Historiography, Day 5 - Class Recap

Many students in class selected Martin Luther King, Jr. as someone who they considered to be a "Great American" to research.

Dear class,

This week, we will be wrapping up our unit on the study of how history is told, by doing a little research of our own. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed: 

Behavior LT 1: I can self direct my learning.
Research LT 1: I can effectively conduct and apply research.
Critical Thinking LT 5: I can justify and support arguments or interpretation with appropriate evidence.

Soundtrack: "Circle of Life" from The Lion King. Selected for today because biographies are a portrait of someone's life, and for today being the anniversary of my dad's death in 2014. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/24/18:
News Brief - Ryan O.
Debrief Notable Americans
Comparative Biography
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Continue to work on the Comparative Biography – due Friday at start of class! Be good for the guest teacher on Wednesday! The next news brief is assigned to: Gerardo (Wednesday) and Issac (Friday).

Wildcat News Brief: Today's news brief was brought in by Ryan O, who selected an article about this story: WCVB.com - Church that firefighter was supposed to be married in, bursts into flames. We discussed this story for a bit and then moved on.

We also checked in about the weekend to see if anyone was up to anything interesting or fun outside of class.

Gerardo was selected to do the next news brief (and Issac will have it on Friday).

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Finally, we also watched Westview Wildcat News today. Here it is if you missed class or wanted to watch it again:

Debrief Notable Americans: The assignment for last class (this was also posted in Google Classroom) was to look at a few short biographies of notable Americans through history and to try and assess any biased words in them, whether or not they achieved the "American Dream," and whether or not this person is a "Great American" - students were able to define this however they wanted. Here are the biographies (try to select a range, not just the first three) and the assignment:

Google Drive - Notable American Biographies

Google Drive - Bias, Biographies, and Great Americans Assignment

In class today, we talked about the notable Americans and had a conversation about the answers to the questions for each one. This activity transitioned us to...

Comparative Biography: The last part of the "notable Americans" worksheet asked for the name of someone you consider to be a "Great American" - students were allowed to define that however they wanted, however, the person had to be someone that was 1) real, and 2) multiple biographies existed of. With this person in mind, this is the assignment that I introduced today in class (also posted in Google Classroom):

Google Drive - Comparative Biography Assignment

We talked about the importance of finding good sources for this (Wikipedia is allowed for this assignment!) as well as how to cite your sources using EasyBib.com or another generator.

This assignment should end up being about 2-3 pages in length, as you look in depth at the biographies you find on your Great American.

Work Time: The rest of class was devoted to work time on the comparative biography assignment, as Wednesday will be as well (you will have a guest teacher, as I am out of the building at an all day meeting). Please email me or comment with any questions, as this assignment will be due at the start of class on Friday!

Thanks, everyone - see you later this week!