Course: Advanced Placement United States History Start/End Dates: 8/20/07 5/28/08 Required Textbook: Goldfield, David. The American Journey. Fourth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2007. Required Readings from: Hollitz, John. Thinking Through the Past. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. Shi, David E. and Holly A. Mayer. For the Record: A Documentary History of America... New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2004. Leach, Roberta J and Augustine Caluguire. Advanced Placement U.S. History 1: The Evolving American Nation-State 1607-1914 The Center for Learning, 1999 Kovacs, Mary Anne, Roberta J. Leach, Douglas E. Miller, John C. Ritter. Advanced Placement U.S. History 2: Twentieth-Century Challenges 1914-1996 The Center for Learning, 1999. Document Based Questions in American History. Evanston, Illinois: The DBQ Project, 2002. Course Themes: There are several re-occurring themes that will be analyzed both within specific eras and between differing eras. Students will learn that these concepts are fluid and change over time. American Diversity American Identity Culture Demographic Changes Economic Transformations Environment Globalization Politics and Citizenship Reform Religion Slavery and its Legacies in North America War and Diplomacy Course Description: The program prepares students for intermediate and advanced courses in college by making demands consistent with a first semester U.S. History introductory college course. Class content first semester will include, but not be limited to the following themes: Pre-Revolutionary Era (Pre-Columbian, Colonial) Revolution Creating a Nation (Early Republic) Nationalism Economic Expansion in Antebellum America Sectionalism Age of Jackson Territorial Expansion and Manifest Destiny Creating American Culture 1850s: Decade of Crisis 1
Civil War Reconstruction to 1877 New Frontiers South and West Industrialization Urban Society and Culture The Gilded Age and Populism Foreign Policy, 1865-1914: the Emergence of America as a World Power Progressive Era First World War The 1920s: the New Era The Depression The New Deal World War II The Cold War Kennedy and Johnson: The Turbulent 60s Nixon and Vietnam Politics and Economics at the End of the Twentieth Century U.S. since 1974 Course Objectives: The course will provide students with analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in U. S. history. Historical materials and interpretations will be assessed in order to arrive at conclusions necessary to present sound judgments in oral and written presentations. Specific student objectives are: 1. To chronologically study U.S. History and to analyze and interpret selected themes in the subject matter. 2. To expose students to recommended readings including primary sources, essays, and selected books. 3. To develop and build research, analytical, and interpretive skills through the use of documentary materials, maps, cartoons, and other sources. 4. To enhance writing skills 5. To prepare students for the AP Exam Evaluation/Grading Procedures: 1. Free response and document-based essay activities submitted to professor-30% 2. Exams-30% (two lowest chapter tests will be dropped at the end of the semester) 3. Essays-15% 4. Class participation-25% Grading Scale: 90%-100% A 80%-89% B 70%-79% C 60%-69% D Below 59% F Make-up Policy: Late work will be down-graded-10% per week. Attendance Policy: More than four unexcused absences will result in a one-letter grade deduction 2
First Semester Topics/Schedule of Activities Date Topics, Themes and Assignments Week of Topic: Native Americans: Resistance or Accommodation? 8/20 The American Holocaust Native American contributions to American culture Related course themes: American Diversity, American Identity Read Chapters 1 and 2: Worlds Apart and Transplantation 1600-1685 Activities: Readings from: The Truth About Textbooks: Indians and the Settlement of America (Hollitz) David S. Muzzey, History of the American People (1927) Thomas A. Bailey, The American Pageant (1966) David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, Thomas A. Bailey, and Mel Piehl, The Brief American Pageant (2000) Students learn to critique secondary sources in order to discover the differing assumptions textbook writers hold about American Indians and white-indian relations during the settlement period. Topic: Colonial America: Regional similarity or dissimilarity? 