Research Project Planning + Decade-by-Decade, cont'd + Galveston. . .Storm Discussion

Today our students:

• Discussed and finalized plans for the Research Project
• Explored online sites (Wix, Weebly, etc.) for possible Project Presentations
• Augmented their Decade-by-Decade timelines with information from the appropriate textbook chapters
• Were asked to be considering the following for each of their decades:
• What were the 2 or 3 most important events during each decad?
• How did Texas change during the decade?: 
• How was it at the beginning of the decade?
• How was it at the end of the decade?
• What happened to cause the change(s)?
• Held a possibly concluding discussion of Galveston's Summer of the Storm - Discussion notes here.

Assignments

For Tuesday - Finish Steps 8 & 9 of the Research Project

For Wednesday - Quiz over Ch. 24-25-26 Summaries

For Thursday

1. You will write your 45-minute Research Project Essay in class.
2. If you choose, you will do your Research Project Presentation after the Essay.

For Wednesday, 5/28 - If you prefer to do your Presentation on this day, you may.

Discussion of GSotS Ch. 8 + Brief Research Project Reports + Business Cycle 1914-1945

Today students:

• Participated in the Intruder Drill
• Discussed Ch. 8 of Galveston's Summer of the Storm
• Gave brief oral reports on their research so far
• Looked at but didn't have time to get started on a Graph of the Business Cycle 1914-1945

Assignments

For Wednesday

1. Quiz over Ch. 22 & 23 Summaries
2. Fill out your column of the Graph of the Business Cycle - Progressive Era-World War II
3. Read and come prepared to discuss Ch. 9 of GSotS.

For Friday

1. 1-Pager - Post on your blog.
2. Research Project Notes on Steps 6 & 7

"Gilded" Followup - Ch. 17 Summary - Map: West Texas Wars - Chart: Final Defeat of Indians of Texas - 1st Discussion of Canyons

On this day, students:

• Examined the GooDoc with Examples of "Gilded" During the Gilded Age
• Noted that in some ways every time period and indeed each of us is in some ways "gilded"
• Read and discussed the Chapter 17 Summary: Cultures in Conflict - to understand and to prepare for tomorrow's Ch. 17 Quiz
• Looked at the map called "West Texas Wars" & came up with different titles for it, based on one's opinion of what was taking place
• Considered three questions related to events in Ch. 17:
• Was it right for the Texans and U. S. troops to go into West Texas and defeat the Indians?
• Was it right to carry out the slaughter of the buffalo?
• Was it right to place the Indians on reservations? 
• Worked collaboratively on the Chart - Gilded Age: Final Defeat of the Indians of Texas
• Discussed pp. 3-27 of Gary Paulsen's novel Canyons - See notes here.

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Assignments

For Friday

1. Quiz-Ch. 17 Summary: Cultures in Conflict - Many thanks to Sr. 12345 for the excellent, highly helpful Quizlet Study Cards:

2. Read pp. 29-54 in Canyons and be prepared to discuss. Here's the reading schedule for Canyons:

Date Due	Pages
Th, 4/9/15	3-27
F, 4/10	29-54
M, 4/13	57-84
Tu, 4/14	87-115
W, 4/15	117-150
Th, 4/16	153-184

For Monday: Quiz over Timeline: U. S. History 1861-Present (Names of time periods required; all else is EXTRA CREDIT)

To Be a Slave - Debate: Houston vs. Lamar

Click here for more diagrams.

Today our students:

• Discussed pp. 13-27 of To Be a Slave
• Debated (very effectively) who was the better President of the Republic of Texas: Sam Houston or Mirabeau B. Lamar?

Assignments for Tuesday

1. Read Ch. 1 (pp. 28-38) of To Be a Slave - Continue answering the questions you wanted to ask a slave (on the Google Doc).
2. Quiz over Ch. 12 & 13 Summaries: Republic of Texas & Pioneer Life

Recalling Grade 6 - To Be a Slave - Debate Prep: Houston vs. Lamar - Map Analysis: Conflict with Indians & Mexico - Quizlets for Ch. 12 & 13

Today students:

• Recorded and discussed what they remembered from two books about slavery they read last year; click here to see.
• Discussed the first 13 pages of Julius Lester's To Be a Slave
• Worked in debate teams to prepare for Monday's Debate: Who was the better president of the Republic of Texas: Sam Houston or Mirabeau B. Lamar
• Briefly examined two maps on Conflicts with Indians & Mexico during the Republic period

