Getting their U.S. histories straight

Marisa O’Neil

Part AP U.S. history teacher and part Alex Trebek, Costa Mesa High

School teacher Tracey Olguin may not have big prize money to give

away, but she does have all the answers. And you don’t have to phrase

them in the form of a question.

In a review session for an upcoming test, Olguin split her

11th-grade class into six groups and gave each a small white board.

Then she gave everybody 60 seconds to answer each question in a

classroom competition for bragging rights -- and just maybe some

higher test scores.

“Name the person associated with and the document written in

response to the Tariff of Abominations,” Olguin asked.

The members of Group Six quickly put their heads together and came

up with the answers. Anh Mai, 16, wrote: “John C. Calhoun” and “S.

Carolina Exposition” on her group’s board with a big blue marker.

“Boards up!” Olguin demanded, and each group showed their

whiteboards, each with the correct answer.

“Oh, that was an easy one,” she admitted as she gave each team two

points for answering both parts of the question correctly.

She made up for the easy question with one nobody got.

Then, she gave them a little slack.

“Name the reason for and time frame in which Irish immigrants came

to America.”

“Yes!” Anh declared triumphantly after Olguin gave her group two

points for writing: “To escape potato famine” and “1840s” on its

board. Sandra Stokes and Paul Nguyen, both 16, gave each other a

high-five.

Over the next couple questions, team member Canh Mai, 16, came up

with every answer for the team.

“You know too much, Canh,” 16-year-old Christine Twohig teased.

Meanwhile, Team Three members tried to cut a deal for partial

credit.

“Can we have 1 1/2 points?” Nikki Joyner, 15, asked. “We got part

of it right.”

Because every game needs a bonus round, Olguin came up with a real

head-scratcher for a 10-point final question.

“What was the name of the pro-labor court case from 1842 and what

group did the decision favor?” she asked.

At the urging of her teammates, Canh wrote down: “Commonwealth

v.,” while her teammates thought long and hard.

“Put down an ‘H,’” Canh suggested. “I know it starts with an ‘H.’”

As the clock ticked down, Team Six’s final answer was:

“Commonwealth v. Hart, favored union.”

It turned out they were only two letters off -- Commonwealth v.

Hunt -- but they managed seven and a half points for their effort and

second place overall.

Despite Nikki’s best efforts to broker a deal, Team Four ended up

in last place. But she wrote a little consolation message on the

board for her team.

“Team 4 are all winners to me,” she wrote, adding a smiley face at

the end.

And Team Five, which came out one point ahead of Team Four, had

its own message: “We beat team 4.”

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot

education writer Marisa O’Neil visits a campus in the Newport-Mesa

area and writes about her experience.