Dr. Wilson's History Blog

How do I use documents in a DBQ?

While you read, underline key information that you can use. Write the document’s main idea next to it. Find out who the author of the quote is and record. When you use the documents in your essay, introduce the author and analyze how their words help answer the question.

Use the documents to:

• answer the question

• show a point of view; don’t take the writing at face value

• draw a relationship with other documents to compare and contrast

EXAMPLE 1 John Winthrop from “A Model of Christian Charity”

To use the document, introduce John Winthrop and use the information to support your point about how people settled in New England. For example,

John Winthrop, Puritan minister aboard the ship Arbella, became the leader of the community called the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He argued that his group of people would build a “city upon a hill” that all people would look to as a model of community carrying out God’s work. Winthrop’s leadership and his ideas led to the Boston settlement being ruled by a theocracy. A premium was placed on living in a community and taking care of the members of the community, even though this did not always happen. A settlement pattern of building towns around a church community was duplicated all over New England.

EXAMPLE 2 Capt John Smith from 1624 in his History of Virginia

To use the document figure out the main idea, put Smith into the context of his time and use the information to answer the question. This excerpt says that there was not a sense of community: people in the community tried to make a profit off each other, they suffered from lack of food and the cold and the colonists fought with each other.

To use this, introduce John Smith and relate the document to the question.

John Smith was the founder and leader of the Jamestown colony from 1608 to 1609 and a man who, through his leadership and focus on hard work, helped Jamestown survive. According to Smith, the individuals in the Jamestown community were not supportive of each other. They tried to make huge profits off each other and they fought with each other. Smith’s description gives a sense of every man for himself, quite the opposite of John Winthrop’s leadership in Boston. The pattern established of individual economic gain did not encourage a sense of community. The settlement pattern followed with plantations of large tracts of land and houses separated by miles.

A.P. UNITED STATES HISTORY REQUIREMENTS

CONARD HIGH SCHOOL

Dr. Wilson: traceymwilson@gmail.com Room 112

tracey_wilson@whps.org

99 Outlook Avenue

1. Get a 3 ring notebook and put it to use by September 3. Send your e-mail to Dr. Wilson at the e-mail address above.

2. Keep all handouts and notes to study for unit, midterm and final exams.

3. Bring required material to class each day – you may not leave to go to your locker. You do not need to bring your textbook to class.

4. Essays and research papers are due on the due date listed. ESSAYS AND RESEARCH PROJECTS COMPLETED AT HOME SHOULD BE TYPED.

5. In case of absence for a test, you have twice the number of days to complete work done in class. It is your responsibility to contact the teacher. If you know you will be absent, you should make arrangements with the teacher before you leave. Be sure to keep the lines of communication open if you find you cannot meet assignment deadlines.

6. I am available for conferences during any of my free periods (periods 3, 4, and 7). Please take advantage of extra help, especially concerning writing assignments. I am available before and after school. Try not to wait until you are completely “stressed out” by the work before you ask for help. Feel free to e-mail me at the above address.

7. Expect between 1 and 2 hours of homework per night – about 10 hours per week.

8. Grading scheme:

•Research, journals and projects 50%

•Exams 50%

Within each quarter, the percentage of each type of activity will vary but will be close to these percentages.

Midterm and final exams count 20% of your semester grade.

9. Your citizenship grade is based on promptness, class participation, courtesy, and taking responsibility for your own learning. Part of your role in class is to respect the opinions of classmates who may be different from yours.

10. Intellectual honesty: Misrepresenting other’s work as your own is intellectual dishonesty. Because historical research and learning are best done in groups, collaboration with classmates is expected. However, all work on tests must be individual and research papers must be written entirely in your own words. Any quotations from references must be properly attributed on written papers.

School regulations require that cheating students receive an “F” on the work in question, a “5″ in citizenship for the grading period, and notification to parents explaining the dishonesty. The Academic Honor Code will be enforced.

11. There is no room cell phones or mp3 players in this classroom. Please have them off and away when you walk into the room.

You read a biography and wrote journal entries about your person.  Tonight you will take a step further and analyze how your American  fits with the idea of justice and of being a hero.

Read Frank Rich’s article, “Angels in America,”  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/opinion/15rich.html?ref=frankrichin which he quotes Tony Kushner’s epic drama “Angels in America”: “The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it.  But sometimes we do hit that note, however tentatively.” In his article, Rich shows how Judith Dunnington Peabody was an “Angel in America.”

