Students' "My Maps" of Texas - Study & Drill for Regions/Sub-Regions Quiz - Debate Prep

Today our wonderful 7th Graders:

• Shared their Google "My Maps" of their Personal Texas by
• Linking us to their maps here, here, & here
• Hooking their computers to the projector and walking us through their maps; network dysfunction prevented the whole class from sharing, but we look forward to seeing the other presentation manana
• Studied for tomorrow's Map Quiz over the Regions & Sub-Regions of Texas & quizzed themselves using the various study aids previously provided
• Began preparing for the Regions Debate, now scheduled for this coming Monday, by
• Reading over the Chart: 4 Main Regions of Texas
• Color coding the strong points & weaknesses of their own region and that of each of their debate opponents

Assignment for Wednesday - Map Quiz over Regions & Sub-Regions of Texas- See yesterday's class blog post for details of what you need to learn.

Goo My Maps, cont'd - Waltz Across Texas w/ Pegman - Geography Inquiry, cont'd

On this day, students:

• Turned in the Final Copy of their History of a Classmate
• Continued working on their Google My Maps map of their personal Texas
• Used Pegman on Google Maps Streetview to explore various regions and sub-regions of Texas
Click "View on Google Maps" to use Pegman/Streetview

• Began preparing for Wednesday's Quiz over the 4 Main Regions & 11 Sub-Regions of Texas - Several documents were given them to help them prepare:
• Map w/ 4 Main Regions & Sub-Regions
• Blank Map of Regions
• 2 Maps - 4 Regions & Regions w/ Pictures
• Inquiry - Move Names to Correct Regions
• Inquiry - Move Pics to Correct Regions

Assignments

For Tuesday, 9/30 - Finish your Google My Maps & embed it in your blog.

For Wednesday, 10/1 - Quiz over 4 Main Regions & 11 Sub-Regions of Texas

• Be able to write the 4 Main Regions & 11 Sub-Regions in their correct locations on a blank map
• Be able to identify the 11 Sub-Regions by what they look like (as seen in the pictures provided)

Vocab Quiz - Texas My Texas, cont'd - Inquiry Exercise on Regions of Texas

On this day, students:

• Did 5 minutes of last-minute study for the Vocab Quiz over "The Most Dangerous Game"
• Took the Vocab Quiz - Good job, students!
• Finalized their Texas My Texas table/map from yesterday
• Did the first two steps of an Inquiry Exercise on the Regions & Sub-Regions of Texas
• Dragged names of the 4 Main Regions to what might be their correct locations on a map
• Wrote possible names of the 11 Sub-Regions based on their location and pictures of them
• Drew for and chose one of the 4 Main Regions to defend in next week's Regions Debate: "Which of the four main regions of Texas is the best?"

Assignment - Due Monday: Have your final, revised copy of the History of a Classmate completed. Turn in, stapled together or fastened into a folder:

• Title Page
• Final Copy
• Rough-Draft Copy (the one turned in last Monday)
• Research Notes
• Instructions for Essay

Followup on "Game" - Began Texas Geography Unit: Texas My Texas - Google "My Maps" App

Today the 7th Graders of CCS:

Noted how Richard Connell Played a Game with his Readers

Began our study of Texas Geography

• Karaoked "Texas Our Texas"
• Filled out a Table & Map called "Texas My Texas"
• Watched a Tutorial on Using Google "My Maps"

• Began their own Google "My Maps" to further identify "My Texas"

Assignment: Due Friday: Vocabulary Quiz over "The Most Dangerous Game" (See Assignments for 9/24.)

TMDG Vocab - History of Classmate Revision - Logic Picture Puzzle

Students today:
Chose the 10 words they will learn for Friday's Vocabulary Quiz over "The Most Dangerous Game"

• They were encouraged to choose words they will find useful, either in everyday life or for academic or future reading and writing. 
• On the Quiz they should be able to:
• define each word
• use the word in a good sentence that shows they understand the meaning of the word.

Did a Chronological Sequencing Puzzle called "A Short History of America" - They:

• placed 11 pictures in what they considered to be correct chronological order.
• collaborated to come up with a class sequencing.
• speculated as to the time in history they pictures were depicting.
• began identifying CONTINUITIES & CHANGES the pictures illustrated in American (and Texas) history.

Assignments

• Continue revising your History of a Classmate; finished product will be read and critiqued by CCS Principal Dr. Betsy Carpenter on Monday.
• Prepare for Friday's TMDG Vocabulary Quiz, as described above.

