U.S. History -- WEDNESDAY

Teacher was ill; so, order of plans were rearranged...Wednesday was spent working on the provided study guide for the final exam.

KCC

The deadline to signup for skill re-dos is this Friday; look over your Skills Tracking Page (or see me) to see your most recent scores on each of the six skills.  See me for extra coaching as needed, and be sure to sign up by Friday if you wish to re-do any skill/s.  Due to the snow days in the week prior to break, we are unable to do another round of assigned (mandatory, in-class) Context & Lens and Audio-visual Claim/Evidence; I will add to every student's score for one of these skills (their individual choice) the 0.5 increase that is typical of most students upon a second, scored performance.  Curiosity research (completed on the Friday before break) is due today -- please submit with the 1/2-page score sheet.  We went to the lab to begin the end-of-unit writing, and we'll be back in the lab to work on this tomorrow.  The essays are due Friday.  (We will do our casual, metacognitive writing on Wednesday, and then roll into direct, guided preparation for the final exam.)

World History

The deadline to signup for skill re-dos is this Friday; look over your Skills Tracking Page (or see me) to see your most recent scores on each of the six skills.  See me for extra coaching as needed, and be sure to sign up by Friday if you wish to re-do any skill/s.  The following scored work was returned to the students and discussed today:  Hammurabi Context & Lens, Ag Curiosity Research, and Ag Argumentative Writing.  A 1/2-sheet about writers' conferences were distributed; at this stage of our writing development, the detailed written feedback has either already helped a student improve to where they need to be, or it hasn't; thus, it's the appropriate time to push hard for students to come in during an Advisory to talk, in-person, with me about their paragraphs.  To encourage this, these most recent paragraphs have been left deliberately void of written feedback.  Talking through one's writing is an invaluable process!  ; )  We began viewing (avail. on youtube) History Channel's "Digging for Truth: Kings of The Stone Age" while taking notes onto a handout with Olmec urban trends -- view through 6:00min.  (We will finish this, do a different analytical page while viewing a video about the Chavin, and a scored Reading Claim/Evidence performance that connects the ancient urban studies to today.  Then, it will be time to move into direct, guided preparation for the final exam.  The end-of-unit research and the writing are both optional for this unit.)

U.S. History

The deadline to signup for skill re-dos is this Friday; look over your Skills Tracking Page (or see me) to see your most recent scores on each of the six skills.  See me for extra coaching as needed, and be sure to sign up by Friday if you wish to re-do any skill/s.  Due to the snow days in the week prior to break, we are unable to do the last, scored Socratic discussion; I will add to every student's score the 0.5 increase that is typical of most students upon a second, scored performance.  If there are extenuating circumstances for you with regard to this skill, please see me so we can remedy it appropriately.  Curiosity research (completed on the Friday before break) is due today -- please submit with the 1/2-page score sheet.  The end-of-unit writing for this unit is optional -- see me by Friday to sign up for it, and I'll prepare the materials for you for Monday.  We began our Civil War unit with Crash Course Civil War #1 -- a scored audio-visual claim/evidence skill performance....to be finished in class tomorrow.  (We will do a short article for a scored Reading Claim/Evidence skill performance, and then roll into direct, guided preparation for the final exam.)

KCC

The scored Brown essay analysis ('circles") pages were returned and discussed.  Research can be submitted today; if you'd like to finish/improve it over the break, it does not need to be turned in until Tuesday, January 3rd. We began work on the end-of-unit essay writing today; score sheets were distributed (choose one of the E.Q.s on which to write) and reminders given to use the feedback on the previous writing and the "Writing Notes to Self" you compiled for yourselves.  We'll be back in the lab to write on the Tuesday (3rd) and Wednesday (4th) of our return to school after break.  Essays will be due Friday, January 6th.  (They'll need to be finished for homework after the 4th...Obviously, feel free to work ahead on this over break if you wish.)

World History

Shang Dynasty case study -- note packet, slideshow presentation, scroll on display.  We then moved on to our last two case studies:  Olmec and Chavin; a map was distributed and color-coded.

U.S. History

Research day -- looking up questions from our "A New Republic C.Q." page for 35 minutes.  Follow the instructions for desired scores on the new copy of the 1/2-sheet "Curiosity Research Scale" that was distributed today.  (IF you desire to pump up this grade with some extra time and effort, perhaps, to help boost your overall class grade, take a look at the criteria at the 4.0 level....to help clarify further how to do those things, consider doing additional research outside of class to bulk up the quantity of expert articles (have more stuff to turn in) and using multiple expert articles on one topic, and after reading and highlighting key points, then also write up a short compare/contrast paragraph to turn it with it all.) 

