Thursday and Friday, November 5 and 6, 2009

The students have been placed into groups and are creating interactive class activities that convey the six responsibilities of the government as outlined in the Preamble to the Constitution. We spend these two days in the library crafting our activities. The "presentations" will begin on November 16. See the notes and handouts page for the description of this unique activity.

Tuesday, November 2, 2009

We began today a discussion of the Preamble to the Constitution and what responsibilities the government has. The students received a notes packet for the study of the Constitution. This can be found at the notes and handouts section. Additionally, the students will be introduced to a group activity, the rubric for this activity can also be found in the notes and handouts section.

Monday, November 1, 2009

Articles of Confederation—We will do a brief overview of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and then transition into the Constitution. We begin by taking a look at the three branches of government and how they interact with one another. The students will receive the packet called “The Constitution of the United States” and this will be an ongoing notes project. Though it will not be collected, the information provided to them may turn out to be very useful to them. There is no homework for this evening.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

We finished our discussion of the Declaration of Independence and then the students were placed into groups. Some groups were to remain “loyalists” while others were to defend the Declaration. The attached sheet served as a guideline for the activity. (No new homework for this evening).

Monday, October 19, 2009

We begin today by looking at the Letters to "Mr. Smith" that the students wrote over the weekend. We will then turn our attention to the Declaration of Independence. Students will be placed into groups and work on analyzing the meaning(s) of this document. Both the letter to Mr. Smith and the Declaration of Independence sheet will be collected. There is no new homework for this evening.

Friday, October 16--

Students will be told that they need their books today and Monday of next week as we will be looking at the Declaration of Independence.

This is a rarity, but there are two different assignments being given out today. The students will have a visit from Mr. Smith who will talk to the “colonists” and the students will have to write a response to his visit in letter form, due tomorrow. The letter will address the following items;

1. Mention two of his suggestions.

2.what they think of his proposals.

3. Why they think that way.

4. What they recommend the next step of the Americans be.

Students will receive the “Declaration of Independence” sheet for homework this weekend, due on Monday. See the notes and handouts section for this assignment.

(students who are absent for the Mr. Smith presentation will be exempted from the letter assignment.)

Thursday, October 15—

Again a discussion of the acts leading to the Revolutionary War. Focus on the Tea Act (Boston Tea Party) and the Intolerable Act.

Students will be told that they need their books on Friday and Monday of next week as we will be looking at the Declaration of Independence.

Wednesday, October 14—

We return to a discussion of the acts and taxes leading to the American Revolution. The main idea is that the taxes became harsher and the colonial responses became louder.

We also talked about the concept of Taxation without Representation. The idea here is that the colonists were paying their taxes, but had no way to choose how that money was spent. Today, we as citizens get to vote for the people that we feel will best spend our taxpayer money. If we do not like how they are spending their money, we will vote for someone else.

There is no new homework for this evening.

Focus on Townshend, Quartering, and Tea (Boston Massacre)

Friday, October 9, 2009—

We will take the British taxation of the colonies posters and place them around the room. Students will be given the opportunity to look at other classes' posters.To exemplify, (and to help students remember) the British taxation of the colonies, we will be trying molasses today. As a result of the taxation of sugar, molasses was used very often as a sweetener. Students will be given the opportunity to try molasses.

No new homework for the weekend. Enjoy the long 4-day weekend!

Thursday, October 8, 2009—

We will finish our work on the Taxation posters today in preparation for their presentation tomorrow. We will place them around the room and students will take notes on them. No additional homework is being assigned.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009—

Today the students will be working on the British Taxation of the colonies poster activity. This assignment is due on Friday.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009—

We will today take a look at what taxpayer money is used for. We will take a “fieldtrip” around the school to see how many different things need to be purchased, with taxpayer money, to fund just one school. We will also look at municipal examples of taxpayer money expenditure. (Streets, sidewalks, etc.)

Students will receive the British taxation of the colonies activity to work on. We will post these on Thursday in the classroom. Students will be given tomorrow in class to work on them.

