One of the "lies" that James Loewen discusses in his book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" is about Abraham Lincoln being portrayed as single minded in terms of saving the Union, instead of a deep thinker who wrestled with the idea of slavery and the treatment of people of color.
Hello everyone,
Another interesting class today on understanding history! Here's what we did today in class:
Learning Targets Addressed:
Behavior LT 3: I can communicate and work effectively within a team or group.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Soundtrack: "Love the Way You Lie (Clean)" by Eminem and Rihanna. Selected for today because of the connection to "Lies My Teacher Told Me."
AGENDA 9/20/19:
News Brief -
Important Events
History
The Biggest Lie
Homework: Read the blog. The next news brief is assigned to: Ariel.
We also checked in about the weekend to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class.
Ariel was selected 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):
Important Events: Last class, we devoted the end of class for each student to try and identify what they felt the 5 most important events in United States history are. We came back to discussing these events in class today. Next class, we will look a little at what the text book has to say about these events, as we continue to have a critical eye on history. Here's the list Period 1 came up with:
• Civil War (14).
• Great Depression (10).
• World War II (9).
• September 11th, 2001. (9)
• Revolutionary War (8).
• Civil Rights Movement (5).
• Louisiana Purchase (3).
• Moon Landing/Space Race/Apollo 11 (2).
• Jackson’s Indian Removal Act (1).
• JFK assassination (1).
• Columbine (1).
• Civil War (14).
• Great Depression (10).
• World War II (9).
• September 11th, 2001. (9)
• Revolutionary War (8).
• Civil Rights Movement (5).
• Louisiana Purchase (3).
• Moon Landing/Space Race/Apollo 11 (2).
• Jackson’s Indian Removal Act (1).
• JFK assassination (1).
• Columbine (1).
History: We discussed a question about who or what bears responsibility for the event described, using this excerpt from a book called "What Is History:"
Here's a real life example, regarding an autonomous driving car:
Here's a real life example, regarding an autonomous driving car:
We had another conversation in class about who was to blame for this incident - again, using our interpretations of the facts, as historians do.
The Biggest Lie: Simply put, this is one of the most important books for social studies/history teachers:
The book came out in 1995, but was recently revised and republished. In class, we read this interview with the author, James Loewen, about the biggest lie that is told in history classes:
As we read, the lie is that America is constantly getting better, all the time, and that there are not times when it is getting worse. We broke up into 7 smaller groups and read through the interview, then I asked the groups to do a little research on the "lies" from the book, which included:
1) Christopher Columbus
2) Woodrow Wilson
3) The first Thanksgiving
4) Betsy Ross
5) Helen Keller
6) John Brown
7) Abraham Lincoln
As a class, we wrote out what we found as the lies about these people/events and had a good discussion about why they are lied about (up to the First Thanksgiving group). For more on Thanksgiving, see here: NYTimes.com - Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong. We will come back to this next class! See you then!
1) Christopher Columbus
2) Woodrow Wilson
3) The first Thanksgiving
4) Betsy Ross
5) Helen Keller
6) John Brown
7) Abraham Lincoln
As a class, we wrote out what we found as the lies about these people/events and had a good discussion about why they are lied about (up to the First Thanksgiving group). For more on Thanksgiving, see here: NYTimes.com - Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong. We will come back to this next class! See you then!
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