8th Grade – U.S. History and Geography I
Unit 1: Three Worlds Meet
Assessment Review Packet
Section I – Unit Vocabulary. Below are the words, terms, phrases, and people you should be familiar with for the test. They may appear within a question, as an answer to a question, or as part of an answer to a question. The definitions of these words can be found in your notes, in your textbook (pages 27 – 79), and in your brains.
1. Slavery –
2. Triangular Trade –
3. Middle Passage –
4. Columbian Exchange –
5. Auction –
6. Slave –
7. Taino Indians –
8. The Moors –
9. Primary source –
10. Secondary source –
Section II. Geography. Below is a map of the United States. Use the internet, a map, or an atlas (one can be found on page A21 of your hardcover textbooks) to label all fifty states.
Section III. Christopher Columbus. Complete the passage below using words and terms from your notes and readings to review information about the life of Christopher Columbus and his importance to history.
An explorer and a navigator, Christopher Columbus was born in 1451, in ______to the son of a weaver. His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost him his life as the commercial fleet he was sailing with was attacked by French pirates off the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned and Columbus had to swim to the Portuguese shore and make his way to Lisbon, Portugal, where he eventually settled and married Felipa Perestrello. The couple had one son, Diego in about 1480. Columbus moved to Spain after his wife died in 1481.
Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East made travel to India and China difficult, but Columbus devised a plan to sail across the ______Ocean in order to reach ______.
His plan was rejected by the Portuguese king. Columbus took his plan to Genoa, and then to Venice, but was rejected there too. He then went to King ______and Queen ______, the Spanish monarchs, in 1486. Initially, Columbus was rejected, because their focus was on a war with the ______, an invading Muslim group set on converting Spain to the religion of Islam. Columbus would have to wait.
After the Spanish army defeated the last Muslim stronghold in January of 1492, the monarchs agreed to finance his expedition. In August of 1492, Columbus left Spain with his three ships, the ______, the ______, and the ______(2 words) for the “New World.”
After thirty-six days of sailing, on the date of ______, 1492, Columbus and several crewmen set foot on an island in the present day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain. There he encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to ______, or exchange, with the sailors. The Europeans also noticed that the natives wore bits of gold. Columbus and his men continued their journey, visiting different islands and meeting with the leaders of the native population. Convinced his exploration had reached Asia, he set sail for home with his two remaining ships, as the Santa Maria had run aground months prior.
Returning to North America in 1493, Columbus and his crew spurned the wishes of the queen, who found forced labor to be offensive, and established a policy of ______the native population in order to explore for gold, believing it would prove to be profitable. His efforts produced small amounts of gold and great hatred among the natives.
The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his authority. He returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court. The charges were later dropped but Columbus lost his titles as governor of the Indies and for a time, much of the riches made during his voyages. Columbus died May 20, 1506 still believing he had discovered a shorter route to Asia.
Columbus' legacy is a mixed one. He has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization as well as blamed for the destruction of the native peoples of the islands he explored. On the one hand, he failed to find that what he set out for - a new route to Asia and the riches it promised. However, in what is known as the ______(2 words), his expeditions set in motion the wide-spread transfer of people, plants, animals, diseases, and cultures that greatly affected nearly every society on the planet.
BCR Rubric
Topic Sentence / Answering the Prompt / Details and Examples / Conclusion4 / Topic sentence is clear and coherent and covers all supporting details that follow / A correct answer logically follows the topic sentence and serves as an introduction for the examples throughout the remainder of the paragraph / Provides more than two clear examples with vocabulary and information from class; examples are clearly and fully described with relevant and factual information / Relevant conclusion clearly supports body of paragraph
3 / Topic sentence is clear and covers most of the supporting details that follow / A correct answer logically follows the topic sentence and serves as an introduction for one of the examples in the paragraph / Provides two clear examples with vocabulary and information from class; examples may not be fully described but information is relevant and factual / Relevant conclusion re-states the topic sentence
2 / Topic sentence may be slightly unclear; covers some of the supporting details that follow / An answer logically follows the topic sentence; may not be fully correct. Answer serves as an introduction for one of the examples in the paragraph / Provides at least one example with vocabulary and information from class; examples are not fully described; some information may be irrelevant / Conclusion may not be relevant or may contradict body of paragraph
1 / No topic sentence is apparent / Student doesn’t answer the question or question is answered incorrectly or incoherently / No examples provided; further information is irrelevant or incorrect / No conclusion present
Section VI – Brief Constructed Responses, etc. Below are some questions that you may likely see as part of a BCR or informational text. Answer the questions using the proper BCR guidelines listed on the previous page.
1. How did Christopher Columbus, and the Columbian Exchange, change the world?
2. What was life like for the first Africans in America?
Dear Students,
You are going to do excellent on the test if you have answered all of these questions! Get a good night’s sleep, eat some real breakfast (not Hot Cheetos and a bottle of Rock Creek!), and be ready to come in and master this test with an A+! I believe in you! J
Sincerely,
Mr. McGrath, the #1 Social Studies Teacher on the Planet