Hi Seniors!
I would like to meet with you this week to give you details about our trip.
Please come to room 027 during Advisory on Wednesday or Friday of this week.
I will have a letter for you and I'll answer questions you might have. Please tell others about this as well.
Ms. Grady
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Summer Reading List for incoming 11th graders
Please choose 3 of the following to read and be prepared to take a test on them. They can be found at your neighborhood branch of the Boston Public Library. Go to amazon.com for reviews, page #'s, author information, etc. to help you make your choices.
The House of the Spirits - Allende
The Farming of Bones- Danticat
Pride and Prejudice - Austen
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
The Hound of the Baskervilles -Doyle
An optional program that will help you improve your reading skills over the summer is Scholastic's Summer Reading Buzz at www.scholastic.com/buzz. This is a place to connect with other readers, answer questions and a sweepstakes with prizes like a trip to Walt Disney World.
The House of the Spirits - Allende
The Farming of Bones- Danticat
Pride and Prejudice - Austen
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
The Hound of the Baskervilles -Doyle
An optional program that will help you improve your reading skills over the summer is Scholastic's Summer Reading Buzz at www.scholastic.com/buzz. This is a place to connect with other readers, answer questions and a sweepstakes with prizes like a trip to Walt Disney World.
Immigration during the 19th century: One Nation chapter 32
Immigrants in the United States during the 19th century
Identify the following terms:
Immigrant
Tenement
Assimilate
Chinese exclusion acts
Stereotype
True/False explain
Most of the new immigrants to the US after 1885 came from England.
Many Jews fled to the US in the 1880’s as a result of pogroms.
Most of the immigrants on the West Coast came from China and Korea.
Most of the Chinese immigrants in the second half of the 1800’s worked as laborers and factory workers.
Most Latino immigrants planned to remain in the US permanently.
Describe life in a European immigrant neighborhood in a big US city (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc.).
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Local News
Please read one of the news articles about the Pirate radio station or the rate of STD's among young women in Boston and answer the questions that follow. Then post a comment with your opinion.
http://www.dotnews.com/radiorebels.html
Pirate radio:
1. Why was there no music playing at 6:05 am on the Tuesday mentioned in the article?
2. Why is the station called "the voice of Black Boston"?
3. What was the Man Up Gang-Truce Rally?
4. How many people listen to the station online, on average, each day?
5. What is a "pirate" station?
6. How might the Prometheus Radio Project help TOUCH FM?
STD epidemic questions
1. What are the rates of STD's for general population of teen girls in the US? What are the rates of STD's for African American teen girls in the US?
2. What do doctors and nurses say about this epidemic?
3. What are possible reasons for the racial disparities?
4. How does shame affect young women's access to health care?
5. Why is an STD vaccination not mandatory?
6. What is your opinion of what should be done to solve this problem? Explain your answer.
http://www.dotnews.com/radiorebels.html
Pirate radio:
1. Why was there no music playing at 6:05 am on the Tuesday mentioned in the article?
2. Why is the station called "the voice of Black Boston"?
3. What was the Man Up Gang-Truce Rally?
4. How many people listen to the station online, on average, each day?
5. What is a "pirate" station?
6. How might the Prometheus Radio Project help TOUCH FM?
STD epidemic questions
1. What are the rates of STD's for general population of teen girls in the US? What are the rates of STD's for African American teen girls in the US?
2. What do doctors and nurses say about this epidemic?
3. What are possible reasons for the racial disparities?
4. How does shame affect young women's access to health care?
5. Why is an STD vaccination not mandatory?
6. What is your opinion of what should be done to solve this problem? Explain your answer.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
US-Mexico War
Please go to this site for today's lesson http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/educators/gold_rush_miners_tax.html
For credit, you must write in the comments section your responses to today's readings. Please have an adult check your comments before you post!
Or write about the 14th Amendment using this website:
Or compare Athens to Sparta:
Monday, May 19, 2008
The 3rd World Writing Contest
Please see me if you are interested in submitting an essay to this contest. The instructions can be found at this site:
Good luck!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Civil War
Please research the Union's strategy at the beginning of the Civil War and answer the questions.