Monday October 5, 2009-

We begin discussing the wonderful world of taxes. After the French and Indian War, the British Government began to tax the colonies without representation. This treatment eventually led to the American revolution. We will today place the taxes that the students “collected” (from the assignment given on Friday) on the board.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Our focus today was on trying to see the French and Indian war from the first person perspective. We did a short review of the roots of this war and then took a look at the conditions under which Maj. G. Washington built Ft. Necessity. We went outside to measure out the dimensions of this fort to see how small it was.

The students are to take the role of a French or British colonist and write a persuasive letter to the Native Americans explaining why it would be advantageous to the Native Americans to join their side. This letter will be discussed and collected from the students on Thursday.

Monday, September 28, 2009

We begin discussing the French and Indian War, its causes and effects. We focus today on the geographic positioning of the French colonies as compared to the British. No new homework for this evening.

Thursday, September 24, and Friday. September 25, 2009

Colonial Formation Activity Presentations

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Southern colonies and the relationship between Great Britain and the colonies.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

We will look at the formation of the Middle Colonies and contrast their formation with the New England Colonies and Southern Colonies. Students will be reminded that their colonial formation activities will be presented on Thursday. No new homework is being assigned.

Monday, September 21, 2009

We will turn to the discussion of the formation of the New England colonies—Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The students will be given the “Thirteen English Colonies” Chart, (see attached), for completion by the end of the week. We will work on it throughout the class and turn it in when we have covered the different colonies. Our discussion will center around the concept of religious freedom and (subsequently) the separation of Church and State. There is no homework for this evening.

Thursday September 17 and Friday September 18—

We will spend the first few minutes of the class going over the notes, then students will be given the opportunity to work with one another on the “Formation of the English Colonies” project that is due next week. No new homework will be assigned either day.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

We spent just a bit of time discussing why the Spanish were interested in the new world and how they accomplished their conquering of the new world in such a short amount of time. We then turned our attention to colonization. We created some rules for our new colony, then took a look at the Mayflower Compact to see how the Puritans set out to create their own rules. We finished with a disucssion of the Diary Entry of George Percy. The purpose of this was to remind us that life in the colonies could be exceedingly difficult. There was no new homework assigned for this evening.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

We will begin the shift from exploration to colonization, noting that exploration continues to this day. We will talk about what types of rules we should establish for new colonies and then talk about the reliance of the colonies on the home nations. The students will be given a Copy of the Mayflower Compact and the Diary of George Percy, this will be due tomorrow. We will also begin the selection of colonies and partners for the “Formation of the English Colonies” project, due Thursday September 24.

Monday, September 14, 2009

We will briefly discuss the two homework assignments due today then transition to the colonization of the Americas. We will then look at why the Spanish were so successful in their conquering of the new world. The last part of class will be a partnered activity in which students look at the classroom atlases to find evidence of Spanish, French, and English settlements. The place-names across the Americas are evidence that these European groups established settlements in different places. This preps us for discussions later on about the formation of the colonies. There is no homework for this evening.

Friday, September 11, 2009

To exemplify the benefits of the Columbian Exchange, we spent the first half of the class trying a product that began in a small section of the Americas and has since spread world-wide--Chocolate. The students reactions to pure chocolate were mixed.

The Columbian Exchange was not all fun and games, however. To show this, a "guest speaker" (Mr. Smith) came to the class to convince the students that his ideas for changes in culture were a good thing. (Many students disagreed). The students were to write a letter to Mr. Smith outlining their thoughts on his presentation. This letter, along with the position paper assigned yesterday, is due on Monday.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

We will take a deeper look into the Columbian Exchange and talk about the advantages and disadvantages of this type of process. We will spend a little time talking about current globalization and how that affects, both positively and negatively, different groups of people. The students will be asked to write three paragraphs discussing whether they feel the Columbian Exchange was a good thing or not. (See attached rubric). This will be collected from them on Monday.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

We are going to take the day to analyze the Presidential Address from Tuesday. We will be looking at the issues surrounding this address and what the students think of the address. There will be no additional homework for this evening.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

