Period 1: 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 you should want to leave your mark with this big project: let it be known that you were here and existed! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/19/13:
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: Neil and Chase.

---

News Brief: Today's articles were brought in by Natsuka and Jesus. Here they are: CNN.com - Venezuelan leader: Pentagon, CIA involved in plot against country and HuffingtonPost.com - Iraq Attacks Across Baghdad Kill 5, Wound Hundreds. The Iraq article sparked a little bit of a discussion about how it has been 10 years since the US launched the invasion of the country. I talked a bit about the "weapons of mass destruction" that Iraq supposedly had, which ended up not being there.

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 1, the rough draft of this will be due on April 16th. The final draft will be due the next class after that, which is April 18th.

***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 (the last 20 minutes or so), we headed all the way over to S220 (it was the only computer lab available) 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 1: 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 3/14/13:
News Brief/Blog Recap
Poster Grading
Political Compass
The Coup

Homework: Read the blog. Next news brief: Natsuka and Jesus. If you did not turn in your Russian Revolution work today in class, please finish it and get it to me ASAP!
---
News Brief/Blog Recap: Chase encountered a little difficulty getting the news brief today, so I filled in for him. Here's the article I used: 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).

I also talked about the confirmation of discovering the Higgs boson "God Particle" in Europe: BBC.co.uk - LHC cements Higgs boson identification. That article has an interesting overview of what it is. Important news for understanding our universe better. Science is something that brings people together!

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.

Political Compass: This part of class was devoted to learning from two PowerPoints - we are starting your major "historical investigation" project next 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 week.

Have a great weekend! Get some rest and be ready for a big week of work before Spring Break! :-)

Period 1: Revolution! Day 8 - Class Recap

Just so it is super clear, here is what is due next class! Please ask me if you are at all confused about what to do. Look below for links to all the work you need to turn in! :-)

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 3/12/13:
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! Chase 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! :-)
---
News Brief: The news brief today was brought in by Daniel Kim, who chose this article: FoxNews.com - Kim Jong Un urges North Korean troops to be on 'maximum alert' amid tensions. We talked a little about the history of the US involvement in Korea, including the Korean War. North Korea is saying that they are not going to agree to follow the 1953 armistice that stopped the fighting of that war. Doesn't that make them at war, again? Korea seems to be in constant conflict, these days. This particular move was brought about after North Korea detonated another nuclear test and the United Nations Security Council (including China, which is North Korea's neighbor and ally) agreed to more sanctions against them.

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 first smoke signal was released - black, so there is no 2/3rds majority. They will keep voting until there is white smoke and a new leader of the Catholic Church. I am guessing by next class, this will have happened.

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!