Today we reviewed for the Chapter 14 Test Anna will take at our next session on Wed., 2/19. I wrote a study guide for us to use today and for Anna to take home to help her focus and prepare. Anna did not work with study guides last semester. They are immensely helpful - especially for AP test preparation. Anna took notes on her study guide and seemed to feel good about the topics she will need to review to prepare for this test on "Economic Transformations" covering the time period from 1450 - 1750.

Today we reviewed all of the content in Chapter 14 - Economic Transformations. This chapter covers 1450 - 1750. We looked at events around the world during these three centuries - from Portuguese traders eclipsed by those from Spain, England and the Netherlands searching for and establishing profitable trade routes and relationships between Europe and Asia. We learned about the role of the British and Dutch East India Trading Companies and how India becomes a vital Asian trade partner with western Europe. Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan closes its doors to European influence and trade in the 1600s. Like China, Japan will turn inward and remain isolated from the western world for nearly 200 years. Spanish trade and dominance in the Philippines, South and Central America was also covered. France establishes dominance in the North American fur trade while England engages in the slave trade, kidnapping African peoples, transporting them to the Americas via the horrifying Middle Passage and forcing them into lives of oppressive labor and racism in the mines and plantations of the Americas. The diaspora of African peoples impacts and permanently alters world history. Anna worked on highlighting Chap. 14. She did a good job and I reviewed her highlights and added to them when necessary. She should have this skill down in no time - especially when her own textbook arrives by our next session.

Today was our first session of AP World History. We spoke about Anna's needs, strengths and weaknesses in the class. Strengths are memorization. Challenges are: not always reading thoroughly and just skimming the material. This may due in part to the fact that Anna doesn't own her history book and she is not allowed to make marks in it, so she hasn't been highlighting what she reads. This is essential in a history class - especially with an AP text! We photocopied Chap. 14 for Anna to read and to highlight as she reads. Chapter 14, Economic Transformations, covers 3 centuries from 1450-1750.