Blog #172 – Reflections on a year in APUSH
This blog is part of your final exam, so please take some time and think about your answers.
400 words minimum for your total response of all of the questions. Please number your answers in the comment section.
1. A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain which was your least favorite way to learn and explain why it doesn’t work for you.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year – from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year and why?
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish there were some units that were shorter or didn’t go as in depth. What did you wish we had studied less of and explain why (keep in mind that if the info didn’t make it onto the test doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
4. People talk a lot about takeaways – a summary of an experience, distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
1. My favorite learning style had to be when we watched YouTube videos on a new topic we were learning about and got to discuss with the class ask questions and hear everyone else opinions because it allowed for a space to feel comfortable with being confused. The dates quizzes were also very helpful when it came to taking the AP Exam and also taking regular chapter tests in class, because it helped with the process of elimination and the writing portions like the LEQs, DBQs, and SAQs, because they normally asked to give information from a specific time frame. Furthermore, the open note quizzes were really helpful because they gave a rundown of the new chapter and what it contained and also gave an idea of how much you understood it at times! As for styles that I didn’t like, the portraits were not very helpful because it was sometimes about topics we hadn’t even learned yet and the readings were always kind of difficult to comprehend especially with knowing little about what it was discussing. I didn’t feel like I learned anything from it and it kind of just felt like busy work. For a learning style that was a little bit in between, it had to be the lectures because sometimes they would be really helpful and other times I just couldn’t understand what was going on even with asking questions myself or other people asking, and other times there was no time for questions because we had to get through them quickly. *Also Baity wanted to mention the same thing about portraits she just forgot!
2. I wish we spent more time on period nine with everything after the 1950s because every time the AP exam asked about things that happened in period nine, I would skip the writing and move on to a period I know more about or on the multiple choice I just had to base my information given to me in the excerpt. There was also a lot to review during Apush and since everyone said not to focus on period nine and more on periods three through eight, so I didn’t focus on it too much because I was more worried about reviewing those periods.
3. I think focusing less on period one would have been helpful since we’ve been learning about it for a while now and saved more time to learn about the periods that are more prominent on the AP exam, of course, we should still learn about it, but I think condensing the content more to fit in other events would be good.
4. I learned a lot from this class, specifically how specific events still affect us today or how they affected society back then as well as how it formed governmental policies and such. Lastly, I learned how to improve my writing skills through the writing sections on exams and more!
1. My absolute favorite learning style was the student led presentation format, with my favorite assignment being the Market Revolution Shark Tank. It’s events like these that allow people to learn more about each other and the content all while having fun. The presentations are a reflection of the person, and the creative ways people can come up with to present make the knowledge stick. I think my least favorite way to learn was through the notes packets. The information covered inside was extremely useful, but the notes taken took hours a week for a single quiz (although that might just be my issue, as the notes packet I filled out were packed to the brim).
2. I wish we had spent more time on anything 1960s and after. Because of the rush to make it to World War II, we didn’t even really make it to this era, and it compromised certain portions of the end test. We touched on several points briefly (mainly the major turning point of the Cold War that extended throughout the 1970s and 1980s), but never outside of that context, and more on Nixon’s campaign would have really helped on the end test, even if it was just some social context what the public thought of certain political measures.
3. We discussed pre-colonial eras and the 1600s to pre-Revolutionary War more than necessary, in my opinion. While this did add up on the test in small amounts, the questions were general as opposed to many of the specifics we discussed. And even though I know there could be more next year, the main years covered were from the 1750s-1970s, which is also where the most information is present. It may feel rushed to get past this era so quickly but ultimately worthwhile when looking at test content percentages over many years. If some of that time could have been spent covering the info we never got to, the year would have been perfectly balanced out.
4. In starting this year, I thought I knew all I needed to know about American history, and I wanted to learn about other cultures across the world. What I slowly began to realize was how little I actually knew about US history, and how much of the history I knew was written and led by white men. Analyzing these different sources and documents and discovering the way America has treated everyone opened my eyes to the vast, unquantifiable nature the past holds, and that when you think you’ve discovered it all, only the surface of an iceberg has been revealed.
