1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Industrial Revolution
3. Napoleon Bonaparte
4. Isaac Newton
5. Declaration of Independence
6. Charles Darwin

As with the pop quizzes, I scored each answer on a 4-point scale, then added up the results. The high score in the class was 42 out of a possible 48 (before extra credit) again, which I used as the 100% mark (which again raised everyone’s grades a lot). The median score was between B and B-. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

If you compare it to the last quiz, you can see some movement from B to A and some movement from D to C. But not much.

As with the pop quizzes, I scored each answer on a 4-point scale, then added up the results. The high score in the class was 42 out of a possible 48 (before extra credit), which I used as the 100% mark (which raised everyone’s grades a lot). The median score was a B or B-. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

This looks pretty good, but remember two things. The extra credits were a very helpful: most people got both right, and each grade scale was only three points or a bit more. The top score is very likely to go up in later tests, which means that everyone has to improve just to stay even.

Finally, I was, as I noted, very disappointed by the number of answers which parroted back the textbook’s sidebar definitions. Here are a few examples of how those definitions compare to answers which actually got good scores (3.5 or 4 out of 4) below the fold. My favorite example is the last one: notice how the textbook sidebar definition almost entirely fails to mention what makes Cornwallis important in this chapter, but the student definition ignores all the irrelevant stuff and goes right to significance? Note that the student definitions aren’t perfect but they very clearly cover the context, often mention and define related terms, and are especially good on significance, why the term/person/etc. mattered:

My apologies to the 2pm section for missing Monday: I have put the lecture outline online, so that anyone who missed class due to the weather or illness can review it. Those of you were there for the 11am class are welcome to look at it as well, obviously.

Regarding the Test on Monday, covering chapters 15 through 20, inclusive, and the lectures, the format will be very much like the pop quizzes: I will choose four or five (or six) terms from each chapter — the terms in the “Key Terms” lists, of course — to put on the test. From those, you will pick twelve (12) to answer: at least one from each of the six chapters, and the rest from any of the remaining terms. I will supply the test and paper; you bring something to write with and everything you can remember about the last month’s readings and lectures.

Finally, for fun, here’s pre-Revolutionary satires on French aristocratic hairstyles, including a recreation of the Battle of Bunker Hill [mildly adult content]. The one that made me laugh was the one with the hairdresser using a nautical navigational tool — the sextant — to arrange the hairstyle.

Also, I hand back pop quizzes when I have them graded — and I’ll try my best to make sure that’s the next class — but if you’re not there when I hand them back, I’ll just hold onto them until next time I have something to hand back. If you missed my handing them out, feel free to ask me for them before or after class.

The answers I’m looking for have three important components:

• Definition: Basic information about what the person did or what the event involved or what the term means.
• Context: What country or region, what time period does this fit into? What else is happening around this term that’s important to know? What other people or events or concepts play a role?
• Significance: Why is this an important person or event or concept? What does this change about the world, and what comes after this that couldn’t have happened without it?

Definition alone, which is what you get if you memorize the textbook sidebar or a sentence or two from the text, gets you up to about a C. Context gets you to B-range. You need all three to make an A. (All of this assumes that you’re getting it right, of course.) You can get all that from the textbook, if you read it carefully, but it’s a lot easier if you listen to the lectures, too. Your answer on tests need not be limited to the material in a single chapter: many names and terms and processes will appear in multiple chapters; pop quizzes, on the other hand, will focus on the term as defined in the chapter assigned for that day.

You can find some exemplars of good work from previous semesters here and here.

I grade the individual questions on a 4-point scale: 4=A, 3=B, etc. On the tests, I then total those up and, taking the highest grade in the class as 100%, convert them back to a letter grade with pluses and minuses. I record that grade (on a hundred point scale, so F is still worth more than zero) as your grade on the test.

The high score in the class was 44 out of a possible 48 (again!), but I used the second-highest score, 40, to preserve a reasonable distribution. The median score was a B again, but only barely. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

The extra credits were a little helpful, but seemed more challenging than I thought they’d be (each person was responsible for the two quotes immediately to their left, in order!)

On the test, I’m awarding half a point for trying, and half a point for each person you correctly connect with a quotation, up to a maximum of 2 points total.

The high score in the class was 39 out of a possible 48. The median score was a B; as you’d expect with a lower top score, the median was a bit higher than last time. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

11 people were helped by the extra credit, moving up a grade because of those points. That’s more than a third of the people who attempted the extra credit questions.

On the next test, I’m going to keep the structure of the last one — Twelve terms: two from each chapter, plus four from any remaining terms — with a slight modification. Because we spent more time on the Enlightenment/revolution chapter, I’m going to require three from that one. You still have three “free choice” terms, though.

The high score in the class was 44 out of a possible 48 — pretty good for the first test. The median score was a B-, which is actually quite good. Here’s how the grade scale worked out:

Over the weekend I’ll put some of the 4-out-of-4 answers up here for reference.

When looking at your papers, you can ignore the little diagonal I put in the upper-left and lower-right corners of pages: that’s a note to me that there’s nothing before or after (respectively) that page which isn’t graded (just keeps me from having to flip more pages than necessary). If I underlined or circled something in one of your answers, though, it almost certainly means something you got wrong. If I put an “approximately” sign in the margin (and I do this on essays, too) — it looks like this: ≈ — that means something which is almost right, or nearly wrong; questionable, in other words.

Here are some sample answers. As always, these earned 4 out of 4, though that doesn’t mean perfection: it just means that the historical issues are covered, clear, and the significance really is significant.

Monsoons: Monsoons are seasonal storms that affect southeast Asia, especially where trade was extremely important. When the monsoons came and went, they had specific wind patterns that allowed ships to come in to port and leave with goods. Without the change in winds, like the fixed winds of the Atlantic, trade would have been horribly difficult. The rains brought in by the storms also allowed for certain raw goods to be produced in that specific area. The winds were vital to the trade enterprise across the world since seafaring trade began.

Martin Luther: Luther was a Catholic priest who disagreed with the idea of indulgences in the early 16th century. He osted his 95 These on his church door stating his grievances to the Church. He wanted the Bible printed widely and in several language so people could read the Bible themselves. This cuased the church to be upset with him and he caused a schism to form in religion forever. From his own branch, Lutheran, to Protestants, Episcopalians and others including Calvinism, he made people and the Catholic church reexamine their beliefs and branch out. He did not want to separate from the church at first, but that is how it ended up.

Council of Trent: This 15-year long series of meetings was the Catholic Church’s response to the schism of the church. It concluded 3 things:
1) There are fundamental problems within the church — indulgences and the selling of offices
2) The church is still needed as God’s representative on earth
3)focus more on education; opened seminaries and founded the Jesuit order

Slave Labor: Slaves were brought to the Americas by boat, in the hundreds of thousands and eventually millions. They were to replace the dying native populace as workers for European settlers. This slave treatment has contributed to the racial discrimination that still exists in this country today.

Smallpox was very dramatic to the Native Americans. The Europeans brought over this disease and it caused a pandemic through the Americas. Killing of thousands of the population, it also affects the European slave numbers because smallpox was killing off all of their workers.

Treasure fleets: Treasure fleets were Spanish ships that left ports in the Americas either filled with gold and silver and headed back to Spain or filled with silver headed for China to trade for silk. These ships made Spain one of the wealthiest places in the world but they were also vulnerable to attack from other countries.