12/19/13

Today was the final day to work on the Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest.  Students worked on finishing their writing, formatting, editing, and revising their essays. 

A printed copy of the essays are due tomorrow.  Students need to have a title page, essay (600-1000 words), and a work cited page with at least three sources.  They will receive a pass/fail quiz grade for completion of the essay.

12/18/13

We used today's class to draft our essays.  Students followed the directions on their DAR essay packet.

Tomorrow we will edit our papers, and work on the final drafts. 

Essays will be due on Friday.

Homework is to finish rough drafts by Thursday (600-1000 words). 

12/17/13

Today was the second work-day for the essay contest.  Students finished their planning, taking notes onto the Google document they created yesterday. See Monday's blog for instructions on planning.

Next, students began writing their essays.  Fist, they wrote title pages, following the instructions on the sheet they received yesterday.  Then, students began writing their essays, following the instructions they received yesterday.

For homework, all students need to finish their planning of their essay for the DAR contest, their title page, and be ready to begin writing tomorrow. 

12/16/13

This week students are working on an essay contest sponsored by the Daughter's of the American Revolution.

The essay prompt is:

Pretend you are a boy or a girl during the colonial fight for freedom.  Using historical facts, discuss how the war is affecting your life.  The war dramatically changed the lives of children during the Revolution.  Some actually followed their fathers into battle; others stayed home and assumed new responsibilities that were necessary for their families' survival.  Imagine yourself in the place of such a child taking on important and often adult responsibilities.  Describe some of the changes that are taking place in your life and that of your family as you face this new situation  You may portray either a historical child or a fictional child living in the era of the American Revolution.  

At the beginning of class I gave students instructions.  Today, students collected information to use in their writing.  On the instruction sheet, look at the instructions on the front of the sheet.

DAR Essay Instruction Sheet

Students had the rest of class to work on planning for this assignment.

There is no homework, unless you missed class.  If you missed class, please review the essay instructions and begin planning your essay.

D.A.R. Essay Contest- Resources

Online Resources:

Library Thinkquest

Colonial Williamsburg

Kidinfo.com

Document all sources using:

Easy Bib

12/13/13

Test today. No homework this weekend.

If you did not take the test today, please be prepared to take it on Monday.

12/12/13

We began class today with a non-graded quiz to find a team representative for the geography bee.  Students were able to earn bonus points on their test with this quiz.

Next, I gave students a list of events relating to the Articles of Confederation.  They organized these events onto a Venn diagram, and we discussed as a class.

I gave students the end of class to study for tomorrow's test and ask me any questions they had about test.

Homework is to use the study guide to study for tomorrow's test.

12/11/13

We began class with a quick video on the "Turtle" submarine.  As students watched the video I collected their timeline projects.

Next, we had a "take-a-stand" discussion about Betsy Ross.

At the end of class we switched gears and began looking at the Articles of Confederation.  I gave a short lecture (PowerPoint slides 1-5) on the Articles of Confederation.  Students took notes onto their fill-in-the-blank note sheets.

Articles of Confederation Notes

A.O.C. Note Sheet

Homework:  Use your study guide to study for Friday's test.  See Monday's blog for copies of the study guide.  Use old blog postings for textbook readings.

12/10/13

We began class by reading an article on Betsy Ross.

Before reading, students numbered all the paragraphs.  

Betsy Ross Article.

After reading, students took Cornell notes on the main ideas from the article and answered two response questions using a quote from the reading.

Cornell Notes and Questions

We then discussed the article in class.

At the end of class students had time to work on finishing their timelines.

Homework is:
1- Finish your timeline for class on Wednesday
2- Finish the Betsy Ross notes and questions
3- Use the study guide to study for the test tomorrow

12/9/13

Revisions for the Revolutionary War essay are due today.

There is a test on Friday.  I handed-out study guides in class.  I will not collect the study guides, but the test questions are taken directly from this study guide.  There are two levels, 1- for honors/cp, and 2- for Academic.

Study Guide Version 1 (CP/Honors)

Study Guide Version 2 (Academic)

Look back through the blog for textbook readings needed for the study guide.

I then demonstrated how to place events onto a timeline.  Students gave me events to plot, and I showed them how to place them to scale.

Students had the rest of class to work on their timelines.

Homework is: 1- timelines are due Wednesday.  We will have a small amount of time in class tomorrow to work, but if you have not begun to plot your events on the timeline you should begin this for homework, 2- Test Friday.  Use the study guide to prepare for the test.

12/6/13

At the beginning of class I talked with students about the passing of Nelson Mandela.  We then watched CNN Student News which gave the story of Mandela's life and his struggle against Apartheid. 

Students had the rest of the class to work on the summaries of the events for the timeline.

Look at this week's blogs for timeline instructions and textbook readings need for this assignment.

Homework is to finish all your summaries and place them into the texting rectangles provided in class. 

12/5/13

We began class today by finishing the video The Story of Us about the American Revolution.

Next, students worked on the summaries they are writing for their timelines.  See Wednesday's blog (12/4/13) for information on this assignment.

They had the rest of class to work on their summaries, using resources in the room to help them.

Homework: For class tomorrow, students should have finished between 7-9 summaries of events (keeping them smaller than 160 characters) depending on the level of assignment they chose (Honors, CP, or Academic). 

12/4/13

We began class today with the video "The Story of Us" about the first part of the Revolutionary War.

The Story of Us- watch up until minute 30:40

Next, I distributed the a project.  Students will create a timeline of the major events in the war.  They will summarize the major events in 160 characters or less including spaces and punctuation (same as a text message).  They will then take those events and plot them onto their timelines.

American Revolution Timeline

pages 176-181
193-199
200-205
206-210 

Homework is:  Look at the instructions for the "American Revolution Timeline."  Students need to write brief summaries of two events.  They need to make sure their summaries are under 160 characters.  Abbreviations are acceptable.  They can use last night's homework as a resource for information, or the textbook pages linked to the blog.

12/3/13

We started with a warm-up question to review Monday's museum activity.

Next, students formed groups of up to three students.  In their groups they read accounts of the battles of the Revolutionary War from the "Battles of the American Revolution" packet.  As they read about each battle they plotted the events onto their maps, giving different colors to battles won by the Americans and those won by the British.  After reading, students answered the questions on the third page of the "Battles of the American Revolution" packet. 

Battles of the American Revolution packet

Battles of the American Revolution map

Homework is to finish the questions and the map on the "Battles of the American Revolution" packet.

12/2/13

Pre-Revolution papers were due last Tuesday, 11/27.  Students who have not submitted their papers must do so ASAP.

First, make sure the paper was created in a Google document.  Share the document with Mr. Pope, allowing me to comment on the document.

Next, log onto Edmodo.  Find the assignment under Mr. Pope's page, and submit the link of the through this page.

Any student who did not submit the assignment (except period 6, they get a free pass) will lose 5 points if their paper not submitted at this point.   I understand that some students had legitimate reasons they were unable to pass their papers in on time, but I would like a parent to sign-off on this to ensure it is a valid reason.  Students who would like to earn these points back must get the following form signed by their parents and return to Mr. Pope.

Late Paper Form

In class today we viewed images of the American Revolution, and students made predictions about the conflict based on the images.  Students used a graphic organizer to collect the information.

American Revolution Picture Analysis Graphic Organizer

Pictures (landscape)

Pictures (portrait)

Homework is as follows:

Any student who did not submit their Pre-Revolution paper must do so ASAP.  See directions on the blog to help you.

Any student who missed class must use the pictures on the blog to complete the graphic organizer.  Find as much information for each box that you can.