8/27 and 9/4 Mapping the similarities and differences of the three colonial groups Related Course Themes: Demographic Changes, American Diversity, Economic Transformations Topic: The Puritans: Orthodoxy or Diversity? In depth examination of Puritan culture and its American legacy Related Course Themes: Religion, Culture Read Chapter 3: A Meeting of Cultures Activities: Students read 1993 AP Exam s DBQ -- New England v. Chesapeake Model APPARTS primary document analysis strategy on Document A. Group analysis of Documents B and C searching for inference. Homework: Analyze primary documents D through H using APPARTS strategy. Writing Activity: Improving Student Writing: A Core Structure The College Board, The AP Vertical Teams Guide for Social Studies, pages 140-149. Question: Although New England and the Chesapeake region were both settled largely by people of English origin, by 1700 the regions had evolved into two distinct societies. Why did this difference in development occur? Activity: The Raw Materials of History: Childhood in Puritan New England (Hollitz) Students expand their document analysis to include to a variety of sources including portraits, written material, and architectural drawings. Student groups will take responsibility for the analysis and teaching of their assigned document to the rest of the class. Homework activity will be to construct a table comparing a Puritan childhood to the student s own childhood. Categorization Activity: What Caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria of 1692? (DBQ Project) The students will practice the skill of categorization. After reading the DBQ, the students will create categories of causes. 9/7 Test on Chapters 1-3 Week of Topic: A unique Colonial Identity-fact or fiction? 9/10 The growth of American democracy Examining early social structures in colonial America and comparing them to European social structures of the same time Related Course Themes: American Identity, Politics and Citizenship Read Chapter 4: Convergence and Conflict 3
Week of 9/17 Week of 9/24 AP U.S. History Syllabus Generalization Activity : Democracy in Colonial Wethersfield, Connecticut (Leach) Students complete a sample chart of possible prompt answers set on Colonial Wethersfield primary documents. Generalizations are then made from the chart that address the prompt. Writing Activity: The Colonies in 1763-A New Society (Leach) Scrambled sentences for an essay are presented to the students for correct assembly. Reading the Prompt in a DBQ Activity: 1999 AP DBQ asking; To what extent had the colonists developed a sense of their identity and unity as Americans by the eve of the Revolution? Students read the prompt, decide what is being asked and establish a chart of examples that support an American sense of unity and an American sense of identity. They will next be asked to place documents in the appropriate category and add outside information to each category. Topic: The American Revolution: Sociological or Ideological? A multi-causal approach to the American revolution Related Course Themes: War and Diplomacy, Politics and Citizenship Read Chapter 5: Imperial Breakdown 1763-1774 Document Analysis Activity: Evaluating Primary Sources: Was Pennsylvania The Best Poor Man s Country? (Hollitz) Students examine a variety of primary sources looking for author bias. The student will be placed in one of three groups and asked to provide evidence from the document study that support their assigned group, and report out their findings to the rest of the class. The groups are (1) Historical evidence often supports more than one conclusion, (2) Sources contain opinions, and (3) Sources can reflect changing conditions. Categorization Activity: 2004 AP DBQ: In what ways did the French and Indian War (1754-63) alter the political, economic and ideological relations between Britain and its American colonies? Document scramble where students place documents in one of the three categories. Introduce students to the College Board essay writing rubric set on this DBQ. Historical Causes Activity: The Path to Revolution, 1763-1776 (Leach) Students prepare graphic organizer of British actions that led to revolution Topic: The American Revolution Related Course Themes: War and Diplomacy, American Identity, Politics and Citizenship Analysis of Historical Scholarship (Secondary Source): Reading from: Evaluating One Historian s Argument: Loyalists and the Meaning of the Revolution (Hollitz) Janice Potter, from The Liberty We Seek (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983) Strategies in Generalizing Information: Pre-AP/AP example of Generalizing Information College Board, The Vertical Teams Guide for Social Studies, page 94. 9/28 Test on Chapters 4-6 Topic: Creating the American Republic 10/1 and The Constitution: Conflict or Consensus? 10/8 The function of the Confederation Congress The need for a new constitution and its birth. The controversy surrounding the US Constitution The Federalist Years Related Course Themes: Politics and Citizenship, Reform Read Chapters 7 and 8: The First Republic 1776-1789 and A New Republic and the Rise of Parties 1789-1800 4
