US History II

The exam next Friday, April 8th will cover Chapters 27-30, and will be closed-book but “open note” for the portion that covers the civil rights movement. I would like each of you to make notes about the civil rights movement, either in the form of a TIMELINE or in the form of a CONCEPT MAP. You can bring those notes to the exam, and you’ll staple it to your test when you turn it in (your notes will become part of your exam grade).

What you put on it is entirely up to you. You can make it as detailed or simple as you like: this study tool is to help you, so you should design it in whatever way works best for you. I am envisioning something that fits on 1-2 sheets of paper, there’s no need to get more elaborate than that.

Please note: Although it’s fine to collaborate with others while you study or work on your notes, each person needs to bring his or her own unique note sheet to the exam. Any 2 or more timelines or concept maps that are exactly the same as each other will receive no credit.

I’m calling this deep unit “The Long Sixties” because it covers more than just the decade from 1960-1970. We’ll be talking about social and political movements, foreign policy and overseas conflicts that don’t fit neatly into those years – starting in the 1950s and stretching into the 1970s. We are still feeling the domestic and international effects from the turbulence of this era.

The exam on this unit will be on Friday, April 8th, and will cover Chapters 27-30.

Topics in this unit include:

Cold War foreign policy
Cuban Missile Crisis and Foreign Affairs in the Kennedy Years
The Vietnam War
The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Other Civil Rights Movements: the Women’s movement/ Feminism, “Red Power,” and “Brown Power”
Decisions of the Warren Supreme Court
The Anti-War Movement, the Counterculture, and the New Left
The New Frontier (Kennedy’s domestic agenda)
The Great Society (Johnson’s domestic agenda)
The Liberal Consensus
Watergate

Image credit: Gilbert Mercier

Here’s the slides I used on Friday to explain the intricacies of footnotes.

If you need more help with how to make a footnote, or what “Chicago Style” is see Diana Hacker online, or the CMS Quick Guide. If you’re curious about why it’s called “Chicago Style,” well… I’ll just say it has nothing to do with pizza.

Enjoy your spring break!

When you get back, we’ll be doing another quick “sprint unit” on the politics and culture of the Cold War, 1945-1960 (Chapters 27 and 28). If you have time and inclination over the break you would do well to begin reading and studying those chapters.

It will be a busy week because Wednesday 3/23 will be a writing workshop day on the Primary Source Project. Please bring your working draft (outline or complete paper draft or whatever you have) to class that day as a printed paper.

The final version is due on Wednesday, 3/30. I am happy to meet with anyone who would like writing help on the paper; please make use of my office hours or set up an appointment. To give you a checklist as you’re working on this project, the grading rubric looks like this:

In looking at the schedule I had for the Primary Source Project, and since we had to miss a class on Monday, I am thinking that more time may be needed and so I’m going to stretch it out over the month of March instead of trying to fit it all in before the 2nd exam and the Spring break.

Please note that I revised the guidelines and the schedule of deadlines.

The new schedule is:

Mar 4      Choose your documents and formulate your question (in-class workshop Wed Mar 2)
Mar 7      Begin writing a draft of your paper
Mar 23   Rough draft due in class for self and peer review (in-class workshop Wed 3/23)
Mar 30   Final essay is due in class in hard copy (or uploaded by Digital Dropbox BEFORE class).

I will have a paper version of this assignment in class on Wed 3/2. Please still bring your FTR book, we will work on choosing documents and formulating questions.

Also on Wed 3/2 we will wrap up on the 1920s and discuss the Great Depression: its causes, impact, effects, meaning–leading up to the pivotal election of 1932.