1. Crafting Historical Arguments from Historical Evidence
Throughout the year, one thing that I was required to do was to develop historical arguments and supporting your arguments with relevant historical evidence and examples with reasoning. One time we did use this skill was during March Madness where everyone would select a historical leader and find out why your leader is the best leader overall. You would also have to go up against another classmate to debate which one is the better leader by using all the information gathered and use it to make claims by giving examples and evidence. At the same time you would come up with arguments for your opponent such as stating why he or she is a horrible leader and why they chose to do horrible actions. Even though I did not win the debates or any, I do feel like i deserved to win it more than my opponent because my opponent lied about my character, and i did back up his argument but no one really believed me because i was up against someone who said something funny. Which is why i think Mr. Rodriguez should cast the sole vote for the winner since it would be a fair debate rather than just a simple popularity vote. Another assignment that helped were the DBQ essays, where I would group about 8-10 documents into 3 categories on either feeling, why it was written or purpose. I would explain why I grouped them in that way with historical evidence and give examples and explain briefly. \
For my evidence i have provided my debate notes which i took in class when everyone was debating. I would write down claims which were made by the leaders and write all the claims in order to cast my vote as to whop i thought was the better leader. I also have a DBQ essay in which i self scored.
2. Chronological Reasoning
During this rigorous class, another historical thinking skill that i developed was chronological reasoning. I was able to recognize and state why there where time periods and how historians would chose to split the dates as top why that years starts off anew period or era. The change over time essays were a big help as we were given a topic to write about a certain place or topic. For example if it were the trade networks in China, I would say something about the Silk Roads and say during which dynasty it was developed and what dynasty it began to die off. Over the years i would state what remained the same and what had changed during the time frame i was given. Another skill associated with this thinking skill was periodization. I sort of mastered this when we took the date quiz where we have to memorize over 50 important dates in the 6 periods. I managed to re take it, about 5 times, and just missed short as i always got 2 dates confused, first opium war and the British East India Co. I wish i would have remembered the date abut i was dealing with so much at the time that i only bothered to remember the dates in chronological order. I think the most important skill for this category would be the Chinese Dynasty Song. I remember when Mr.Rodriguez tough us the song and it would help us remember the order of dynasties of China and know the time periods.
As evidence i have provided both the dates quiz which has helped me exponentially as i began to web sates with their periods. I also have a change and continuity essay where I scored a 6 which was my personal best in the chnage and continuity category.
3. Comparison & Contextualization
During the AP World History class, another historical thinking skill I found useful was the comparison and contextualization. This historical thinking skill involved the ability to describe societies. I was able to master this skill with the help of the SPICE charts. We would describe a topic or region in the subjects of Social, Political, Interaction, Culture, and Economic. Some times we would get two regions or topics and id state how it was caused and effected. For the essays we were allowed to chose three of five of the SPICE chart elements. For example, if it were to do something about China within the second era, I would either have to show evidence and explain with examples of how the society was, what type of political government the empire had, how society interacted with the environment, what the cultures and religions were in the region, and how their economy was thriving. These skills combined helped me know the similar developments that were occurring in the world during a certain era and helped me understand the big picture.
For my evidence i have provided a spice chart on the U.S., plus Canada and Latin America. I wrote down the similarities or differences in how each had their own social status, their political power, how they interacted with the environment, they culture diffusion and religion, and how wqell their economy was thriving. I also provided a picture of a web link from 600 BCE to 600 CE which was my hardest period but i have now mastered it
4. Historical Interpretation & Synthesis
FInally but not least, the skill that was the most important was the historical interpretation and synthesis. The soap stones were a big help to analyze a document or article in history. We would read through the source to analyze the point of views of the speaker, occasion, audince, subject and the tone with point of view. This also really helped while doing the DBQ essays as they were the easiest of the three essays of the AP exam. For synthesis, i mastered the connections box along wth the notes for each chapterbe cause we used previous chapters to relate to this one. All together this has helped me most importantly on all essays wether it was compare and contrast, DBQ, or change over time.
My final evidence would be a sopa stone son one of the documents in a chapter frm the AP World History book. Aso with various notes and connections box