Document Activity: Categorization Analyze the degree to which the Articles of Confederation provided an effective form of government with respect to any two of the following: Foreign relations Economic conditions Western lands Document shuffle, placing documents in the appropriate category. Students then construct three strong generalizations about two of the factors in answer to the prompt.. Document Activity: How Revolutionary Was the American Revolution? (DBQ Project) Students determine three categories with at least three examples of supporting evidence that answers the prompt. Document analysis: The Preamble to the US Constitution Reading: Boorstin, D.J., An American Primer (New York: Meridan, 1966), pages 101-104. Examine individual phrases in the context of the preamble as response to economic, social and political factors of the time. Constitution: Article II Readings: James Madison s notes from the Constitutional Convention debates (June 1, 1787) Identify proposals put for the by delegates and the reasons for the proposals Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Analysis of Article II What is his interpretation of the main issues Article II of the U.S. Constitution How were these issues resolved in the Constitution itself? Reading from: Motivation in History: Charles Beard and the Founding Fathers (Hollitz) Charles Beard, from An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1963) Students evaluate the argument that economic factors influence history (the writing of the Constitution). Primary sources are used to assess critically Beard s argument, the evidence he uses to support it, and his assumption about the primacy of economic motives in history. 10/12 Test on Chapters 7 and 8 10/15 and 10/22 Topic: The Republican Years In depth examination of Thomas Jefferson The Atlantic World: Origins of Slavery: Prejudice or Profit? Related Course Themes: Slavery and Its Legacies in North America, War and Diplomacy Read Chapter 9: The Triumph and Collapse of Jeffersonian Republicanism 1800-1824 Readings from Ideas in History: Race in Jefferson s Republic (Hollitz) Ronald T. Takaki, from Iron Cages: Race and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979) Related primary documents Students examine documents with regard to Jefferson s differing views of blacks and Indians, his views on preservation of republican society, and how they are interconnected. DBQ Document Package on issues surrounding the Alien and Sedition Acts Students deconstruct the prompt and understand the importance of historical context and background knowledge in DBQ responses. War of 1812 Debate Choices for the 21 st Century Educational Program, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University. 5
Week of 10/29 AP U.S. History Syllabus Topic: How democratic was Andrew Jackson? In depth examination of Andrew Jackson Comparing Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy Related Course Themes: Politics and Citizenship, Demographic Changes, American Identity Read Chapter 10: The Jacksonian Era 1824-1845 How Democratic Was Jackson? (DBQ Project) Students examine primary documents included in the DBQ packet and complete synthesizing information worksheet using information from the examination of the documents Essay Writing Workshop (pick one topic) The Bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it. Explain the meaning of this 1832 statement of President Andrew Jackson and evaluate Jackson s position with regard to the bank. Discuss the significance of the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1828. Compare and contrast Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy. Explain the economic, social and geographic parameters of the rise of political parties in the Jacksonian Era. After receiving direct instruction on how to answer an essay question, students will prepare essay responses to one of the above questions. Then, they will evaluate each other s essays in Essay Groups and make revisions. 11/2 Test on Chapters 9 and 10 Topic: The Old South and Ante-Bellum Reform: Discipline or Liberation? 11/5 and Abolition and other reform movements 11/13 Slave Culture: African or American? Related Course Themes: Slavery and its Legacies in North America, Reform, Culture Read Chapters 11 and 12: Slavery and the Old South 1800-1860 and The Market Revolution and Social Reform 1815-1850 Readings from: History From the Bottom Up: Historians and Slavery (Hollitz) Drew Gilpin Faust, from Culture, Conflict, and Community: The Meaning of Power on an Antebellum Plantation, Journal of Social History, 14, No. 1 (Fall 1980), pages 83-87. Related primary documents Students understand that examining the past from the bottom up changes historians views of slavery, what life was like for antebellum plantation slaves, and male v. female slave experiences. DBQ Prioritizing Activity: The End of Homespun-The Early Industrial Revolution (Leach) Students will engage in establishing priorities among the factors responsible for industrialization based on primary documents related to early industrialization in America.. The Problem of Historical Causation: The Second Great Awakening (Hollitz) Students learn the important developments in the early nineteenth century that led to the Second Great Awakening, examining differing historical scholarship on the topic, and looking at who was drawn to the movement from various perspectives. 11/16 Test on Chapters 11 and 12 11/19 and 11/26 Topics: The Expanding Nation: Pioneers or Planners? Sectionalism Mapping National Expansion Mexican-American War Related Course Themes: Demographic Changes, Environment, War and Diplomacy, Politics and Citizenship Read Chapters 13 and 14: The Way West 1815-1850 and The Politics of Sectionalism 1846-1861 DBQ analysis looking at the idealism and realism of American foreign policy: The Mexican War-Was It in the National Interest? (Leach) 6
