The Lincoln-Douglas Debates & Collaborative Annotation...

Happy Mobday Almost Freshies,

      We have finally arrived at the last article in our series.  We should be CONSTRUCTING MEANING from all that we have read, and we all should have an idea of some of the deep causes of the Civil War.  What was the Dred Scott Decision?  What is a "free stater"?    What was the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850?  And most importantly, why do all these things matter?

      Today, the activity we will be engaging in is called Collaborative Annotation.  We will look at an article together, then break into our table groups and annotate it COLLABORATIVELY.  To start, please click on the links below to refresh your memory and access any schema you may have on these subjects. 

The Dred Scott Decision

Bleeding Kansas

Today's learning targets:
I can identify main ideas, analyze supporting details, and evaluate inferences within discipline specific media.  

I can apply content in order to evaluate relationships of people and ideas and to draw conclusions.

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

The Cause: Documentary...

It's Thursday,

      The Civil War began at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861.  The documentary you will see today does a fabulous job connecting to the articles we have read together.  Listen for "Bleeding Kansas".  Listen for Dred Scot.  Listen for dates, people, turning points, and events our articles may have mentioned. 

      Below, you will see two questions.  Your task, at the end of class today, is to comment on this blog by answering these questions.  You ARE NOT using the blackboard blogs!!  You are commenting on this blog.  I will receive your post in my personal email account and approve or disapprove your responses. 

1. What did you see or hear in the documentary that we read about in the articles? 

2. At this point in all of our reading, writing, talking, sharing, and studying, what do YOU think could be considered a cause of the Civil War? 

      “Slavery is like holding a wolf by the ears.  You don’t like it, but you dare not let it go.”

-Thomas Jefferson

      “For me, the picture of the Civil War, as a historic phenomenon, is not on the battlefield.  It’s not about weapons.  It’s not about soldiers except to the extent that weapons and soldiers at that crucial moment joined the discussion about something higher about humanity, about human dignity, about human FREEDOM”   

-Barbara Fields (Historian 9:10)

      “If there was a single event that caused the war it was the establishment of the United States in independence from Great Britain with slavery still a part of its heritage.”

-Barbara Fields (Historian 17:00)

Today's learning targets:
I can identify main ideas, analyze supporting details, and evaluate inferences within discipline specific media.  

I can apply content in order to evaluate relationships of people and ideas and to draw conclusions. 

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

The Dred Scott Decision

Happy Camel Day,

      We are nearing the last few articles that explain some of the causes of the Civil War.  Continue to remember your inquiry and reading skills. Conceptual annotation and critically thinking about relevant information are vital when constructing meaning from text.  What do you know based on what you read?  How do you know it?  And, more importantly, why is it relevant?   

      The article today, which will open us up to our activity later, is The Approaching War: The Dred Scott Decision.  Please do a few things before we begin reading today...

1.  Log onto Hippocampus.org (History & Gov. - U.S. History)
2.  Watch the presentations that accompany our articles
3.  Review, read, or reread the Kansas-Nebraska Act and/or The Dred Scott Decision
4.  Prepare for the Slip Game

Sincerely,
C

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Happy Tuesday Y'all,

      Please click on the links below and watch before you begin reading and annotating text. 


Media to Text 1

Media to Text 2

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

The Missouri Compromise & the Compromise of 1850 Continued...

Happy Monday Gang,

      Please watch the media provided below and get your articles out from last week.  Many of you and your table groups are in different areas of the reading.  Some are conceptually annotating.  Some are attacking text for relevant information.  Some are continuing to read.  Some may be finished and are ready for the next article. 
The Missouri Compromise

The Compromise of 1850

     The next two articles we will read things really start to heat up.  The country continues to fight over SECTIONAL ISSUES and continues to draw the lines between north and south.  The next two articles will be in the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dredd Scott Decision.  If you would like a head start, see what you can find on these subjects. 

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

The Missouri Compromise & The Compromise of 1850...

