Period 1: 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 3/21/13:

News Brief/Blog Recap

Part A, Explained

Citations/Part B

Computer Lab Time - S110

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

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News Brief: Neil and Chase had the news brief for today. Here are the two articles that they brought in: CNN.com - North Korean video shows imagined attack on Washington and NPR.org - France Wants U.N. To Take Over Peacekeeping Mission in Mali. I didn't want to dwell on these for too long, but the Mali article in particular was fascinating because it is a direct result of the same sort of imperialism and colonialism that drove the genocide in Rwanda that you learned about earlier in this class.

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 Period 1 on Friday, April 5th - at the end of the week 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 - S110: After explaining all of this, we headed over to S110 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 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.

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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!
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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! :-)