Unit 1: Creating a New America from 1860 to 1900 (Lessons 1-4)
Overview and a Checklist for Success

Overview: What the Title Tells You about This Unit

We begin with these regions:

·         The South, with its previously wealthy minority owning slaves and land, defeated over a four-year period. After its defeat, the Union ends slavery as a legally protected institution and the South loses its wealth in slaves and large plantations without slave labor are not profitable.

·         The North, with its previously technological Northeast with its factories and Northwest with machinery used for agriculture, is made more technological by the war’s rapid challenges. When the South seceded and no longer had votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate, the North laws creating a national banking and paper currency, increasing protective tariffs, subsidizing with land grants A&M colleges and a transcontinental railroad across the North, encouraging farming on the Great Plains by the opportunity to earn 160-acre farms.

 

We end at the end of the century with these regions:

·         The South impoverished and with share cropping and tenancy dominant.

·         The North with extremes in wealth and poverty but with a rising middle class concerned about the future of the republic, with 49% protective tariffs, with deflation and currency backed by the Gold Standard,

·         The Great Plains in the West having farmers struggling to survive in a world of selling crops at prices set by free markets and buying at prices set by protective tariffs

·         New colonies in the Pacific and in the Caribbean.

Resources in Unit 1 and How to Use Them to Learn (and to Make a Good Grade on the Unit Exam)

If You Want a Resource, The Brief American Pageant, Chapters 23-27

It can be helpful to examine (turn the pages slowly) each Lesson just to notice the headings, pictures, and maps to have a feel for the time period. Use the index at the back of the book to look up the individual items in the Study Guide. The practical source of information for tests are the Lessons within the Unit.

Lessons in Blackboard’s Unit 1

Unit 1 consists of Lessons 1-4. The practical source of information for tests are the Lessons within the Unit.

Learning Quizzes in Unit 1

These statements are true for all Units. When you see a folder labeled Learning Quiz, you do these things.

1.       In the Self-Test, use the password selftest (no spaces, no capital letters, and no punctuation).
Tip: Self-Tests do not count against you. They are a tiny (.01) extra credit.

2.       Without any preparation (or fear), carefully answer the questions quickly so you know what your brain thinks is true.

3.       When you submit your Self-Test, Blackboard automatically displays in the same folder content to help you—if needed—and the Full-Test. For the Full-Test, there is no password. You may take it as many times as you wish with highest score counting.

4.       Do not just click. Make sure you understand. If the answer does not make sense to you, post your question in Unit 1’s Learning Discussion. 

The Exam for the Unit and the Resources for the Unit

The Exam for each Unit has a total value of 100 points. There are 25 questions each at 4 points:

·         8 of the 25 questions come from these Learning Quizzes in the Unit

So use those Learning Quizzes and ask questions in Learning Discussion if you need help!

·         17 of the 25 come from the Study Guide (a link below this one). The Lessons in the Unit provide visuals, frequently in tables, to help you compare facts to see similarities and differences.

So use that content and ask questions in Learning Discussion if you need help!

 

The Unit Exam is available for 30 minutes, a time set by the Department. They display one at a time and you cannot backtrack (return to an earlier question). The password is:

onetimeonly  < no capitals, no spaces, no punctuation.


Tip:
 from Getting Starting:

Because I see students memorizing random facts, I am trying to get you to focus on useful, usable facts for your life time because is about life works. In this class, questions do not require that you show you know everything, but that you show that you know something. The questions focus on your recognizing significant traits of such things as regions, time periods and their dominant beliefs or events, and historical figures. (See Learning Quizzes, Concepts, and the Goal of Exam Questions)

Click here for an example of a question that lets you show that you know something that is worthwhile. (URL: http://www.cjbibus.com/GS_Good_Habits_What_Is_a_Question_Where_You_Show_You_Know_Something.htm )

Checklist for Graded Work in Unit 1 – Notice it matches your Course Plan and your Course Schedule.

 

Take all Learning Quizzes with the Lessons 1-4 in Unit 1. (Tip: The Course Schedule introduces Self-Tests and Full-Tests. If you make 80% or more on the Self-Test, you earn the full points without taking the Full-Test. If you make less than 80%, you must take the Full-Test. If you have 80% or more on the Self-Test or the Full-Test by the recommended date, you earn 1 extra credit point each.

70

 

In Evidence Requirements…, take at least Evidence Quizzes 1-2 @10 each. (Tip: The same extra credit as with the Learning Quizzes.)

20

 

In Respondus Requirement…, at any time during the 3-week period complete the requirements. (The highest points happen if you do this exactly as required and in the 1st week it is available.)

20

 

Post and reply in Unit 1 Learning Discussion (Tip: If you post as its rubric explains and earn over 14 points and if you make over 60 on the Unit 1 Exam, you earn 10 extra credit points)

20

 

Take Unit 1 Exam. (Tip: This is learnable. Over 30% of the questions are from Unit 1’s Learning Quizzes, and 70% are listed in the Unit Study Guide. Also, you can help each other with the Discussion.)

100

 

Total

230