An activity looking at multi-causal factors leading to the Civil War. Compromise and Conflict-The Road to War (Leach) Essay Writing Workshop : The sectional compromises of the first half of the nineteenth century were not in fact compromises, but rather sectional sellouts in which the North gave in to the insistent demands of the slaveholding South. Assess the validity of this statement. 11/16 Test on Chapters 13 and 14 Week of 12/3 12/10 and 12/17 Topic: Civil War: Repressible or Irrepressible? War Strategies and Major Battles The war s outcome Related Course Themes: Slavery and its Legacies in North America, War and Diplomacy, Politics and Citizenship, Economic Transformations Assign: Read chapter fifteen: Battle Cries and Freedom Songs: The Civil War 1861-1865 Readings from Grand Theory, Great Battles, and Historical Causes: Why Secession Failed (Hollitz): George M. Fredrickson, from A Nation Divided: Problems and Issues of the Civil War and Reconstruction (Burgess Publishing, 1975) James M. McPherson, from Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (UK: Oxford University Press, 1988) Related primary sources Students are exposed to diverse historical outcome perspectives and, by using supplemental primary sources, examine the plausibility of the two arguments. In addition, the student is allowed to weigh in on the war s outcome-was it inevitable or dependent on the battles fought? Theme: Reconstruction: Change or Stasis? Was reconstruction a success? A multi-point examination Related Course Themes: Economic Transformations, Slavery and its Legacies in North America, Demographic Changes, Politics and Citizenship Read Chapters 16 and 17: Reconstruction 1865-1877 and A New South: Economic Progress and Social Tradition 1877-1900 Activity to evaluate the successes and failures of Reconstruction. Reconstruction Two Views (Leach) Document analysis APPARTS Reconstruction: North and South (For The Record) Plessy v. Ferguson An examination of the case from www.landmarkcases.org using the Background Summary and key excerpts from the majority and dissenting opinions 12/20 First Semester Final Exam with emphasis on Chapters 15-17 Second Semester Topics/Schedule of Activities Date 1/8 and 1/14 Topics, Themes and Assignments Topic: Westward Expansion and Urbanization The causes and social effects of the Industrial Revolution The effects of Westward Expansion on various groups (Native Americans, Women) Related Course themes: American Diversity, Demographic Changes, Economic Transformations, Environment Read Chapters 18 and 19: Industry, Immigrants and Cities 1870-1900 and Transforming the West DBQ Activity: Analysis of economic documents The Growing Economic Crisis of the Late Nineteenth Century. (Leach) DBQ-Related Activity: Analysis of Political Cartoons The Philosophy of the Industrialists. (Leach) Assign: Construct a political cartoon showing industrialists of the late nineteenth century as either captains of industry or robber barons 7
The Frontier from Multiple Perspectives Read primary and secondary source items from Chapter 19 of Meyer and Shi such as An Indian s Perspective by Chief Joseph, the Dawes Act, excerpts from a diary of an Illinois Farmer s wife, and excerpts from Frederick Jackson Turner s The Frontier in American History. Students create a conversation among these parties about the meaning of the events in the Western US during this period. DBQ Activity: The Farmer s Dilemma-To Produce or Not to Produce (Leach) From a farmer s point of view what role did each of the following play in creating his economic hardships? railroads, middlemen, bankers trusts, government officials, deflation, industrialization, specialization in agriculture. What is the point of view of the first five of these groups with regard to the indictment of farmers? 