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 @
mpelletier@braintreema.gov 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 17th 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?