Some of my favorite ways to learn were the lectures, and at home I would take notes on Himler videos to review before a test or sometimes even before a quiz. I liked the lectures and how you printed out the slideshow so it is easier to refer back to whatever you were talking about while taking notes. I’m a very visual learner so having a copy to refer back to was very useful. My least favorite way to learn this year was by watching videos, as I feel like I forget what I learned after watching it, specifically when they are videos assigned when you were absent. I feel like while watching videos on a specific topic could be time diverted to a lecture, while I do think they were relatively useful, considering we were a bit behind, I feel like they could have been assigned as homework, or just a suggestion to watch.
I think more units 8-9. I know we didn’t really get there in general but one of the things I was really excited about learning in APUSH was the civil rights movement, but other than that we did skim over a bit of the end of unit 7 and part of 8, i’m not sure if it’s just me, but I feel like those were the units where I didn’t really know what was going on, like really every other unit I feel like I could give a solid walkthrough to anyone who wanted it, except units 7 and 8, but I know we were on a time crunch so that’s not exactly your fault.
Honestly I don’t think we went too into depth with anything. That is something that I really enjoyed about the class and your teaching, you didn’t just go a mile wide and a inch deep, but a mile wide and like half a mile deep. While that is something that I did enjoy, I think in general it was part of the reason why we didn’t get through the whole curriculum. I’m not saying go a mile wide and an inch deep next year, but maybe just a bit less vertical digging if that makes any sense.
Before taking APUSH I really didn’t know a lot about American history, and I can say that definitely changes this year. I learned so much during this course that I wasn’t even on my radar, genuinely 55% of what we learned I had never heard of, or I never really learned about it. Also outside of American history, I can say my writing skills have improved a lot, and also really showed in my english grade, when while my teacher was sometimes grading on a AP lang rubric, so thank you for that.
My favorite learning style was doing the review terms. This was the best way for me to study all of the content in APUSH because the review terms were very condensed and specific analyses of the topics. My least favorite way to learn was the lectures. I didn’t like them because they got very off topic leading me to also get off topic.
What I wish we would have studied more was the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From the time that we spent studying this time period, I could tell that this was kind of the turning point between the US of the past and the US of the present. A lot of what we see now in this country could be because of things that happened in that time. After reconstruction was the “teen” years of the US and these should probably be studied more because its very likely future APUSH exams will drill on these times. Another thing that we maybe should have spent more time on is the Cold War and what happened after but, it didn’t come up that often on the multiple choice and all that I needed to learn I learned the night before which was my one day of actually studying.
I wish that we wouldn’t have spent so much time studying the time beginning years before our country was born. These years may be very important and still should be studied but we can probably afford to spend about a week less on these years and instead spend a week on the more recent events.
What I learned about American history is that it is very hypocritical. America has claimed forever to be based on Freedoms and civil liberties and those are typical American values. The treatment of African Americans within the US was a huge contradiction to what was written in the constitution. Segregation and discrimination that followed the amendments giving african americans “rights” was also a huge sign of hypocrisy. Women were horribly mistreated and abused for hundreds of years and the youth have never had their voices heard. That is just internally. Externally it is even worse. While the US has always promoted itself as defender of democracy around the world, it has supported authoritarian regimes many times and unjustly overthrown governments it felt it didn’t like, like in Iran and in Chile, Guatemala and Nicaragua not to mention their involvement in Panama to take that land from Colombia for their own gain. Interventionism in South America just showed the arrogance of the US and wasn’t needed.
1. There were a lot of ways we studied each topic this year, but my favorite style of learning was really just studying by myself. Though it wasn’t the most fun path in learning all the material we would cover on the quizzes and tests, it was my main source for learning the APUSH material. Even though cramming happened a lot, the guided notes helped in both reviewing and trying to remember the material. I took detailed notes and handwriting them made it easier for me to recall the material. The guided notes were the most efficient way of learning the material and they worked for me. My least favorite way of learning style was probably the portraits and slideshows. Whenever I read the portrait material, I never felt that I had gained anything other than a grade and they didn’t really help me on the tests/quizzes or the AP exam. I thought the slideshows were okay, but they also went over the same material as the guided notes from the AMSCO, so we would have to pretty much go over the same material as we may have gone over the night before. The slides weren’t fully reviewed either at times and wasn’t the greatest experience.
