Life, Liberty and please pass the Turkey

The power of ideas was our focus this week as we read an excerpt from “Common Sense” and analyzed The Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Paine, an immigrant from England who had failed at most of his endeavors, wrote a 50 page pamphlet, “Common Sense,” that became a best seller. Paine’s arguments as to why the colonists should break from England were written in a direct, plain style that all could easily understand. In addition to his arguments for independence, Paine went a step further and said men should be able to govern themselves (the idea of popular sovereignty).

These ideas of empowerment were further supported in Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence.” Jefferson went on to state that man had “certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These rights could not be taken away by the government or a King. In addition Jefferson argued that citizens enter into a contract with government which provides for protection and liberty for all. If government infringes upon those rights, then the citizens have the right to change the government. This principle of accountability in government was on display again on November 7th 2006 when voters cast aside many incumbents and elected new Representatives and Senators.

These two primary sources, “Common Sense” and the “Declaration of Independence,” are key to understanding the basis of our government. As part of your final assessment for this standard you will be asked to write about one of these sources.

A Word about Timelines:

Timelines are a means of illustrating the steps leading to an important event. Timelines can help you understand cause and effect relationships. Many of you put the Sugar Act on your timeline and described what that event was but you need to take the next step by identifying its significance. This was the first time a tax had been placed on the colonists and they responded with “no taxation without representation.” The timeline was also an opportunity for you to see how each passing year and event added to the tension between the colonists and England. While your text offered many international events on the timeline at the start of the Chapter, many of these events could not be linked to the assignment: identifying events leading to the Revolution. Use your assignments as a way to better understand our standard.

Helpful Hints for Current Events:

On your return, your first current events assignment is due. Here are some hints to keep in mind as you do your assignment:

Select a quality article; look for a byline (author is identified)

Read the entire article and list key points; ask yourself why this is an important issue

Write your paragraph summary from your notes; do not copy from the article unless you
are using a quote, and then be sure to use quotation marks

Think about why you selected the article and if you can make a connection to our study
of history; think of this second paragraph as a conversation with me on your article

The assignment is due at the start of class; do not ask to go to your locker or to print;
use your time management skills to be prepared

Take notes during our class discussion; ask questions; keep your notes organized

Current events are a great way to keep informed on world and national issues and a great way to earn lots of points. Every time you do a current event and meet standard, it is the same as getting a perfect score on a quiz or homework assignment. The quiz is always announced, you get to use your notes and I ask you to think of possible questions. You can practice writing quality questions and using your critical thinking skills.

A President in your Pocket

On November 19, the United States Mint announced a new series of dollar coins that will feature our Presidents. It is expected that it will take a decade to complete the minting of the coins. The first coin, featuring who else but George Washington, will go into circulation in February to commemorate President’s Day. The Mint is hoping that the Presidential series will be as popular as the state quarters. It is estimated that the government earned $4 to $5 billion on the quarter series as people collected and saved the special coins.

You are Invited:

Monday afternoons you are welcome to come by and work on any of your assignments with me in room 246. It is a great opportunity to have some quiet time, ask questions of particular interest or concern to you, and have access to the many resources on the shelves. If you were absent, please take this time to go over assignments you missed. It is your responsibility to complete work you may have missed when you were out.

A Day to Give Thanks

In between football games, parades, and eating turkey, I hope all of us take a moment to remember why we commemorate this day and give thanks to the earliest colonists who suffered through many hardships to establish a place in the New World. A special thank you must also be given to our Founders who recognized the worth and value of each individual and designed a country where all of us have the opportunity to pursue our dreams. No matter what hardships or misfortunes we may face, we live in a free country where opportunities abound.

Can It

We have only three more days for our Lucy’s Hearth canned food drive. An impressive trophy and bragging rights are on line so please bring in those canned goods by Wednesday. Let’s beat Portsmouth!!

Tensions Mount

This week we lived through the major events leading up to The American Revolution.
Working with a partner, you designed a timeline to highlight those events that led to war. This activity gave you the opportunity to look at events, debate their significance and make a judgment as to which events are crucial to understanding why the colonists went to war against the British Empire.

Our primary source readings “Voices of Consent” and “Voices of Dissent” allowed us to explore the British and colonial perspective. The British government desperately needed money to finance the French and Indian War debt and the colonists were frustrated with what they saw as restraints on their rights as British citizens. Tensions mounted as taxes were imposed and boycotts conducted. Each side felt its actions were right and justified.

