Challenge #1

We've been doing a lot of writing lately- using persuasive essays to make a claim and to prove/support a claim.  I wanted to try something a little different (and less difficult to grade).  So, Monday I had my kids collect information about the election of 1932 from their book in a graphic organizer.  They had to find and provide examples of ideologies and actions, and then evaluate the prospective president from a 1930s perspective and one from today.  On Tuesday, to demonstrate their learning, the students created 2 positive presidential campaign posters for 1932.  They had to show that they understood why Hoover might be a good choice as a traditional, capitalist, laissez-faire guy (despite history evaluating him quite negatively) and also decide why the people may have been drawn to FDR and his promised "change."  Students had to look at Hoover less emotionally and evaluate his attempted policies in context of not knowing the Depression would be so bad.

After they completed the activity and we discussed why people might actually have voted for Hoover, we looked at the electoral college map of 1932 to show the landslide; kids wondered why, and I followed up with a documentary on the Bonus Army March which turned public opinion away from Hoover just before the election.

I think they learned a lot and liked the change of visually representing their thinking, rather than having to write and fully explain it.

Challenge # 1

Prior to introducing the idea of traditionalism vs. modernism, I had the students respond to the question How did social, economic, and religious tensions divide Americans during the Roaring Twenties? This initially sparked a heated debate. They were not allowed to blurt out thoughtless opinion, but use only facts or statistics to support their side of the debate.  We then shifted our debate to the 1920’s.  Students were to create claims based on evidence and reasoning to support or oppose the movement of the 1920’s. After our traditionalism vs. modernism debate we made connections from the past and related it to present day.

Cantu - Using Questions to Make Thinking Visible

9th grade students reflected on an essential question, “Did the Republican Era of the 1920’s bring peace and prosperity to all Americans?”  Students worked in small groups to generate ideas on events that did or did not contribute to peace and prosperity.  Groups noticed events could fall in both categories.  Students were able to build on each other’s ideas and considered different viewpoints.  We reconnected as a whole group and I wrote responses on the board.  Finally, using a claim and evidence, students reflected on the essential question and generated their own individual thoughts.

Sacco and Vanzetti Essay

For this lesson I asked students to give reasoning for an opinion using evidence. Co-Taught History completed a trial organizer as they assumed the role of a jury member in the clemency hearing for Sacco and Vanzetti. Students gathered facts related to the case and the initial trial and logged them into a t-chart separated by facts that hurt and helped the two's clemency appeal. Once the students finished gathering the evidence, they were asked to pick two facts which they believed pointed to them being granted or denied clemency. Finally students wrote a short essay using the ClEaR format, paying special attention to how they reasoned their presented evidence in favor or against clemency. Students then were able to share their decisions with the class in discussion.

Yearbook Reflection

Background
Many yearbook students seemed to be unmotivated in class. They did get excited however, about the idea of designing yearbook t-shirts.

Purpose of Reflection
I wanted students to I used this opportunity to have students think about why they wanted a yearbook t-shirt by having them think about one of their t-shirts from an event or group and why it is important to them. They wrote the reasons that shirt was important to them in a blank t-shirt drawn on a piece of paper. On the back, I asked them to fill in another t-shirt explaining why they are interested in wearing a yearbook t-shirt.

Extension of Thinking
Instead of just thinking about t-shirts, students reflected on the reasons behind wanting a yearbook t-shirt. Some thoughts that surfaced were that students are proud of their hard work and being part of a fun group at CJHS.