RHONDA WEBB: Welcome to AP--
Daily Practice.
In this episode, we will be looking at the short answer
question.
If you want to try the short answer questions that I'm
going to be going over, pause the video,
download them from the description
below, and then join me when you're ready.
I'm Dr. Rhonda Webb.
And I live in Roswell, Georgia.
And I'm here to help you with the short answer questions
on the AP US history exam.
So there are three different types of short answer questions
that you'll be answering on the AP exam.
One will be a nonstimulus based question
where you've just got the three questions
straightforward with no graphic or image or reading
passage that goes with it.
Then you'll have an image, a chart, or a graph
possibly, possibly a political cartoon to interpret,
any of those might be possible.
You might also have a secondary source
set where you would have two historians who
disagree in some way about some event in history.
And then you would be making some interpretations
about their work.
And then the type that we're going to be looking at today
is a primary source stimulus question
where you have one passage.
It is a primary source, and the questions
relate to that one primary source.
So that's what we're going to be looking at today.
This is a question that was from the 2022 AP exam.
And we're going to look at some possible answers.
So here we've got this passage, and the question
is asking us briefly describe the point of view
of the excerpt.
You might under-- you might recognize that phrasing
point of view, if you have worked with analysis
of documents for preparing for DBQs,
then you've probably looked at your documents
in terms of their historical situation,
the intended audience, the purpose, and the point of view.
So oftentimes you'll see those types
of skills worked into the short answer question as well.
So you can do it for a DBQ.
You can also do that for a short answer question.
So the first thing that you want to do,
you look at the question, then I want
you to always start with the source information
at the bottom.
So this is a passage, a petition in particular
from John Mercer Langston to the Ohio's legislature in 1854.
And always think about what is the historical situation
in that time period.
What was happening in the 1850s.
Well, it's right before the Civil War
but we know that there's an escalation
in racial tension between the North
and the South during the 1850s.
So let's look at this passage and annotate it as we go.
Let's underline and highlight some things that
might be important.
So John Mercer Langston is writing
or is petitioning the Ohio State legislature, meaning
he wants them to do something.
I have been selected as the representative of the 25,000
free African-Americans of Ohio.
So that means he is one of this group that is being chosen
to petition the government.
To ask your honorable body to the necessary and appropriate
steps for striking from the law of this state,
all those clauses which make discriminations
on the ground of color.
So he's asking for something.
I'm a representative of this group,
and we want you to do this for us.
We want you to strike from the law clauses that make
discrimination based on color.
As men, we have inherent rights which civil society
is bound to respect.
Prominent among those rights is the elective franchise
meaning voting.
Self-government and our opinion is an inherent right.
And without the privilege of saying
you shall be the makers of our laws,
there can be no self government.
This was the view taken of the matter
by the fathers of the Republic, and it
is upon this principle as enduring granite
that they built up the free institutions of our land.
It is a fundamental maxim of our political faith
that taxation and representation are never
to be separated, but always go together.
And since we are taxed in common with all others
to meet the expenditures of the government,
we respectfully submit that we ought
to have the advantage of a fair and impartial representation
in the legislature.
In conclusion, we hold that it is unjust, anti-democratic,
impolitic, and ungenerous to withhold
from us the right of suffrage, which, again, means voting.
So, again, he's saying we ought to have the fair advantage
of impartial representation.
We pay taxes just like white citizens of Ohio therefore,
we should also be able to vote.
Here is a sample answer because it's
asking us to briefly describe the point of view
of the excerpt.
So you need to answer the question.
From whose point of view is this excerpt being written?
How or why do we know that?
Give an example of what shows this.
And then explain why.
So the author's point of view is that
of a free African-American man.
We answer the question.
He represents the interests of the Black community of Ohio.
Although he is free, Langston does not have the right to vote
and is trying to convince what's he doing.
Trying to convince the legislature
to end voting discrimination.
His use of foundational American ideals such as self-government
and no taxation without representation
are more powerful because he himself
is being denied those rights-- yet
is a free man living in America.
So we've got our answer.
We've given an example that he uses here.
And we've explained why does his point of view matter.
It matters because he is being discriminated against.
So I think this is an excellent, excellent way
of answering this question.
So same passage question B, ask us to look
at historical situations.
So here, again, it's another one of those skills
that you've used with documents all year.
So you can do it here on a short answer question.