Question 1.  In what way did your person “hit the note” of freedom? Please answer in one paragraph (max 100 words) using the RACE format.

Write a paragraph in the following format:

Restate the question

Answer the question

Cite the evidence

Explain how the evidence relates to the question

Sample for Question 1:

In Freedom’s Teacher, the Life of  Septima Clark, Clark (1898-1987) “hits the high note of freedom” by her  support of equality through education.  Clark, who lived in South Carolina, pushed for African American equal rights by supporting teachers and adult education for citizenship through the Citizenship Education Program.  Though Clark did not have a following like Martin Luther King, her efforts training teachers who taught adults about citizenship had a deep impact on the structure of democracy in many southern towns.  Though she suffered financially standing up for equality, she continued to devote her life to freedom.  (95 words)

Then read “The Folk Hero Playbook,” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/weekinreview/15carey.html?scp=1&sq=August%2014%20heroes&st=cse.  In this article, Benedict Carey argues that there are three types of folk heroes.

Question 2.  What type of folk hero was your person, as analyzed in your biography, one who showed spectacular courage and skill; a political hero, or a daring but flawed solo actor?  Please answer in one paragraph (max 100 words) using the RACE format.

Septima Clark fits best as a political hero. She was committed to equal rights through education.  She might be considered a rogue because she broke the segregation laws and tried to show the injustice of “the man,” but in fact, she  stood for equality and freedom, which in the 1950s and 1960s were beyond the law for African Americans.  She had to fight  the black middle class who were not willing to risk their societal position for equality. She was a political hero because she  never stopped fighting and resisting the powerful people and laws who  kept those rights from African Americans. (98 words)

If, as Kezirian says, Wilson had to “ascertain what stand was politically safe before he could frame it as morally right,” which argument is politically most safe for Wilson to use to get us into war, economics or national security?  Use at least one quote from the article to make your point.

Remember that tomorrow we will participate in Human Rights Day – Period 3 go to Room 169 and listen to a speaker on low income housing.  Period 8 will go to the auditorium to listen to a film maker on using film to witness human rights issues.

Choose one of the following questions to answer.  You may use the outlines you prepared.  Now that you have looked at the questions, you may not do more research.

You should write your essay in 30 minutes.  It should not exceed one page single spaced (600 words)- please focus your knowledge!  You may write it out, or you may type it.  If you type it  and want to send it to me today, please do, at  traceymwilson@gmail.com.

So, no more use of resources except your outline. Time yourself for 30 minutes. Don’t go overboard – stick to the 600 word limit.

1. Analyze the ways in which state and federal legislation and judicial decisions, including those of the Supreme Court, affected the efforts of any TWO of the following groups to improve their position in society between 1880 and 1920.  Women, Farmers, Workers
2. Choose two of the following organizations and explain their strategies for advancing the interests of workers.  To what extent were these organizations successful in achieving their objectives? Confine your answer to the period from 1875 to 1925.  Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor, Socialist Party of America, Industrial Workers of the World

Read 51 to 56 in Kezirian.  The Age of Jackson, 1815-50

Kezirian outlines three positions concerning Jackson:

1.  neo-Conserabitve – growing middle class and American consensus emerging

2.  Entrepreneurial school – new captialists on the rise

3.  Immense distress among poor; question that ideals of democracy and equality exist

In your entry, choose the historiographical position you agree with the most.  Give a specific example from the time period which supports that point of view.  Then explain why you support this analysis.

 

 

What case are you choosing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to Kezirian on the Constitution, on one side are the patriotic statesmen who tried to “preserve and protect the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.”  On the other side are those who followed Charles Beard in believing that the Constitution was written by an “elite group of wealthy, propertied men who aimed to carry out a conservative counter-revolution” to destroy equality and democracy in the U.S.

Read Kezirian’s article.  Then, give a present day example which shows the U.S. government preserving and protecting the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and one example of destroying equality and democracy.  Explain the motive of each.  No repeats on examples.  Strike fast!!  Maya are you watching??

4.  American Revolution:  Model for Emerging Nations? 19-24

Was the American Revolution liberal or conservative?  Use Morris and Degler in your answer as well as your opinion.  Be sure to respond to each other.  Be succinct!!