Assignments

For Monday

1. Read pp. 13-27 in To Be a Slave & continue filling answering the questions you would ask a slave (Google Doc)
2. Be ready to debate Houston vs. Lamar

For Tuesday: Quiz over Ch. 12 & 13 Summaries: Lone Star Republic & Pioneer Life

Many thanks to Mr. 12345 for these Quizlet flashes:

Chapel - Animal Farm Anthem & Discussion of Ch. I & II

Today our students:

• Attended chapel
• Practiced singing "Beasts of England," first to the tune of "Clementine" and then to "La Cucaracha
• Viewed a video presentation of "Beasts of England" found by a student

• Discussed Ch. I & II of George Orwell's novel, Animal Farm - Click here to see notes during discussion.
• Attended the Grade 4 presentation on Beowulf
• Did not have time to begin the debate over the Causes of the Texas Revolution and will therefore begin it on Thursday

Assignments for Thursday

1. Read and come prepared to discuss Ch. III & IV of Animal Farm.
2. Be prepared to debate the causes of the Texas Revolution.

Good background info on Russian Revolution & Animal Farm:

• Timeline Video on Russian Revolution
• Prezi on RussRev & Animal Farm
• Characters: AF & Real-life
• Top 10 Notes: Animal Farm - SPOILER ALERT - You might want to watch this one after we've finish reading the novel. (But then again, maybe you just can't wait.)

Lord of the Flies, Day 6 - Texas Indians/Texas Geography

On this good Friday, HistLitLog students did the following.

Lord of the Flies

• Discussed the GooDoc they collaborated on tracing the relationship between Ralph and Jack in Chapters 1-3 of Lord of the Flies
• Read and analyzed student responses to a British teacher's essay assignment over the RalphnJack relationship
• Pretended they were teachers and wrote a response to one British student's essay
• Discussed last night's reading assignment of Chapter 4: "Painted Faces and Long Hair"

Click pic for larger view.

Geography & the Indians of Texas

• Summarized their Predictions About Indians of Texas Based on Geography
• Compared their findings with a two-map juxtaposition of the Regions of Texas and the 4 Native Texas Culture Groups
• Chose a tribe to defend in next week's Indian Debate - Surprisingly (or not) each student chose a tribe from his Regions Debate region. Wow!

Assignment for Monday
Lord of the Flies

• Read Ch. 5 in LOTF. 
• Write and post at your blog 5 good discussion questions from the reading.
• Continue noting developments in the relationship between RalphnJack.

Chart: Indians of Texas (clicky clicky)

• Read the column on the tribe you will be defending in next week's debate.
• Color code the STRONG POINTS & WEAK POINTS of your tribe.
• If you have time, do the same for the 3 opposing tribes.
• Reminder: the tribes in the debate will be:
• Jumanos
• Comanches
• Wichitas
• Caddoes

Lord of the Flies, Day 3

How accurate do these maps seem? I chose these two because they might help you visualize the island without giving away too much of the plot. The originals are here and here.

Today students:

• Went to one another's blogs and read the 5 questions over Chapter 2 of LOTF
• Chose any 3 questions and wrote 3-4 (or more)-sentence responses
• Discussed their responses with their classmates
• Viewed and discussed a British video giving tips for writing an essay on LOTF - all 6 videos can be found here.
• Viewed and discussed two one-minute videos from a series called 60second
• Viewed the first 30 seconds of a Spark Notes video on LOTF but decided it might give away too much of the plot and decided to watch it some other time
• Chose to continue discussing LOTF rather than using some class time to review for tomorrow's quiz over the Rivers of Texas (& the Gulf of Mexico)

Assignment for Wednesday

• Study for the Quiz over the Rivers of Texas (& Gulf of Mexico)
• Read Ch. 3 of LOTF - "Huts on the Beach" & post 5 good discussion questions on your blog
• Be noticing how the relationship between Ralph & Jack develops in each of the first 3 chapters - we will analyze & write on this on Wednesday.

Lord of the Flies, Day 2 - Texas Rivers

Lord of the Flies

• Discussed some of the Vocabulary Words in Chapter 1
• Students assumed character roles they'd chosen and discussed various aspects of LOTF from their characters' points of view
• Discussed some of the students' interpretive questions
• Wrote predictions as to future developments in LOTF (See student blogs.)

Texas Rivers

• Analyzed a map of the major rivers of Texas - See PowerPoint for excellent student insights.
• Began using animated slides to learn names and locations of rivers for next Wednesday's quiz

Assignment for Tuesday

• Enjoy your 3-day weekend!
• Read Chapter 2 of LOTF and write 5 interpretive questions into a blogpost.
• Study for Wednesday's Quiz over the Rivers of Texas. Use the PPT previously referenced.

