The 1st semester Home Stretch

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Here's an over view of what will be happening in the classes for the next 4 weeks.


History: This week students will be going over the Progressive Era, Next week (12/5-8) Students will be going over American Foreign policy at the turn of the century. The week after, (12/14-17) students will be going over World War 1. The only homework should be finishing notes and vocab from class. The last week before the semester is over the Students will take a Unit test on Unit 3, 1 day of Jeopardy, and 2 days to complete the final.

Government: This week students will be finishing Unit 4. Next week (12/5-8) Students will start unit 5 with a brief 25 pt test at the end. The following week (12/14-17) Students will be preparing their finals, a presentation before a panel of judges with a question and answer section. The homework they should have is Vocab the next couple of Mondays.

Before Thanksgiving!

History: Student will be finishing Unit 2 before Thanksgiving and completing their Unit test the day before the break.

Government: Student will begin studying the institutions of government with a Quiz on Thursday.

Parent Teacher Conferences

This week I have been meeting with parents. It's been a great experience as always to discuss your children and their development. If you are the parent of a sophomore student and you haven't been able to sign up for a time please email me.

In Government the students are learning about different forms of Due Process and will have a class discussion on fundamental rights.

In History the students are researching different issues from the Gilded Age that are still issues today.

New Quarter!

I'm so excited for 2nd Quarter. There have already been grades entered for the 2nd quarter. Sophomore Parents should have received an Email with a link to signup Genius. Please choose a timeslot to meet with me and Mr. Hubbard.

Next Week:

Government: Students will be covering 3 lessons, They will have vocab Homework. Monday Night, as well as at least 20 minutes of going over their notes Tuesday and Wednesday to make sure they are prepared for the Quiz on Thursday.

History: We Are starting a Project. Below is information about it. Students will be writing a letter to a time traveler to give him advice about how to fix the problems of the Gilded Age (Hint: Most are still huge problems today). This will be a project to help the students with their informational writing as well as their research skills and citations.

 

(Entry letter)

Greetings,

I am a forlorn traveler. You may not believe this but I am coming to you from the year 1895! In my limited technological capability I was only able to send this letter to your “interwebs” in hope someone could contact me back.

My time period is great need of assistance! We in the United States of America are on the brink of great misfortune! Our water is dirty and cannot be imbibed! Our cities are filthy and crime is on the rise! Immigrants and people of different religions are mistreated by the government and businesses! African Americans are having their rights stripped away every single day! The very rich are getting richer while the regular person is getting more destitute! Politicians are corrupt and being purchased by these same wealthy interests to increase their greed! Workers are crushed beneath the yoke of these same greedy people and the government helps them!

I know in an amazing world where you can send letters through the air invisibly to one another you must have solved these great problems! Please I beg you advise the people of the Gilded Age! How did you fix these problems? Pease for our entire timeline, we need your help!

PS: For those wondering about a Paradox, your letters will effect my timeline but will have not affect on yours.

Rubric For Gilded Age Assignment!

	Exceeds Standard (20)	Meets Standard (15)	Below Standard (5)
Knowledge of the Gilded Age	Students have no errors in information and show a well rounded knowledge of the events of the Gilded Age	Students have 1 errors in their information and have limited knowledge of the events of the Gilded Age	Students have many errors in their information or their language is imprecise  or they do not have very much information about the Gilded Age
Information about today	Students have no errors in information about the issues affecting people today. There is well rounded knowledge of the events affecting people right now.	Student has 1 error in their information about today and have limited knowledge of the events of today	Student has many errors in their information, or their language is imprecise or they do not have very much information about what is happening today.
Writing Conventions	There are no errors in capitalization, punctuation, grammar, spelling, sentence structure, or citation.	There are less than 3 errors in Capitalization, punctuation, grammar, spelling, sentence structure, or citations	The letter is riddled with errors or citation is done wrong or is incomplete.
Letter Structure	The student uses an informational letter structure in their writing and adheres to it throughout.	The student has less than 2 errors in informational letter structure in their writing	It is not clear that this is a letter for the majority of the writing.
Solutions	Student includes ideas for solutions to the problem that have been proposed by scholars and explains how those solutions can work, and possible consequences.	Student includes ideas for solutions to the problem that have been proposed by others, or themselves. They have difficulty explaining why they might work.	Student does not include solutions or these solutions are not well explained.

