Monday, April 8, 2019

Historical Investigation/Cold War, Day 5 - Class Recap


One of the Herblock cartoons that we analyzed today in class. So perfect for our unit on mass hysteria!

Hi everyone,

Today was the start of our last quarter of the 2018-2019 school year! Plenty to get to, as always. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets Addressed:
Critical Thinking LT 4: I can evaluate information and explanations within a given context and develop a relevant conclusion.
Critical Thinking LT 5: I can justify and support arguments or interpretation with appropriate evidence.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Research LT 1: I can effectively conduct and apply research.

Soundtrack: "Block Rockin' Beats" by The Chemical Brothers. Selected for today because of Herb Block and our analysis of his cartoons dealing with McCarthyism and the Cold War. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/8/19:
News Brief - Zayn
DBQ Grades
Herblock
Parts B/C/F

Homework: Read the blog! Continue working on your Historical Investigation! Next news brief: Shivan.

News Brief: Zayn had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: NPR.org - Kirstjen Nielsen Leaving Homeland Security Post As Border Crossings Surge. After discussing the story, we also checked in to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class.

Shivan was assigned to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):


DBQ Grades: This was an assignment completed before Spring Break, which I said I would have graded as a part of Quarter 3 progress reports. Since I posted these grades over the weekend (thanks to a grading day on Friday and not having jury duty!), I went over once again what I was looking for and some general thoughts.

First off, this truly is a difficult and challenging assignment! I am very impressed by how much students have grown as writers. Way to go! Here are some other grading points:

Communication:

Clear thesis. Organized (use of graphic organizer). Well written.

Critical Thinking:

Analysis of the evidence (6 documents).

Knowledge:

Evidence and analysis include discussion of impact of technology.

Research:

6 different documents cited, variety of sources. OPVL for Documents A-H fully completed.

Other points that I noticed: use of contractions, first/second person, lead vs led.

Thank you for your hard work on this, everyone!

Herblock: One of the most famous political cartoonists of the last 100 years is Herbert Block, who drew for the Washington Post. I showed this introduction to the class:


Next, we analyzed some of Herblock's most famous cartoons having to do with McCarthyism and the Cold War. Here's the assignment sheet that went with this:


And here is a link to the cartoons in a folder:


As with the cartoon at the top of this post, my hope was that students could see how art and satire was used during the Cold War to combat the "red scare" and stereotypes.

Historical Investigation Parts B/C/F: This will be the major assignment of the semester, which will involve quite a lot of research time inside and outside of class. Here's the assignment overview:


Today, I showed the class what the biggest section of the Historical Investigation is: the actual research! Here's what we went over in class as an example from Mrs. Ferris:


Here's the calendar for the next month and what we will be doing - be aware that this is subject to change and revision!


The rest of the class was devoted to work time on the Historical Investigation (especially with the actual research portion as I checked in with students about their Part A submissions), as we will also have Friday after some research lessons from Ms. Schulz. See everyone on Wednesday for more Cold War content in class!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please enter your comment. I will review the comments before posting them to the blog, so do not worry if yours does not pop up right away. Remember, do your best with spelling and grammar! :-)