Period 1: World War I, Day 3 - Class Recap

Today's talk about writing essays included a bunch of pictures of Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco. Here's a picture of the city from that trip (Spring Break in 2011).

Dear class,

I realize that there has been a lot of me standing and talking to the class this last week! I apologize - hopefully it will not stay that way. I am simply guessing that you would rather hear all of this information personally explained to you, rather than copy notes from the textbook. In any case, I appreciated your effort today during our final class of Semester 1! On to the recap:

Essential Question: Why do wars happen? - There was an obvious connection between this question and what we worked on in class.

Soundtrack: "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. Lyrics here. Picked because it is a good song and mentions war.

AGENDA 1/29/13

News Brief/Blog Recap
The Most Important Skill
Graphic Organizing
Why Did World War I Begin?

Homework: Check the class blog and post a comment if you have not already done so! Good luck on finals!
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News Brief/Blog Recap: Marsuk brought in this article to discuss: BBC.co.uk - French-led troops secure hold on Timbuktu. I mentioned how this is really interesting because of the connection to colonialism. France was Mali's colonial power, and now feels like they should try to help the Malian government from collapsing. Definitely a big story in the world. Thanks, Marsuk! Vincent, you are up for next class (next Monday). Any news article about anything currently going on around the world outside the United States.

McKenzie asked about New Zealand sea foam. I had no idea, but it appears that there was a big sea foam event in Australia resulting from a tropical cyclone (the link has a pretty crazy video): ABCNews.go.com - Sea Foam Covers Australia's Coast.

I also mentioned two other news events that happened this weekend: the fire in Brazil that killed many people on Sunday. ABCNews.go.com - Brazil Nightclub Fire Kills More Than 230 People. This is such a terrible event. It reminded me of the famous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City in 1911, which killed 146 people.

Another news topic that I brought up Iran threatening to attack anyone that tries to intervene in Syria (remind anyone of the World War I alliances?): LATimes.com - Iran issues threatening warning against attack in Syria.

All in all, another good news brief section.

The Most Important Skill: I said this in class and I really believe it: the ability to write (especially a good essay) is the most important skill that you will need in order to be successful in high school and college. Thus, this lecture was something I hope you paid very close attention to. Please see the PowerPoint below (remember that if the text doesn't show up in Google Docs, click "File" then "Download" and it should when you have a copy on your own computer):

Google Docs: Writing Easy Essays in Social Studies PowerPoint

The basics: every essay needs to start out with a "thesis statement" in the first paragraph (the introduction). Each of the three paragraphs after that should contain one main point you are trying to make. The format (or recipe) for those "body" paragraphs are like this: topic sentence, concrete detail/fact, concrete detail/fact, commentary/opinion, and then a concluding sentence. Finally, after the three body paragraphs, you will write a conclusion that restates the thesis. This is a LOT of information to try and learn, I know. That is why I am having you practice in class before I ask you to write me a real one at the end of the World War I unit.

Graphic Organizing: Based on the essay question on the last slide of the PowerPoint, I gave three different examples of "graphic organizing" your essay. I asked you to use one of these examples to start up your essay. If you missed class, here is one of the examples that you can use to start thinking about your essay:

Google Docs - Graphic Organizer for Writing Essays

Along with this, I gave the class a good format for writing a thesis (and even included one on World War I to start you off, if you were having trouble):

Google Docs - Thesis Statement Formula and Example

Hopefully this made sense. It is okay if it does not right away. That is why we are practicing!

Why Did World War I Begin? For the rest of class, I had you start up your essays using your graphic organizers - then the actual writing if you finished that. Here are the prompts that we were using (the last slide of the PowerPoint): 

Question: Why did World War I start and what happened at the beginning of it?

Words to use: militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism, Franz Ferdinand, Sarajevo, Triple Alliance, Triple Entente, June 28th 1914, trenches, Eastern Front, Western Front.

Use your notes! Cite my presentation as (Fritz Lecture) for any concrete details directly from me. You can also use the textbook, if you like.

Again, we will continue working on this in class. The essay is not homework - I want to help you through each step this time. Next time, it will be an actual assignment/test. You will be including your work here with that final assignment - so it is not like this work will not count.

Phew! I know that is a lot. Please let me know if you have any questions! Good luck on finals - see you next week!