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______