2. What I suffered the most from was the Cold War material in the AP exam. We ran out of time at the end and never reviewed the Cold War as in-depth as we would’ve with other topics/chapters. We didn’t get to Unit 9 also because we ran out of time and I wish we had more time to go more in-depth with the later material. I ended up having to watch Heimler’s History videos on the Cold War because I just didn’t really know exactly what was going on.
3. I thought we should have studied the Indian tribes a little less, or have spent less time on Unit 1. Much of the information regarding the specific details of the distinct Indian tribes was, in my opinion, not too relevant to the overall idea of the unit. It was important to realize that all the tribes were different and had their own differences, but we also mostly know the story of Christopher Columbus and that could’ve been cut shorter, especially with the summer reading we had to do.
4. I’d say my takeaway, or what I learned from APUSH, was much of, obviously, American History, but also the reason why certain events happened the way they did, and why the past affects us today. I think it’s important that we realize that many aspects of the past apply to all parts of society today. I believe that if we don’t want to make the mistakes of the past, then it is necessary to learn the past.
My favorite learning style for this class, and the one that really helped me remember things, was writing. Whenever we had a blog, portrait, or any other writing assignment on a certain topic, it required a lot of thinking and sometimes research. Because I had to physically type or write something out, it caused the information to really stick. That goes for the notes for chapter quizzes as well. Although the quizzes were open notes and I wrote down all the information I thought I’d need for the quiz, I found myself often just remembering the answers from writing them, and rarely having to actually check my notes.
I definitely wish we could’ve spent more time on World War 2. I’ve heard so many people say that WWII is their favorite topic of history to study, and the fact that there are so many movies and books about it proves that it really is that interesting. We didn’t get to go into too much depth due to it being one of our last units and we were running out of time, but I also think since this was purely American history we were a little restricted on how much of the war we really looked at, as we focussed on what affected the United States.
It might just have been the time of the year we were learning this period, but I found myself losing focus a lot while we learned about the early to mid 1900s. Specifically with the Great Depression, I feel like I never fully grasped the economic aspect of things, as there were a lot of concepts I just didn’t fully comprehend. I don’t know if we truly spent too much time on it, but it felt long to me because I wasn’t very interested in the topic and didn’t understand everything.
I think my big takeaway from APUSH was understanding how important different perspectives on history are. In my previous history classes we learned straight out of the textbook and were just told definitive facts about what happened in the past. In APUSH, we read articles of different views on events or topics, discussed how things affected different groups, and how our history still impacts us today. All in all, APUSH really showed me that the real reason we have to learn about our history is so that we can learn why things are the way they are today.
My favorite way to learn this year was the PowerPoints that you did in class. I retained a lot of information from what was said in class during the PowerPoint. I feel like when you talked about the different events, it was just a lot easier for me to remember for the future quizzes that we had. I also really liked the dates quizzes. The dates quizzes helped me a lot more when it came to the FRQs. I would often just think back to the dates quizzes when we did FRQs so I could try and stay in the time frame. I honestly would be way out of the time frames for the FRQs if it wasn’t for the dates quizzes. My least favorite way of learning was having to read the textbook and take notes. Although I feel this is honestly the best way to really learn I just really disliked it. I feel like it took so much time that I would always just end up zoning out and just reading/taking notes without actually understanding what I read. So in the end, it would be a waste of time for me especially when it came time for a test because 9 times out of 10 I was clueless. But I did appreciate the notes when it came time for the open-note quizzes. If I forgot a certain event I was thankful that were able to use the notes that we took to help us. I wish we were able to spend more time on the World Wars the postwar. I honestly don’t remember a thing from those periods because they went by so fast or we just never got to it. I can’t even recall how they began/ended but I do know that we were running low on time so it would’ve been hard to actually get deep into learning about those eras. I honestly enjoyed learning about the chapters on the Civil War, but I feel it could’ve been shortened a bit more. I can still remember most of the events during the Civil War and Reconstruction mainly due to the fact that we spent a lot of time on it. Another part that could be shortened is Jefferson’s era. I remember us doing a few things during his era and it also felt a bit long and I feel like it could have been just a little bit shorter. Overall I learned that you really shouldn’t procrastinate in APUSH and just stay on top of your work or this class can become miserable quickly. I also learned that you should honestly study for future test as soon as the note packets are handed out and that you shouldn’t wait last minute to try and cram in information or you’re just making life harder for yourself. Overall I can say that I am thankful that I took this class I just wish I didn’t let my procrastination get in the way and it could’ve probably been a lot less stressful.