Student Short Short Stories - TMDG Vocabulary - Discussion of TMDG

On this day in histlitlogic:

• Students read one another's short short stories entitled "The Most Dangerous Game." Each student's story is posted at his blog.
• Each student examined a page of vocabulary words from Richard Connell's TMDG and defined the ones he knew. A vocabulary quiz will be given Friday based on the words the student isn't yet able to define.
• Had a long, in-depth, incisive discussion of "The Most Dangerous Game." Student-made questions were used first, with teacher-made ones interspersed. Here are a few of them:

• Did Rainsford and Zaroff have a battle to the death at the end of the story?
• Why did the author not put immediately in the story that Zaroff hunted animals?
• Is Rainsford a good person?
• What happens between the last two paragraphs in the story?
• To what extent were the legends and lore about Ship-Trap Island true? Why did these legends exist?

Assignment - Due Wednesday - Venn Diagram Collaboration

• Working together - or on your own, should you prefer - fill out a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting Rainsford and Zaroff as depicted in "The Most Dangerous Game."
• Use lots of detail from the story.
•  I have shared the Google Doc of a Venn Diagram with you, but you may alter it, color code it, make a completely new one (there are jillions of them online), etc. if you like. 
• Including some pictures might add a splendid touch.

History of a Classmate Turn-In - Primary Sources: Handle with Care - Begin "The Most Dangerous Game"

On this day, students:
Turned in & analyzed their "History of a Classmate" Project

• Exchanged "History of a Classmate" essays and read about themselves
• Wrote edits & comments on Post-Its & placed them on the typed pages

Analyzed the trustworthiness of primary sources

• Brainstormed as to reasons why primary sources might not be completely trustworthy
• Compared their brainstormed ideas with a handout called "Primary Sources: Handle with Care"

Began Pre-Reading Activities for Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"

• Began writing a short short story of their own called "The Most Dangerous Game"
• Began compiling a list of every possible meaning to the word "GAME"

Assignment - Due Tuesday

• Finish writing your short short story called "The Most Dangerous Game" - Post it at your blog.
• Read Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"
• Write 5 interpretive discussion questions over the story and post them on your blog. - An interpretive question has more than one possible answer and is answerable from the story. Particularly useful are questions about which you have possible doubt as to the answer, for example something in the story you didn't understand.
• Use the Vocabulary for "TMDG" to help you understand what you are reading. We will have a vocabulary quiz over some of these words later in the week.

Why Historians Might Agree, cont'd - Current Texas Textbooks Battle - History of a Classmate

Today students:

• Continued compiling and discussing their list of reasons as to why historians might disagree about the past
• Read part of an article from a college-level American history textbook on Why Historians Might Disagree and compared their reasons with those of the textbook author's
• Read and discussed part of a Temple Daily Telegram  article on the current battle between liberals & conservatives over proposed history textbooks to be adopted by the State of Texas
• Went over some of the Instructions for Essay - History of a Classmate

Assignment - DUE MONDAY - History of a Classmate

• Have it ready to hand in when you arrive on Monday.
• Have it printed up and organized in the ways described in the Instructions.
• Notice in the Instructions that this project is rich in extra credit opportunities.
• The assignment counts as a Project Grade, which is worth 20% of your First Quarter grade.
• Be sure to use your time in Grammar & Writing class this afternoon to work on this History of a Classmate assignment.

History of a Classmate, cont'd - Primary & Secondary Sources - Textbook: Primary AND Secondary - Why Historians Might Disagree

Students:

• Continued writing their History of a Classmate essays
• Did some oral drill distinguishing primary from secondary sources
• Compiled a list of how their Texas history textbook might be both a primary AND a secondary source
• Listed possible reasons Why Historians Might Disagree

Assignment

• Continue working on your History of a Classmate 
• Follow these Instructions for Essay - History of a Classmate

History of a Classmate, cont'd

Students today:

• Continued working on the History of a Classmate project
• Followed a template that helped them write an introductory paragraph & organize their essay into various sections. Click to see the Rough Draft Template: History of a Classmate.
• Learned the due date for the project has been changed to Monday, 9/22.

Assignment: Continue working on History of a Classmate Project.

History of a Classmate: Notetaking from Primary Sources

Today students:

• Brought primary sources about themselves
• Sat at another student's primary sources and gathered information from them

Tomorrow they will interview the classmate and begin writing the history of the student's life based on the primary sources. Further instructions will be given at that time.

Thanks, students, for bringing the sources and doing an excellent job of notetaking.

No specific assignment due Wednesday

Proving My Yesterday - Primary & Secondary Sources - Primary Sources About Myself

Today students:

• Did an exercise called "Proving My Yesterday," in which they listed 7-10 things they did yesterday and cited people and documents that could prove they had done those things. Purpose: show how historians document the past with primary sources
• Read a handout called "Historical Evidence: Primary & Secondary Sources" - explains the difference between primary sources and secondary sources and how they are important in learning about the past
• Listed "Primary Sources About Myself" - Students brainstormed primary sources a historian could use in gathering information to write a history of their life so far. They can use this list, plus other sources they might think of, to gather and bring primary sources about themselves tomorrow.

