Sampling Goat's Milk (some of their expressions are priceless!)
Tea Party Fun
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Junto Society Tea
Last week we had our Junto Society Colonial Tea party. Students were to bring a dish to share made from a colonial recipe as well as their Hot Topic discussion questions. I provided a variety of teas for them to sample as well as Goat's milk (the earliest colonists in America brought goats instead of cows). Here are some pictures of the fun...
Hot Topic Discussion Questions
Each week while in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin got together with members of the Junto Society, his social networking group. He prepared a list of Hot Topic questions for the group to discuss. As preparation for their own Junto Society meeting, the students were asked to 'decode' eight of Franklin's questions.
First, they were to use the dictionary application on their laptops to look up all vocabulary in the question that they didn't know or that I thought may be more complex...words like 'folly', 'remarkable', and 'vice', for example.
After the words in the sentence were defined, the students were asked to rewrite Franklin's question in their own words. For example, "What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately observed or heard? Or of any other vice or folly?" Defining key vocab first helps them decode the question.
After they figured out what the question was asking and had written it in their own words, they were to answer the questions based on what is going on in their lives, their community, and their world today. So, the question above is asking if they've witnessed any bad habits or wicked behaviors lately and they were to answer with their own experiences. On the day of the Junto Society tea, they brought their list of questions and responses.
First, they were to use the dictionary application on their laptops to look up all vocabulary in the question that they didn't know or that I thought may be more complex...words like 'folly', 'remarkable', and 'vice', for example.
After the words in the sentence were defined, the students were asked to rewrite Franklin's question in their own words. For example, "What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately observed or heard? Or of any other vice or folly?" Defining key vocab first helps them decode the question.
After they figured out what the question was asking and had written it in their own words, they were to answer the questions based on what is going on in their lives, their community, and their world today. So, the question above is asking if they've witnessed any bad habits or wicked behaviors lately and they were to answer with their own experiences. On the day of the Junto Society tea, they brought their list of questions and responses.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Curious Colonial Punishments
As an end of the unit activity on the American Colonial Era, we had a round-table discussion on common colonial punishments. In advance, I researched and compiled a list of historical crimes and punishments that had happened or typically happened in the 13 American colonies and put them on slips of paper. Each student had to choose a slip, then read their crime and their punishment for said crime. Some of the crimes include:
"You will be set in the pillory for delivering false dinner invitations and for being the author of a rough practical joke."
"You were caught gossipping...you are sentences to wear the 'gossip's bridle'. This was a sort of heavy iron cage, that covered the head; a flat tongue of iron, sometimes spiked, was thrust into the mouth over the criminal's tongue."
"You will be set in the pillory for delivering false dinner invitations and for being the author of a rough practical joke."
(The Pillory)
"You were caught gossipping...you are sentences to wear the 'gossip's bridle'. This was a sort of heavy iron cage, that covered the head; a flat tongue of iron, sometimes spiked, was thrust into the mouth over the criminal's tongue."
(The Gossip's Bridle)
"You stole a pair of breeches in 1638 and are sentenced to 'sitt in the stocks on the next Sabboth day...from the beginninge of morninge prayer until the end of the Serman, with a pair of breeches about your necke."
(The Stocks)
The students LOVE this activity! Their fascination probably stems from the fact that in pre-Constitution times there was no such thing as protection from 'cruel and unusual punishment' so the punishments they received were very interesting!
New England or Chesapeake?
As a quick review and as a way to practice classifying information, we played a matching game where teams of students had to place images onto one of two colonial figures. One figure was a Puritan who represented the New England colonies and the other was a picture of John Smith, who represented Jamestown and the Chesapeake region.
The pictures represented characteristics of each place. A school house, for instance, represents the high level of education of citizens in Puritan New England, while the cigarettes represent the fact that tobacco became the number one cash crop in the Jamestown settlement.
The teams competed with one another to see who could classify the pictures the fastest with the least mistakes. This is a great review because the students have to do the same type of classification on the end of unit assessment and having the visuals in the game helps them recall information.