The Schedule for the rest of the Quarter

Government

10/3	10/4	10/5	10/6
In class Prepare Flash cards for the Last quiz. Go over lesson 13 Homework: Study if you need to retake 10/11/12 Quiz	In class Prepare study materials for Lesson 13, Go over lesson 14. Homework: Retake 10/11/12 Quiz. Prepare for Class Discussion Federalists v Anti-Federalists Study for 13/14 Quiz (This should be concurrent with preparing for the discussion)	In Class Class Discussion on Federalists v Anti Federalists 13/14 Quiz Give rubric and outline for Unit 2 Test. Test will be a 2 minute or Less Speech answering one of 3 questions chosen by the students. Students will begin writing their speech. Homework: Finish Writing and preparing for their speech (No More than 20 minutes)	In class: Student will spend 30 minutes preparing their speeches after that Students will deliver their speeches. All late work must be turned in. Homework: Students will research what is on the ballot for this upcoming election. If there is anything they are extremely morally opposed to representing to the class they must Email me before 10pm on Friday (Example; Mr. Martin I strongly believe marijuana is wrong, I cannot support Question 2 before the class all other measures and candidates are fine.) I recommend for students own knowledge and character growth they risk representing something they do disagree with.
10/10	10/11	10/12	10/13
In Class: Students will be working on an in class project. Each group will be assigned either a ballot measure  or a candidate that is on our district wide ballot. Homework: They should not be working on their projects at home.	In class: students will continue to prepare their position for the in class debate. Homework: Students should not be working on projects at home	In Class: The Ballot Measure groups will debate their measures in class. Students in class will score the debate and take notes to help solidify their positions.	In Class: The Candidate groups will debate their candidates in class. Afterward the students will vote on a google form (anonymously) to decide what the winning position should be. No Homework over break.

History

10/3	10/4	10/5	10/6
In Class: Students will prepare their outline for their Unit 1 test	In class Students will write their essay for their Unit 1 test	Students will take notes on chapter 5 Homework: Students should study Chapter 5 for their Quiz	Students will take notes on Chapter 5 All late assignments must be turned in for credit. Students will take a quiz on Chapter 5
10/10	10/11	10/12	10/13
Students will take notes on chapter 6 Homework: For students that did not do well on the Chapter 5 Quiz, they should study to retake and retake the Chapter 5 Quiz.	Students will Continue studying the Industrial revolution Homework: For students that did very poorly on the Unit 1 test Extra 20pt extra credit  will be available. Students must work on this at home or in study hall.	Students will study continue studying the mechanization of the 1800s. Homework: Students can continue to finish their extra credit.	Students will take their quiz on Chapter 6 because this is the last quiz of quarter it will be on the 2nd quarter grade. All extra credit must be turned in. No Homework over Break

Project Presentations tomorrow

History

The 9th graders will be presenting their first projects tomorrow. Both classes in total will be shown from 9:45. And again at 11:15 in the hangout. They will have a test on Monday and may need to finish their study guide as homework.

Government

Students will be finishing Checks and Balances, and Separation of Powers. Next week they will finish Unit 2 and have a class discussion between Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

This Week

Government: Students are taking a test on Tuesday. It's an Essay test, students will get an outline that is similar to what we've used before in my class. They will have the first 20 minutes of class to fill out the outline and then will have the rest of class. 60 minutes, to use that outline to answer one essay question. Though they will have 3 possible questions that they were assigned today, only 2 will be chosen for the test, and of those 2 they only have to write 1 essay. So students in Government might be busy studying for their test tonight preparing for one of those essay questions.

History: Students will have been assigned their event for their project. Students are only allowed to work on projects at home if they missed time in class. Therefore no students should be working on their projects at home.

General: I've updated the blog to contain my contact email on the side, and a contact form at the bottom if you have any questions about anything. Thank you so much.

Project Update

Students in Government will get an extra day to work on their projects so that they can really perfect their final product. because of this the Debate will be on Monday instead of Friday. The students cannot work on their projects at home therefore they aren't going to be completing them over the weekend.

Projects!

Government

This week students in Government will be working on their projects so there should be no homework. The live debate will be During 1st (8am) or 4th (1pm) On Thursday.


History

Students will be finishing Unit 1 and beginning their first project. They will be filming a news report about an important event in the Civil War. Below is the Project description and timeline along with their rubric.

Students will create a news report about an event or battle relating to the Civil war. Each student will write a script, then each group will combine those scripts into one 2 minute video about the event. The students will write the script, star in the report, and direct the magic (with help from Mr. Deegan)

Each student will turn in a script/ news report relating to their event. They will receive their individual grade for the project on their script. The Group grade will be on the final video they create.

9/19	9/20	9/21	9/22
Students will make a list of events that were important to the civil war. They will narrow down the list to 10 major events	Students will choose their group’s event out of a hat. Students will begin researching the important information about their event. And writing their rough drafts	Students will critique each other's rough drafts and begin working on their final drafts of their scripts	Students will finish and turn in their script final drafts
9/26	9/27	9/28	9/29
Students in their groups will create one script for their video using their scripts to help create a final version. Student will be assigned a role	Students will  begin shooting their videos each group has 30 minutes to film their report. Once they are done they will quietly edit said video.	Final edits and shots will be done for their videos. Students will make sure their videos are in a form that can be viewed in Mr. martin’s class.	Students will show their videos to their parents, other classes, and the whole school in a viewing party during 3rd period.