(1)My favorite way to learn is to teach or be taught by various sources. I have found that I get a better understanding of information when I have heard it in different ways. What this then allows me to do, is discern what information is important and what isn’t. After analyzing all of the sources, the importance becomes clear, because they have been discussed or mentioned by every source that I used.
My least favorite way to learn was by watching videos. If I watched a short video, like a Crash Course, that would get straight to the point, then maybe I would have better liked this learning method. Unfortunately, if videos are longer than 10 seconds, they lose my attention.
(2)I wish we would have spent more time on the Great Society. When it came time to learn about changes in social spheres, I got confused about where and how they related to diplomatic affairs. I know that we were running out of time, but having to rush through a time period in which many social norms were established, was much less than ideal. The best way to have spent more time on the Great Society would be to reallocate the class time dedicated to learning about FDR, his new deal, or the rights that he would ideally give to the people.
(3)I felt like we spent a lot of time learning about the gilded age. The period is a very important one, but we spent so long on that time period that I forgot what decade we were learning about. A good chunk of the class times used to learn about the gilded age ended up becoming focused on how Native Americans were affected by the expansion. I think that it is important to learn about these people, just not during lessons in which their people are not the topic of conversation.
(4)What I took away from APUSH is that you have to do it yourself. In the beginning of the year, I thought that I was supposed to lean on the teacher. But, as the year progressed, I came to realize that most work had to be done outside of class, simply because the teacher wouldn’t have enough time to grade APUSH assignments daily. About the material itself, I learned about the constant changes in the political spheres (especially the liberal vs. non-liberal swing) that makes current politics make more sense.
1. My most effective and favorite learning styles this year were watching videos in class and studying. In class, there were multiple powerpoints presented to us throughout the year on each unit we were learning. Although this may be effective for most people, I couldn’t pay attention in class, and this generally tends to be a problem for me. Since I have ADD, it’s hard for me to focus on one thing. As a visual learner, watching videos and movies explaining the subject helped me so much better understand what was going on. For example, the Drunk History videos helped a lot, and even though some of the information may be incorrect, giving a visual demonstration of what was happening in the scene helped me understand the context better. Also, reading was one of my least favorite ways to learn because of how the text can be interpreted, and I have a hard time comprehending what is being said.
2. Out of everything we studied, I wish we had spent more time learning about women’s suffrage. In my first trimester of APUSH, I did an extra credit assignment that revolved around the first wave of feminism and realized that there had been so much more detail in that video than what we had learned in my second trimester. Not that I don’t think that we learned anything, but I had wished we had gone more in depth with women’s rights and the evolution of unity. I also wish we spent more time on the last period of APUSH and World War 2 because we unquestionably rushed through those time periods in order to make it for the exam.
3. What I wish we had studied less of were the first periods of APUSH, including the Native Americans and the American Revolution. As appropriate and essential as it is to have a refresh from middle school, I believe that it could be cut down by a fair amount. In middle school, my history teacher never really taught us anything, but we still learned the foundations of history. If we spent less time on these periods and focused more on the areas that middle school hasn’t taught us, I think it would create a better grasp on the subject and how it all connected.
4. My takeaway from APUSH is that American history is too complicated but can be understood by people willing to learn. After the first trimester, I was ready to take American History, but my friend told me that I needed to challenge myself, and if I wanted to take this class, I needed to lock in. I talked to Mr. Wickersham after class, got a tutor for APUSH, bought books, used flashcards, and used other resources, and eventually improved significantly. I genuinely enjoyed this class, as stressful as it was, and learned incredibly.
Blog #172 – Reflections on a Year in APUSH
This year in Apush, we have learned a lot in many different ways. My favorite was watching historical videos or movies as they conveyed and portrayed the topic we were studying descriptively and visually especially the movie Red Tails. As World War 2 was one of my favorite topics, and we didn’t cover the actual battles, this movie showed me the real-life intense dogfights soldiers had to go through when participating in the Navy. As everyone knows in APUSH, we never go over the actual battles, which are the most interesting part of history. The strategies, losses, and comebacks are incredibly interesting and fun to learn. Just seeing the battles take place was very satisfying for me as they are my favorite parts of history to study whether it’s American or World history. This was just one of the reasons why I loved learning history visually and with videos. There are many more. I would recommend Mr. Wickersham to use visual aids and videos more next year as I think it would attract most students’ true attention and interest.