KCC

Scored colonialism argumentative essays were returned to students today -- look over the feedback carefully, see me to do conference on your writing, and add notes to your "Writing Notes to Self" page...We begin our next essay on Monday.  (Be sure to follow the 4-page criteria to hit the rubric criteria appropriately on this next essay; KCC has a 10-page per semester minimum for earning the college credit.)  Time was provided to finish the analysis ("circles" page) on the Dee Brown essay about the Trail of Tears, and then students were asked to assess their own work in discerning individually whether to submit this new page for scoring or to "stay" with their most recent, previous "Reading Claim & Evidence" score.  Research will be done on Monday, and today we discussed how to score over the 3.0...for those interested.  Writing, then, starts Tuesday.

World History

Finish the Indus River Valley reading and note taking as begun yesterday -- finish for homework as needed.  Students collaborated on their Egypt and IRV E.Q. notes, added to their C.Q. pages from these cultures, and completed the Egypt and IRV parts of Part II of the Unit-Closure Work Packet.  For fun, we listened to a bit of very modern Indian music -- bhangra!

U.S. History

We continued our work on the Trail of Tears web quest for 30 minutes.  Then, the handout with Part II of the Unit-Closure Work Page was distributed -- complete it and staple it onto Part I so as to have one, complete packet prepared for final exam review.  (Research Monday and writing starts Tuesday...)

KCC

UCWP -- Part II was distributed; finish for homework as you have time...sometime soon.  (It will take ~ 5 minutes, and it completes the study guide for this unit.)  The class time was provided for students to work on the individual, scored analysis ("circles" page) for the Dee Brown essay about the Trail of Tears -- to be finished in class tomorrow.

World History

Finish the Egypt reading/notes that was begun yesterday.  Then, begin the same style of notes on the E.Q. page (w/ +s and -s) for the subtopic (case study) Indus River Valley, using pp.66-71 and 76-81 -- to be finished in class tomorrow.

U.S. History

In 2nd hour we discussed and edited the Hamilton Context/Lens assignment.  In all hours, students used the Meacham "circles" page, the Crash Course "circles" page, and the Hamilton Context & Lens to finish #2 & 11 on the Unit-Closure Work Packet.  Then, scan through your U.C.W.P. to see if there are any big ideas from the unit you need to add to your E.Q. notes that you might have overlooked.  Finally, we began a web quest about the Trail of Tears -- pick up a notes/question packet and follow the directions.  (Clarifier:  the url should be www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears; the instructions said in error only www.history.com.)  ; )  

KCC

Students collaborated on their homework reading notes.  The final reading for this unit is pp.286-313; I suggest reading very carefully the introductions and summaries (as usual), but then to be selected in mining from the body of the chapters only the needed/desired evidence for the writing on the E.Q.s that we'll begin on Friday.  (Research will be done in class on Thursday.)  Scored Reading Claim & Evidence work pages for Wilson's article were returned and discussed.  Students then resumed individual work on Larkin's essay.

World History

We finished the individual, scored Context & Lens over Hammurabi's Code -- see me to schedule a time to come in to make up this assessment.  Some students also began work, then, on the Unit-Closure Work Packet for the unit -- PART I and the Mesopotamia portions of PART II.

U.S. History

We viewed the rest of episode one of The Presidents (by the History Channel; available on You tube) while adding to our E.Q. and C.Q. pages and the Simplified History of Presidents' Political Parties handout.  We then focused just on the C.Q. and "Simplified..." handout as we began episode #2 (viewing to ~15 minutes).  As we are near the end of the unit, it is critical than anyone who may have gotten behind with lessons and/or make-up work to please get caught up before we start to research, write, and do our study guides.  ; )

KCC

Students were asked the reflect on their performances to decide, individual choice, whether they wish to have their  T.J. essay "circles" page scored to replace their immediately previous Reading Claim & Evidence score.  We have two more essays to analyze this unit, and then we head into research and writing to close up the unit.  We began individual, in-class work on the Larkin essay...soon to be followed by the Dee Brown essay, both of which will be "choices" for scoring.

World History

Students continued individual work on the assessment "Context & Lens" about Hammurabi's Code -- to be finished in class tomorrow.  

U.S. History

Finish Meacham's article "God and The Founders" w/ analysis ("circles") page -- in collaborative groups this time.  (Finish for homework as needed.)  We began viewing the History Channel's "The Presidents" (available on You tube) while adding E.Q. notes, a few C.Q.s, and keeping up with the new handout "Simplified History of Presidents' Political Parties."  View the first 25 minutes.

KCC

Students finished the Thomas Jefferson article by Wilson with analysis page.  Come in during Advisory today if you need extra time.  On Monday you'll be given time to consider your previous "Reading Claim & Evidence" score and decide if you want to "stay" and just keep this new page for the info or if you wish to submit it for scoring;  if submitted, the new score will replace the previous one.  So, this is some critical metacognition -- reflection on one's thinking/learning and self-assessment of performance.  Reminder -- HW reading and notes due Tuesday.