Civil War News Project Rubric

	Exceeds Standard 20	Meets Standard 15	Below Standard 10
Understanding Format	Adherence to the format of a script. Script was realistic	Some adherence to the script. Script was somewhat realistic.	There was little adherence to the format or script was not realistic
Writing Conventions	No spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or grammar errors. Skillfully constructed ideas.	1-3 spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or grammar errors. Well constructed ideas.	Numerous spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar errors. Poorly constructed ideas.
Understanding of the politics of the Civil War	Student shows Understanding of both sides of the arguments and ideas that lead to war	Student shows some Understanding of both sides of the arguments and ideas that lead to war	Student had little understanding of the reasons for the Civil war.
Knowledge of the facts of the Civil War	Student shows great knowledge of the facts of their event	Student shows some knowledge of the facts of their event	There are several errors in the facts of the event.
Critical Thinking	Self Review shows honest reflection and growth. Shows the emotions, motivations controversies, historical implications, and connections to the 21st century of their event.	Self review shows some honest reflection and some growth. Shows mild understanding of emotions, motivations, controversies, implications and connections of their event.	Self review shows no reflection and little growth. Shows little understanding of emotions motivations controversies, implications or connections of their event.

Total______/100

First Projects!

So as students finish their last Quiz of their Units we will beginning the Projects that they have been working toward. The History Project is still at least 2 weeks away but in government students will begin their first project as early as Wednesday.  The only homework this week for History will be completing their vocab if they did not have time to finish it in class.

Here is the Government Project rubric and project description

What would John Locke do?

Each Group will be assigned an important philosophical influence to our constitution. In each group 1 student will be the social media manage, another will manage the philosopher’s blog, and the last will be the philosopher during a debate. Though the groups will do research together all assignments will be done individually. The student must adhere to the rubric for their section of the assignment regardless of their role.

Things to make your project better:

Try to understand the world they are from.

Take events that occurred in their time period and compare it to now

Try to take their quotes or ideas about their philosophy and compare it to now

In the blogs make sure to show your knowledge by citing where they wrote or said these ideas

In the social media try to paraphrase or translate their quotes into today’s language

Try to be this philosopher and prove they would believe the position you’re arguing.

List of Possible Philosophers

John Locke

Thomas Hobbes

Aristotle

Cicero

Cincinnatus

Thomas Paine

Plato

Descarte

Montesquieu

Calendar.

Monday 9/12	Tuesday 9/13	Wednesday 9/14	Thursday 9/15
Students in their groups will research the philosophies of their selected founder/philosopher.	Students will begin to outline and brainstorm their ideas using their knowledge of current issues from watching the presidential debates.	Students will prepare their section of the project based on the question sheet handed out.	The debate of philosophers. Social Media and Blog writers must be present to cheer on their philosopher. Parents and other students invited.

	Exceeds Standard 20	Meets Standard  10	Below Standard 5
Knowledge of Current constitutional issues	Student understands the issues that are current in our government and how they relate to the constitution	Student has some understanding of current issues and how those issues relate to the constitution	Student has little understanding of current issues and cannot connect them to the constitution
Philosophical Understanding	Students understand the philosophies behind the framing of the constitution	Students have some knowledge of the philosophies that relate to the framing of the constitution	Student has little knowledge of the philosophies that connect to the constitution
Historic Relevance	Student shows knowledge of the historic implications of their assigned philosopher	Student shows some knowledge of the historic implications of their assigned philosopher	Students has little knowledge of the history of their philosopher
Critical thinking	Students shows an accurate ability to think as their assigned philosopher	Student shows the ability to think as their assigned philosopher	Student does not show an ability to think as their assigned philosopher
Writing/Public Speaking Conventions	Student shows mastery of the standards of public speech and writing	Student adheres well to the basic standards of public speech and writing.	Student has many flaws in basic writing and speech

Total______

Google Classroom Updates

Many if not all of you should have received your email to join the google classroom updates. It will be a useful tool in keeping updated on what your student is doing in class and if they are missing work. A couple of things to remember when checking the google classroom updates.


1. If it says it's not done that means your student didn't click the button to turn it in. I may have graded it, or given them credit. For instance on a quiz, I get the scores on the "google form" that they complete, but they don't have to click done or turn it in for them to get their scores. Many students get their score and assume you will also know they completed it. This was the main concern today as many parents got a reminder that their students did not complete the chapter 1 quiz, but actually the student never marked the quiz done on the classroom.

