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