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,

Today was the start of a really big assignment: the historical investigation that all freshmen need to do at Westview (most sophomores will, as well). Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 20: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements.
Communication LT 3: I can effectively use the conventions of writing.
Research LT 1: I can develop and refine a research question or topic.
Research LT 3: I can responsibly and accurately cite sources.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "At the Beginning" from Anatasia. Selected for today because of the movie's connection to the Russian Revolution, and our work starting on the Historical Investigation. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/12/15:

News Brief - Anju

The Historical Investigation
Part A
Library

Homework: Read the blog! Come prepared with a revolution in mind to investigate. You will be finishing your Part A paragraph in class. Devon has the next news brief.

Here is the calendar for where we are at with the historical investigation.

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News Brief: Anju had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: BBC.com - Japan marks anniversary of devastating 2011 tsunami. It was really interesting to hear Anju talk about her personal experience with the earthquake when she was living in Tokyo! Thank you so much for sharing! :-)

We checked in about the weekend and also watched VICE News for the day.

Devon was selected for the next news brief.

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

1) The "simple" explanation sheet, with the possible revolutions to research on the second page:

Google Drive: Historical Investigation Basics

2) The more in depth assignment, with all of the learning targets and step by step process for Part A (on the second page):

Google Drive: Historical Investigation Assignment In Depth

We went through both of these thoroughly (at least 15 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, the rough draft of this will be due on April 10th. The final draft will be due the next class after that, which is April 14th.

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.

3) 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.

Part A: Today's assignment was to start working on Part A - Framing the Issue. This means that you need to find a revolution that you are interested in, then narrow down a specific research question about that revolution. If you were not in class, or did not have 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?

Library: For the rest of class, we headed up to the Library 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! :-)