Cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. With the federal government at work and d. C. Throughout the country, use the congressional directory for Contact Information for members of congress, governors, or federal agencies. Order your copy online today at cspanstore. Org. Once again, we are back and we are helping our High School Students around the country prepare for the upcoming advance placement u. S. History exam. Woor here with jason stacy and Matthew Ellington, to help our students prepare for this test. Good morning, gentlemen. Good morning. Good morning. This is the first year weve done the u. S. History cram for the exam advance placement history test here on cspan. The first question everybody wants to know is what is changing this year for this test because of the coronavirus pandemic . Well, theres quite a bit change this year on the exam. Its a shorter test. It will be about 45 minutes long and its going to be an online test for students. In addition, its just one document based essay question with five documents and, finally, its a takehome. Excuse me. Its an exam that students can take at home from their computers. So, in this era of Distance Learning, College Board has really modified the test while still keeping the same skills that students need to be successful. And, finally, this test is an open note test. College board is not going to try to prohibit students from using their notes. Students may refer to notes as they take this exam. Thats right, matt. I think its really exciting, the change theyve made and they kept the documentbased question. The dbq, in a lot of ways, is the crown jewel of this test. It allows you to show off your writing skills, your ability to make arguments, to interpret documents and to bring in all the good information you learned this year. This year, its a modified time period that will be covered, concentrating on period three, which starts in 1754, and ending in period 7, which ends in 1945. Now were going to open up our phone lines for High School Students only. We want High School Students to call in with questions about the tests or questions about u. S. History for our distinguished teachers here. So, if you have questions about the test or if you want to attend one of our practice questions on air this morning, we want to hear from you as well. So, High School Students only. Were going to open up regional phone lines. That means if you are a High School Student in the eastern or central time zones, we want to hear from you at 2027488000. If you are a High School Student in the mountain and pacific time zones and you have a question about the test, you have a question about u. S. History, you have a question about how you should answer this question, we want to hear from you at 2027488001. Once again Eastern Central time zone 2027488000. Mountain and pacific time zones, 2027488001. I was looking over the questions of the test, gentlemen, and the first question that immediately popped to mind is that since this is an essay test, how much are you expected to write . Well, thats a great question, jesse. The amount youre expected to write is enough to answer the question. There is no number of words that are required. You should expect to write an essay thats multiparagraph and has a clear argument and that argument is probably going to be proven through a number of paragraphs. You should plan on having an introduction. And if you have time for it, a conclusion. Thats right. All essays are graded on a r rubric. They should be writing in such a way that they can accomplish the various tasks and demonstrate theyve learned the skills being asked of them on the ap history exam. Nobody is counting words. Nobody is counting pages. Nobody is counting characters. Thats right. Now, you said that this test will be taken by students at home. Tell me, can you take this at any time at home, or is there only a certain time period that the test will be open for students at home . Will everyone be taking it at the same time . Or will everyone be taking it at different times . Oh, no. Great point. Sorry. Go ahead, matt. This test will be taken by everyone across the world at the same exact time. Its going to be given friday, may 15th, at 2 00 p. M. Eastern, 11 00 a. M. Pacific time, and whatever local time people are. So, for folks in the u. S. , it wont be bad. For folks overseas, they could be testing at very odd hours. College board is doing this to ensure that the test can be as secure as possible. Thats right. And, as i understand it, theres a number of ways in which students can record their answer. They can write it in a word file or some sort of text file and turn it in as a file that they upload. They can handwrite it and take a picture of their responses and upload those with a phone, or they can even, i believe, write into a text box that the College Board will provide. They can write it right into a text box and provide their response that way. Now, what is it that students will see that they can base their essay on and how long will they have to write this essay and get it submitted . Students will click on their exam ticket. It will open up their exam. College boards strongly recommends that students log in 30 minutes prior to the exam, because there will be some security screens and some questions that they have to answer to verify their identity. When the exam begins, students will see the full question. So, theyll see the directions. Theyll see the five primary source documents that go with that question and then theyll also be the submission window that students can use to either cut and paste, as jason was mentioning, or they can attach their document to that. Well, we have some students waiting on the line right now to talk to you gentlemen, or perhaps to try one of our test questions. Lets see. Lets start with julia, calling from montclaire, new jersey. Julia, good morning. Hi, julia. Julia, are you there . We seem to have lost julia. Lets move to sarah, who is calling from bay city, michigan. Sarah, good morning. Caller good morning. Morning, sarah. Hi, sarah. Caller hi. So, sarah, do you have