"The John Brown Freedom Center" (???)

As an IB school, we at Sturgis try to promote student inquiry. This means that students are encouraged to be curious about different topics and subjects that interest them.

Today, Friday, April17th, we are in the computer lab to work on an inquiry-based project relating to John Brown.

Click here so we can go through the directions together.

After we (as a group) are done with the slide show, click here for the assignment and links.

The worksheet is in google docs and attached on my website.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, was a massive bestselling book of the antebellum era that framed slavery as a moral struggle. As a a member of a prominent family of reformers (mom worked for temperance, Dad was a minister) Ms. Stowe's life and work fits in well with our study of the Second Great Awakening, reform movements, and abolition. As much as it was praised for its abolitionist message, Uncle Tom's Cabin has also been criticized.

Your task is to do some research on the internet about why Uncle Tom's Cabin has been criticized. Then, you will post a comment summarizing some of the criticism you found and assessing the validity of that criticism. Essentially, you will be responding to the criticism and sharing your informed opinion on the book (but without actually reading the book itself). If that seems too difficult, write a post about what you learned about the book through your research. Post should be 3-5 sentences, identify yourself by first name and last initial.

Remember our standards for credible websites; skip sites that lack an educated author, inline (within the sentence) citations, etc.

Social Reform Movements of the Early 19th Century

We are in the lab today work on researching social reform movements. Our PURPOSE is twofold; to practice research skills and to learn about the reform movements.

We will start with research.

Click here to follow along with the slideshow and directions. Please don't get ahead of the group.

Should Andrew Jackson be on the $20 bill?

This project essentially has 3 parts:

1. research
   
2. annotated bibliography in Turabian format
   
3. speech

Based on the perspective you were assigned, you will explore a variety of resources that reflect different perspectives on Andrew Jackson's accomplishments as President. As you read the sources, ask yourself, "From my assigned perspective, is Andrew Jackson a hero worthy of honoring, or are his actions a shameful aspect of American history?"

Click here to find links to a variety of resources from each perspective. There are websites, articles, primary source documents, and videos there.

After you explore some of the information that is available to you, log in to your google docs and create a document (title like this: Jones Megan Annotated Bibliography) and create an annotated bibliography entry for 2-3 of the resources.

Confused about what an annotated bibliography IS? Don't be! It's explained on the handout you received and here.
Also: check out the comments below as well- a few students posted sample annotated bibliography entries for our textbook.

HW: The "Third World" Discussion

In class, we have been discussing what separates the United States and other "first world" countries from developing countries, sometimes called "third world" countries.

For HW, you will post a comment to this entry with a reflection on this topic. In your post: give examples of "first," "second" or "third" world countries (by doing an internet search). Read the comments made by your classmates and respond to what they are saying. A place to start the comments might be: if "third world" is an offensive name, is there a better alternative? Also,here is a picture of school in a "third world" country. How is it different or similar to school in the US? You can respond to anyone's comments, whether that person is in your class period or not. Be considerate and respectful; strive to make an interesting point!

Remember, comments policy: use first name and last initial only.

LAB WORK: Working with Google Docs

Today we will be using a google product called google docs to save, store, and share our work.

All you need to start a google docs account is an email address: any email address (it need not be gmail).

If you do not have a google docs account, go here to create one.

After that, you will start a new document to work on today's assignment (link below). To get started, simply start a new document and rename it with your FirstLast and Assignment title (e.g. JamesJohnsonObamaFacts). Share it with me as a collaborator via my email address.

In this document, you will need to cite, or give credit, to your sources of information according to Turabian format, so go to Turabian citation guide and check out how to do footnotes (designated "N" on that guide) for the type of source (website, book, journal article, etc.) you used. Remember what we have discussed about legitimate internet sources: use museum, university, or government websites, not personal webpages or blogs).

Here is a basic sample of how Turabian style footnotes look for a website:
Author/Editor. "Title." Link. (accessed on date).

Here is the link to our lab assignment for today that explains more in detail what you will be doing.

Inauguration Day HW

As you know, today is a historic day: the inauguration of our country's 44th President. In class, we analyzed past inaugural speeches for themes and made predictions about Obama's inaugural address. For HW, your task is to see if your predictions were accurate and RESPOND to his speech.

First, locate the inaugural address on video or audio. A good place to start is the official inaugural website
but you may have some luck on youtube or a basic google search. On msnbc.com, they also posted the video earlier in the day.

ASSIGNMENT: After you've watched the inaugural address, post your reaction to it as a comment to this post. Be sure that I can tell who are (use first name and last initial to identify yourself) in your post. Your reaction should center around whether President Obama's speech was similar or different to what you expected and what you liked or disliked about it. Also, identify one or two themes present in the speech. Post should be 3-5 sentences.

(photo credit: vanity fair magazine)