Contact Information

  Douglas Grether, Room 502

  Voicemail:  972-429-3000; Extension 6269

  Email:  douglas.grether@wylieisd.net

  Conference Period:  5th (12:50-1:20)

 

 
                          Burnett Junior High

                                                                   Wylie ISD                                 

 

 Grether's Home Page

7th Grade Texas History Web Page

Homework Message Board:

Updated Friday, May 16th

*No Homework… UNLESS..

a) You didn’t turn in your two, in-class handouts today: 

1) Chapter 19-20 Review

2) Chapter 20 Vocabulary Handout

 

Teacher Biography:

 

Junior High Attended:          Wilson Middle School, Plano, Texas

 

High School:                           Plano Senior High

 

College:                                  Texas A&M – Commerce

 

Degree:                                  Bachelor of Science – History and English

 

Experience:                           12 Years (all in Wylie ISD)

 

Certifications:                        History, English, and Physical Ed.
 
 “The study of history serves as a gateway for understanding the issues of today.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a list of commonly asked questions that students and parents want to know about this class.  I hope that this is helpful, but feel free to contact me by email at douglas.grether@wylieisd.net   if I can help answer a question or perhaps clarify the policies below.   It is my greatest wish that your child is successful, and the following policies set guidelines to help students on their path of success.

 

 

Class Rules: 

1) Be in your seat when the bell rings.

2) Bring all supplies to class.  (A supply list will be given on the first day)

3) Personal grooming (combing your hair, for example) is to be done outside of the classroom.

4) Sit in your assigned seats.

5) Follow all directions the first time they are given.

 

Late Work: 

Late work will be accepted up to 24 hours (one school day) after the original due date and time.  A student wishing to turn in a late assignment must do so in person with the 24 hour window.  Late work will receive a penalty of 30 points deducted from the earned grade.

 

Retaking a Test:

If students score below the grade of 70 on a test, students are highly encouraged to retake the test. 

Procedures - the Three Required Steps:

1) Obtain a pass from the teacher so that the I can quickly review the information one more time and, most importantly, the student can ask questions about items they feel unsure about.

2) After the tutorial period is over, the student will receive a pass stating that they've attended the tutorial.

3) The student schedules a time to retake the test before or after school.

 

Tutorial Times:  Subject to Change

Monday:  3:20-3:50pm

Tuesday:  3:20-3:50pm

Wednesday: 7:45-8:08am

Thursday:  7:45-8:08am; 3:20-3:50pm

Friday:  No Tutorials Scheduled

 

Pre AP Texas History:  What to Anticipate

Pre Advanced Placement (Pre AP) Texas History is a class set up to help introduce the AP program for history.  The class is designed to use strategies to assist students with the AP American History class in 11th grade at the high school level.  Students will know what a DBQ (Document Based Question) essay is and know the current format of the exam.

Students in Pre AP Texas History will read more than Texas History students and analyze diary entries, political cartoons, and a varied collection of primary or first-hand sources.  Since writing is part of the focus on the AP History test, students in Pre AP Texas History will also write more than those enrolled in Texas History.  The workload will be more vigorous, yet the amount of tasks will not be intended to overwhelm.  If a student is feeling that Pre AP Texas History is too strenuous (perhaps the student is in multiple Pre AP classes and is involved in many extra-curricular activities, for example), please email me so that your child can move to Texas History. 

TEXAS HISTORY: CHAPTER 14 and Chapter 15 Review KEY

Test:  Friday, April 4  (Please study this sheet)

1.  Which Republican Party was formed to stop the spread of slavery.

 

2.  The Southern economy depended on foreign trade and slave labor.

 

3.  The main advantage the Republican Party had during the Election of 1860 was the splitting of the Democratic Party.

 

4.  The Election of 1860 (with Lincoln winning) sparked several states to immediately secede from the United States?

 

5.Southern states, such as Texas, seceded from the Union and joined together to form the Confederate States of America.

 

6.  Texas decided to secede from the Union to defend slavery and states' rights.

 

7.  Secession was slightly delayed in Texas because Governor Houston opposed secession and tried to stop it by ordering a meeting to "talk things out" and to stall secession.

 

8.  Governor Houston’s office was declared vacant because he refused to take the oath supporting the Confederacy.

 

9.  Plantation Owners in Texas supported slavery and secession.

 

10. Hood's Texas Brigade was a military company fought bravely during the war and only 600 out of 5,000 men survived. 

 

11.  Cole White did not volunteer to fight for the Confederate army, but was required to serve anyway.  He was probably forced to by the draft. (another word for "draft" is "conscription)

 

12.  During the Civil War, Texas had to defend itself from both Union soldiers and Native Americans.

 

13.  Texas was called the “Storehouse of the Confederacy” because it provided food, weapons, and horses to the Confederate Army.

 

14.  Many southerners could not sell their cotton to make money during the war because of the Union blockade (Anaconda Plan) ordered by US President Abraham Lincoln on southern ports.

 

15.  The last battle of the Civil War occurred in Brownsville, Texas as Union forces tried to stop the transport of cotton to Mexico.

 

16. Members of a group that decide to take the law into their own hands by executing Union supporters.  They are also known as vigilantes.

 

17.  Confederates tracked down, fought and executed 60 German Texans at the Battle of Nueces because they were trying to join and assist the Union Army.

 

18.  The demand for food crops in Texas increased during the war because Texas was sending food to Southern troops and the Anaconda Plan (Union Blockade) made it difficult to trade cotton to Europe.

 

19.  Texas women were left behind as their handsome husbands went to fight for the war.  They had to take on extra men’s work, such as managing farms.

