Читать книгу Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness, Grades 6-12 - Jim Burke - Страница 51

Compare-and-contrast assignments are a staple of many history assignments; comparing how one event unfolds to another prompts students to think both globally and specifically and to examine broad historical movement as well as specific evidence. As a tenth grade Advanced Placement (AP) World History student, John encountered these tasks frequently, but with a new twist: the challenge of writing on demand in a limited period of time. His teacher encouraged him to be, above all, clear and to the point. For a history paper written in a limited time frame, she also suggested some specific guidelines:

 Write a one-sentence introduction that clearly states the comparison

 Write about one item first and then the other

 Include details with clear transitions

 Include at least one point of comparison and one of contrast

The task to which John responded here was similar to actual AP questions, but his teacher simplified the prompt to help students focus on the task of comparison. Here is John’s first draft:

Both Latin America and North America had major influence on global networks starting in 1750 while they were colonies supporting Europe up until the present, where they trade for their own benefit and wealth as independent nations.

Starting in 1750, Latin America was a group of European colonies, mostly Spanish and Portuguese, and they contributed to new agricultural products that were shipped to Europe in order to enhance trade for their country. They also contributed to the countries’ wealth because they had to continually keep up trade with them in order to sustain and grow its economy. Another way these colonies affected the global trade was the European countries would buy the goods and then resell the goods to other neighboring countries or colonies in another region. The Latin American colonies did eventually gain independence and begin their own countries, but these countries continued to trade with the European countries, but they also put the “middleman” out of the equation and traded directly with the countries that Europe had resold the goods to.

The North American region has a similar story. It was a group of colonies owned mainly by Britain. These North American colonies produced goods mainly for Britain and had introduced new crops and goods to the European marketplace. The peoples in this area soon also gained independence, but continued to maintain trade with the European countries. They were also able to take the European power out of the picture and trade with other countries whereas they had had to go through European countries first. North America was slightly different from much of Latin America, however, in that it had a large amount of imported slaves that were relied on for a majority of labor, and when slavery was abolished, the production rate dropped dramatically, but then they began to receive a lot of indentured servants that took on a lot of labor and increased production again and became the trading and economic powers that are present today.