Today Mr. Williams explained that we no longer have time in the schedule for whole day exams. Instead of the exams that had followed sections of the textbook, we will be taking more frequent single question tests at the the start of class. The tests will not occur every day but will be frequent. The tests will consist of a single essay response question that would require about a paragraph or two to answer. Students who are late on the days the tests are offered will not have an opportunity to take the test unless the come to class with an excused tardy/absence slip. Students who are excused tardy or absent will need to complete the test after school, during lunch or during tutorial.  (on time means we are in class and ready to begin when the bell rings - late means we are not in class when the bell rings - the grey area is when we are in the class but not yet in our desk ready to begin)

We did a review of the previous two chapters. We created "eight" poems for the review for each chapter.

The eight poems are poems with eight lines and every line ends with the eight sound. The lines should have few syllables but does not have to be a consistent.


After sharing some "eight" poems, we looked at an image from the era and discussed muckraking. We then read chapter 16 section 2 while responding to the following questions:

• What important Announcement did the Census make in 1890?
• What happened to American industry in the years after the civil war?
• What did American cities look like in 1900?
• How did the US population become more diverse by the early 1900s?

We then started researching for a muckraker newspaper we will be writing.

Link

On Friday we finished the reading notes form Monday and then turned them in.

Today, Wednesday -

Our guidance counselor worked with us about our transcripts, graduation requirements and how to use Navience.

Monday,

Today we had a substitute teacher because Mr. Williams was in meetings that kept him from class.

In class we took notes on chapter's 14 and 15. We used this reading to help with the reading notes. This reading is a condensed version of the textbook reading. We used this note-taking format. It is a format we have used before.

Today we continued working on the Triangle Shirtwaist factory assignment. Last week we watched the video segments through section five. While watching the video we were creating list of issues and concerns for both the workers and the owners of the factory.

Today we took that information and created news radio reports and interviews. The assignment instructions can be found here - (Link to today's activity).

The interviewed will be record to a voicemail that we will access through our cell phones. These interviews will be posted to this blog (lower right sidebar) for reviewing and sharing purposes by the week's end.

Today we reviewed the dawn of Jim Crow. We discussed the origins and causes and impact of the early Jim Crow laws and practices. We will return to Jim Crow practices soon.

We then shifted back to the industrialization of the United States. We created a two sided sheet with an small illustration of a newly rich factory owner on one side of a blank sheet of paper and a small illustration of a factory worker on the other side. We started watching the video about the Triangle Shirt Fire (see clips at the bottom of this page). During each segment we listed the grievances and concerns for each group. After watching each clip we discussed each group's perspectives about the situation as it developed. Today we completed sections 1 through 5.

Today we completed another section of reading notes (Chapter13 section 4).

We then watched a documentary on Jim Crow. This documentary we will watch in four sections over the course of the next couple of months. We will watch the sections as the relate to the context and era we are studying.