1/18 Test on Chapters 18 and 19 1/22 and 1/28 Topics: Government Reform and the rise of the Progressive Movement Identify the problems with government on the national and local levels at the end of the 19 th Century and the reforms that addressed them Understand the social conditions spurring the Progressive Movement and the impact of the Progressive Era reforms Understand the role of women in the Progressive Era and the effect of the Progressive Era reforms on women Related Course Themes: Economic Transformations, Politics and Citizenship, Reform, American Diversity Read Chapters 20 and 21: Politics and Government 1877-1900 and The Progressive Era 1900-1917 DBQ Industrialization and the Condition of Labor (Hollitz) Identification of the social conditions spurring the Progressive movement Demonstrate that you have learned the structure of good essay writing (Introduction with thesis, body paragraphs that provide evidence to support the thesis, and a conclusion). Write an essay using evidence from the primary sources presented in order to answer the prompt: Was there distress among the laboring classes as the United States industrialized in the late nineteenth century? National Government in the Late Nineteenth Century A Sham of Democracy (Leach) Students examine several primary sources in order to understand why the national government in the late nineteenth century reflected the concerns of the business elite. DBQ Writing Lab: To What extent did economic and political development as well as assumptions about the nature of women affect the position of American women during the period 1890-1925? 2/1 Test on Chapters 20 and 21 Topics: American Imperialism; World War I and its aftermath 2/4 and 2/11 Identify the ideological and economic roots of imperialism Spanish-American War Propaganda and suppression of dissent in World War I The Treaty of Versailles and its legacy Related Course Themes: Globalization, War and Diplomacy Read Chapters 22 and 23: Creating an Empire 1865-1917 and America and the Great War 1914-1920 Research the causes of the Spanish-American War and complete a graphic organizer that lists the cause in a column on the left, the description of the event in the middle column, and the significance as a cause of war in the right column. Read excerpts from McKinley s War Message and the Teller Resolution 8
Answer analytical questions that tie the research to the readings. How did our defense of neutral rights eventually lead to our declaration of war? (Leach) Students critique and revise the steps that led to America s decision to declare war, then develop a controlling idea suggesting how all or most of the ideas help answer the original question. DBQ It was the strength of the opposition forces, both liberal and conservative, rather than the ineptitude and stubbornness of President Wilson that led to the Senate defeat of the Treaty of Versailles. Assess the validity of this statement. (From the DBQ Project) Group analysis of documents, DBQ essay response assigned as homework. 2/15 Test on Chapters 22 and 23 2/20 and 2/25 Topics: The Twenties and The Great Depression The cultural clashes of the 1920s as reflected in nativism, immigration policies and prohibition Causes of the Great Depression Hoover v. Roosevelt s response to the depression New Deal Legislation The New Deal: Revolution or Restoration? Related Course Themes: American Diversity, Culture, Economic Transformations, Reform, Politics and Citizenship Read Chapters 24 and 25: Toward a Modern America: The 1920s and The Great Depression and the New Deal 1929-1939 Assessing the main ideas in quotes Prohibition (Leach) Students find the main ideas in 6 prohibition quotations. Write a DBQ Readings from Ideology and History: Closing the Golden Door. (Hollitz) John Higham. Racism and Immigration Restriction (1984) Collection of Primary Sources Students analyze the role that ideology played in immigration restriction by answering the prompt: Explain why the United States ended Japanese and unrestricted European immigration after World War I. In class DBQ The Twenties were a period of tension between new and changing attitudes on the one hand and traditional values. What led to the tension and how was it manifested? DBQ: What Caused the Great Depression? (DBQ Project) Class analysis of primary documents Completion of Synthesizing Information Process Development of a thesis statement to answer the prompt 2/29 Test on Chapters 24 and 25 Topics: World War II and the Origins of the Cold War 3/3 and 3/10 Understand how the US was drawn into World War II Analysis of how World War II affected various social groups in the US Identify the impact of the Cold War on US culture Related Course Themes: War and Diplomacy, American Diversity, Culture Reach Chapters 26 and 27: World War II 1939-1945 and The Cold War at Home and Abroad 1946-1952 Pearl Harbor-Interpretations of History (Kovacs) Excerpts from these readings: Paul Burtness and Warren U. Roin, The Puzzle of Pearl Harbor (Evanston, Ill: Peterson and Co., 1962), 228-229 Robert A. Theobald, The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor (Old Greenwich, CT: Devin-Adair Publishers, 1954), 2-5 Roberta Nohlstetter, Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1962), 386-87 Gordon W.. Prange, Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 9
