Slavery was the topic of the day as we sought to gain a more nuanced and detailed understanding of its nature and its effects on those that were enslaved, the societies and economies of the slave states, and the people who fought for abolition. Hopefully your investigation of the data and documents today, along with our analysis and debriefing conversations, helped skewer any misconceptions you may have had about slave culture prior to the civil War and has armed you with the information and evidence to fight the unfortunately ever-present, racially tinged mythology that circulates the media online and casual conversation.
Tomorrow, among other things, we will take on the other related causes of the Civil War by looking closely at the text of secession documents. Also, don't forget that Chapter 15 is due tomorrow. For those of you that will be out later this week for the DECA events, we have decided that it would be much easier for you to make up an LEQ essay than trying to recover information we did in class. By now, you should be familiar enough with the way things are approached in class to know that, though you can make up DocBlock's on your own and look over the notes your table teams made during class activities and discussions, it is actually incredibly hard to encapsulate the conversations and experiences of our in-class activities in a meaningful way when you return to class. We hope keeping the LEQ on Friday will help minimize this drawback to being out. For those that want to work ahead or over the weekend, I will post the Thursday and Friday activities and documents in tomorrow's blog. One final note: We will have some visitors on campus tomorrow condicting classroom observations. They may drop into our classroom for a while and may talk to some of you about what we are doing in class. They may even pull a few out you into the hall for a few minutes to talk about our class and the way we do things. We will just keep working, doing our thing if they come by our class. I just wanted you to be aware so you weren't distracted by some unfamiliar faces. H A successful first scored discussion today over the Mexican-American War. Now that you have one under your belt, you will know how to adjust next time to improve the quality of your discussion. Preparing good questions that lead to conversation is key. Also important if focusing on the conversation, not your score...I will make the adjustments that are necessary as we go to make sure there is an equitable opportunity for all to get their points in.
The remaining portion of this times scored discussion is the online follow up. click on the "Discussion Boards" tile on the main page of this website then click the link for the Discussion #1. Click "Comments" at the bottom of the page to open up the comments if you can't see them right away. The directions and requirements are posted on the discussion board. For THIS DISCUSSION ONLY, if you did not get all 15 of your in-class points, you may make up the difference in extra online comments (3 points per comment). This discussion is due next Monday at 11:59 pm. Don't forget that Chapter 14 is due tomorrow! H Today was the final LEQ essay in the first round of in-class essays. You will have only ONE LEQ in the second round next week. After that LEQ, we will move to the added skills necessary for writing the DBQ essay. This weekend you need to be sure you get prepared for the first in-class scored discussion which will be MONDAY! Remember that the reading selections and the pre-write assignment directions can all be found st the top of Period 5 activities on this website. Also, there are a number of chapters due next week, so you should be making a plan to get those read. The good news is, we are coming ever more close to Spring Break! Hang in there!
H Manifest Destiny was the topic today as we began with table discussions over Chapter 11, followed by an extended analysis and discussion over the painting American Progress by John Gast. We followed this discussion with a DocBlock, HAPP analysis over the essay Manifest Destiny by John L. O'Sullivan, the text which was responsible for coining and defining the term. We ended the day by analyzing, evaluating, and comparing four different historians' views on a particular antebellum event linked to Manifest Destiny, the Mexican-American War. This war is also the topic of the scored discussion on Monday so make sure you are preparing for that!
Tomorrow is your next in-class LEQ essay. In your review, focus on the material from textbook chapters and class activities this week, particularly on the causes and effects of industrialization and the causes and effects of Immigration. The next two weeks are the toughest and most intense of the course! Please be thinking about how you plan to adjust and keep up with the demands, knowing that once we are past this chunk, things slowly ease back down all the way up to the AP exam! Talk to us if you are feeling overwhelmed or lost! H Today we discussed Antebellum immigration, specifically focusing on the massive influx of Irish and Germanic people into the already exploding American population prior to the Civil War. We completed a DocBlock analysis of a Party Platform from the Know Nothing Party and discussed the perception of "whiteness" in the early 1800's in light of the question of whether or not the Irish were considered "white." As I emphasized in class, the Irish suffered through some intense discrimination and maltreatment, but were NEVER slaves, despite the popular online myth promoted by racist memes.
In First and Second periods, we also worked on a causation practice activity linking historical events through "Six Degrees of Separation" to propose and defend historical links. 4th period was short due to the student walk-out and did not complete this activity, but please take some time to look over the causation links you have identified in your chapter notes this unit! Chapter 11 is due tomorrow, so have those notes ready to go! Also, be working on getting prepared for Monday's Scored Discussion! H Today was the ACT exam and all of you being Juniors meant that you were all testing! Make sure you are preparing for the Scored Discussion on Monday! All the materials can be found at the top of Period 5 on this website!
H Today we wrote the first timed, in-class LEQ essay! We will write our second on Friday of this week and ONE of those will end up as your graded LEQ 1. We also wrapped up our DocBlock lit circle from Friday looking at a variety of voices from the Jacksonian era.
Tomorrow will be the ACT exam most of the day for all Juniors. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO BRING A PHOTO ID!!! Wednesday we will return to normal classroom business for a couple of days. Please make sure you are keeping up with the Chapter readings due this week! Check the class calendar on this website if you aren't sure what is due and when. Next Monday we will have our first in-class scored discussion. You will find the two reading selections which will be the focus of the discussion posted at the top of Period 5. You need to read both of the opposing historians and complete the pre-writing assignment by class next Tuesday. The directions for the pre-write and a student sample are provided with the readings under Period 5. H Today we discussed some of the economic and cultural issues that developed during the antebellum years, focusing on the Second Great Awakening, its relationship to Transcendentalism and the resulting reform movements of the era. We also looked at changing demographics, technologies and the emerging market revolution.
If you did not finish analyzing your individual document for our literature circles exercise at the end of class, please make sure to do that this weekend. Also, make sure you have Chapter 9 ready for Monday. Monday's in-class LEQ will focus on developments in politics, parties, and society during the Jackson Administration, and could include information covered in Chapter 9 as well as the chapters we read last week> H NOTE: Due to the sensitive issue affecting many in our school today, we have decided it is better to give you room to breathe and heal so we will be moving the first in-class LEQ to MONDAY and will cover Monday's assignments tomorrow. Chapter 9 will still be due Monday and is NOT moved to tomorrow.
-Mr. Hutchison & Mr. Richardson As far as the summary of today's in class activities: We first finished up the Indian Removal work from yesterday and debriefed the possible reasons for the failure of resistance to removal. We then explored the conflicting interpretations of four different historians on the question of Andrew Jackson's role in the expanding democracy of the 1820's and 1830's. H Today we focused our discussion and analysis on Andrew Jackson. First we explored reactions to major issues during his presidency through analysis of some political cartoons. We then turned our attention to the issues surrounding the Indian Removal Act and those who opposed it by interrogating some editorials from 1820's and 1830's newspapers. Some classes also finished up work from yesterday by completing a DocBlock analysis of the Monroe Doctrine excerpt. If you did not complete this, make sure you do so as homework.
Also as homework tonight, please be sure you have your Chapter 13 notes ready for tomorrow!! We will continue our discussion of the Jackson Administration tomorrow then finish up the seek with your first in-class LEQ essay! H |
Daily BlogOn this blog we will share each day's activities and post reminders about assignments and upcoming assessments. Archives
May 2018
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