Period 2: Historical Investigation, Day 2 - Class Recap

Another picture from my Spring Break trip to Washington, D.C. in 2010: this is the National Archives building, where the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution are held. Those are extremely important documents for historians researching the American Revolution!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Spring Break! Remember that you definitely have some work to do before I see you again. Here's what we did in the last class before the break:

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart? - Obviously, your historical investigation into a revolution of your choice will have elements of answers to these questions.

Soundtrack: "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. Chosen for today because if you have not been doing very well in this class (or in school), the historical investigation is a great time to "make that change" - do you want to be successful? You have to put in the work to do so! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/22/13:

News Brief/Blog Recap

Part A, Explained

Citations/Part B

Computer Lab Time - S210

Homework: Please work on Part B - researching your historical investigation! 2-3 pages will be due shortly after the break! Have a great and safe Spring Break!

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News Brief: To be determined. Zach and Kyle H. had the news brief today, and picked the exact same event (different articles)! Here they are: NPR.org - Dozens Killed By Suicide Bomber in Syrian Mosque and Associated Press - Syria: 42 killed in Damascus mosque bombing. We talked about how this relates to the "Arab Spring" revolutions that have happened and the civil war in Syria. This will be an area of ongoing concern

Part A, Explained: After the news brief, I passed around this slip of paper that explains how to write a research question and complete your Part A paragraph (at least, at first - you should be aware that this could change as you keep researching):

Google Drive: Historical Investigation, Part A - Steps to Follow

I went over this in detail with the class. Hopefully it made sense, because the paragraph was due at the end of the class, either printed out or emailed to me at luke_fritz@beaverton.k12.or.us - I also wanted you to save a copy for yourself over break. Again, a good way to do this is to email yourself the paragraph, or simply print another copy.

Citations/Part B: Before we headed over to the Computer Lab again, I went over the MLA citations guideline and how you should be citing your information that you find as part of your investigation. Here is the paper that I passed out in class: MLA citation guide - 7th edition. Every source that you use for your project should fit into one of those categories on the second page. That is what you are adding to your bibliography (Part E) as you go along.

Finally, for Part B - the Summary of Evidence, here are the two documents you will need to look at as your are researching over the break. Feel free to download and print them out during class, study hall, or after school:

Google Drive: Part B Overview (Requirements)

That document will help you with understanding what Part B is all about. We will go over it in detail after break, but remember, Part B (which is 2-3 pages) is due for Periods 2 and 4 on Monday, April 8th - soon after we get back. It is very important that you get a good start on this.

To help with Part B, here is the second document - a template for filling out as you find good sources of information that relate to your research question:

Google Drive: Part B Template Document

This is a nice and easy way to complete Part B. Remember that you need to have at least four sources (so you could fill out this document four different times, if you wanted) - a maximum of three can be electronic sources. Again, no Wikipedia - the source has to be reliable information. A GREAT way to find good, reliable information is through a search on Google Scholar, which looks through academic articles (make sure you aren't using a book review as a source, though).

Computer Lab Time - S210: After explaining all of this, we headed over to S210 to finish Part A. I wanted to make sure that I approved each research question before you moved on to writing out the whole paragraph for Part A. Hopefully, everyone was able to complete this in class. If not, email it to me ASAP, please. Also, this could have been a time you were looking at what to do for Part B and printing off the documents above.

Have a wonderful and safe Spring Break! See you in April! Make sure to check in if you have any questions or comments! I know this is quite a lot of information, all at once. I am here to help at almost any time! :-)

Period 2: Historical Investigation, Day 1 - Class Recap

Today we started the Historical Investigation project, which is about revolutions. You cannot pick the American Revolution, but here is a lasting reminder of it: the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.! I took this picture during Spring Break in 2010.

Hi everyone,

As promised at the start of class, there was quite a bit we had to do today. A little fun mixed with some serious business. Please read on to go over the historical investigation and what you need to be working on!

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

Soundtrack: “I Was Here” by Beyonce. Selected for today because Cara suggested it for us and you should want to leave your mark with this big project: let it be known that you were here and existed! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/20/13:
News Brief/Blog Recap
Finish The Coup
Historical Investigation – Part A
Computer Lab Time

Homework: Keep working on Part A - be ready to finish it next class. Show your parents the calendar! Read the blog. Next news brief: Kyle H. and Zach.