I wish we had talked about World War 2 more. To be honest, I thought it was really rushed. World War 2 has always been my favorite topic to talk about. A more in-depth study of the Axis powers, the USSR, the UK, and the US at the period, as well as their interactions with one another, would have been great. Also, I wished we covered the Vietnam war as I love the movies about it and find it very interesting. The adaptation to new weapons and vehicles during the war and the battles brighten my mind and make me really enjoy learning about history.
Although it’s difficult to remember the earlier units, I thought the year started off a little slowly. Even while Period 1 is significant information to be aware of and does appear on the test in some form, we could have completed it far more quickly. In the same way, Period 2 felt somewhat slow, even though we were only now entering APUSH. In general, I believe that learning regarding extremely particular subjects, random videos, and other pointless items may be cut from all of the units to make it to the last chapters before the test.
After taking AP United States History, I’ve learned that, despite the country’s history appearing to be shorter than that of other nations, it is nonetheless rather fascinating and a useful source of information. Apart from the historical content of the course, I learned a lot about sophisticated writing approaches and styles and developed a stronger work ethic.
1. My favorite way we learned new subjects this year was by reading, since I feel like it forces me to focus on the information so I can actually remember it. When I had to finish my notes on all of our quizzes, reading not only helped me fill out the packet, but also had the added benefit of helping me commit much of the information I saw into memory. However, watching videos and movies didn’t really help me remember since it was hard to pay attention and it wasn’t as direct as just reading straight from the textbooks. If I wasn’t paying attention at all times it was easy to miss information, and I couldn’t go at my own pace the same way I would with a book. Since I like to work at my own pace and I’m more of a visual learner, hearing the information from video was difficult for me to take in and understand.
2. I wish we spent more time on the early 1800s and the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. When we were tested on events from the 1850 and before, I found it hard to remember what was going on during that period and could only refer to a few items from the dates quiz. I feel like, since we focused so much on late-antebellum history and the Civil War, we missed a lot of crucial information and in-depth studying for the first half of the century. Of course, I also wish we had much more time to study post-1950 history. Since we were only given time to write a Google doc about all the events and were required to attend a review session, it took a lot more work than most units to learn the necessary amount of information. Additionally, it was difficult for me to get the main idea of many of the decades due to studying so many eras at once and having little time in class to cover them in detail.
3. When I think back to what we learned this year, I definitely know a lot more about the Revolutionary Period, great frontier, and industrial revolution of the early 1900s than was necessary on the tests, or even in general. Since the Revolution was probably the most important event in American history, it makes sense that we would cover it in so much detail. Still, the contrast between this era and how little we learned about the 1500-1600s was a bit intense, even though there was definitely more to the 1700s than previous centuries. For the western frontier, it just seemed like we spent way more time studying the culture of the frontier than necessary, and the lesson was often too detailed about niche subjects such as Buffalo Bill’s frontier show than it should’ve been. Finally, I feel like we moved very slowly through the early 1900s and the struggles of the factory workers, especially since we were reading The Jungle during that time which caused us to focus even more on workers’ rights. Overall, I think we would have had more time for the rest of the 20th century if we had focused more on economic conditions than stories of specific companies’ fraud and coinciding strikes.
4. I learned just how much bravery, companionship, and inspiration it took to give America such a unique character, and to turn such a newly-formed country into, arguably, the most well-known nation in the world.
1.A lot of our time this year has been spent reading, writing, studying, watching videos, reflecting, and talking about American history. Discuss what your favorite learning style was this year and why it was effective for you. Also, explain your least favorite learning method and why it doesn’t work for you.
My favorite learning style was studying and writing. I liked researching and reading the review book, as I felt like it gave you at least an overview of the chapter, if not more. Additionally, the timelines felt immensely helpful, providing opportunities to gather evidence in the given time frame for the free response questions and also helping you piece together the chronology of historical events, making it easier to connect events. Furthermore, writing is essential for the AP exam, and I wish we started the more complex writing prompts sooner and had more practice or discussions with the LAQs and DBQs. My least favorite learning style was when we reflected on American history in class, as I felt like we were just rehashing ideas from the textbook that most individuals had read and taken notes on, wasting valuable class time that could’ve been used for more important things.