British troops arrived in Boston to impose order but the sight of the brightly uniformed soldiers infuriated the colonists. Next week we will once again act and think like historians as we look at the Boston Massacre using multiple primary and secondary sources. We will have to think about bias, reliability, accuracy, and intent as we sort through the accounts and try to come to an understanding of what happened that cold and snowy March evening in Boston.

John Adams

This is a friendly reminder that on November 21 period 7 will be holding its first accountable talk activity on Part I: Revolution. You will need to come with a quote from this section and your interpretation of its significance. In order to meet standard, you must have your text with you for our discussion. You are accountable to yourself, the group and the text. I am looking forward to your self directed text based discussion. The timeline on Section I is due after Thanksgiving.

What is Happening in the Outside World?

This week you were given your current events assignment. This ongoing assignment will be due every day 3. Use the rubric and the FAQs to help you meet standard. Doing current events will help you understand the major events of the day, encourage you to make connections to past events, and accumulate points for second quarter.

Student-Parent-Teacher Conferences

Thank you to all who came out on Wednesday to visit our classroom and to hear about the many exciting and interesting activities. One of the key factors leading to student success is a positive and supportive family. It was instructive to have students present their portfolios to their families. It was a great time to review work and establish goals for second quarter.

A Word about Homework

The most important homework is the assignments you give yourself. In addition to teacher directed tasks, you have to ask yourself what you need to do to understand the material in order to meet standard. Do you need to spend more time taking active reading notes? Do you need to review the links on the blog to better understand key events? Do you need to make lists or graphic organizers to help you with the content? Do you need to review study skills and time management techniques? Last, but not least, do you need to come by Mondays after school for a special extra help session? Starting November 20, I will be conducting special review and support sessions. If you missed class, don’t understand an assignment or just want to talk about our activities, please come by room 246 after school. I guarantee it will make a difference!

Let’s Beat Portsmouth

In addition to our Thanksgiving football game against the Patriots, MHS has challenged PHS to a food drive competition. The Leo Club of MHS has organized this event to build school spirit and provide much needed food to our community. Did you know that over 35 million people in the United States are classified as hungry? So look in your pantry, talk to your parents, and start bringing in cans of soup, tuna, beans, pasta sauce, vegetables, and other non-perishables for our competition. Food items may be left in the cafeteria or room 246.

Extra Credit

Who is traveling over 3,000 miles to Jamestown Virginia next year to help commemorate the 400th anniversary of the settlement?

Making Connections

This was a good week for making connections between our study of historical events and the contemporary world. On Tuesday, millions of Americans went to the polls and voted. The results were historic as the Democrats captured the House of Representatives and the Senate. In addition to a party change, the House is expected to have its first woman Speaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi. In addition to being the leader of the House of Representatives she is third in line to succeed the President and Vice President.

Our government is based on the beliefs of our Founders who had to fight a long and difficult revolution. As we begin our study of The American Revolution think about what these people risked in order that we may live in freedom and change our leadership through a peaceful voting process. Think about what freedom means and your obligations to defend this way of life. The need to defend our liberties, sometimes even at the risk of our own lives, takes us to Veteran’s Day, a time when we remember, thank and celebrate all those men and women who served in our armed services.

Current Events Assignments

Starting next week, we will set aside time to review what is happening in the country and in the world. You will have weekly current events assignments where you get to select an event to share with the class. You will be given a task description and a rubric and this will be a regular ongoing weekly assignment. We will talk about the rubric criteria including the differences between national and international events. We will look at how to write a good summary and how to make connections with other events. You will also need to attach the article to your summary sheet. If you don’t have access to a newspaper or news magazine at home, you can always print off a story from the internet. All the major newspapers have web sites where you can access articles. I will call on three or four students to share their events with the class so you need to be prepared with a summary and comments on the event. You will take notes on the events that are reported to the class. The notes must be organized in your notebook and you will be quizzed on the events and issues. You will be allowed to use your notes for the quiz. So, if you take good notes, listen to the discussion and think about the issues you should be able to get an excellent score on the quiz. You will find the current events assignments are a great way to earn lots of points. Last year, students quickly noticed that the students with the highest grade at the end of the quarter were the students who did all of the current events.

The End can also be a Beginning

As you figured out your grade at the end of the quarter, some of you celebrated your hard work, some of you were disappointed, and some of you were struggling with a failing grade. Now is the time to think about what steps you need to take for the second quarter to maintain your good grade standing or to improve your scores. Do you need to use your class time more wisely? Do you need to take a more serious approach to the assignments? Do you need to work on maintaining an organized and up to date portfolio? Do you need to check the blog every week? Do you need to ask questions to clarify your thinking? Do you need to stay after school for additional help? It is up to you to decide a new course of action.