 

 20.  Slaves were sent to Texas from other Southern states during the war to prevent them from being taken and freed by the Union.

 

21.  Most Texans were opposed to the Republican Party and would not support Abraham Lincoln.

 

22.  Former Governor Houston was offered by Abraham Lincoln the right to use federal or US troops in an attempt to keep Texas a part of the Union, but Sam said no to the offer.

 

23.  Texas did not suffer as much devastation of war as other Southern states such as Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.

 

24.  Prices for basic goods, such as eggs, increased during the war.

 

25.  The Southern way of life changed after the war.

 

Chapter 15 Review

26)  The South ignored the Emancipation Proclamation because it didn’t consider itself part of the Union.

 

27) On June 19, US General Granger declared that all slave were free.  This is called Juneteenth.

 

28) The US Congress created the Freedman's Bureau to help with food, shelter, medicine, job placement, and education of former slaves.

 

29) President Johnson’s Plan for Reconstruction had four parts.

a) Secession was illegal (owning up to the mistake of seceding in 1860-1861)

b) Slaves are freed

c) War debts are cancelled

d) Loyalty oath of white, voting age males declaring their loyalty to the US.

 

30) The Constitution of 1866 was actually a series of amendments or changes to the old Constitution of 1845.

 

31) The Constitution of 1866 made slavery illegal but denied civil rights to African-Americans.

 

32) The Texas legislature made laws called Black Codes, which made it impossible to vote, hold office, and denied land ownership.

 

33) The Radical Republicans believed that they should direct Reconstruction and wanted to change and punish the South.  Johnson and these Republicans didn’t get along.

 

34) The 14th  Amendment granted citizenship to former slaves.

 

35) Texans refused to ratify the 14th Amendment (at first)  and it forces the US Congress to take a tougher stand with Texas.

 

36) Texas along with Louisiana were a part of a military district – District #5 under the command of General Sheridan.

 

37)  Governor Davis won the election of 1869 for governor.

 

38) Texas was readmitted into the Union on March 8, 1870.

 

39) The Redeemers called Governor Davis’s actions the Obnoxious Acts because they thought they were harmful.  They also didn't like the state militia and police force that he formed to enforce Governor Davis's will (or beliefs) on Texas.

 

40)  The Constitution of 1876 stripped or has taken away much of the governor and legislature’s power.

 

 

 

 

 

Causes of Civil War Decorative Poster

Due: _____________________________

Your Mission:  Make a high-quality, well-decorated poster that walks through the causes of the Civil War.  It should be designed to show what event happens to help cause the war in a "step by step" type of format.  Below you see a list of items that must be included on your poster.  Place six steps on one side of a full-size poster board and six on the other, please.

 

Step 1:  Wilmot Proviso - The North's sneaky plan to stop the expansion of slavery in the southwestern Mexican Cession lands.  The South is upset.

 

Step 2: Compromise of 1850 - A tough, new Fugitive Slave Law is born.  Northerners have to help capture runaway slaves or face fines or jail time. The North is upset.

 

Step 3:  Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 - Northerners notice that commissioners are ruling that African-Americans in question must be runaway slaves ($10) rather than free ($5).  The North is upset.

 

Step 4:  Uncle Tom's Cabin - written in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe writes about the evilness of the institution of slavery and it becomes a best seller.  More northerners are turning abolitionist, southerners view the book as fiction and a false representation of slavery in the South.

 

Step 5:  Bleeding Kansas - Kansas settlers allowed to vote if they wanted to be a free or slave state.  Both anti-slavery and pro-slavery men illegally sneak across the border to vote - violence breaks out.  Both Northerners and Southerners are upset.

 

Step 6:  Caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner - Sumner insults South Carolina Senator A.P. Butler, and Butler's nephew, Preston Brooks, finds Sumner at his desk and beats him with a cane over 30 times.  Sumner's cane breaks during the beating, and southerners send Brooks new canes.  Northerners are upset.

 

Step 7: Republican Party Born in 1854 - The political party promises to be tough on slavery and, at the very least, stop its expansion.  Southerners are upset.

 

Step 8:  Dred Scott v. Sandford - A Missouri slave is taken by his master to the states of Illinois and Wisconsin - both states declared slavery illegal.  Is Dred free?  No.  Supreme Court rules that slavery can not be restricted in any of the territories.  The North is upset.

 

Step 9:  Lincoln-Douglas Debates - Race for the US Senate seat in the state of Illinois in 1858.  South is watching this closely to find out about Stephen Douglas - rumored to run for president in 1860 - and they find out about Abe, who says that "slavery is a moral, social, and political wrong."  South is upset and will never vote for Lincoln for President in 1860.

 

Step 10: Harper's Ferry - John Brown, one of the violent abolitionists in Kansas, decides to lead a slave revolt by capturing the arsenal (weapons are stored here) in Harper's Ferry, Virginia.  Free Blacks try to recruit Virginia slaves to join rebellion, but slaves think that this is a trick.  John Brown found guilty and executed.  The South is upset and alarmed that many Northerners wanted John Brown to be found innocent.

 

Step 11:  Democratic Party Splits - The slavery issue divides the party into Northern Democrats and Southern Democrats.  This division and the splitting of the Democratic vote will help Lincoln win.  Both Northern and Southern Democrats upset.

 

Step 12:  Lincoln wins the 1860 Election - The South, already hearing about Lincoln from the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, don't even put his name on the ballot in 10 southern states.  Lincoln wins anyway. The South is so upset that they begin to secede from the US - beginning with South Carolina in Dec. of 1860.

Planning Sheet - Use this side of the paper to start designing the lay