will require more evidence than others.
Chapter 1: New World Beginnings
1. How did Indian societies of South and North America differ from European societies at the time the two came into contact with each other?
2. Summarize the motives, expectations, problems, and rewards associated with the age of European expansion.
3. What happened when the “two worlds collided”? Describe the impact of Europeans on Native American (Indian) cultures and the impact of native cultures on Europeans.
Chapter 2: The Planting of English America
4. What lessons do you think English colonists learned from their early Jamestown experience? Focus on matters of fulfilling expectations, financial support, leadership skills, and relations with the Indians.
5. Did England and the English settlers want the same things from colonization? National glory? Wealth? Adventure? A solution to Old World (European) social/religious tensions? New sources of goods and trade?
6. Compare and contrast the colonial experiences of the English and Spanish colonists
7. How did systems of unfree labor emerge in the New World?
8. How did the reliance on plantation agriculture affect the southern colonies? In other words what were the defining characteristics of the southern, plantation English colonies?
Chapter 3: Settling the Northern Colonies
9. Why did the Puritans come to America? Compare and contrast the colonial motives of the separatists and non-separatists puritans.
10. How did the Puritan religion affect the daily lives of the New England colonists? 11. Explain the relationship between church beliefs and government in New England? How does the view of the New England Puritans on the relationship between government and religion compare with more recent understandings?
12. How does the founding of the New England colonies compare with the origins of the middle colonies (New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania)? In what ways were New England and the middle colonies each like the South, and in what ways were they different?
Chapter 4: American Life in the 17 th Century
13. What was Bacon’s Rebellion, what circumstances led to it and what did it reveal about the relationship between the English colonists and mother England?
14. How and why was family life in New England so different from family life in the South?
15. Trace the evolution of indentured servitude to black slave labor. Why did slavery grow to be such an important institution in colonial America? In your opinion, was the development of African slavery in North American colonies inevitable (inescapable)?
Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution
16. Summarize the key features of the American population in the early eighteenth century. Consider its sources, size, location, diversity, and mobility.
17. What characteristics united colonists and made their collective identity different from Europeans?
18. What were the causes and effects of the Great Awakening? How did such an intense religious revival help create sense of shared American identity?
19. How democratic was colonial America?
Chapter 6: The Duel for North America
20. What were the causes of the French and Indian War?
21. Historians have often pointed to the significance of the French and Indian War and how 1763 is a transition moment for American colonial history. Should the French and Indian War be considered one of the causes of the American Revolution? Why or why not? Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution
22. How did the British attempt to exert new control over the colonies after the French and Indian War? Why?
23. In what ways were the mercantilist policies of the British burdensome to the colonists? In what ways were they beneficial?
24. Both the British and the colonists were devoted to the principle of “No taxation without representation.” This being true, how did both taxation and representation become major sources of controversy between the colonists and Parliament?
25. Were all of the American grievances against England really justified, or were the British actually being more reasonable than most Americans have traditionally believed?
26. What was the Revolutionary movement really all about? The amount of taxation? The right of Parliament to tax? The inherent political corruption of Britain and the righteous virtue of America? The right of the king to govern America? The colonies growing sense of national identity apart from Britain? Was the Revolution truly a radical overthrow of government and society—the usual definition of “revolution”?
27. Was the American Revolution inevitable? Could America have gradually and peacefully developed independence rather than engaging in a violent revolt?
28. In 1775 which side would a neutral observer have expected to win—Britain or the colonies? Why?
29. How fun was that? Quotation Journal INSTRUCTIONS: After reading each essay select THREE quotations and explain their relevance to the article in writing.
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS: 1. Use a new sheet of paper for each article 2. Rewrite the article’s title and author 3. Number and rewrite the quotation you have selected * 4. Write 4-6 sentences explaining the quotation’s relevance to the article.**
*Your first choice of a quotation MUST be the THESIS STATEMENT OF THE ESSAY. Sometimes this is not easy to find and sometimes arguments can be made regarding what the actual thesis of a work might be. So do your best. When attempting to identify the author’s thesis think about the following:
What is a thesis? A thesis embodies the author’s main argument/position/opinion. It usually (but not always) appears somewhere near the beginning of an essay or book and succinctly articulates the author’s position. Most of the time a thesis is only one sentence but it can be two or even three sentences. Sometimes thesis statements also include categorical evidence that introduces the reader to how the thesis will be proven. When trying to identify a thesis you should think to yourself, “what is it that the author wants me to know most?” and “what evidence is the author using to support what he wants me to know?”
** Your explanation of the thesis statement in your journal should focus on the following: What does the thesis mean? Briefly explain it in your own words What evidence does the author use to support the thesis? List the most important/convincing evidence that the author used to support his thesis. * You are free to choose whatever quotations spoke to you most for the second and third selections.
**When writing these explanations you may go in any direction you want. But if you want some things to prompt you, think about these:
Why is this quotation interesting/surprising? How is it relevant to the article’s thesis? Does the quotation support the thesis? How? Does the quotation create questions for you? Like what? What does this quotation reveal about the historical topic presented in the article? Does the quotation challenge any prior knowledge you have of this subject?