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News Brief: Today's articles were brought in by Ben G. and Paker. Here is what they selected (both on the Korean peninsula!): CNN.com - North Korean video shows imagined attack on Washington and CNN.com - Under threat, South Koreans mull nuclear weapons. We talked a bit about the use of nuclear weapons in the world and the possibility of a "nuclear winter" if many were detonated at once.

Finish The Coup: Ahh, yes. The calm before the storm. I heard a lot of laughs during this, and hopefully some more understanding about the elements of a revolution. At the end of the episode, we talked for a bit about how Dwight's revolution was influenced by political (power), economic (money), and social (other people) motives. He probably would have been a good example of a dictator, if he had been allowed to continue running the office.

Historical Investigation - Part A: Alert, alert! This is the start of a massive assignment. Here is what I passed out in class today:

1) The Historical Investigation Assignment. We went through this thoroughly (at least 10 minutes) in class. Basically, the assignment consists of five parts. The back side of the paper has a list of possible revolutions to choose from. If you want to choose one that is not on that list, you must clear it by me first. This is NOT a partner assignment. In fact, if you choose the same revolution as someone else, I am going to make sure that you have completely different research questions and sources.

For Period 2/4, the rough draft of this will be due on April 17th. The final draft will be due the next class after that, which is April 19th.

***If you are a TAG student (or want a challenge, if you are not): all of these elements must be combined together into one paper. If you are not, it is okay if you have each element in a separate area for the project.***

As I was saying in class: if you want to do well on this project (and you should, considering it is one of the biggest assignments of the entire year), you will probably have to be working on it at home.

2) A calendar of the plan for the next month. Remember that we will be doing other activities than just the historical investigation. This calendar has all of the major due dates on it. Note that Part A is due at the end of next class! We will go to the computer lab for most of next class, but you need to have a plan of attack going in.

3) The grading rubric for the historical investigation. This is how I am going to assess your work on this project. Note that each section of the project can be directly related to proficiency in at least one learning target. One of the main points here is that we are hoping to finish this project and have them all graded before Mrs. DeFrance-Gilman gets back on April 25th, so she does not have to worry about it (since it is a lot of work).

Today's assignment was to start working on Part A - Framing the Issue. If you were not in class, or did not write down the questions you will be answering in your one paragraph for this, here they are:

1) Why is this topic important?
2) Why did you choose this particular question?
3) What kinds of sources might you plan on using in your research?

Computer Lab Time: At the end of class, we headed up to N210 computer lab to start researching revolutions and choosing which one you are going to investigate. This is a major decision - do not take it lightly! For next class, please come in with a good idea about what you want to investigate. Again, this needs to be a focused question. Instead of "what happened in the Russian Revolution?" think more along the lines of "How did Vladimir Lenin lead the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution in Russia?"

Please let me know if you have questions, comments, or concerns! I would be happy to help you begin this project. I am confident that all of you will do well on this! :-)

Period 2: Revolution! Day 9 - Class Recap

Today we watched part of an episode of The Office in class, while looking for different aspects of a revolution in it. This is me jumping for joy at finding the set of The Office, while on vacation in California in 2007. It is one of my favorite TV shows ever!

Hi everyone,

As I suggested at the start of class today, there was a LOT of talking from me. Usually, I try to stay away from that. Today, there was just so much interesting stuff happening in the world that we had to talk about, along with the introduction of some new content. Read on to get some clarification!

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

Soundtrack: “Wavin’ Flag” by K’naan. Selected because it is a great song and waving flags can frequently be seen as symbol of revolutions. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/18/13:
News Brief/Blog Recap
Poster Grading
Political Compass
The Coup

Homework: Read the blog. Next news brief: Ben G. and Parker. If you did not turn in your Russian Revolution work today in class, please finish it and get it to me ASAP!
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News Brief/Blog Recap: Magaly used this article for her news brief today: China.org.cn - Villager finds snow leopard in Inner Mongolia. This was apparently the first time the animal has been seen in the area in 70 years! Interesting to hear.