a question about u. S. History or do you want to try one of our sample questions and see how you would write your essay . Caller i have a question. How long is the exam this year and whats the format for it . Okay. So, sarah, its 45 minutes youll have to write. And its just one dbq that youre going to answer. And that dbq is going to have five documents. Thats right. So, this exam is basically a shorter, more condensed version of the traditional ap exam. Its the same skills. Its everything that you would have learned in your class, but youre only going to have one dbq to show what you know on this exam. Now, a question for both of you gentlemen. Do only High School Seniors take the ap test this year, or can juniors take it as well . Who is taking the test . Actually its usually go ahead, jason. Go ahead. I was going to say lets go with you, jason. Teachers, we love to talk. Yeah. Anyone who has signed up for the test who is in high school, its usually High School Juniors who take this test but often seniors take it, and i assume a school could even have sophomore class of ap u. S. History or students that age who have signed up. I dont believe theres a designated age, as long as the students are in high school. Usually its juniors who take this exam. Thats correct. My classes are all junior classes at my high school. And most high schools i know test juniors. Now, here is a question for you. Are either one of you suggesting that any of your students wait until next year to take it, or are you saying go ahead and do this . Lets start with you, matthew. Absolutely not. I dont recommend waiting, because theres a lot of content that students need to remember, and thats a long time to go, because those students will not be enrolled in ap u. S. History next year. So i definitely recommend that students take the exam this year. As i said, its the same skills as on the regular exam, its just shorter and in an online format. Thats right, matt. I agree. If youve prepared for it, if youve spent all this time in your classes, reading your textbook, practicing your essays, learning the information over the course of this academic year, the real reward is to take the test. And the College Board has made a great choice in choosing the dbq as being the feature that theyre going to keep in this unusual year, because the dbq allows you to show off all of the skills, your knowledge, your ability to make arguments, your ability to interpret documents. That dbq will allow you to show off all that work youve done. Lets talk to another one of our students who is calling in. Lets talk to selma calling from cambridge, maryland. Im sorry, cambridge, massachusetts. Morning, thelma. Thelma, are you there . Caller yeah. Good morning. Caller good morning. My question is what is revolution of reconstruction and what are good points to get the extra complexity point on the essay when, if we are asked about radical reconstruction or the revolution of reconstruction . Lets start with you with that question, jason. Well, ill start with the first part of the question. And ill go to matt for the complexity point, because he has a lot of good stuff to say about it. Okay. The revolution of reconstruction is in reference primarily to the amendments that come after the civil war, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment. 13th amendment, of course, abolishing slavery in the United States. 14th amendment establishing civil rights that will be protected by the federal government against state powers, specifically those in the former confederacy that are oppressing africanamerican populations in the south, and the 15th amendment that grant Voting Rights to africanamericans ideally throughout the United States. However, its important to keep in mind that there is a lot going on, on the ground during reconstruction after the civil war between time period of 1865 and 1877. And a lot of whats going on on the ground, especially in the south during that period, is running contrary to the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment. So, its important to keep in mind that the socalled revolution of reconstruction has a very, very mixed legacy. By the end of that time period, africanamericans, former slaves in the south, former enslaved africanamericans in the south are finding it very difficult to acquire their own land. Many of them are in a share c p cropping that reduces them to a situation where they are permanently in debt to land holders, many who are former slave holders themselves, and also especially by the end of reconstruction and even into the 1880s, Voting Rights are being curtailed in the south for africanamericans through terrorism, organizations like the ku klux klan and also through local legislation like grandfather clauses and literacy tests that prevent africanamericans from fulfilling those rights that they helped acquire in fighting the civil war on the side of the union and that the Republican Congress sought to instill and place into the constitution through that 13th, 14th and 15th amendment. Jasons right. If you remember even a fraction of what he just said, youre going to earn that complexity point. Complexity is College Boards attempt to reward a more sophisticated essay. If you look at the rubric, the complexity point is given for qualifying or modifying an argument. Now, there are some tips that we can give you to maximize your chances at earning the complexity point. In the textbook that jason and i wrote called fabric of the nation we outlined a threestep strategy called gem, because you want to write a gem of an essay. Acronym stands for generate nuance. Talking about not just the successes but also talking about of the limitations of reconstruction, how it applied differently to different groups, what did and did not work. The second part of that strategy is to explain both sides of the skill. College board frames their essay questions around one of three reasoning skills, causation, comparison or continuity and change over time. All three of those reasoning skills actually have two sides to them, causation is cause and effect. Comparison is similarity and