Monday, September 30, 2019

Historiography, Day 5 - Class Recap


Many students in class selected Martin Luther King, Jr. as someone who they considered to be a "Great American" to research.

Dear class,

This week, we will be wrapping up our unit on the study of how history is told, by doing a little research of our own. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed: 
Behavior LT 1: I can self direct my learning.
Research LT 1: I can effectively conduct and apply research.
Critical Thinking LT 5: I can justify and support arguments or interpretation with appropriate evidence.

Soundtrack: "Circle of Life" from The Lion King. Selected for today because biographies are a portrait of someone's life. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/30/19:
News Brief - Ariel
Debrief Notable Americans
Comparative Biography
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Continue to work on the Comparative Biography – due Friday at start of class! The next news brief is assigned to: Reece.

News Brief: Today's news brief was brought in by Ariel, who selected an article about this story: NYTimes.com - Trump Was Repeatedly Warned That Ukraine Conspiracy Theory Was ‘Completely Debunked’. We discussed this story for a bit and then moved on.

We also checked in about the weekend to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class.

Reece 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):

Debrief Notable Americans: The assignment for last class (this was also posted in Google Classroom) was to look at a few short biographies of notable Americans through history and to try and assess any biased words in them, whether or not they achieved the "American Dream," and whether or not this person is a "Great American" - students were able to define this however they wanted. Here are the biographies (try to select a range, not just the first three) and the assignment:



In class today, we talked about the notable Americans and had a conversation about the answers to the questions for each one. This activity transitioned us to...

Comparative Biography: The last part of the "notable Americans" worksheet asked for the name of someone you consider to be a "Great American" - students were allowed to define that however they wanted, however, the person had to be someone that was 1) real, and 2) multiple biographies existed of. With this person in mind, this is the assignment that I introduced today in class (also posted in Google Classroom):


We talked about the importance of finding good sources for this (Wikipedia is allowed for this assignment!) as well as how to cite your sources using EasyBib.com or another generator.

This assignment should end up being about 2-3 pages in length, as you look in depth at the biographies you find on your Great American.

Work Time/Names and States: The rest of class was devoted to work time on the comparative biography assignment, as next class will be as well. Please email me or comment with any questions, as this assignment will be due at the start of class on Friday!

Thanks, everyone - see you later this week! Here's the States quiz on Sporcle to help with studying states. I passed out a class roster with pictures for the names - there will be a quiz next week on these, so study up!

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Historiography, Day 4 - Class Recap


One of the biographies that was an option to read today in class was about Charles Lindburgh, who flew this plane (now on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC) from New York to Paris in 1927.

Hello everyone,

Today, we continued our work with assessing how history is told, by investigating bias and what makes someone a "great" American. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed: 
Behavior LT 1: I can self direct my learning.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Critical Thinking LT 4: I can evaluate information and explanations within a given context and develop a relevant conclusion.

Soundtrack: "Otherside" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Selected for today because of our discussion about bias and being "one sided" in interpretations of history. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/26/19:
News Brief - Sheinella
Finish Textbook Examination
Bias and Biographies
Great Americans

Homework: Read the blog. Finish the textbook examination if you did not in class! The next news brief is assigned to: Ariel.

News Brief: Today's news brief was brought in by Sheinella, who selected an article about this story: CNN.com - Trump mocks teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg. We discussed this story for a bit and then moved on.

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):

Finish Textbook Examination: This was an activity that we mostly finished last class, and the main goal of today was to analyze how the textbooks have looked at singular events in history, and how that might have changed over time. Here is the assignment that was due today in class (it is graded):


Hopefully this was an interesting activity for you to see! We debriefed this activity in class today and discussed what we saw in terms of how the events were described over the course of time.

If you are at home and wanting to look at the class textbook online, it is available on this website in chapters. If you did not finish this assignment and need to see the old textbooks on the cart, they will be in Ms. Ferris's room, N229, during Period 7 and 8 to access.

Bias and Biographies: Next, we continued to discuss historical perspective, as we defined the term bias. Here's the short PowerPoint that we went through:


Bias is unfairly preferring one person or group over another. This often takes the shape in history of people and events being portrayed in very positive or very negative ways, using language that does not present a "balanced" account of who the person was or what actually happened in the event.

Great Americans: The assignment for today (this is also posted in Google Classroom) was to look at a few short biographies of notable Americans through history and to try and assess any biased words in them, whether or not they achieved the "American Dream," and whether or not this person is a "Great American" - students were able to define this however they wanted. Here are the biographies (try to select a range, not just the first three) and the assignment:



The last part of the assignment asks students to write down someone they consider to be a "Great American" - we will be working with this selection next class, so please make sure it is someone that multiple biographies exist for.

If students finished this in class, I encouraged them to start getting familiar with all of the states in our country, which there will be a test on (probably in a few classes). To help, here's a Sporcle quiz.

Thanks, everyone! See you next week!

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Historiography, Day 3 - Class Recap


A passport is a book that also has historical facts in it! This is my favorite page from my older passport. Kiribati is a particularly difficult stamp to get!

Dear students,

I hope you enjoyed our work with looking at how the telling of history has changed through textbook examination! Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed: 
Behavior LT 1: I can self direct my learning.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Critical Thinking LT 4: I can evaluate information and explanations within a given context and develop a relevant conclusion.

Soundtrack: "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. Selected for today because of the five year anniversary of the death of my dad, who loved this band. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/24/19:
News Brief - Ariel Michael
Finish "Lies"
Textbook Examination
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Finish the textbook examination if you did not in class! The next news brief is assigned to: Sheinella.

News Brief: Today's news brief was brought in by Michael (filling in for Ariel), who selected an article about this story: ESPN.com - Back to school: AB reenrolls at Central Michigan. We discussed this story for a bit and then moved on.

We also checked in about the weekend to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class.

Sheinella 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):

Finish "Lies": Last class, we looked at historical perspective and some of the major "lies" people believe about American history. Today, we finished that look at 7 lies told and tried to understand why that would happen, before using that information to move on to a new assignment.

Textbook Examination: The main goal of today was to analyze how the textbooks have looked at singular events in history, and how that might have changed over time. Here is the assignment that will be due at the start of next class (it is graded - paper copies were available in class or it is also available to submit electronically on Google Classroom):


Hopefully this was an interesting activity for you to see! We also talked in class about the importance of citations when you are researching. I gave an example citation for the textbook as:

Author. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Format.

For the main class textbook, this would be:

Danzer, et. al. The Americans. McDougal Littell, 2005. Print.

If you are at home and wanting to look at the textbook online, it is available on this website in chapters.

Work Time: The rest of class was devoted to in class work time, looking at one of your 5 major events and seeing how textbooks have addressed it throughout time. This assignment was due at the end of class and will be graded for the Critical Thinking LT 4. Thanks, everyone! See you next class!