Unit 2 Study Guide – a guide to preparation for all parts of the Unit Exam – The section Specific Tips is now visible.

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.

Practical Issues That Students Frequently Want to Know

The two parts of the exam are:

All of the questions are done as sets:

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

Practical Issues about Content That Students Frequently Want To Know

Test questions will be from:

Information that students frequently want to know about writing an answer:

Specific Tips for Content in Chapters 5 and 6 and for Changing Content from Chapter 7 through 10

In Chapter 5

In Chapter 6

In Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, and Chapter 10

 

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 5 to Chapter 10. – For this exam only, the questions will all relate to the Constitution, to events  that led to its provisions, or to events that filled in or completed its provisions

All of the questions are done as sets:

·         The objective part consists of 25 questions at 4 points each--but, for each question, fate 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 is 1 question worth 40 points (20 for its content and 20 for whether you follow the 5 Good Habits for Evidence)—but there are multiple versions (estimated 16) of the written test that I hand out.

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

·         You have one hour for the two parts of the test.

·         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 textbook

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

·         The required primary sources
Tip:  The links used in class and available in Figuring It Out (Learning is More Than Memorizing) frequently cover facts worth being on the Objective part of the exam.

 

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 that you learned from the textbook or sources in the course.

·         When writing an answer in class, you do not have to cite pages.
However, if I do not recognize the facts instantly and where they came from, I will record a temporary grade of 1.11 and you must cite each fact before I record the grade.

·         The best qualities for writing about history are that it follow5 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.

 

·         Tip: In class, I tell the students who are present the possible essay questions that the lecture and the students’ answers were meant to cover. – For this exam only, the questions will all relate to the Constitution, to events  that led to its provisions, or to events that filled in or completed its provisions


 

 

Specific Tips for Content in Chapters 5 and 6 and for Changing Content from Chapter 7 through 10

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 (important in their own right but also an amazing preparation for the Constitution), what happens with slavery during the war, 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) to the new United States from the Appalachians to the Mississippi?

Hmmmmm? The British would have been involved in defending the Indians or just fighting the Americans who were trying move into that new land year after blood-spilled 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 are their issues (in brief) and 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.    Notice the factions and the compromises. Examples: the compromise over the large and small states and the compromise over slavery.

5.    You need to focus on the new structures that come out of this period, including tariffs and coinage. Notice the 3 branches of government set in place, what they each do and how jobs are split between the branches, and how each is elected or chosen. The last part of the chapter does a decent job on those.

6.    At the ratification of the Constitution, you need to notice the Federalists, the Anti-Federalists, and their chief issues, including the Bill of Rights. Also notice the Federalist Papers and their authors.

7.    You need to notice how the 1st 2 administrations (Washington and John Adams) deal with things, including filling in the details of the Constitution such as dealing with the national debt and the chartering of the new National Bank.

 

In Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, and Chapter 10

1.    Continue to notice what happens to white male voters, women, Native Americans (including the failed attempt to create an Indian nation with British help during the War of 1812), and slaves.

2.    Notice Pinckney’s and Jay’s treaties and what they did, including how they reinforced the emerging of something unplanned for in the Constitution, political parties.

3.    Notice the 2 parties that emerge:

·         Primarily in the Northeast, the Federalists—with views on economic nationalism associated with Hamilton. They favored the a) National Bank, b) protective tariff, and c) internal improvements to be paid for by the national government

·         In the South and area west of the Appalachians, the Democratic-Republicans—with views associated with Jefferson. They favored Republican simplicity (economy in government). They did not favor the National Bank or protective tariffs, but they did not try to undo the charter of the National Bank.
Caution about this party’s name:  They are also called the Jeffersonian Republicans and the Republicans. They are not in any way like the new political party that develops out of the pre-civil war that happens in Kansas in the 1850s and that eventually becomes the Republican Party of today.)

4.    Notice the Jefferson administration, the Revolution of 1800, and how white male voting increases.

5.    Notice the War of 1812, including impressment, the Battle of New Orleans, Hartford Convention (secessionist)

6.    Notice the color-coded yellow items in this link (the same link in Figuring it Out for Chapters 7-10)
Link with items color-coded yellow to indicate probable questions

Also notice the last 6 rows of this link on economy in the north (NE and NW) and the south (SE and SW) and transportation.

Also notice the difference in technologies:

·         North has Lowell’s textile factories, the McCormick reaper, the John Deere plow, canals like the Erie

·         South has the cotton gin (invented by a Northerner)

Notice the differences in immigration and migration:

·         North has Irish immigrants to the NE and German immigrants to the NW.
Note: this is also the period of nativism—a term you need to recognize.

·         South has forced migration of slaves from upper SE to lower SW

 

Caution about Political Parties in General:  The names of parties associated with Hamilton’s ideas change from 1800 to the 1840s. They are becoming a minority and are trying to find a “brand name” that appeals to people. I will try not to ask you trick questions about them, but this may help:

·         Era of Good Feelings - Only 1 political party, the Democratic-Republicans, under Monroe from 1816 to 1824

·         Other times from 1792 to 1840+, two parties with changing names but unchanging anger:

·         Hamiltonian ideas and attempts to find a better “brand name”: after 1792 called the Federalists; about 1824, National Republicans; about 1840, the Whigs. The Whigs get their name from the old use of the word Whig for someone who hates the king, with this king being “King Andrew” or Andrew Jackson. Eventually they will cease being Hamiltonian and just fade out.

·         Jeffersonian ideas: after 1792 through about 1824 called the Democratic-Republicans

·         Jacksonian ideas: after 1824, Democrats

 

Caution about the Realities of Future Power Revealed with the Missouri Compromise:  I will talk through this map and the handwritten labels in class.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2016

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu

Last Updated:

2016

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/