Friday, March 17, 2017

Revolution! Day 5 - 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!

Dear class,

Welcome to your weekend from Global Studies! We looked more into what makes up a revolution in class, and also had some time to work on late assignments. Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets:
Critical Thinking LT 1: I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements.

Soundtrack: "Leningrad" by Billy Joel. Selected for today because Matthew suggested it on the blog, as relating to Lenin and Russia. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/17/17:
News Brief - Elena
Conditions for Revolutions
The Coup
Russian Revolution Work

Homework: Read the blog! Turn in late/missing/incomplete/make up work by today, for updated progress report grade. Bring your Chromebooks (charged!) next class (and for the next month). Reuben has the next news brief.
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News Brief: Elena had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: BBC.com - France school shooting: Teenage boy arrested after four hurt. We found France in our world maps and talked about the political situation in Europe for a little bit, before moving on to talk about what we are up to outside of class.

Reuben was selected for the next news brief.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):


Conditions for Revolutions: This 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.

Here's the PowerPoint, if you wanted to check it out again, or if you missed class and need to do notes:


If you are at all confused about what makes up a revolution (in the sense of a government), please let me know!

The Coup: To have some fun in introducing theory of revolutions, we watched 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 finished the episode and then had a bit of time at the end of class to work on incomplete work.

Russian Revolution Work: I wanted everything from the unit turned in, including:

1) The Russian Revolution Pre-Assessment/Newsflash activity
2) Vocabulary Notes (on Peace, Land, and Bread PowerPoint)
3) OPVL activity (using the primary sources posted around the room)
4) Propaganda Poster assignment (using the Propaganda Poster PowerPoint to complete)
5) Vocabulary Quiz (a make up quiz is available in class, too)

Please get these in as soon as possible, if you did not do so in class! They will be another grade opportunity for the learning target on revolutions. Next class, you will start the big historical investigation assignment. Be ready! :-)

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Revolution! Day 4 - Class Recap

The flag of Vietnam (a communist country), flying on a boat in Ha Long Bay. Notice the red and the star as symbols! Photo taken in 2011.

Hi everyone,

Today, we looked more into the concept of propaganda and persuasion. Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets:
Critical Thinking LT 1: I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements.

Soundtrack: "Mother Russia" by Renaissance. Selected for today because of our continued look at the Russian Revolution! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/14/17:
News Brief - Juan
Quiz
Propaganda
Create Posters

Homework: Read the blog! Finish propaganda poster (due next class). Elena has the next news brief.
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News Brief: The news brief article for today was brought in by Juan, who selected this article to talk about: BBC.com - Venezuela threatens to take over bakeries that break rules. We found Venezuela in the world map packet and noted we did a story on the country, as we talked about the continuing crisis with the government there, and how inflation (money being worth less and less) is impacting the economy and the people.

Elena, you are up for next class.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):


Quiz: After the news brief, we took the Russian Revolution vocabulary quiz. 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.

Propaganda: 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.
  
Here is the presentation on Russian Revolution propaganda, if you missed class, or need to complete your worksheet:


Here is the worksheet that goes along with the presentation:


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


On the back side of this propaganda poster worksheet, you are creating your OWN Russian propaganda poster. Please use at least two symbols (a color can be a symbol) and make a connection to at least one of the vocabulary words from the Russian Revolution PowerPoint. You do not have to use Russian. Use an English caption to explain your poster, please.

Create Posters: The rest of class was devoted to creating the Russian Revolution propaganda posters, to emphasize the connection between persuasion and the revolution. These will be due at the start of next class.

See you next class, everyone!

Monday, March 13, 2017

Revolution! Day 3 - Class Recap

The Brandenburg Gate, in Berlin. Vladimir Lenin took a secretive train ride from Germany to Russia, and took power in Russia with his Bolshevik party upon his return.

Dear class,

We started really looking in depth at the Russian Revolution today in class. It is one of the more important events in Modern World History! You will be using the same sorts of information that you learned in this unit for your historical investigation project on another country. Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets:
Critical Thinking LT 1: I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements.

Soundtrack: "Rasputin" by Boney M. Selected due to a fantastic student suggestion on the blog. What a song! Lots of great Russian Revolution references in the lyrics here

AGENDA 3/13/17:
News Brief - Jim
Peace, Land, and Bread
OPVL
Study for Quiz

Homework: Read the blog! Study Russian Revolution vocabulary for quiz. Juan has the next news brief.
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News Brief: The news brief article for today was brought in by Jim, who selected an article about this story: NZHerald.co.nz - Ghost earthquakes across NZ after large shake in the Kermadecs. We found New Zealand in the world map packet, and talked about this story for a bit before moving on to talk about what we were up to outside of class.

Juan, you are up for next class.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):


Peace, Land, and Bread: This was the continuation of last class (we stopped two slides in the previous class). Here is the vocabulary list that students were filling out during the presentation (the quiz will be on these terms, next class):


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


I know this is a lot of information. If you are in need of extra clarification or support, please ask me! I would love to help!

OPVL: I introduced a new way to think about various different documents in history. We used the textbook as an example. OPVL stands for Origin, Purpose, Value, and Limitation. Your assignment was to take the paper I handed out in class and go through two of 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:



Finally, here's another way to understand how to do OPVL analysis using specific types of documents:


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!

Study For Quiz: Study your vocabulary sheet (linked to above) to know the key terms from the Russian Revolution! We will have a quiz on the terms next class.