With the end of the 2016-2017 school year fast approaching, Team 8-1 American History students are still investigating major historical events leading up to our final topic of the school year: The United States Civil War. Following the creation of The Federalist iBook, students were introduced to the Jefferson Era. Prior to the start of the Jefferson Era, students concluded their investigation of the Federalist Era. This saw students completing an iBook that I created on the Whiskey Rebellion. This iBook contained the same interactive features that the students used within their own iBooks. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, students are always very interested in the Whiskey Rebellion because of the local historical ties to the event!
Following the Whiskey Rebellion, students were presented with “Early Challenges” that faced the Washington administration. In past school years, I ask students to assume the role as “Special-Advisor” to the President. In this activity, students are presented with the same scenarios that faced President Washington, including:
Students think about each situation that I propose and then offer their advice to the President. This year, I decided to incorporate the platform known as Flipgrid to this activity. Flipgrid allows students to record their responses to a question prompt and also view and respond to their classmates. Students were a bit nervous at firs to record themselves, but after I demonstrated Flipgrid, the enthusiasm and eagerness to participate became contagious! I definitely plan on using the Flipgrid application more in my classroom. Following our Flipgrid activity, students participated in a document analysis activity pertaining to Washington’s Farewell Address. Students focused on several key aspects of the Address, particularly focusing on the portions that warned about party faction and foreign affairs. We then held a debate pertaining to Washington’s advice about these two topics and what our First President would say if he was living today. Instead of an exam about the Federalist Era, I presented students with Mr. Hartnett’s March Madness Matching Competition. In this challenge, students were presented with sixty-eight key concepts from the Federalist Era. Each group of students were given a set of these matches, and students worked collaboratively with their classmates to form correct matches. Incorrect matches resulted in a time penalty for the class. To practice, students participated in a similar activity on Quizlet Live. Congrats to Period Four on winning the competition and a special shout-out to Period Five for completing the challenge without any mistakes! The Jefferson Era began with a look into the presidency of John Adams. Students were introduced to the following topics via a Near Pod presentation:
I admit that I would (and definitely plan) on focusing more time on the above topics in the future. Students then looked into the election of 1800 and really enjoy breaking down the lyrics to The Election of 1800 from Hamilton the musical. Students were also ecstatic to hear that the musical will be coming to Pittsburgh in the coming years! Students were also introduced to the early years of the Jefferson presidency via a presentation on Near Pod. The Louisiana Purchase was the next major topic to be discussed in class, and students participated in a What Would You Do activity. In this activity (similar to an activity I used during the American Revolution), students assume the role as President Jefferson. Utilizing their knowledge of Jefferson and his Republican beliefs, students navigate a series of scenarios and then compare their response to Jefferson’s actual actions. Students are often a bit critical of Jefferson by the end of this activity because of some of the contradictory movements taken by Jefferson, especially in purchasing the Louisiana Purchase. One of my goals this year was to do a bit more with the Lewis & Clark Expedition. In years past, I would normally introduce the Lewis & Clark Expedition and move onto Jefferson and the Embargo. However, after a bit more personal reading and research on Lewis & Clark, I felt compelled to spend more time on this expedition. I provided students with several journal entries from Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Students performed document analysis on the journal entries, which included topics such as:
Students have become very impressive with their analysis of primary source material and this activity showcased this notion. From the primary source analysis students were presented with two options on bringing these sources “to life”. Students could:
Students were also given the opportunity to create a “project of their choosing” that related to the Hamilton – Burr Duel. Although I provided “suggestions” for students, I am very excited to see what students come up with. Students will be using the iBook that I created on the duel to aid them in this project option. As you can see, Team 8-1 American History students have been hardworking over the last two weeks. I am very excited to see how the above-mentioned projects turn out and I will be sure to post about the final products soon!
0 Comments
|
Mr. Steve Hartnett
Mr. Hartnett will update the Room 212 Blog with classroom updates on a regular basis. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @ MrHartnett212 Archives
July 2019
Categories |