We also talked about the new pope: CNN.com - 5 things to know about the new pope. This sparked an interesting conversation about many things. I talked about the new pope: Francis I, from Argentina. This is an important moment in world history because 1) new popes are somewhat rare (there has only been two in my life) and 2) there are apparently over 1 billion Catholics in the world (the entire world population is just about 7 billion).

Finally, we also talked a little bit about the weekend, which is always nice.

Poster Grading: I really enjoyed this conversation! Again, the examples I gave in class were REALLY basic and probably inaccurate in the minds of people who would call themselves communists, socialists, or capitalists. I was merely presenting one way to think about it. Hopefully, it was obvious that there are problems that come up with any system. The Russian Revolution packet was due at this point during class.

Political Compass: This part of class was devoted to learning from two PowerPoints - we are starting your major "historical investigation" project this week, and these notes will help you answer some the main questions the project asks. Here are the presentations to review again, if you need to.

Google Drive: Political Compass PowerPoint

This presentation was looking at various different political philosophies that people hold. Usually, revolutions are prompted by people joining together under a similar way of thinking about what should happen. At the end of the presentation, I showed the class my own point on the political compass. If you want to take the test yourself, please do so! It is really interesting. Here it is: PoliticalCompass.org/test - I would love to see your own results, if you complete it! It is very much like the "forced choice" activity we did in class.

Google Drive: Historical Conditions for Revolution PowerPoint

The next PowerPoint was about the main ways that revolutions start. You will absolutely need to know the political, social, and economic reasons for the revolution you are studying for the historical investigation. An easy way to think about this is: political = people want power; social = people want to find others that agree with them; economic = people want money and resources.

I know I sort of blazed through these. If you are at all confused, please let me know!

The Coup: At the end of the class, we started watching the episode of "The Office" called The Coup. A "coup" (or coup d'etat) is pronounced "coo" and is a French word for the overthrow of a government, usually from a small group of insiders. Thus, this episode is a perfect way to showcase the elements of a revolution (political/social/economic reasons for why Dwight is trying to overthrow Michael as boss) while also being a humorous way to start thinking about how revolutions happen. We did not finish the episode in class. We will do so next time.

Period 2: Revolution! Day 8 - Class Recap

During today's class, we talked about the conclave for electing the next Pope and watched a live CNN feed of the signal chimney. A bird flew on top of it! Later in the day, white smoke came out: there is a new Pope! I am sure we will talk next week about who it is!

Dear class,

I enjoyed the process of finishing your propaganda posters today! Even though it took longer than I thought it would, that is okay. I am more than willing to give the class more time to finish an assignment if it is obvious that it is needed and that students are working well.

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

Soundtrack: “Marry the Night” by Lady Gaga. Selected for today because of it being so dark out when we woke up for school today, thanks to the start of Daylight Savings Time! Fun fact: World War I was the first time the US implemented DST. Lyrics for the song are here.

AGENDA 3/13/13:
News Brief/Conclave
Finish Propaganda Posters
Forms of Governance

Homework: Bring in all Russian Revolution work! Pre-Assessment, Notes, OPVL analysis, Propaganda Poster. Read the blog! Magaly has the next news brief.

Here are the links to download and complete any of the missing work for the Russian Revolution:

1) Russian Revolution Pre-Assessment (newsflash). The class watched this Whose Line Is It Anyway clip and then pretended to be transported back in time to the Russian Revolution - an event which you probably knew very little about. Write a complete response - you can totally guess and/or make something up, if you don't know!

2) Vocabulary Notes. This was the sheet of terms that I passed out for taking notes on during the PowerPoint presentation "Peace, Land, and Bread." If you are unable to determine what some of the words are from the presentation, you can look them up online, ask me in the comments, or email me.

3) OPVL Analysis. This activity involved analyzing four different sources of information having to do with Russia and looking at the objective, purpose, value, and limitation for two of the documents posted in the classroom (I wanted students to at least look at all four). Here are the documents, if you need to see them again to analyze: Russian Revolution Primary Sources.

4) Propaganda Poster worksheet. On the front side, I asked students to analyze the five different Russian/Soviet posters presented in this PowerPoint. On the back side (blank), students were expected to make your own propaganda poster, using at least two Russian symbols (a symbol can be a color) and tying it to at least one of the vocabulary words (see #2 above) you learned earlier. Please caption this (or write a description) in English! :-)
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News Brief: The news brief today was brought in by Teresita, who selected this article: KPTV.com - Germany to legalize anonymous hospital births. We discussed reasons for this law, especially with adoption.

