KCC

See the U.S. post!  Also, research is due today. ; )

U.S. History

Crash Course First Thanksgiving A/V C&E was returned to the students to chart their score, edit their thesis as needed, and to ask questions.  We then began work on the "Exploration & Colonization Unit-Closure Work Packet" -- finish for homework as needed.  On Monday we resume/begin the writing process!  If you were absent and have already begun the writing, be sure to consider the Crash Course thesis to see if it affects your chosen writing themes...Crash Course does a good job addressing some big ideas. ; )

World History

We finished screening "Rabbit-Proof Fence" while adding more notes.  A map handout was provided and discussed.  Also, now that we've completed the film, create a small space on the film note page to write down the thesis of the film -- what is the "moral of the story" -- be specific!  ; )

KCC

Research day 2 of 2!  Be sure to submit in the designated assignment at the bottom of the Classwork section in Google Classroom before the start of class tomorrow.

U.S. History

Research day 2 or writing day 1....If your curiosities felt satisfied with yesterday's research work, you could submit it last night to be graded based on 1-days worth of time (quantity of information), and then today I will get you started on the writing.  However, if you want more research time, then you have today to double the amount of research time and quantity of material to be submitted tonight, which will be scored with the expectation of 2 days of material, and then you will begin the writing in class tomorrow.

World History

We continued viewing "Rabbit-Proof Fence" through ~60:00.  You may either come in to view the missed sections in my classroom during Advisory or before/after school, or you can "rent" it via You tube for $1.99, which is linked to Google Classroom.  (I "purchased" it via You tube for $5.99 as an experiment, but it failed -- only I can see it in my account; it does not upload to Google Classroom, which was my hope.)  Remember to take good notes on items #2-4 while viewing.  We'll screen the last 1/2-hour of the film in class tomorrow.

KCC

Research day 1!  Follow your instructions ("Research Cheats" in the Research section of "Classwork") and be sure to copy-and-paste to the correct location (the last item in "Classwork")...we'll continue researching tomorrow.  At scoring time I'll be assessing for 2 full class periods of expert material; if you were absent be sure to make up the 45 minutes research time from today!  ; )

U.S. History

Students finished the Crash Course analysis.  The focus of the bulk of the class period was Curiosity Research -- READ the "Research Cheats" doc in Google Classroom (under "Classwork") BEFORE you begin.  Reminder -- the place to submit the work is also under Classwork -- the very bottom item where I set up the assignment for you.  Students were given a choice at the end of class today -- EITHER be sure to complete 45 minutes of focused research (today's class time or make-up work if absent) and submit it TONIGHT (and then tomorrow you can move on to work on other work)....--OR--....if you'd like a 2nd day of focused research (still interested in looking up YOUR topics of choice), then plan to spend tomorrow on an ADDITIONAL 45 focused minutes and submit your research by tomorrow night.  (Note:  Don't try to use day 2 as make-up for work you didn't accomplish on Day 1, because 2 days of research time means twice as much quantity required for a good score.)  ; ) 

World History

We finished our note-taking onto the "Outline of Popular Details" handout.  We then began note-taking from the first 20 minutes of the film "Rabbit-Proof Fence."  If you were absent, connect with a reliable classmate to copy down the notes.

KCC

Ditto the U.S. post...

U.S. History

We finished the Crash Course A/V Claim & Evidence as a scored assessment -- if you were absent, see me to set up a time to make up this work in my classroom.  If time permits, begin some curiosity research, being SURE to first read the instructions on the "Research Cheats" do in Google Classroom!  ; )  More research tomorrow...

World History

Sophomores were here only for 1st & 7th hours, and so we used today as a catch-up day -- be sure to do the following:  Check that your writing is turned in (I gave to students the printouts of their writing if they requested help with that tech aspect, and they color-coded it and submitted it to me with the score sheet); remedy any late work with the curiosity research (complete and submit if not already done -- while on-time is best, late is better than never); work on make-up work for your hours 2-6 today as needed; and if you have time still available, then work on AR or other up & coming projects or exams.

