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.