We also talked a little bit about the long weekend and the "conclave" to elect a new Pope (which is a fairly rare event). Here are the main contenders, apparently. As I am writing this, the white smoke signal went up and a new Pope will be announced soon! Such an interesting time in world history!

Finish Propaganda Posters: This took most of class, which was fine. If you are not finished, please do so by next class! Again, your own example of Russian propaganda, using one of the vocabulary terms, two symbols, and a caption in English.

Forms of Governance: We did not have much time at the end of class, so this was a fairly basic (I mean, REALLY basic - these could be entire year long classes by themselves) introduction to communism, socialism, and capitalism. Here is the fundamental ideas behind each form of government:

Communism: Everyone is "in it together" and thus should have the same amount of stuff (food, land, money, resources, supplies, etc). The goal is to benefit the society as a whole - so that nobody has to be poor and everyone is equal. The idea of communism was formulated by Karl Marx in his book The Communist Manifesto. The choice for the paper grade here would be that everyone in the class gets a 75% C (a passing grade, by the way), no matter how much or how little work you put in. Again, everyone is equal in communist theory.

Socialism: Some people need extra help, so the government takes resources from the most wealthy people/corporations and gives it to those that need support. The choice for the paper grade would be me taking some (but not all) of the points from the best posters and "re-distributing" them to students that did not do as well.

Capitalism: Based on the idea of private property - individual responsibility. This is "everyone for themselves"  - always looking to do what is best for you, not for anyone else. Everyone has the choice of whether or not to work or complete the assignment, even though some may not have the skills needed to get 100% credit and will fall behind those that do have those skills. For this choice, I would grade the poster like "normal" - individual students who did the best get the most credit, while students that did do well will get less (and in some cases, probably fail the assignment).

I asked students to write how you would want your propaganda posters graded on the front of your paper.

That was it for today! Please let me know if you need any help with what to do for next class!

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!

Period 2: Revolution! Day 6 - Class Recap

We talked today about Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who died yesterday. This is a picture of a sunset on the island of Aruba - right next to Venezuela. I remember seeing Chavez on TV there, when I visited in 2011!

Dear class,

Another good day, in my estimation! I have not looked at the majority of the quizzes yet - I hope that you did well! I should be able to get them back to you next class. Here's what we did today:

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

Soundtrack: “Mother Russia” by Renaissance. Chosen for today because of the obvious connection to what we are learning about. Also, Renaissance is a really great band. Lyrics here. A little more about the composition of the song here.

AGENDA 3/6/13:
News Brief
Pop Quiz, Hotshot
OPVL
Make Up Work

Homework: Read the blog! Nick B. has the next news brief.

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News Brief: Jessica brought in the news brief for today. The one and only time I will allow a news brief to be about the United States! I noted that I hoped you were able to find the US on a world map, and that studies have found that people are really awful at geography. Here is an article about that, from 2006: CNN.com - Study: Geography Greek to young Americans.

Anyway, this is the article that Jessica chose to bring in: news.Yahoo.com - TSA to allow small knives, bats, and clubs on planes. I talked about my personal distaste for the TSA (a definite example of bias) and showed the official TSA website regulations with the update.

We also talked about Hugo Chavez dying and the story of a Portland man being arrested in connection to a 2009 suicide bomber in Pakistan: KGW.com - FBI: Portland man connected to '09 Pakistan suicide attack.

Plenty going on in the world!

Pop Quiz, Hotshot: After the news brief, I gave the class a few minutes to study up for the Russian Revolution vocab quiz, as I passed back your forced choice reflections. Your updated grades are posted by student ID number on the board. No excuses for you to not know exactly what you need to do by Friday to get your grade up for progress reports!

I'm not going to recap the quiz itself, other than to say that I hope everyone did well. If you were following along during the presentation and did your homework to review, I'm sure you were fine.

