Depression Prep

We discussed the causes of the Great Depression for the first part of class. We then looked at a few videos about how our minds can be troubled or tricked by what we see. We watched these videos to reinforce the importance of careful creation of our quarter 3 projects.

With the discussion about the projects we even drew comparisons between how producers of a number of consumer products in the late 1920's neglected to consider their consumers AND how we need to avoid making that mistake on our projects. We need to carefully consider our audience so we can be certain that our content will be effectively consumed.

We finished the day preparing for an in class activity. We will be working in groups of three. Each person needs to carefully consider how the other two members could best "consume" information. We each are responsible for a single chapter of content about the depression. On Thursday we will need to share our chapter with our other two group members in a manner that allows them to effectively understand the content.

We used slides 29-31 for todays class

This activity is meant to reinforce the expectation of the quarter 3 project that we should be working on at home.  

Crash

Today we aligned the content from the prohibition with our course standards by responding to at least eight of the standards.

We then played a game that simulated the Stock market crash of 1929 and then followed it up with a discussion. This link contains what we did in class including the game and the discussion questions.

Substitute

Yesterday there was a substitute. As best as I can tell he did not follow the instructions nor did he have the student read the instructions on the board and as a result Mr. Williams is not really sure what all happened.

One certain thing is that we watched the third segment of Jim Crow documentary.

3rd quarter presentation ideas

drawing
dance
slide presentation
reenactment
With digital overlay (not realistic for most)
Plain English Video



We've mentioned other ideas, but I have not found any praise worthy examples that meet our needs. As I find more I will post them here. If you find one, please send me a link to it.

Remember we need to maintain audience engagement, and clearly present orally - examples must include both.

Prohibition's end

Today we watched our last four video segments of the Prohibition documentary. We watched, Roy Olmstead, A Genuine American, Fiorello La Guardia, and Pauline Sabin. During the videos we continued to apply the course standards to the content.

After the videos we were instructed to bring these notes to class for use next Wednesday.

We ended class with a thirty minute discussion about effective communication via online resources. We identified what cause us to engage with online content, what keeps us engaged with online content as well as what causes us to disengage with online content. Because our third quarter project is about effectively communicating with our audience via online oral presentation, we need to make certain that we apply these ideas to whatever product we create so as to ensure our audience receives what we deliver.

We used the ideas at the bottom of this link to guide our project and the link were used as examples of what not to do in our presentations. We were encouraged to think beyond the slide presentation and instead create a product based on our interests (because if it is something we are interested in we are more likely to better engage our audience).

Mr. Williams also showed us how to capture video of what we see on our computer screens. The resource he used was Jing and it can be downloaded for free here.

More Prohibition

We continued the discussion, viewing and note-taking on prohibition.

We watched the following segments: Retribution, Terribly Wonderful, German-American Alliance, The Time is Now, and William Jenning Bryan.

Prohibition

Today we started the class by reflecting on our work from last week. We reviewed our notes and wrote a single paragraph explaining which of the people from the 1920s we studied has had the greatest impact on our current pop culture. This paragraph was turned in.

We then looked over and discussed the quarter 3 project which is explained in the previous post.

We once again examined the course standards. We put them into our own words so we could more easily apply them to the history. We were again encouraged to not simply consume history but to use these objectives as a means to interact with history.

We applied these objectives to a few videos about prohibition. While watching the segments we applied the content to some of the standards and discussed our responses between segments. We watched: A Nation of Drunkards, Brewers, Eliza Jane Thompson, and Hatchetation. 

Quarter 3 Project

In a nutshell, the 3rd Quarter project is to research the Ideals of the Declaration of Independence so as to determine whether or not they have been upheld by the United States, create a digital oral presentation of the researched materials, and post the digital oral presentation online for student review. The presentation must be posted online and shared before 10 p.m. April 1. (To avoid having last minute computer or internet issues from causing you to be late, it is strongly suggested that you post your presentation a few days ahead of time so as to give you time to work out a solution to whatever problems you might encounter.)

While we will spend some time in class working on this project, a bulk of it will need to be done on the student's own time. Some students will opt to use resources found in the classroom and they will need to arrange times after school to use them.

If you are worried about posting it online and you think you will want help from Mr. Williams with that portion of the task, then you should plan on finishing a couple of weeks early and then scheduling time after hours to have Mr. Williams work with you on it.

If you are not going away or you are planning on being busy over spring break, you should plan on finishing the project before spring break so that you can enjoy your week without the project hanging over your head. ("I was busy" or "I went out of town" will not be excuses for not having the project posted and submitted. Please organize the next six weeks in such a manner to meet your own personal needs - including the completion of this project.)

For more details about this project, you should take a look at the information found on the hand out which can be accessed from this link.

This link here will take you to the form that you will complete to submit your project.

DO NOT email the project. Sending the project via e-mail will not constitute a completed project. Mr. Williams will not be uploading projects for individuals. If this is a new skill for someone, they must arrange time with Mr. Williams or any number of their peers to learn how to do this routine 21st century task. (Mr. Williams assumes some students will need to learn how to do this so please do not wait to ask about it if you need to know.)

If you opt to use a resource that you are not familiar with, please make sure you include in your scheduling the time needed to learn how to use the new resource, as well as time for unknown problems to arise and be resolved.


Here is the link to download Jing.

Pop Culture Players of the 1920's

Today we each took on the role of one of sixteen significant pop culture icons from the 1920s. We then mingled with each other collecting notes on each other. The people we took notes on were: Amelia Earheart, Gertrude Ederle, Jim Thorpe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Margaret Sanger, Alice Paul, Charlie Chaplin, David Sarnoff, Henry Ford, Bessie Smith, Charles Lindberg, George Washington Carver, and Bruce Barton.

We need to bring to class on Monday the notes we recorded. The notes need to include, for each person listed, the following: their name, two fun facts, their accomplishment and an explanation of the each person shaped the 1920's and beyond. (This last one needs to be show our own understanding of the person and not just what the person said).

Post WWI

Today we raced through two chapters of text.

We started with a reintroduction of the course objectives and encouraged to apply the questions to any and all historical content we are exposed to.

After reading the introduction of both chapter 26 and chapter 17 we shared what we expected to be the content of each of the chapters. We then were assigned a single subsection of text for which we were responsible for sharing. We had to read the entire section of text from which our subsection was a part. We then prepared a short presentation of that content and which question we thought the content would best serve as a response for.

At the end of the class we were given out final exams. Each of the exams were scored by two teachers. We will use the exam scores as a starting point for the remainder of the school year. Our objective will be to be able to respond to all of the course objectives clearly and with sound support from US History.

See this link for more details about today's class. This link also has instructions for those who missed class.