KCC

We began an A/V Claim & Evidence scored assessment -- to be finished in class tomorrow.

U.S. History

In 2nd hour we watched the 8-minute Middle Passage clip from Amistad and took EQ notes.  In all classes we discussed a new handout -- A Simplified Timeline of U.S. Slavery and Racial Issues.  We also added two, final notes to our maps -- see a reliable classmate.  We then began an individual scored A/V Claim & Evidence assessment -- if you were absent, see me to set up a time to make up this work.  

World History

Time was given for students to check their scored research in Google Classroom -- look at the score, check out comments in the margins of the doc, ask questions, and chart the score.  Students were asked to check their Power School grades for all classes and encouraged to do so every week.  We then began our new unit by adding some notes with discussion to our Mental Map Timeline and the Outline of Popular Details -- to be finished in class tomorrow.  (If you were absent, see a reliable classmate from whom to copy down the notes.)  Also, pick three cultures from the Outline of Pop. Det. to write onto your C.Q. page as possible research topics for later (except not the Native Australians or Yanomamo, as those are case studies we'll cover in class).  We set up our new Essential Questions page -- this one with 2 questions -- if absent, see a reliable classmate for set-up.

KCC

Students collaborated over the emerging themes from Chapter 4.  We set up a new E.Q. page with 2 questions for the next unit "A New Republic":  1.  Was the U.S. Revolution revolutionary?  and 2. What is a revolutionary?  Start working on the first chapter reading for the new unit -- Chapter 5, which is due Thursday, October 4th.  In the meantime in class we'll be doing our end-of-unit work for the current "Exploration & Colonization" unit (Crash Course, Research,  & Writing).  In class today we viewed the 8-minute clip of the Middle Passage from Amistad (note: graphic content), a new handout "A Simplified Timeline of Slavery and Racial Issues" was distributed and discussed at length, we added a few notes about slavery onto our map

U.S. History

The two groups shared their slideshows of information with the class while we took down E.Q. notes with discussion as needed.  (If you were absent, see a reliable classmate to copy the notes.)  In 5th hour we also viewed the 8-minute clip from Amistad that depicts the Middle Passage -- warning before you view at home via Google Classroom -- it is graphic.  (Add EQ notes and CQs.)

World History

We finished the Bizarre Foods "South Africa" episode while adding C.Q. notes.  We then did a guided folder organization -- sort all of your papers into these 8 categories and use a provided label and paperclip for each or use theses topics as labels for your binder or accordion folder. 

THURSDAY KCC

Choice of 2 work options: 1. Use class time to finish the Chapter 4 reading and make note on your CQ page to consider more of the Williamsburg vodcasts as potential curiosity research for later...--OR--....2. View more of the Williamsburg vodcasts now while adding E.Q. notes (because your Chapter 4 is done or will be done as HW tonight.)

THURSDAY U.S. History

As I am absent today, we'll share the slideshows tomorrow.  Today with the substitute teacher we are jumping ahead to some independent work we need to accomplish for the end of this unit -- add EQs and CQs while reading "Which of the 11 American nations do you live in?" and "The Origins of Slavery."  Finish for homework as needed.

THURSDAY World History

The writing should be in turnitin.com (UNhighlighted) already and today you should turn in to the substitute teacher your hard copy highlighted writing w/ the provided rubric stapled to the top of it.  Set up your "Communal C.Q." page and then put some CQs on it while viewing the "South Africa" episode of Bizarre Foods.

KCC

We added some notes to our map page, stapled a map of the 13 colonies to it, and then discussed a visual handout about the duration of the colonial era.  We then viewed the "Market House" and "Historic Farming" vodcasts from the Williamsburg website (history.org....multimedia...vodcasts), and then students were given the choice of which other vodcasts they'd like to view via chromebooks -- adding E.Q.s and C.Qs along the way.  

U.S. History

Students finished creating their collaborative 6-slide slideshow for their assigned chapter from Mann's 1491.  These will be presented to the class on Friday, as I will be gone tomorrow; tomorrow, instead, we'll do the next bits of independent work for the end of this unit.