Shipwrecked in Outer Space - Began Lord of the Flies: Vocabulary - Assigned Characters - Began Reading

Students today:

• Did an excellent job of ranking and discussing the 16 options in "Shipwrecked in Outer Space"
• Attempted to reach a unanimous decision for each step after arguing vigorously when their ranking differed from a classmate's.
• Demonstrated excellent logical reasoning in defending their rankings
• Were so thorough we didn't have time to finish; you can see what they accomplished here.
• Discussed Vocabulary for LOTF
• Were given the names of several characters in LOTF and chose a part to play as they read and discuss the novel. 

• Wingboy = Ralph
• Jaycolt = Piggy
• 12345 = Jack & Samneric
• Teacherman = Simon
• Began working together on a sheet to help Piggy (the character, not the student playing the character) improve his grammar.
• Read the first several pages in character

Assignment for Friday:

• Read the rest of Ch. 1 of LOTF.
• Read it from the point of view (POV) of your character
• Come prepared to discuss the events of Ch. 1 from your character's POV
• Write 5 good interpretive questions from Ch. 1

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.

"Harrison Bergeron," Day 3

Administrative Details

• Be sure to check Assignments each day; go back through and see what you're missing. They are highlighted in yellow, usually at the end of each post.
• Respond to my correctives comments & notify me by email that you've improved your work on that assignment. I will regrade your work.
• Visit classmates' blog posts and write comments. When you compliment them on something, go into detail about what you liked. Tell why it was very good, excellent, or superb. Add detail when you make suggestions as well.
• Use Labels on your posts. Notice that I use them regularly. You'll find them at the end of each post. For example, if there's an Assignment, I'll add the Label "Assignment." On the left side of the page are all the Labels I've used. Clicking a Label shows you all the posts that have a particular Label. So to find all the Assignments, click the Label, "Assignments." Gee, that was kind of wordy, but I hope you see how Labels can be useful.
• Students spent the first part of the period attending to these matters, getting organized, making sure assignments were turned in, etc. Computers aren't always completely cooperative, and sometimes allowances must be made for the amount of time consumed.

Bergeron Discussion, cont'd

• Students discussed the question, "Would the United States in 2081 have been better off if Harrison Bergeron had succeeded in becoming emperor?" 
• In the story the kinds of equality enforced by the government primarily deal with athleticism, physical attractiveness, and intelligence. Author Vonnegut seems to suggest it was absurd to try and enforce these kinds of subjective equality. Students considered the question if there are some kinds of equality that could be considered "good" and therefore worthy of being protected by the government.
• Students were asked to point out relationships between this story and the Time article on Texas.
• Thanks go to today's class historian, 12345, for taking notes during the discussion.

Picture Analysis of Characters in "Harrison Bergeron" - We barely got started on this when, alas, classtime ran out. The PowerPoint is available here.

Thank you for another excellent week, students. Have a great three-day weekend. No new assignments are due, but do try to complete any you still haven't turned in. Happy Labor Day.

"Harrison Bergeron" - Discussion - Scenarios - VideoNot.es

Class Discussion - "Harrison Bergeron"

• We began with some student questions:
• Wingboy:: Did everyone have a handicap bag and a mask?
• 12345: Why would the government stop people like George from taking unfair advantage of his brain?
• One student had taken the initiative to copy and paste pictures illustrating HB and provoked interesting analysis relating to the story.

Timeline of Possible HB Scenarios

• Students collaborated on a GooDoc tracing possible scenarios that moved U.S. society from the inequality of 1961 to the completely equal society of 2081. 
• One student cleverly took it beyond 2081.

VideoNot.es on Trailer to 2081 - Instructions:

1. Set up another gmail account.
2. Go to VideoNot.es. - Log in with Google account. Grant the permissions.
3. VideoNot.es lets you take notes while watching a video.
4. It saves your notes and video in your Google Drive.
5. Copy and paste the URL to the trailer to the 2081 movie trailer into VideoNote.es. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE_nr2t6fKQ
6. Watch the video and demonstrate your knowledge of the story in the Notes section. Pause to point out connections between the Vonnegut story and what we see in the 2081 trailer.

One student's VideoNot.es on the trailer can be viewed here.

Assignment - For tomorrow:

Finish up the VideoNot.es and any preparation needed to continue the discussion of "Harrison Bergeron."
Add to the 1961-2081+ scenario you worked on in class.
12345 - You need to make up for the time missed in class!!