Assignment - Due Tuesday: Bring lots of primary sources about yourself tomorrow.

• Bring lots of different sources and lots of different kinds.
• Bring series of documents, e.g., report cards over a series of years so that a historian could trace the history of your school career. If you bring photos, don't just bring 35 pictures from Aunt Susie's family reunion of this past summer; instead, bring a series of pictures that show your growth and development over the years.
• Especially bring written sources (report cards, birth certificate, schoolwork, etc. You can bring the Snuggly Buggly the Stuffed Bear Collection, too, but let's face it, a historian could only get so much information from the SBtSFC. Report cards, letters, emails, etc. would be more useful.
• You may bring photocopies of the primary sources or pictures of them if you like.
• You could store all the documents in Dropbox or on your computer if you like. That way you could fit a lot of primary sources in a relatively small place.
• You can also bring them in folders, boxes, wheelbarrows, Ryder trucks (how hard-core are you???), etc.
• You will take the sources home with you after school tomorrow, in case your parents are worried about their being away from home too long.
• Remember the purpose of this assignment: Bring lots of sources so a historian could gather lots of information about you in order to write the history of your life thus far.
• Grading: the more you bring and the more different kinds you bring, the higher your grade. 

Deductive/Inductive Logic - Thesis/Supporting Arguments/Evidence

Today we:

• Distinguished between deductive & inductive logic
• Noted that historians mainly use inductive logic - gathering evidence from primary source documents in order to state a thesis (main argument) backed by supporting arguments
• Worked on writing a thesis with supporting arguments & evidence by doing a simple thesis-writing exercise on "The Nicest Person I Know"

Assignment: Due Monday

• Finish filling out the table on "The Nicest Person I Know' - Either email it to me or link me to it.
• Finish writing the essay on "The Nicest Person I Know"
• Post your essay to your blog.
• Include a picture of the person if you can.

9/11 Commemoration - "The Lottery," cont'd (Old Man Warner - Durbin Analysis - Discussion) - Timeline of Texas History

Today we:

Commemorated the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on New York City & the Pentagon

Continued with Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

• Role Played Old Man Warner's defense of the Lottery against the "Young Fools" (Read loose, incomplete transcript here at 9/11/14 point.)
• Watched & discussed USC Professor James Durbin's video analysis of "The Lottery"
• Analyzed logical fallacies involved in "The Lottery"
• post hoc ergo propter hoc = after this, therefore because of this
• Chronological Snobbery Fallacy
• Argument from Tradition Fallacy

Analyzed a Timeline of Texas History

• What do you notice?
• Write 2 important events, people, or developments from the CHART: Time Periods of Texas History onto their appropriate places on the Timeline of Texas History

Assignment - Due Friday
Finish writing 2 important events, as above

"The Lottery," Day 2

Today, students:

• Read the text of "The Lottery," and
• Highlighted it using the Diigo Chrome Extension or a Mac-based pdf. annotation tool
• Compared it with the video version
• Wrote interpretive discussion questions
• Raised and discussed their questions; here are the notes taken by this week's Class Historian, The Right The Honorable 12345.

Assignment - Due Thursday: Be sure to view again the video of "The Lottery" and take VideoNot.es.

• There was some confusion about this assignment from yesterday, so be sure and complete it by tomorrow.
• Don't forget to put a good title on your VideoNot.es.
• Share your VideoNot.es with me so I can read your analysis.

Thinglink Followup - Interesting/Important Time Periods - "The Lottery"

Today students:

• Discussed any problems associated with widgeting their Thinglinks from yesterday
• Wrote a blog post listing and explaining the 3 time periods of Texas history in which they are most interested and what they consider to be the 3 most important time periods of Texas history, with reasons why.
• Did Pre-Viewing activities over Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery"
• Brainstormed what is meant by a lottery, pre-viewing activities we could do, etc.
• Held a lottery involving the disbursement of cash rewards to the winners and condolences to the person who drew the big black dot
• Viewed the 1969 video version of "The Lottery," periodically stopping it to see what students were absorbing as they watched and making hypotheses as to what might lie ahead as it progressed. Part 1 - Part 2 - Here are the Student Comments While Watching "The Lottery."

Assignment for Wednesday

• Watch the video version again and do a VideNot.es as you watch.
• Now that you know what happens, pay particular attention to details that set up and drive the story.