difference. And continuity and changes, obviously, is continuity and change. One of the tips to earn the complexity points is to make sure if the prompt only calls for one side for example, if it said evaluate the extent of change, right, in terms of reconstruction, you would also want to talk about some of the continuities, some of the things that dont change. The third part of the strategy, the m, is to make connections across time. So, for example, you could connect reconstruction in the unfulfilled legacies of the 15th amendment to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s in your concluding paragraph is often times a great place to do that. Readers are looking for evidence that you have done these kinds of things. And so if you take a multipronged approach where you are taking several attempts at trying to earn the complexity point, youre going to greatly increase your chance of getting that point on the rubric. What is the grading skill, matthew, on this test, when you get your results, what can you tell from the score that is on the test . Okay. The grading scale is similar, but a little bit different than its been in years past. Traditionally, the rubric has been a sevenpoint rubric. This year, because thats the only part of the exam, College Board has expanded that to ten rubric points. However, all the skills and the tasks are still the same. College board will then take your essay score in the past, they would have taken your essays scores, plural. And multiple choice. This time they will take the essay score and translate that into an overall ap score. Colleges will see an essay score on the scale of one to five. Generally most colleges will accept a score of three and above. There are some that are a little more strict and require fours and there are even a few that will accept scores of two and above. Usually on the ap exam, a slim majority, 52, 55 will earn a three or above on any given year to make them eligible for college credit. Lets go back to another student who is waiting for to miles, calling from fayetteville, North Carolina. Miles, good morning. Caller good morning. Morning, miles. Hey, miles. Do you have a question or do you want to try one of the questions that we have prepared here . Caller um, i have a question. Its more about the testing. Go ahead then. Caller all right. So i was just wonder iing, of a the people taking the test at the same time, there shouldnt be a chance that the server or website could go down, is there . Oh, boy, miles, i hope not. Theres no chance, miles. Caller okay. I hope not. But do make sure that youve got enough bandwidth. If youve got siblings or family members that are heavy streamers, heavy gamers, right, that your internet is a little bit more limited, youre going to want to ask them to pause what theyre doing so that youve got the bandwidth to be able to upload when youre writing your essay. Miles, are you still on the line . Miles has already dropped off. Okay. Now i want to look at one of the questions, or one of the documents that may show up in some form, maybe not on this test, or maybe showed up before. And i want you to tell us what your student is supposed to do once they see this. Okay . So here is something that a student could see on, as an example, for one of these tests. This is a North Carolina contract from 1882 that says to everyone applying to rent land upon shares, the following conditions must be read and agreed to. The sale of every croppers part of the cotton to be made by me when and where i choose to sell and after dededuucting all theye me and all sums that i may be responsible for on their accounts to pay them their half of the net proceeds. Now, matthew . Yes. Just go ahead and tell us what you should do after you read that document. This is a great document. This is very much the kind of document that students may see on the ap u. S. History exam. So there are several tasks that students should complete when they see a document like this. The first task is to ask themselves what is this document really about . Of course, sometimes the title will tell you. In this case its a share croppers contract. They should ask themselves, what do they know . What do they remember about share cropping . Where does that fit in the historical timeline and, most importantly, how does that relate to the exam . Theres one point on the rubric for using two of the five documents in a simple descriptive manner, essentially being able to summarize that. Even if a student is somewhat limited, most students can read and can summarize. Thats the first task that students want to do. But ideally, students want to connect that document to an argument. So, depending on what the essay question is, students want to use that document to move their essay forward, to support whatever point or points theyre making. And then, finally, students also want to complete the task of sourcing. There are up to two points possible on the ap exam this year for the dbq for sourcing a document. Sourcing is College Boards way of asking students to think like an apprentice historian. Can they examine and analyze the document . One of four ways, by looking at and discussing the documents historical situation . In other words, the context around the document by identifying the intended audience. Who was the document for . And how does that help us understand the document . By looking at the authors purpose, what was the goal . What is the author trying to accomplish in this document . Or by looking at the point of view thats being expressed in this document. Thats right. And theres a few strategies to approaching these documents that i think are important. And i imagine you talked about these in your classes with your teacher but, jesse, could you one more time just read that first line after the word source in that document . After the word source . Yeah. It should say source or whats the title of it . North carolina contract 1882. Okay. Sometimes when we have a document in front of us and its written in a language thats over 100 years old and we start reading it, it gets very intimidating, the language in which i