Period 2: Revolution! Day 7 - Class Recap

In today's class, we talked about propaganda and did some analysis with Soviet posters. Here's a more current example of a propaganda poster here in the USA: the famous HOPE posters for Barack Obama. I took this picture in Philadelphia, in 2008.

Dear class,

My apologies for posting the recap later than usual - most of my day at school (after classes) was spent grading late work and calling parents with Mrs. Carpenter (I think we were pretty clear that we would be doing this if you were failing our classes). We had sort of a relaxed day today in class, I think. Lots of talking about the news and what is going on around the world, the quiz, and some work with Soviet propaganda. All in-person late work (for progress report grades) was due at the end of the day today, since we do not have school on Monday.

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart?

Soundtrack: “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2. Selected for today because it is (or was, growing up) one of my brother's favorite songs growing up. It was his 25th birthday yesterday! Also chosen because not all of my students are being successful, which means we still have work to do. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/8/13:
News Brief
Quiz Talk
Propaganda Posters
Work Time/Grade Check

Homework: Read the blog! Turn in any missing work for better progress report grades! Teresita has the next news brief.
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News Brief: Nick B. used this article about rats in Iran for the news brief today: CNN.com - Iranian sharpshooters target rats. What a crazy story! Who knew that this was such a problem?

We also talked about other happenings around the world.

Quiz Talk: I passed back your Russian Revolution vocabulary quiz and we had a somewhat spirited discussion about the results (the class average was 3.1 out of 5, which is a 62%). I was wondering what else I could be doing to help you be successful in the future with these. Obviously something went wrong, even with me giving you the vocabulary words to study for the test, the entire weekend to study, this website with the presentation and vocab to review, AND time in class right before the quiz to study. As I said in class, I take it personally when students are not successful. Let me know how I can help you do better in the future, if this was something you really struggled with.

Propaganda Posters: The next part of class was devoted to checking out some examples of Soviet Union propaganda (it is nice that you already knew what propaganda meant from studying Rwanda) and filling out a worksheet with each slide, then creating your own example on the back. If you missed class, or wanted to add to your worksheet, here is the presentation:

Google Drive: Soviet Union Propaganda PowerPoint

Here is the worksheet that goes along with the presentation:

Google Drive: Soviet Union Propaganda Worksheet

After viewing all of the slides and filling out the worksheet, I gave the class this assignment: 

On the back side of the propaganda poster worksheet, you are creating your OWN Russian poster. Please use at least two symbols. Try to connect to at least one of the vocabulary words. You do not have to use Russian. Use a English caption, please.

This is NOT homework, unless you need to get a good start on it. We will finish these in class next week.

Work Time/Grade Check: For the last section of class, I checked in with students about grades (and invited students to look at your updated grades posted on the classroom board) and gave time to work on either the propaganda poster or make up work. All late and/or missing work for progress reports was due by the end of the day today. Grades have to be posted before school on Tuesday morning. .

Please comment or email if you have any questions! Have a great long weekend!