2. We studied a lot of stuff this year, from the Pilgrims to the Revolution to Andrew Jackson to Abe Lincoln to Alice Paul to the Depression and the Cold War. What did you wish we had spent more time on than we did this year, and why?
I wish we would’ve spent more time studying the last period of APUSH (1980–present), as we didn’t cover it at all, or at the very least not much. Additionally, I wish we covered more of the societal progress during the 1960s, went more in-depth on the Cold War, JFK’s assassination, and later in class, as I feel like it could’ve been super helpful to just know. I wish we overall studied the last period or part of U.S. history because it would’ve greatly helped if there were more questions from that period, and additionally, it would help connect the stuff we learned in APUSH to our present, giving more context to how America got to where it is today, as it seems that there was rapid progress during that time, which would’ve been important to know of. For example, things like Reaganomics and the financial policies of Reagan’s administration were mentioned in one of the questions on the APUSH exam, and if we had reached that period more in-depth or at all, I might not have had to study independently as much or have a more nuanced understanding of the topic.
3. Yep, we studied a whole lot of stuff this year, but I bet you wish some units were shorter or didn’t go as in-depth. What did you wish we had studied less of, and explain why (keep in mind that if the information doesn’t make it onto the test, that doesn’t mean it won’t be there next year)?
I wish we studied periods 1 and 2 less, regarding the colonization of America and Columbus’ arrival, as I felt some things covered in that period weren’t on the test at all, such as the types of charters and what charters were with which company in period 2 or for period 1, just going less in-depth as I feel like period 1 can be summed up pretty easily. I do still think we should learn these periods as they are essential to the history of the United States, but by going slightly less in-depth, we could have more time in class to reach later periods in American history, as well as spend more time on writing as it’s a vital part of the Apush test, as in the DBQ, which we started at best in the 2nd half of the 2nd trimester.
4. People talk a lot about takeaways—a summary of an experience distilled down to one or two sentences. What is your takeaway from APUSH (or, in other words, what did you truly learn about American history)?
APUSH has helped me hopefully prepare for other AP classes by having a lot of work, like the note packets every week or two, which helped prepare me for longer studying sessions and actual studying. Furthermore, it helped me adjust to faster classes, as APUSH moves pretty fast compared to other classes, ultimately helping prepare me for other AP classes. To summarize my experience in APUSH, I would say APUSH contains more work in the form of notes, blogs, and portraits than other classes, but also has easier work than other classes, with a lot of extra credit. American history is interesting not only as a result of the context it gives to the present but also by showing the complexities of government and demonstrating patterns in American history such as corruption.
My favorite style of learning this year was the notes. I think without the notes I wouldn’t have learned anywhere near as much, or be able to review as easily. The notes helped to reinforce what we were talking about in class and then were definitely the most helpful thing to review for the A.P test with. The thing I liked the least was articles and the article quizzes. I was already reading and highlighting/taking notes on the review book and with the quizzes I needed to do that X2. Yes, they weren’t very long, but I still had to read them several times over to actually pass the quiz and understand what it was saying. They also weren’t helpful at all for the A.P test.
I think we should’ve spent more time on the effects colonists had on the indigenous peoples. I feel like what was happening to them was overshadowed a bit by other things we were talking about at the time. For example, when we were talking about the Trail of Tears, we really only read the article and then moved on and talked more about Andrew Jackson’s presidency and his policies. There were assimilationist schools as discussed when we read about Jim Thorpe, but then those were just never talked about again or even mentioned. Obviously there’s also the WW2 stuff and beyond that we didn’t have time for but we sort of already talked about how you wanted to do more with that and really just couldn’t with the time crunch.
There was a lot of talking about the late 1800s and the political machines and the corruption and policies etc. but I think that there was probably too much time spent there talking about it. We spent a lot of time there talking about Boss Tweed, Carnegie, Thomas Nast, but we didn’t really even talk about the presidents at that point because we were extremely busy learning about migration. I think if we didn’t spend the month that we did on that time period we could’ve gotten much further into WW2 and the late 1900s.