World History

Editing day!  Use the full 5 steps on the "Edit My Writing Now" doc.  Once you've completed all edits and feel confident in your polished, final draft, then submit it UNhighlighted to turnitin.com.  Then, also print a hardcopy and, using highlighter markers, highlight to show your text structure.  Your paragraph should be in turnitin.com before the start of class tomorrow and ready to hand in hard copy form to the teacher at the start of class tomorrow, also.  If you are unable to print at home, then share it with me via Google and I'll print it; please reserve this option if you do not have a functioning printer.

KCC

In-class work on the Chapter 4 homework -- due Friday.  (Finish for homework -- tomorrow we'll move on to other in-class activities!)  ; )

U.S. History

Group collaboration today over the assigned chapter (1 -or- 2) to discern an agreed upon and correct, complete thesis and to decide upon the top 7 pieces of evidence, and then the groups created a very short, simple slideshow to aid them in sharing their chapter with the other half of the class.

World History

Writing day!  We reviewed the bullet points on the "Edit My Writing Now" doc while revisiting on the SMART Board the highlighted sample paragraph.  Get close to finished today and we'll do final edits in class tomorrow.

KCC

We continued the Socratic discussion from Friday.  Chapter 3 was due last Friday and Chapter 4 is due this coming Friday.

U.S. History

Students finished their individual C&E (unscored) work on their assigned chapter of excerpts from Mann's 1491, and then they began their collaborative group work to confirm the most accurate thesis and decide upon the top 5 pieces of evidence -- to be continued in class tomorrow.

World History

The scored A/V Claim & Evidence over "Third Rock" was returned, charted, discussed, and edited.  We continued work on the writing:  1. Finish reading over all E.Q. notes to finish creating bullet-point list of big answers (themes/topics/categories); 2. Reduce the list to no more than 4 categories/themes by combining them -- don't lose information; 3. Use those 2-4 themes to write your thesis sentence.  If time permits, begin writing your evidence sections of your paragraph...to be continued in class tomorrow.

KCC

Socratic discussion today over Price's "Love and Hate in the Jamestown Colony" -- to be continued in class on Monday.

U.S. History

We did our claim & evidence work on the assigned chapter from Charles C. Mann's 1491 -- to be finished in class Monday...about 15 minutes will be given. If you were absent, get caught up with the reading and analysis for homework.

World History

We begin the writing!  We read over and discussed the several documents in the "Writing" section in the Classwork tab (in Google Classroom).  We discussed at length that the first part of writing and the hardest part of writing is DECIDING how to fit your many notes (on your E.Q. page) into categories (themes/topics/big ideas).  We will continue this thinking and decision-making in class on Monday.  In 7th hour, we also set up our Skills Tracking page and recorded our Socratic score onto it (the Socratic scores were distributed).  

KCC

Finish preparing the Price essay for tomorrow's Socratic discussion.  Chapter 3 from the white book is also due by the start of class tomorrow.

U.S. History

Colonial Williamsburg -- add E.Q. notes from 3 videos of your choosing.  We added a few, final notes about New England to our map, added a few notes about the Middle Colonies to a new map (of the 13 colonies), and then stapled the new map to the old map.

World History

We continued and finished our Socratic discussion.  Scores were distributed, charted, and time given to ask questions.  (Pick up a "Skills Tracking Page" for charting your scores or set up a Google doc for doing the same if you prefer to keep it digital.)  I also clarified a bit of content following the discussion; see a reliable classmate to get these few notes for your E.Q. page.  Use your many papers from the unit to complete the Unit-Closure Work Page, which should help you pull back to the biggest of the ideas from the unit before we do tomorrow's writing, and it will also serve as your study guide for the final exam.  You have open permission to "cheat" -- use your papers, your neighbors, your neighbors' papers -- this is simply organizing the most critical information from the work we've already done.  

