Class Summary 4/16

Hey guys! I know at least in 5th period, some people had to leave early or were absent yesterday on the block day so here's a quick debrief...

1) Position Papers
Regarding our latest position papers about strict or loose constructionism, we were reminded to "set up the reader." Since we can control what the reader is supposed to know and to convince the reader of our opinion, we need to make sure that we are clear about our stance. Because of this, Mr. Stewart advised us not to straddle the two sides like in this prompt about loose vs. strict constructionism. Even if you don't agree wholly with the one side, it is more convincing and easier to argue when the stance is solid the entire way through.

Also, as a side note, Mr. Stewart clarified that the "opposing paragraph" does not necessarily have to be structured as such, as long as there is some concession to strengthen your own argument. He merely had this instruction to try to line up more with English classes, but, with the changes to the English position papers, this isn't as applicable.

2) AP Test Structure
We then went over the structure of the new AP test. There is a folder on Edmodo with the powerpoint that Mr. Stewart used to explain it. However, there is a 55 multiple choice section, a short answer section, a long essay (FRQ), and a DBQ. We went over the changes from previous years to this year, the breakdown of the percentages of the topics covered, and what topics would be tested.

One particularly recommended prep book was the REA AP US history book:
http://www.amazon.com/U-S-History-Crash-Course-REA/dp/0738608130

3) Multiple Choice Practice
Also on Edmodo we started going over the 200 multiple choice review questions. These are planned to be done all in class and we discussed the answers as we went along. Note the new structure! For each given piece of information there would be 2-5 questions following about the question.

Hope this helps if you missed any of class!