1986), XXXii-XXXiii. For each of the documents answer the question: who or what was responsible for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor? Prepare a foreign policy brief for the US government that includes five lessons learned from Pearl Harbor to apply after WWII to avoid similar disasters in the future DBQ: Popular Culture as History: The Cold War Comes Home (Hollitz) Secondary Reading: Stephen J. Whitefield, The Culture of the Cold War (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univrsity Press, 1991) excerpts Related primary source documents Students write to the prompt: What impact did the fear of Communism have on American popular culture in the Cold War period? 3/14 Test on Chapters 26 and 27 Week of 3/17 Week of 3/31 Topic: Post-War Society Examine the rise of suburbia and its impact on culture Identify the cultural milieu from which the women s movement arose Evaluate the impact of mass culture on society Related Course Themes: American Identity, Culture, Demographic Changes, Religion Read Chapter 28: The Confident Years 1953-1964 Examination of American Society and Culture using primary documents: Using the documents in Chapter 32 of Meyer and Shi, create a picture of society with particular attention to suburban society, the rise of television and mass culture, the beginnings of the women s movement, and the impact of these changes on religion Free Response Question Workshop: Compare and contrast US society in the 1920s and 1950s with respect to two of the following Race relations Role of women Consumerism DBQ: Malcolm and Martin (The DBQ Project) Topics: Vietnam, Civil Rights, Environmental Movement Understand the variety of opinions regarding the Vietnam War and the rationale behind them Identify the beginnings and eventual impact of the environmental movement in the modern US Understand the diversity of views on the women s liberation movement Related Course Themes: War and Diplomacy, Reform, Environment, Globalization, Culture, American Identity, American Diversity Read Chapter 29: Shaken to the Roots Evaluation of primary documents presenting various responses to the Vietnam War from Chapter 34 of Meyer and Shi. Students evaluate three responses to the war in the late 1960s and evaluate each. DBQ: Assessing the reasons for the failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment Read excerpt from Rachel Carson s Silent Spring 4/4 Test on Chapters 28 and 29 Topics: Reagan s Domestic Program, the End of the Cold War, the US in Global Context 4/7 and 4/14 Understand Reaganomics and its impact Identify the causes of the end of the Cold War and the remnants of the Cold War Examine the effects of globalization on the US society in the past 20 years Identify the role of the US in the world context Related Course Themes: War and Diplomacy, Economic Transformations, Globalization Read Chapters 30 and 31: The Reagan Revolution and a Changing World 1981-1992 and Complacency and Crisis 1993-2005 10
4/21 Test on Chapters 30 and 31 4/22 Mock AP US History Exam 4/23-5/8 Review 5/9 AP US History Exam The Essay Assignments: At certain points during the course, students will be asked to write essays. Sometimes these essays will be written for workshop evaluation, in which students evaluate one another s work against a rubric. Other times, the teacher will provide the main source of feedback for essays. The grading rubric is provided below. Sample Scoring Standard for Essays: The Sample Essay Question is: Analyze the economic consequences of the Civil War with respect to any TWO of the following in the United States between 1865 and 1880. Agriculture Labor Industrialization Transportation The 70-80 essay: Contains sophisticated, well-developed thesis that addresses the economic consequences with respect to each of the two areas and the time period 1865-1880 Supports thesis with significant, relevant information Understands complexity of question; addresses two topics in depth, although treatment may not be balanced Effective analysis May contain minor errors The 40-60 essay: Contains a clear thesis with limited development concerning the economic consequences with respect to each of the two areas and the time period 1865-1880 Supports thesis with some factual information Limited understanding of complexity; must address two topics, one in some depth and one in a limited way, or two in a general way Analysis may be limited ore superficial May contain errors that do not detract from overall essay/argument The 20-30 essay: Thesis may be confused or undeveloped, or lacks a thesis Information provided is minimal, or lacks supporting information, or contains information that is not relevant to the question May not connect the two topics to the Civil War, or ignores complexity; may address two areas in a general way, or one in a general way and one in a superficial way Weak analysis May contain major errors The 0-10 essay; Incompetent response May simply paraphrase or restate the question Little or no understanding of the question 11