The pictures represented characteristics of each place. A school house, for instance, represents the high level of education of citizens in Puritan New England, while the cigarettes represent the fact that tobacco became the number one cash crop in the Jamestown settlement.
The teams competed with one another to see who could classify the pictures the fastest with the least mistakes. This is a great review because the students have to do the same type of classification on the end of unit assessment and having the visuals in the game helps them recall information.
The Jamestown Draft
This year we've been able to add additional instructional time to our schedule in a period called Enrichment. During this block, we do activities that enhance and 'enrich' what we are learning about in our core U.S. History class time. It allows me to create and implement many new activities and lessons that I haven't had time for in past school years. One new activity that we recently completed was called the "Jamestown Draft".
I modeled this loosely on the concept of a sports draft, like that of the NFL, to get the kids engaged in the activity. Each student randomly chose a slip of paper with a description of an occupation really held by one the settlers in the Jamestown colony. Two 'team captains' were picked to be the leaders of two new fictitious American colonies. The team captains had to decide, based on the 'value' of each occupation, who they wanted to draft into their colony. The object was to build the strongest colony of workers and thus survive longer than the opposing colony. Here are two teams of colonial workers who have been 'drafted':
In the end, each team had to convince me why they were the strongest by explaining the value of each of their occupations. It was a fun way to debate and learn a little more about colonial America!
In the end, each team had to convince me why they were the strongest by explaining the value of each of their occupations. It was a fun way to debate and learn a little more about colonial America!
Our Theme: Freedom
Our overarching theme for this year in U.S. History comes from a quote by President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
“In the
truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
We spent our first enrichment class discussing this idea and what it means to each student. We'll be pulling examples from each unit of study that we will connect to the idea that freedom in America had to be earned by American people from the very settlers to the citizens of modern day.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Welcome to a New School Year
Welcome to the 2011-2012 school year! I'll be updating the blog with new posts as soon as I get things settled here at school! If you're new to the blog, you can learn a little about me HERE. I hope you check back often to see what my students are up to!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
A Class Divided
We are in the midst of our Civil Rights unit in U.S. History where we are exploring the histories and struggles of various groups who've faced discrimination and oppression. As part of this unit, we do a segregation simulation where the students are divided into two groups based on some arbitrary characteristic (eye color, hair color, etc.). One of the groups must wear special identifying necklaces strung with noodles so everyone knows they are in that group.
For two class periods (four days) students in each group must follow a certain set of rules. I've loosely based the rules on certain codes of conduct that dictated society's rules during the Jim Crow period in America. The simulation is also loosely based on one that a third grade teacher, Jane Elliot, conducted with her students shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the primary difference being that the students knew this simulation was coming and therefore knew it was pretend.
At the end of the simulation, the students were asked to watch a documentary about Jane Elliot and her students called A Class Divided, which I would encourage you to watch here. It is fascinating and arguably one of my students' favorite films of the year. Although they usually feel somewhat uncomfortable while the simulation is happening, year after year they say that it is a very good learning experience and think it is a valuable lesson. I think it fits with the 'learn by doing' philosophy, which is a sentiment the students echoed in our 'debriefing' class discussions.
For two class periods (four days) students in each group must follow a certain set of rules. I've loosely based the rules on certain codes of conduct that dictated society's rules during the Jim Crow period in America. The simulation is also loosely based on one that a third grade teacher, Jane Elliot, conducted with her students shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the primary difference being that the students knew this simulation was coming and therefore knew it was pretend.
At the end of the simulation, the students were asked to watch a documentary about Jane Elliot and her students called A Class Divided, which I would encourage you to watch here. It is fascinating and arguably one of my students' favorite films of the year. Although they usually feel somewhat uncomfortable while the simulation is happening, year after year they say that it is a very good learning experience and think it is a valuable lesson. I think it fits with the 'learn by doing' philosophy, which is a sentiment the students echoed in our 'debriefing' class discussions.
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