Monday, September 10, 2018

The American Dream, Day 4 - Class Recap


This is part of N591UA, which operated United Flight 93 on September 11th, 2001, and was hijacked for possible use against the White House. Instead, a passenger revolt forced down the plane into a field in Pennsylvania. A part of my 9/11 story is that I once flew on that exact same plane, from Portland to Chicago in 1996. Check out my FlightMemory map of lifetime flights.

Hi everyone,

We wrapped up our initial look at the American Dream in class today (we will revisit this concept and whether or not the American Dream is accessible/reality next semester). We also had a timely look at what happened on September 11th, 2001 and December 7th, 1941. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed: 
Behavior LT 3: I can communicate and work effectively within a team or group.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: "American Dream" by MKTO. Selected for today because a student came up to me to recommend it! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/10/18:
News Brief - Jackson
Gallery Walk
September 11/December 7
What Is History?

Homework: Read the blog. The next news brief is assigned to: McKenzie.

News Brief/Blog Recap: Today's news brief was brought in by Jackson, who selected an article about this story: Independent.co.uk - Florida man stops to help stranded motorist who turned out to be hitman hired to kill him. We discussed this story for a bit (wow!) and then moved on.

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

McKenzie was selected to do the next news brief.

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 watched Westview Wildcat News in class, as well. Here it is if you missed class or wanted to see the information again:



Gallery Walk: The main assignment for this introduction to the American Dream unit is creating a poster with your slogan/catchphrase, along with images, captions, and an explanation on the back. The full poster assignment is here:


This was due today in class, so I had students place their posters on a desk and then handed out this form for going around and looking at the rest of the class!


Thank you for your work and participation here! I enjoyed seeing all of your posters and will put them up around the classroom after they are graded (for the Communication learning target).

September 11/December 7: To start this section, I asked students to do a free write for about 5 minutes on the following questions:

What do you know about September 11th and on December 7th? What have you heard about it?  What have you learned before, in class, or from parents?

After the free write time, we shared responses as a class and I told my story about September 11th. I was starting my Sophomore year at Wilson High School in Portland. It was definitely a day I will remember for the rest of my life. To drive home the point as to what the day was like, I showed this video in class, which was a timeline of the day:


From there, I moved on to discussing how September 11th, 2001 came about and some facts regarding the day.

We also talked in class about another incredibly important day in American history: December 7th, 1941, which is when the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by Japan, which caused the US to enter World War II officially. Here was the video I showed in class about the attack and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech the next day:


Next, we analyzed the two speeches from US presidents about these two days: President George W. Bush on 9/11 and President FDR on 12/7. Here are the speeches:


The questions we looked at were here:

Are there common themes running through these speeches? Be specific.

•  What was the reason for delivering each of these speeches?
•  What effect do you think each of these speeches had on the nation and/or the rest of the world?
•  What are the most important lines in each of these speeches?

Thanks for the discussion here! We ended class with this and will touch on it briefly on Wednesday again. See you then!

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