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!