KCC

We did a quick check on on the Intro UCWP -- items 1-3 under "Big Ideas."  Students were then given time to do a quick C&E to prep the Price essay for tomorrow's Socratic discussion.

U.S. History

The Loewen Intro Reading Claim & Evidence was returned and the score charted and thesis and scoring discussed.  Students were given time to record the thesis onto their Intro UCWP (Big Ideas #1) and to ask questions if needed.  In 2nd hour we pulled E.Q. bullet point notes from the excerpt from Price's article (Pocahontas' impression of London) and then discussed a new handout "1607-1776."  We then added E.Q. notes while viewing the "Market Houses" and "Historic Farming" vodcasts.  In 5th hour students also then watched 6 additional vodcasts of their choosing while adding more E.Q. notes.

World History

Research is due to Google Classroom today...in the assignment set up for it under "Classworks" -- at the very bottom entitle "Intro Curiosity Research Assignment."  We did a scored Socratic discussion today on the current Essential Question -- to be continued in class tomorrow.

KCC

The scored work on the Stannard essay was returned, answer key displayed, and time given to chart scores, edit theses, and to ask questions.  Time was given to finish note-taking from the "Massacre at Mystic" video.  We then began an informal (unscored) Claim & Evidence on Price's essay, "Love and Hate in the Jamestown Colony," which will be used for a scored Socratic discussion...to be continued in class tomorrow.

U.S. History

Students finished their note-taking from the packet of excerpts from Loewen's Chapter 2.  We added notes about Jamestown onto the back of our map handout.  We read aloud together a short article that features a primary source letter from Jamestown and collaborated in our small groups to add EQ-relevant notes from that letter onto our EQ page, specifying that it is from the "Jamestown Letter."  In 5th hour we also read aloud an excerpt from David Price's essay about Pocahontas' impressions of London, making notes onto our EQ page that make clear this is information about London, England that helps depict the culture that was coming on the ships to colonize.  In 5th we also discussed the handout "1607 - 1776" about the duration and diversity of the colonial era and cultures.  Finally, in 5th hour we added a label on the map about Williamsburg and a few Williamsburg notes onto the back of that map page....some late-colonial Williamsburg vodcasts to be viewed in class tomorrow...

World History

Reminder that tomorrow will be our scored Socratic discussion on the Essential Question notes for the Intro unit on "What does it mean to be human?"  Today I walked through a review of the Research instructions as student checked their own work and corrected formatting, and then the remaining time was provided for doing more research.  It is due in Google Classroom before the start of class tomorrow.

KCC

Take notes onto your "Class Activities E.Q." page while viewing "Massacre at Mystic," focusing not only on what is happening, but also on "WHY?"  

U.S. History

Continue taking E.Q. notes and adding C.Q. questions while reading excerpts from Loewen's Chapter 2.

World History

Research day!  We reviewed the "Research Cheats" doc that has the 4 instructions and a bunch of tips and tricks for verifying the expertise of the authors.  The work is due before the start of class tomorrow.  Note -- the assignment has been relocated to work correctly in the updated Google Classroom...Look in the Classwork tab, at the very bottom.  Open it and "create" a Google doc ; )  We are pushing back our Socratic discussion to Wednesday so we can have more time for Research tomorrow.  ; ) 

KCC

Chapter 3 is the new homework -- notes due by next Friday.  Students then collaborated on their Chapter 2 notes about key themes.  The "Intro" Unit-Closure Work page was distributed and completed along with s visual handouts that were discussed and to which we added a few notes.  

U.S. History

2nd hour receive their map, and we labeled and discussed via SMART Board.  In both hours we made a list on the back of the map of the Native American case study cultures that the students will encounter in this unit, indicating which were in New England (the northeast) and which was in the Jamestown, VA location.  We added a note of specific example about the Aztecs onto the back of the "Pre-Contact Native Cultures" sheet to demonstrate a bit further evidence as to why "Guns, Germs, & Steel" is causation for European conquest as opposed to any inherent superiority.  On the front we made a note next to "Agri-cultures" that the Pequot were an example of an Ag.  We then began reading and taking E.Q. notes (and C.Q. questions) from select excerpts from Loewen's Chapter 2 -- to be continued in class on Monday.

