Animal Farm: Diagram Analysis & Essay Brainstorm - Six Pics Inquiry Activity

Students:

• Shared their Diagram Analysis of Animal Farm--See their blogs here, here, and here to see their excellent analyses.
• Brainstormed possible topics for their Animal Farm Essay, due one week from today (Thursday, 2/12/15)--See ideas here...Remember, students, you may continue thinking up ideas...just let me and Mrs. Horner know what you decide on so we can be of assistance.
• Did an inquiry activity called Six Pics
• Six pictures came onto the screen, one at a time.
• Students wrote and shared their reactions to each picture.
• Their reactions to the first three pictures were recorded on a separate document.
• Students wrote their reactions to #s 4, 5, & 6 but we didn't have time to record them.
• So, students, click here and add what you wrote to #s 4, 5, & 6. You will need to change everything to 7-point font in order for it to fit. We might have to keep finessing this.

Assignments

1. For Friday--Six Pics--Copy and paste your reactions to pics 4, 5, 6, as described above.
2. For Thursday--Animal Farm Essay due

Animal Farm Discussion, Ch. V & VI - Audio Inquiry Mystery???????

I patched together the above Timeline of the Russian Revolution from an excellent video you can view below or by clicking here. This provides some of the historical background some of you were saying you'd like to have.

On this day, students:

• Received documents relating characters and events in Animal Farm to real-life persons involved in the Russian Revolution- Click here and here to view them.
• Received a list of Vocabulary words for AF
• Discussed Ch. V & VI of AF
• Got the Mimeo device up and running and almost got the Mimeo tablet up and running
• Took notes during an Audio Inquiry about a Mystery Event--View students analyses and hypotheses here.

Assignments - Due Monday:

1. Read the documents linked to above relating AF characters to RR persons.
2. Read and be prepared to discuss Ch. VII & VIII of AF.
3. Be learning the Vocabulary words for a Quiz next week.

Inquiry on Empresario Grants, cont'd

Students continued the inquiry activity begun with Hi, Empresario! They:

• Completed their hypotheses as to the order in which actual empresario grants were chosen
• Compared their hypotheses with a chronology of the actual years in which the empresario grants were made
• Hypothesized as to why Stephen F. Austin, who received the first empresario grant, chose the land he did
• Read a primary source by Austin describing his first entry into the Province of Texas in 1821 and what he liked best about Texas

Assignment for Monday: Analyze the primary source by Austin and fill out the chart and list on what he observed

Flag Raising - Chapel - Fire Drill - Quiz over Ch. 4 Summary - Tolstoy

Fire drill cartoon here

Today students:

• Raised the flags and went to chapel
• Participated in a fire drill
• Did last-minute study for the Quiz
• Took the Quiz over the Ch. 4 Summary: Early Explorers
• Were emailed a link to a Tolstoy short story (See Assignments below.)

Assignments

For Thursday:

1. Continue working on your "Sell Myself" Project.
2. Make a table (chart) listing every thing you can think of that you WANT and everything you can think of that you NEED. Do this before beginning the Tolstoy story.
3. Optional: Begin reading Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?". If you'd rather begin tomorrow, that's fine, so long as you read the story and complete the assignment by Friday.

For Friday

1. Your "Sell Myself" Project will be presented to Queen Jill and Her Royal Order of Grade the Fourthers sometime between 8-8:30 A.M.
2. Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?
1. Have it read in full.
2. Write lots of discussion questions.
3. Post them to your blog, along with pictures & a link to something interesting relating to Tolstoy and/or the story.

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

Welcome to Day 1: Introduction to History & Blogging

Welcome, students, to our first day together in Grade 7 History, Literature, and Logic. I'm eagerly looking forward to learning with you and from you during this school year.

Today we will begin a general introduction to history and Texas, set up your student blogs, begin to use various creative online tools, and, as time allows, do some pre-reading activities leading up to reading a Time magazine story, the cover of which you see to the left.

We will be using the inquiry approach, which means I won't be telling you a bunch of facts and information but will set before you various activities that prompt you to think for and express yourself.

The first thing I'd like to do is to get an idea of what kinds of history interest you the most. Please click the title of the Google Doc, Student Survey: What Topics of History Interest You Most?, and follow the directions provided. We will then examine and discuss what you've written.

Next we will set up your student blogs. I'll walk you through this.

I'm sometimes not sure how long activities will take, so I'll be adding instructions and links here as needed.

Wrapping Up: Okay, we got as far as showing your historical preferences, setting up your student blogs, doing your first post, and learning how to insert images and links. Thank you very much for your concentration and cooperation.

Assignment For Tomorrow:

1. Finish your first post on what kinds of history interest you most.
2. Practice blogging: experiment, play around with various fonts, colors, etc. Use the Menu Bar in the post editor to experiment with different colors, text sizes, and other available features.