My takeaways from APUSH are; 1.) Possibly the greatest theme within America itself is prejudice and racism toward immigrants, women, and african Americans. I mean throughout any era we covered there was always talk about what new thing they were doing that ostracized or was just screwed up towards those groups. 2.) History repeats itself constantly. So many things just happen over and over again. Whether its a president over using their powers, Louisiana purchase up to Iran Contra affair, or slavery to share cropping to racism even now with lower pay for African Americans and worse jobs. 3.) Everybody and everything has a complicated legacy. Nothing is black and white. Abe Lincoln, TJ, Carnegie, JFK, they all had bad and or negative intentions but they also all did great things.
1.My favorite learning style was probably the slides. I liked the slides because we would talk about how these certain events and people were important and why. I felt that when I listened and took notes on the slides, I understood the context and importance the most. I am more of a tactile learner so I like to be given information and then write what I feel is most important to learn. With the slides, I could also write down extra information that I feel was important during the time. The only con I have from the slides and taking notes on them, was when we would get off topic. Other than that one con, I liked the slides a lot and they helped me learn the context of certain people and events. My least favorite way of learning was reading straight from the textbook and taking notes on that. I feel that taking notes took up a lot of time and it made me feel like I was focusing more on finishing my notes than the actual information itself. While the notes helped I feel that it would have been better if it was shortened in some way. Like I said, I’m more of a tactile learner so reading and taking notes just felt more like a chore than a way to learn the valuable information in the textbooks.
2. I felt like we could have spent more time on the Great Depression and the civil rights justice groups around the 1900s. The time of the Great Depression came up on the AP test and I feel like we just rushed through that lesson. While we did try to cover it, I feel that for me it just felt like it was so rushed that I couldn’t actually absorb the information for the AP test. I also feel that the Depression was so important and had so many effects on American life and we could have learned about it a bit longer. The social justice groups including the Feminist movement, black panther party, among other civil right groups made a huge impact on US history. The civil rights group is so widespread and made such a big impact on US history and I feel like it could have helped us on the AP test had we learned about it. Civil rights changed history and I feel that I only got to know the acts before the civil rights movement and less of the events that happened during the civil rights movement itself.
3. I feel like we could have learned less about the Native Americans and the American Revolution. I learned a lot about the history and events that happened during the American revolution and knew a lot of history of native americans from middle school. Also knowing that they don’ t make up much of the AP test also plays an impact on why I think we should learn less about these periods. A lot of the middle school curriculum focuses on these events and I feel we could have reviewed less of it. So we should go over other events that we didn’t learn in middle school so we can learn more about more events.
4. I learned how complicated the injustices that the US has done to minority groups throughout American history. I also learned how America became the big powerhouse that it is today. I also learned about how to study and to have the best success in classes like APush, you have to do a lot of work outside of class.
My favorite learning style would have to be the student made and led presentations. I found that I learned more from these because no offense, they were a lot of engaging and it was easier to pay attention to. The presentations kept the aspect of learning but just made it more enjoyable. One of my least favorite learning styles would probably have to be the chapter quizzes. The dates quizzes were extremely helpful, though I feel some aspects of the chapter quizzes are just too much. I enjoyed the open note, it’s just the fact that I feel some of the questions didn’t have any real importance for us to remember the answer or learn, but I wanted to get a good grade so I scrambled to fill in the notes, writing down everything I thought could be on there. I’ve definitely spent my fair share of days staying up and writing notes until 1 or 2 am. I feel the quizzes could be more useful if it’s easier to know what kind of information will be on them, and not random things such as the name of this one guy who did this one thing that’s never going to be brought up again.
I know it’s difficult, but I really wish we could have spent more time on the later periods. I wasn’t able to make it to the period 8 and 9 reviews outside of school as I had other things going on such as soccer, and we didn’t get to cover it in class. Some of the things I had to write about and answer on the exam I was completely lost on since I was so burnt out from studying and we never made it to those topics in class.
I think of everything we studied, we could maybe shave some time off of unit one. Its an important time period to learn, but it isn’t covered very much on the exam, and I think that some things we went really in depth on weren’t really necessary. This is especially so when you consider the summer reading we did on Christopher columbus.
My takeaway from APUSH is that I learned a lot of the truths in things that happened in our history that typically get covered up. Apart from content, this class really helped me with getting better with time management.