2. Not all scores will be entered on google classroom. Most homework assignment the grades are entered as Did the assignment or didn't do the assignment. If it wasn't turned in it will be a 0 on infinite  campus or a missing. For papers, projects, and tests I will usually enter those scores on Google Classroom before they are entered on IC.

3. The due dates aren't always accurate. This hasn't been an issues yet this year but sometimes I will assign something and it will take significantly longer than I expected. If that's the case your student may appear to have a missing assignment or a late assignment when I just haven't updated the due date.

This is my first year using the guardian updates so please bear with me. I am excited for another way to keep you in the loop about your child's class.


Classes

Government:  In government students are learning about The effect of the early colonial governments and the British government had on the founding of the Constitution. There will be a quiz on Thursday. Homework:  Students should be completing their vocab On Tuesday night.

History:  Students will be learning about the beginning years of the Republic and the lead up to the Civil War. Homework: Students may need to retake their quiz if they do not like their score. The quiz is on Tuesday.

Second Week

History
In history students will be working on notetaking skills and study strategies. They took the Quiz for Chapter 1 on Monday. All students will be permitted to retake their quiz on their own time. All retakes must be completed before they take the Chapter 2 quiz though which will either be next Thursday or Monday. The only homework may be Vocabulary if we fall behind in class. Students are studying the beginning of the US as a nation.

Government
Students can retake their Lesson 1 quiz on their own time. They have until the next quiz which will be this Thursday. Students are studying the philosophy of our government and what we learned from the governments around us at the time of the writing of the Constitution. They have vocabulary homework tonight and Wednesday night.

First Week of School stuff!!

I'm so excited to have everyone back! I'm going to work extremely hard to update my blog every Monday.

General information
All students have a binder, a blue form and a green form that need to be signed. Please bring all of those forms as well as all forms in the binder to back to school night on Thursday night.

All students for my class are receiving a student teacher contract that outlines their and my responsibilities in my class. This isn't due until Monday of next week.

History
Students this week will be learning about the precolonial and colonial history of the US and what lead to the conflicts that lead to the Revolution. The only homework they may have is studying for their first quiz on Thursday.

Government
Students will be studying the original concepts of Government. They will have vocab homework at least Monday night, possible Monday and Wednesday. They will also have a Quiz, quizzes are Thursday every week.

Back to School

I am extremely excited to get back to school this year. Thank you again for allowing me to teach your students.

For those that don't know me I will be doing my entire class on Google Classroom. Because of this sometimes I forget to update my blog because everything from Questions of the day to the tests and assignments are on the google classroom. I will update my blog much much more often this year.

as always I am easy to contact. Any questions or concern please email me at wmartin@oasisacademyfallon.us.

Summer reading was and is still completely voluntary and was for a quarter 1 extra credit assignment.

If your student is We The People tell them to email me and I will send them the Google Classroom sign up. The groups have been made and they currently have been assigned their units for the competition.

I have a question for parents. What concepts and ideas do you want to make sure your students learn in Social Studies this year? What ideas should we focus on the most? I will do everything in my power to make sure students learn all of the standards this year just like last year. Thank you so much for a great year last year and for a better year to come.

World War 2 Children's Books

The Freshman class are preparing children's books for the 4th and 5th graders for their project on World War 2. With World War 2 veterans leaving us everyday I thought it would be an important message to pass on to the younger generation. The students watched Oral history interviews with veterans to research the war, then did outside research and are now preparing children's books. They will make a rough draft and then a final draft and read them as part of their grade. Each student will receive and individual project grade based on the rubric. If you have any questions please let me know.

Criminal Justice Research Paper

The students in Government will be writing a 10 pg research paper. We will be breaking it up into steps. Right now the students are on the first step. Research. Starting today they will begin the next step, organizing and presenting their findings. Here is the assignment for that:

1. Students will choose the 3 topics they were most interested in researching.
2. Students will create an outline for their speech with this structure:
a. Hook or Quote
b. Thesis
c. Road map or over view
d. Explanation of research on 1st topic and findings
e. Explanation of research on 2nd topic and findings
f. Explanation of research on 3rd topic and findings
g. Summation of all research and any connective thread and ideas.

3. Take the information from the Outline and create a presentation.
4. Give a presentation to the class adhering to the rubric.

After this step the students will collect more scholarly research on their topic and critique eachothers research so every students has 7 great sources.

The next step will be outlining, then 1st draft, then 2nd draft. All will be peer reviewed and edited before they will turn in a final draft to me. I believe this process will help the students to understand the writing process and prepare them for college next year. If you have any questions or comments please let me know.