Unit 2 Study Guide – a guide to preparation for all parts of the Unit Exam

Trying Additional Tips to Help You with Chapter 5-10. See toward the bottom but read Cautions and Tips on the way.

Revised in yellow below.

Tips: What Helps Learning? from the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

 

If you have questions about any of this webpage, please ask. I will expand these answers based on your questions.

Tip: the password is at the bottom.

Practical Issues That Students Frequently Want to Know

The two parts of the exam are:

·         The objective part means methods that are machine gradable, such as multiple choice, true/false, ordering items, and matching items.

·         The written part means a good, competent factual explanation of something in the history covered from Chapter 1 to Chapter 4.

All of the questions are done as sets:

·         The objective part consists of 25 questions at 4 points each--but, for each question, fate (or Blackboard) could ask you any 1 of 4 or more questions.
In other words, there are a minimum of 100 questions in the test.

·         The written part displays 1 question worth 20 points for its contents. A separate grade of 20 is for whether you follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence). Fate (or Blackboard) could ask you any of  the other questions in the set.
In other words, there are a minimum of 16 possible written questions.

Information that students frequently want to know about the two parts of the tests

·         You have thirty minutes for the objective part of the test and forty-five minutes for the written part of the test because of the additional requirements listed in yellow below.

·         You really won’t have time to look up much, but you may use your book and sources in the course.

·         The questions are meant to be ones that are useful understanding about history. They will not be trick questions.

 

Practical Issues About Content That Students Frequently Want To Know

Test questions will be from:

·         The instructor’s Study Guides for each chapter, the ones that tell you what to examine for the chapter and try to help you understand the history, including the videos that let you realize history is real.

·         InQuizitive – but not in the exact words of the InQuizitive questions

·         The required primary sources

Caution: Please read and ask if You don’t understand -Information that students frequently want to know about writing an answer:

·         Typically, the best short questions ask you explain an event (or a region at a specific period of time), give specific examples, and explain its major traits.

·         You must be specific and answer the question asked and use evidence appropriate for the question asked.

·         You must only use facts from the textbook or sources in the course.

·         When writing an answer in Blackboard, you must:
1) If you are using a primary as a source, place its name in ( ) right after the fact.
2) If you are using a fact from the textbook, place the specific page number in ( ) right after the fact. If you are the author’s words, you must not only cite the page number, but also use quotation marks (“”) correctly
.
Note: at a minimum I will spot check at least one fact for confirmation that it is the textbook.

·         When writing an answer in Blackboard, you must not:
1) Use your memory or your feelings about history as evidence
2) Use any source other than the required textbook or the required primaries

·         The best qualities for writing about history are that it follow 5 Good Habits for Evidence.

·         The goal of writing is to help you learn history and the best way to learn history is to try to teach it in a common sense but truthful and brief way.
Think of it as teaching your smart cousin something he or she must learn quickly but well. He or she would not want a lot of words or a lot of fluff or a lot of your opinion.

 

Tip and Caution:

·         You have to learn facts but to write you have to think through how those facts fit together. InQuizitive can’t do that for you—at least on very issues.

·         If you had read the chapters as you used InQuizitive, you could in 30 minutes encounter the question, refresh on any areas in the question (example, if you had the Protestant Reformation Question, you could use the index to quickly find the Protestant Reformation and the section you wanted to talk about). You could jot down 3 or so issues that were useful and write them. Never write what you can’t prove and you will be good.

 

Caution: What’s Different about Any Unit Test with 6 Chapters

·         With a test of 25 questions, that means on average each chapter only gets 4 questions. Now, yes there are multiple questions in each set, but that is still on 4 sets per chapter.

·         To be honorable, the instructor will focus on facts that you will need the rest of your life (at least from this instructor’s experiences).

·         It can’t be everything so approach it that way and look at the next section

Caution: What’s the Difference about This Unit Test?—Instructor’s Attempt to Help You

Caution: For all chapters, you must read the primaries.

 

In Chapter 5:

1.    The test will only cover 2 battles—Saratoga and Yorktown. If you look at them, you will know why.

2.    You need to notice vulnerabilities of the Patriots and British.

3.    You need to understand the vulnerabilities of the Articles of Confederation and think that through

4.    You need to notice the state constitutions and the state government, what happens with slavery, and what happens with—something new—freedom of religion

5.    You need to understand the peace terms.
FYI: The textbook author says it is surprising that the British gave the colonies the land not to the Appalachians, but to the Mississippi.

My graduate course work included the British side of this war. One test of meaning is to ask yourself what would have happened if the British hadn’t made the decision to give the land (and all those Indians) from the Appalachians to the Mississippi?

Hmmmmm? The British would have been involved in defending the Indians or just fighting the Amercans who were trying move into that new land year after bloody year.

The British prevented a problem. If you look to the rest of the history of the British in this Unit, they walked away from Indian issues again and again (at the peace treaty and again after the War of 1812. This is no surprise.

 

In Chapter 6:

1.    You need to notice Shays’s Rebellion—and later the Whiskey Rebellion. What do they tell you?

2.    You need to notice the Northwest Ordinances on slavery and on how they avoid territories being angry about being colonies by giving them an orderly process to become states. What is the clever solution? Do notice Thomas Jefferson’s role—one that is contrary to a slaveholder but not for someone who supports ordinary white people’s success—and that is a wild idea for that time.

3.    You need to notice what happens to white male voters, women, Native Americans, and slaves.

4.    You need to focus on the new structures that come out of this period, including the National Bank and tariffs and the 3 branches of government set in place. The last part of the chapter does a decent job on those.

5.    You need to notice how the 1st 2 administrations (Washington and John Adams) deal with things.

 

In Chapter 7:

1.    You need to notice Jefferson’s administration. What was expected and what actually happened?

2.    You need to notice the mess with War of 1812, but notice most what are the trends that follow.

3.    Continue to notice what happens to white male voters, women, Native Americans, and slaves.

 

In Chapters 8, 9, 10:

1.    You are covering trends such as n the economy, foreign policy, expansion west.

2.    You need to notice what happens to white male voters, women, Native Americans, and slaves.

3.    You are also encountering such as the Missouri Compromise, the Monroe Doctrine, the way the bank issues and tariff issues matter, the Panic of 1843 and how it happened.

4.    The link I provide you in each of these chapters in Figuring It Out (Learning is More Than Memorizing) can help you see the changes.

 

Caution: With the Missouri Compromise, you must look at the map provided in Figuring It Out. Notice that most of the Louisiana Purchase is even with the Northwest Territory (free since 1787!).

Notice as the results of the decision to forbid slavery in the rest of the territory above the border of Missouri how many Free states there will be? The Missouri Compromise is temporary solution.

 

You also must read the primary by John Quincy Adams. Boy, did he catch onto the present and future. Notice what he says Calhoun is thinking.

 

The password

You may take exams only 1 time; therefore, the password is


onetimeonly – no spaces and no capital letters.

 

 

 

Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2015

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu

Last Updated:

2015

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/