High Five Friday,

      We will be doing another activity today called Carousel Brainstorming.  You may remember it from our space projects and writing a thesis.  Please read the questions below to get a peek at what we will need to think about:

1.  What are some of the dates we are coming across in our reading?
2.  Who are some of the people we hear in our articles?
3.  What are some of the compromises we have read about so far?
4.  What are some sectional issues that caused so much drama/conflict?
5.  What are some of the TP's, Worldviews, or C&E's, we have read in our text?

SECTIONALISM

What is Sectionalism?

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Conceptual Annotation & Thinking Like a Historian...

Hi Everyone,

      So, we have all seen and tried Text Coding as well as Annotating text.  Text Coding is using symbols in a piece of text you are reading in order to make it easier to review that text later.  Text Coding organizes our thoughts in a specific way that makes sense to us.  Annotating text is simply interacting with text and writing notes along the way IN THE TEXT.  You have all done this.  Now is the time to step it up a bit.

      Conceptual Annotation brings these two nonfiction reading strategies together.  It makes meaning out of text which, in turn, allows us to use text in our WRITING, OUR PROJECTS, and CONVERSATIONS in class.  So here we go... 

These are the concepts we all know and love:
TE = Through Their Eyes
TP = Turning Points
CE = Cause & Effect
CC/CH = Change & Continuity
UP = Using the Past

These will be the concepts that we will use to mark up our texts as well.  Let's roll up our sleeves and get to it. 

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Using the Part: Slavery

HOWDY Y'ALL!!

      Camel Day is here to stay!!  Drawing lessons from the past can be a powerful way to make sense of the present and to inform decisions about the future.  One can use the past for less immediate purposes.  Historians use their understanding of one historical event to raise questions about another historical event.  USING THE PAST RESPONSIBLY REQUIRES FINDING THE USEABLE PAST.  We must be able to discriminate between those events and aspects that are relevant to the event under study. 
Olaudah Equiano: African Slave (Primary Source)


From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy

Another Look at Slavery: Change & Continuity/Using The Past...

Happy Monday Y'all,

      Doing history is not the same thing as learning about history. TLH brings history to life in a way that goes deeper than rote memorization of dates and facts. Or, as Emily Rhodes put it, "dates and dead people". 

      As your teacher I would like to let you in on what my vision and goal is for TLH and Project WICR.  I want to teach you how to DO HISTORY. EXPERIENCE HISTORY. FEEL & SENSE HISTORY.  I do not want you to just learn about history so that one day when you are older you look back and say, "Oh yeah, I think my 8th grade teacher told us about that once." 

      I was thinking this weekend about what we are doing here during our CORES and STEaM time when I had a thought.  I asked the question, What's more important, that the kids are taught or that the kids learn?  The answer I came up with is this...  You're here to learn, not just necessarily to be taught!! This thought completely shifted my WORLDVIEW.  You will learn and remember by DOING HISTORY not just hearing me tell you about it. 
Read.  Write.  Think.  Remember.  Question.  Synthesize. 

    Tim & Moby: Slavery

Tim & Moby: Underground Railroad

Media in History

I can identify main ideas, analyze supporting details, and evaluate inferences within discipline specific readings

Content in History

I can apply content in order to evaluate relationships of people and ideas and draw conclusions.

Sincerely,
C
P.S. I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I DO AND I UNDERSTAND.
Do your best and forget the rest!

Sent from my iPhone

Change & Continuity: Westward Expansion...

Hey Gang,

      Can a Turning Point lead to another Turning Point?  How do we know when we have come across a Turning point? 

      One Turning Point we have looked at is the Louisiana Purchase.  The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the nation, forced interaction with Indians, started the Lewis and Clark expedition, helped trade, and started Westward Exapansion.  We should all know this by now.

      Let's focus our attention today on another turning point called Westward Expansion.  Westward Expansion brought about the idea or belief (Worldview) of Manifest Destiny.  For the first half of the 1800s, before the Civil War, Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny changed political, social, economic, and cultural human experiences. 

      Click of the link below to start class.  We will be taking a closer look at John Gast's painting.  Hopefully, this will begin our study of Change and Continuity. 

Westward Expansion: MANIFEST DESTINY

From the cluttered mind of C, Teacher
School District of Waukesha
Waukesha STEM Academy