Wednesday, January 8th
Wednesday, January 8th Bell Work: Please find your assigned seat
on the seating chart on the front tables. Once seated, answer the
following questions on your own sheet of paper:What did North
America look like prior to 1492? What would you see? What did the
landscape and the people look like? What did they do? Were there
any similarities between America and Europe?Guess the populations
of the following places in 1500: Paris, London, the British Isles,
and France.Now guess the population for North America as a whole,
and the biggest city up to this time in North America.
Daily Agenda: January 8th Bell Work: Picturing Pre-Columbian
AmericaDiscussion: A New Semester, A New CourseVocab Acquisition:
1.1 SFIsCritical Reading: 1491Summarizer: The Most Important
Thing
Essential Question: What does it mean to be an American?What
contribution did Native Americans make toward the development of
America?Homework: Read and complete worksheet for the article 1491
(be prepared to discuss the article in a Socratic Seminar
tomorrow). Welcome to AP U.S. History Changes for this SemesterMore
lecture in class, less reliance on video lecturesMore Core Readings
(Historical Thinking focus) and Socratic DiscussionMore Writing
(essay on every test and at least one more per unit)Daily Structure
Changes (Monday and Tuesday = Vocab Acquisition; Wednesday =
Review; Thursday = Writing; Friday = Critical Reading)Video Log per
unit (due at end of unit, equal to a quiz grade)Verb ReviewLets
take a few quick minutes to recall what we learned last semester.
Each of you have been issued a card with a verb on it. Take a few
minutes to think about what person or event you learned about last
semester that you can relate to the term. Each of you will be asked
to verbally share you conclusion with the class.Consider the
Following:Relative Populations in 1491:London 50,000Paris
200,000British Isles 3 millionFrance 16 millionNorth American
population = c. 15 millionCentral America = 90-115 million people
(1/5 of worlds total population and more than all of Europe
combined)Cahokia = around 50,000 peopleWhy do we assume the
continent was so sparsely populated?Wanted to believe that it was
unoccupiedless guilt.In the first 130 years of contact about 95
percent of the people in the Americas died from disease.Disease
killed as much as 90 percent of the people of coastal New
England.
Consider the following European records about the Americas and
note the dates:1. Las Casas (1542): it looked as if God has placed
all of or the greater part of the entire human race in these
countries.2. Sebastin Vizcano (1602): I have traveled more than
eight hundred leagues along the coast and kept a record of all the
people I encountered. The coast is populated by an endless number
of Indians.3. New England colonist (1630s): And the bones and
skulls upon the several places of their habitations made such a
spectacle that the Massachusetts woodlands heavily urbanized
populations were wiped out.Native American Culture:By 1000 A.D.,
trade relationships had covered the continent for more than a
thousand years; mother-of-pearl from the Gulf of Mexico has been
found in Manitoba, and Lake Superior copper in Louisiana. The
Native Americans inhabited a world in which, unlike Europeans, they
expected to meet peoples different from themselves.
Setting the Stage: Vocab AcquisitionPlease go to the Vocab page
on the class wiki. There you will find a game designed to introduce
you to some of the terms from Unit 1.Take the next 10 minutes to
get acquainted with the terms. Tomorrow we will work with the same
terms in a different format to help you get ready for your first
pass-fail quiz.
Pre-Columbian AmericaAs you read the assigned article, look
carefully for the assertions of the author as he challenges some
pre-conceived notions about life in the Americas prior to 1492.
After identifying each assertion, note how the author supports his
position in the text. After finishing the article, complete the
back side of the worksheet in preparation of tomorrows Socratic
Seminar.Note: This is a class set of the article, if you do not
finish in class, you can find a digital copy on the Handouts page
of the class wiki.
Exit Slip:On your own sheet of paper, answer the following
questions and turn them in before you leave to the homework
bin:What are three misconceptions about life in the Americas prior
to 1492?Why do you think historians are skeptical of the new ideas
about pre-Columbian life in the Americas?Does diminishing
pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas help to diminish their
role in forming American civilization?