We begin with a brief discussion as to why the Europeans were moving to explore; advances in communication and transportation technologies, along with an increasing desire for wealth, led them to cross the sea. We will then return to the analysis of the Columbus Landing paintings and then begin discussing the concept of the Columbian Exchange. The students will be asked to bring in a product from another continent, (Something not usually found at school) on Thursday to demonstrate the concept that the Columbian Exchange is still taking place. No additional homework will be assigned.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Students werer placed into groups and did the the Columbus/Native America photo analysis today. They received four different photo depictions of Columbus landing on the shores of the “New World”. We spent a bit of time figuring out which one we like the best. There is no homework for the weekend.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

We will take a look at the reasons behind the increasing desire for Europeans to explore and hopefully debunk a couple of myths along the way. We will hopefully get to the analysis of the different versions of Columbus’ landing on the shores activity.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The groups will present their positions. We expect each group to take about 5-10 minutes, with questions from other groups. There will be no homework for this evening.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Groups will continue to work on their “A Holiday Celebrating the Discovery of the New World” activity. We will present tomorrow.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Before we can really get into a discussion of the different versions of “Who discovered America” We need to take a look at “exactly” how long Native Americans have been on the continent. To do this, we will step into the hallway to do a timeline activity. This will take approximately 10 minutes and will demonstrate that the Vikings, Columbus, and The United States are relative newcomers to the area. We will then turn our attention to the question; “Native American Day, Viking Day, or Columbus Day”. The students will be divided into groups and will have to petition to have “their” day celebrated. The students will receive the “A Holiday Celebrating the Discovery of the New World” activity. The students will be given the rest of Monday and all of Tuesday for research and development of their positions. We will present on Wednesday.

Friday, August 28, 2009

We continued working through the textbook analysis sheet that we began yesterday. The purpose of this activity was to demonstrate that the sources we use for learning about history can have flaws to them. The key to being a “good” historian is knowing when to ask questions of our sources. We spent most of the class time detailing the differences between the Columbus stories in the different textbooks. At the end of the hour, students were given a short reading about a first encounter between the Vikings and the Native Americans. Students are to have this read by Monday.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

The students were divided into groups and discussed their responses to the Primary/Secondary sources statements provided to them yesterday. We generally came to the conclusion that a lot of information needs to be provided before we can conclusively argue that a source is either primary or secondary. This sheet was turned in. We then turned our attention to an analysis of six different history textbooks. The purpose of this activity is to determine how different versions of History influence our understanding of it. Students were given a brief question sheet that they will continue to work with in class tomorrow. This is NOT a homework assignment as there are not enough of the older versions of the textbook to go around.

Wednesday, August 25, 2009

We talked today about the differences between primary sources and secondary sources. We came to the tentative conclusion that primary sources were "there" when an event took place and secondary sources as "not being there" when an event took place. Students were given the "Primary and Secondary Sources" sheet to try for class tomorrow. See notes and handouts page for the assignment.

Tuesday, August 24, 2009

We talked about the interrelationship between the different areas of the social sciences and other subject areas in general. We came to the conclusion that the subject areas are interrelated and topics can be viewed from many different perspectives. There is no assignment for this evening.

Friday, August 21, 2009

We delved into the great subject of Social Studies. We talked about how the different areas of the social studies can be interrelated and we got into groups to talk about the types of questions social scientists ask. Students were given a "question sheet" that they will use as a guide to ask their own social science oriented questions. This sheet will be discussed on Monday. See notes and handouts page for this sheet, titled "Thinking like a Social Scientist".

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Today we went over the syllabus and the classroom structure. We talked about the "ins and outs" of the class. There was no homework assigned for tonight, but students were reminded that photo day is tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

We began the school year with a brief introduction to the class. We will be taking a closer look at the syllabus tomorrow. (see the notes and handouts section for a copy). Students were reminded that picture day is Friday and that they need to turn in their Page 39 of the handbook to their homeroom teachers as soon as possible. There was no homework assigned for the evening.