Lost

On Thursday afternoon, someone left a Standard I assessment on my desk. There was no rubric attached and no indication of who wrote the letter. Please identify yourself!

Are you Ready for a Revolution?

This week you received a copy of Standard II on the American Revolution. While the Standard may appear to be a list of things to cover, I like to think of it as a roadmap. It tells us key places we want to stop along the way to our ultimate destination. As good historians we should always begin by generating questions, assessing our prior knowledge (you are so fortunate that you live where the Revolution occurred), looking for connections and evaluating the numerous sources available to us. Two sites that I would encourage you to visit are Liberty and History of US. If you find other sites that would be useful for your fellow historians, please bring in the address. We will evaluate the site and you can receive extra credit if your site is selected to post on the blog.

Music fans will know that The Beatles (do I need to identify this band?) sang a song entitled “Revolution.” I am looking for a legal copy of the song so we can play it in class, so please start rummaging through that box of old vinyl records your family may have stashed away or check those old cassette tapes.

Habits of Mind

This week we also started thinking about our thinking. The Habits of Mind are steps people can take to help solve problems. We will be looking at the different thinking techniques and trying to incorporate them into our own problem solving opportunities.

A Time to Reflect

This week we read The New York Times editorial on the Brown University study of slavery. We had just finished using The Providence Journal web site on “The Unrighteous Traffik” and we had that paper’s front page article on the slavery report posted in our room. The decision to write the editorial indicates how significant the New York Times editorial board believed the Brown University study to be for efforts to better educate everyone about the role of slavery in the development of our country. In reading the editorial, we used our 3-2-1 strategy to help us understand it more deeply. The impact of slavery can still be felt today, and Brown University is taking additional steps to recognize its role in the university’s history.

Letters to the Editor

Congratulations to all who submitted letters to the editor of the Newport paper. Your hard work paid off and the paper featured four of your letters in a special section on page 9, section D, of Saturday’s edition. You now know how to write this special type of letter. The next time you have a thought, opinion or recommendation to share with the community, you can write a letter to the editor. I look forward to seeing your letters in the future.

November 7: Who will Win?

You have Election Day off from school so take this opportunity to make sure all voters in your household go to the polls. You will discover in our study of The American Revolution that people put their lives on the line in 1776 so that future generations would have the opportunity to live in a democracy. The polls close at 9 pm in Rhode Island so tune in and watch the results. Little Rhode Island will get significant national coverage as control of the Senate could hinge on who we pick to be our Senator.

“John Adams”

A reminder to period 7 that you now have the “John Adams” text and you should start reading section one. Use sticky notes to mark passages that you may want to use for an accountable talk activity and to mark significant events, as one assignment for section one will be a timeline. These assignments will be distributed next week.

Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences

November 15 is our day for conferences. Please bring in your sign up sheet so we select a convenient time for you and your parents to look through your portfolio. You are the one doing the work and you should be there to speak with your family on what you have accomplished to date and what your goals are for the next quarter. This coming week we will update the portfolio and you can add up your points for the quarter.

Helpful Hints

By now you should be well along in your thinking about your assessment. Your letters are due Friday (period 8) or Monday (period 3 and 7). Make sure you are on time and attach the rubric to your final copy. The room management plan clearly states that late work is not acceptable (just like Driver’s Ed).

I wanted to pass along some helpful hints:

Keep in mind that this is an opened ended question so there are a variety of appropriate responses to the prompt

Try to put yourself back into the time period; think about the reasons why people came to the New World; keep in mind the push and pull factors that existed in the 1700s; it may help you to think about immigration factors today

Use your maps and text to help you visualize the 13 colonies and the three distinct regions; what factors made the regions distinct and then select a region that is going to be best for you; make sure to explain your reasoning

Use the rubric to help guide you

After you make a statement, take the time to elaborate; tell your reader your thoughts, judgments and observations; think about whom your readers are and try to respond to their possible questions

You have ample access to all of the puzzle pieces, now you have to fit them together to make a coherent story

If you have any questions that can’t be answered by your classmates (remember we are a learning community as we benefit by working with others) you are welcome to email me at asullivan@mpsri.net.

I have full faith and confidence that you will do a splendid job!

This will be your final grade for the quarter.