World History

A few minutes was given for students to finish their "Third Rock" C&E assessments; if more time is needed or if you were absent, see me to set up a time to finish this scored work.  Students then collaborated to add the big ideas and a few key details/examples onto their E.Q. pages.  We then prepared for Tuesday's Socratic discussion by viewing and discussing the documents found in the "Socratic" section in Classwork of Google Classroom.  We then prepared to do our end-of-unit Curiosity Research by reading through and discussing the documents in the "Research" section of Classwork (of Google Classroom), and then we began....See in the Stream there is an assignment set up called "Research" -- create a Google Doc there and use the clear instructions on the "Research Cheats" page.  The bulk of the actual research work will be done in class on Monday -- 45 minutes of time-on-task effort is the measure for quantity of material expected...due before the start of class on Tuesday.

KCC

The analysis of the Stannard essay is completed today in class; if more time is needed on an individual basis, come on in during Advisory.  Reminder -- Chapter 2 is due tomorrow.

U.S. History

We finished taking EQ notes and adding CQ questions while viewing the History Channel's "Massacre at Mystic" documentary.  In 5th hour students got a map on which we labeled some things for Native American cultures and also for colonial groups..w/ some dates.  In 2nd hour we will do this tomorrow.

World History

We performed a Claim & Evidence analysis on the assigned episode of Third Rock from the Sun.  If you were absent, see me to set up a time to make up this in-class, individual, scored assessment.

KCC

We finished the Stannard essay analysis; students who need more time are welcome to come in during Advisory tomorrow to finish.  If you were absent, see me to set up a time to make up this in-class scored assessment work.  Reminder -- Chapter 2 is due Friday.

U.S. History

Students collaborated to answer "Why did Europeans take over the Americas?" and "Why were Europeans able to take over the Americas?" (on the back of the "Pre-Contact Native Cultures" handout)  I collected correct answers onto the SMARTboard so students could edit their individual papers -- see a reliable classmate for these notes.  We then began taking E.Q. notes and adding C.Q. questions while viewing for 2nd hour the first 10 minutes of "Massacre at Mystic" and for 5th hour the first 17 minutes -- to be finished in class tomorrow.

World History

We added E.Q. notes and C.Q. questions while observing the Material World slide images.  Read over the "Third Rock" handout for context on the sit com episode we are going to analyze for an
Audio-Visual Claim & Evidence.  If you were absent, see me to set up the work page and to get an instruction sheet.  We'll begin the viewing tomorrow.

KCC

HW reminder -- Chapter 2 is due Friday.  We continued our individual, scored Claim & Evidence assessment work on the Stannard essay...to be finished in class tomorrow.

U.S. History

We finished and discussed #2 in the "Big Ideas" section of the Unit-Closure Work page.  We then set up our Essential Question and Curiosity Questions pages (on paper, not on Chromebooks) for our first big unit "Exploration and Colonization."  If you were absent, see a reliable classmate for the set up headings, the E.Q. and the clarifying notes for the E.Q.  I provided a cheat sheet handout "Pre-contact Native Peoples Preview/Review" and we discussed what "pre-contact" means and made clear that all three culture types on that sheet were found in the Americas.  On the back side, set up this question -- "Why did Europeans take over the Americas?"  In 5th hour small groups collaborated to build a list of answers -- to be done in 2nd hour tomorrow and to be discussed whole-class style tomorrow in both hours.

World History

The "Let's Get Acquainted" and "My Voice Matters" work was returned to the students, discussed, and edited.  We then continued work on our E.Q. and C.Q. pages from last week -- adding notes and questions from a read aloud of "100 People: a World Portrait" and set up the subheading to be ready for the source "Material World: a Global Family Portrait" that we'll look at in depth tomorrow.  In 7th hour we viewed and took EQ notes on the first 5 images from "Material World."