Overview, cont'd: Quiz & Thinglink Thingy

Quiz - Yeller Portion of CHART: Time Periods of Texas History

Thinglink Thingy

1. Working collaboratively with your classmates, you will use Thinglink to identify and annotate the people and things in the collage at the top of this class blog
2. First grab the collage here.
3. Then go to Thinglink and sign up.
4. Read and view the basic instructions on using Thinglink.
5. Annotate as many of the people and things as you can in the collage.
6. As you notice, you can do this in quite a few different ways using Thinglink: your own words, links to websites, links to pictures, YouTube videos, Amazon book titles, etc., etc., etc.
7. Once you're done, embed your Thinglink on your blog. Write a brief introduction to your Thinglink.

Assignment: Your Thinglink with introduction should be embedded in your blog by midnight tonight.

Overview of Texas History, cont'd

Click to enlarge. (This should work with all pics inserted into blog.)

Today, students:

• Raised questions about anything they didn't understand on the "CHART: Time Periods of Texas History."
• Learned of some of the abbreviations I often use:
• c. or ca. = around, approximately
• e.g. = for example
• etc. = and so forth
• i.e., = in order words
• Noted how color coding can ease & expedite the learning process
• Identified their 3 favorite time periods on the Chart and circled specific topics they would like to learn more about
• Studied the yellow section of the chart for a quiz on Monday
• Did some teacher-based review to check their learning.
• Devised and asked one another questions about the chart
• Devised mnemonic devices to help them remember the time periods and details

Assignment: Quiz Monday - CHART: Time Periods of Texas History

• Learn all of the information in the yellow section of the chart
• You don't have to recite the dates for this quiz but do be able to recognize which time period each set of dates identifies (e.g., 1519-1821 = Spanish Period; 1861-1865 = Civil War, 1865-1900 = Gilded Age. . .etc.)

Timelines - Bull Boards - Chart on Time Periods

Overview of Texas History, cont'd

• Students took their slips of events from Texas history and placed them on a timeline in the classroom. They then discussed orally several analytical questions, including why the timeline maker stopped Texas history around the year 1900.

• We went downstairs to the bulletin board, "Let's Don't Mess with Texas" and worked the simple chronological order problem based on the same timeline they'd just used in the room.

• They also looked over the bulletin board, asked a few analytical questions (including why the map of Texas and state seal were turned upside down), and wrote and taped additional captions onto pictures of their choice. A sampling:

CHART: Time Periods of Texas History

Students:

• Read together and briefly discussed the yellow portion of the chart; this section gives a brief summary of each major time period of Texas history.
• Read silently the rest of the chart, including text and pictures.
• Made one check mark beside each item they had put in their personal list two days ago and two checks beside any other items that had appeared in classmates' lists

Assignment: Students should read back over the entire chart by tomorrow, in preparation for various learning activities.

Student Lists of Texas History Events & Chronological Ordering

Student Lists of Texas History Events
Near the end of class yesterday, students wrote down as many events, developments, and people as they could remember from Texas History. Today students:

Juxtaposed their lists:

Click to enlarge.

Analyzed them in various ways:

• Compared & contrasted
• Hypothesized as to why they each included the Alamo
• Identified categories of events and people found in the various lists
• Related their lists to their areas of historical interest as indicated on Day 1 of class
• Classified each item in their list according to SMERFCAPS (social history, military history, economic history, etc.)

Chronology Challenge
They then cut their lists into strips, mixed them up and, working collaboratively, put them in chronological order. The students worked well as a team, with one or two doing online research, using books, etc., while others also did online research and put the slips in order. Students did the activity themselves, with almost no assistance from the teacher (apart from a few procedural suggestions, mostly treated as optional). Here's what they came up with.

Perhaps it shouldn't have, but the chronology kind of reminded me of this and this (kind of thing).

Time was attenuated, as this was a chapel/Eucharist day. Students continued to discuss the activity as class ended and had good ideas for developing it further.

No Assignments Due Tomorrow

"Harrison Bergeron" Finale - Review of Logic - "Chronological Order" - Student Lists of Texas History Events

Analysis of Pictures from Video Versions of "Harrison Bergeron"

• Students wrote and analyzed their responses to 3 different pictorial representations of Harrison.
• See ppt. here. & student analysis here.
• Students began writing a paragraph analyzing what they learned from "Harrison Bergeron." They are to post it on their blog, along with a picture representing what they learned.

Review of Grade 6 Logic

• Students discussed their concept of "logic," based on what they learned last year.
• As I was trying to get an understanding of this, I took notes, which can be accessed here.
• "chronological order" - Students discussed this important historical concept. Their insights are in the notes.

Overview of Texas History

Students wrote down every event, development, person, etc., they could remember from Texas history.

Assignment - Due Wednesday, 9/3

Complete the blog post analyzing what you learned from "Harrison Bergeron."

Include an appropriate picture illustrating what you learned.