OPVL: After the quiz, I introduced a new way to think about various different documents in history. I used the textbook as an example, along with three articles that I read about Hugo Chavez last night. OPVL stands for Origin, Purpose, Value, and Limitation. Your assignment was to take the paper I handed out in class and go through the four documents on each side of the room to assess them. If you missed class, or needed to complete this outside of class, here are the links to both the OPVL sheet and the documents I posted:

Google Drive: OPVL Worksheet

Google Drive: Russian Revolution Primary Documents for Analysis

Let me know if this assignment is at all unclear. You will be turning this in as part of the Russian Revolution packet later, so please keep it with you or in your folder in class!

Make Up Work: We did not really have time to get to this. I was able to check in with most students that I am really worried about for progress reports. Please know what you need to turn in! I would be happy to help. Post a comment here or email me!

See you on Friday!

Period 2: Revolution! Day 5 - Class Recap

This is a picture I took of Maria Sharapova carrying the flag of the Russian Federation at the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics. The flag is different from the one the USSR had after the revolution!

Hi everyone,

I had a fun time last night making all of the content to go over today, and I think it went very well! Thank you for working with me on the "newsflash" pre-assessment and during the Russian Revolution presentation. Please see below if you missed out on anything!

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

Soundtrack: “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2. Chosen for today because 1) this song came up last night when I was listening to my iTunes library on shuffle, and 2) because "Bloody Sunday" (not the same one as the song, but still) is a really important event in Russian history. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/4/13:

News Brief

Debrief Forced Choice

Newsflash

Peace, Land, and Bread

Homework: Study for quiz on Russian Revolution next class. Read the blog. Jessica, you have the next news brief.

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News Brief: Cassey selected this article for today's news brief: CNN.com - Blast kills 42, wounds dozens in Pakistani seaport city of Karachi. We talked about the possible reasons for this, with the different sects of Islam (like Protestant and Catholic for Christianity). We also talked about our weekends for a bit, including my story about talking to a tech support guy in the Philippines. Connected through technology, even when it doesn't work!

Debrief Forced Choice: We devoted a few minutes after the news brief to talk about our reactions to the "forced choice" exercise, that we spent most of two days doing. I really enjoyed all of your responses. I appreciated Daisy saying that she liked the activity, even though the questions were personal because it made her think of answers to questions she had never really had to consider before. That was definitely a main reason I do the activity. I also answered some of the questions myself, because I believe in being honest about my own perspective on the world. After this, I had everyone turn in the reflections on the activity, which were due as homework if you had not completed them last class.

Newsflash: This is absolutely my favorite way to start a new unit. Good teachers always try and assess where students are at before they teach any specific content (otherwise, we would have no idea if you had actually learned anything or not). If you wanted to see the hilarious "Whose Line is it Anyway?" clip again, here it is:

So awesome. Next, I passed out the "pre-assessment" paper that was geared around going back in time to Russia in 1917. If you did not complete this in class, you absolutely need to do this BEFORE going on to reviewing the presentation. If you missed class, or lost your copy (I will have you turn this in later), here it is to download and print:

Google Drive: "Newsflash" Russian Revolution Pre-Assessment

Again, it does not matter if you do not know very much: make an educated guess!

Peace, Land, and Bread: After the newsflash activity, I started up the Russian Revolution content. Here is the vocabulary list that students were filling out during the presentation (the quiz will be on these terms, next class):

Google Drive: Russian Revolution Vocabulary Terms

I helpfully three hole punched these, as well. See? I listened to your feedback about making notes easier!

Here is the main event - the PowerPoint of the basics of what happened during the Russian Revolution:

Google Drive: "Peace, Land, and Bread: The Russian Revolution" PowerPoint

On slide 6 of the PowerPoint, I (would have, if we had enough time - I played a bit at the end of class) stopped and played this video from YouTube (it should start at 41:11 in, and we watched almost to the end) about the process of how Lenin was able to come back to Russia from his exile, with the help of Germany during World War I.

I finished the presentation with about two minutes left in class, so I hope that I gave enough time for everyone to finish writing the notes, balanced with my need to make sure I was able to get through the entire presentation, so you had all the terms for the quiz next class.

We definitely packed quite a lot into class today. I hope it was all clear! Absolutely ask me questions if you are at all confused or need clarification. I really appreciated your focus and attention today. See you on Wednesday!