Briefly explain how one specific historical event or development
between 1783 and 1854 led to the developments such as that
depicted in the excerpt.
So in particular, the historical situation it's asking about
would have been prior to the time period
because he wrote this in 1854.
So we want to know what happened prior to this
that led to developments.
Well, another way of saying that is contextualization.
So historical situation and contextualization are related.
This is asking about the contextualization time period.
What happened prior to.
Now, let's look at these dates.
1783, that looks like a specific date.
So why would that have been chosen?
Well, 1783 was when you've got the end
of the American Revolution.
You're starting to bring in the new nation,
and this idea of the country being free and working
and governing itself.
So during this time period from the 1780s
all the way through the writing of the Constitution
into the new nation, we've got the idea of the Jeffersonian
period, we've got the age of Jackson.
All of this time period is leading us to the 1850s.
So what could impact this?
Well, we want something specific.
We've got to have a specific example of a vocabulary word
that will help us to explain and prove
our point of what has led to the developments depicted
in the excerpt.
Well, the developments would be an African-American man
petitioning the legislature for voting rights.
So here's what this student has chosen.
The Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s.
So what was the Second Great Awakening?
Well, that was the time period of religious revival,
but it was also very much entrenched
in the reform movements of that time period in the early 1800s.
Led to many reform movements, including the abolition
movement.
So we're saying this led to--
which was what the question was asking us to do.
What were the developments that led
to the action in the passage.
So this led to many reform movements,
including the abolition movement and the women's movement.
Langston's petition reflects both of these efforts.
Well, how?
Although he is a free-- he is free
as the American anti-slavery society and other abolitionists
argued for, Langston can't vote.
His effort to gain the vote was also
a focus of the early women's movement led
by reformers at Seneca Falls.
So we've got some specific examples,
American anti-slavery society we've got Seneca Falls,
and we're saying that they are similar because he is working
to try to gain the right to vote just like these reform
movements were causing more people to demand changes.
So great answer for me.
And then the third part of the question
is saying briefly explain how one specific historical event
or development between 1854 and 1877 resulted from.
So here we want something specific again.
Our time period now is looking past the time
of the writing of this petition to 1877,
which we know was the end of Reconstruction,
and what resulted from the development that
was depicted here.
He was demanding the right to vote.
Did anything happen after 1854 that
would reflect this or be a result
of his argument for gaining the right
to vote for African-Americans.
So look at this student's answer.
Following the Civil War, suffrage rights
like those called for in the Langston petition
were expanded through constitutional amendments.
The 15th Amendment.
So this is a specific example but we want to define it.
What happened in the 15th Amendment?
Ratified during this petition gave African-American men
the right to vote, which is exactly what Langston
was asking for.
The passage of this Amendment resulted from work
by abolitionist and men like Langston who pressed for change
prior to the Civil War.
Reconstruction opened the path for policy changes
to expand voting rights.
So we've got a clear example here
and we've also got an explanation.
How does this tie back to Langston.
Now when you're giving these examples,
if you are tempted to just answer the question
and say 15th Amendment resulted from developments of this
and you've not tied it back to what Langston was arguing for,
you've not fully answered the question.
So we need to tie this back to the document
to the prompt in some way.
And we did that because he's saying that it opened
voting rights for Langston.
So when you are approaching short answer questions
on your AP exam, here's what I want you to do.
Make sure you understand exactly what's
being asked of you in the question, and stick to that.
Don't stray off the topic.
If it asks you for one example of something
or one specific event that occurred
after the dates included, stick to that one
but explain it really well.
Provide the specific example to support your answer.
And then define it just like they did here.
They had the 15th Amendment but they defined what
that Amendment did.
Demonstrate that you understand the information.
Then we want to explain how or why the example support
your claim.
You can't just throw them out there with no analysis.
You want to make sure that you're analyzing the how
or the why that your answer is correct.
And then in terms of format on the short answer question,
you're going to be given a box--
aligned box that your answer must fit inside.
So for this short answer question
set there's three parts to each essay
Q, the A, the B, and the C. A, B, and C
all have to fit within the box.
You want to label it.
You can answer them in a different order.
Let's say you wanted to answer B before A, that's fine.
That's why you've labeled it.
And you want to make sure that you
are using complete sentences.
So all of that is necessary in terms of your format.
So if you follow these procedures
and you know some really good vocabulary
to put in your short answer question,
you're going to do just fine.
So keep reading and go make history.