The strategy is at this website: http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/classroom/lesson_grand_strategy.html
• More than three million men fought in the war.• Two percent of the population—more than 620,000—died in it.• In two days at Shiloh on the banks of the Tennessee River, more Americans fell than in all previous American wars combined.• During the Battle of Antietam, 12,401 Union men were killed, missing or wounded; double the casualties of D-Day, 82 years later. With a total of 23,000 casualties on both sides, it was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.• At Cold Harbor, Va., 7,000 Americans fell in 20 minutes.• Senator John J. Crittendon of Kentucky had two sons who became major generals during the Civil War: one for the North, one for the South.• Ulysses S. Grant was not fond of ceremonies or military music. He said he could only recognize two tunes. "One was Yankee Doodle," he grumbled. "The other one wasn’t."• Missouri sent 39 regiments to fight in the siege of Vicksburg: 17 to the Confederacy and 22 to the Union.• During the Battle of Antietam, Clara Barton tended the wounded so close to the fighting that a bullet went through her sleeve and killed a man she was treating.• At the start of the war, the value of all manufactured goods produced in all the Confederate states added up to less than one-fourth of those produced in New York State alone.• In March 1862, European powers watched in worried fascination as the Monitor and Merrimack battled off Hampton Roads, Va. From then on, after these ironclads opened fire, every other navy on earth was obsolete.• In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized the first paper currency, called "greenbacks."• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., future chief Justice, was wounded three times during the Civil War: in the chest at Ball’s Bluff, in the back at Antietam and in the heel at Chancellorsville.• Confederate Private Henry Stanley fought for the Sixth Arkansas, and was captured at Shiloh, but survived to go to Africa to find Dr. Livingston.• George Pickett’s doomed infantry charge at Gettysburg was the first time he took his division into combat.• On July 4, 1863, after 48 days of siege, Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg to the Union’s General, Ulysses S. Grant. The Fourth of July was not be celebrated in Vicksburg for another 81 years.• Disease was the chief killer during the war, taking two men for every one who died of battle wounds.• North and South, potential recruits were offered awards, or "bounties," for enlisting, as much as $677 in New York. Bounty jumping soon became a profession, as men signed up, then deserted, to enlist again elsewhere. One man repeated the process 32 times before being caught.• African Americans constituted less than one percent of the northern population, yet by the war’s end made up ten percent of the Union Army. A total of 180,000 black men, more than 85% of those eligible, enlisted.• In November 1863, President Lincoln was invited to offer a "few appropriate remarks" at the opening of a new Union cemetery at Gettysburg. The main speaker, a celebrated orator from Massachusetts, spoke for nearly two hours. Lincoln offered just 269 words in his Gettysburg Address.• Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest had 30 horses shot from under him and personally killed 31 men in hand-to-hand combat. "I was a horse ahead at the end," he said.• The words "In God We Trust" first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864.• In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General, a rank previously held by General George Washington, and led the 533,000 men of the Union Army, the largest in the world. Three years later, he was made President of the United States.• Andersonville Prison in southwest Georgia held 33,000 prisoners in 1864. It was the fifth largest city in the Confederacy.•By the end of the war, Unionists from every state except South Carolina had sent regiments to fight for the North.• On November 9, 1863, President Lincoln attended a theater in Washington, D.C., to see "The Marble Heart." An accomplished actor, John Wilkes Booth, was in the cast.• On March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term. Yards away in the crowd was John Wilkes Booth with a pistol in his pocket. His vantage point on the balcony, he said later, offered him "an excellent chance to kill the President, if I had wished."• On May 13, 1865, a month after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana became the last man killed in the Civil War, in a battle at Palmito Ranch, Texas. The final skirmish was a Confederate victory.• Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first black man ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He filled the seat last held by Jefferson Davis.
The strategy is at this website: http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/classroom/lesson_grand_strategy.html
• More than three million men fought in the war.• Two percent of the population—more than 620,000—died in it.• In two days at Shiloh on the banks of the Tennessee River, more Americans fell than in all previous American wars combined.• During the Battle of Antietam, 12,401 Union men were killed, missing or wounded; double the casualties of D-Day, 82 years later. With a total of 23,000 casualties on both sides, it was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.• At Cold Harbor, Va., 7,000 Americans fell in 20 minutes.• Senator John J. Crittendon of Kentucky had two sons who became major generals during the Civil War: one for the North, one for the South.• Ulysses S. Grant was not fond of ceremonies or military music. He said he could only recognize two tunes. "One was Yankee Doodle," he grumbled. "The other one wasn’t."• Missouri sent 39 regiments to fight in the siege of Vicksburg: 17 to the Confederacy and 22 to the Union.• During the Battle of Antietam, Clara Barton tended the wounded so close to the fighting that a bullet went through her sleeve and killed a man she was treating.• At the start of the war, the value of all manufactured goods produced in all the Confederate states added up to less than one-fourth of those produced in New York State alone.• In March 1862, European powers watched in worried fascination as the Monitor and Merrimack battled off Hampton Roads, Va. From then on, after these ironclads opened fire, every other navy on earth was obsolete.• In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized the first paper currency, called "greenbacks."• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., future chief Justice, was wounded three times during the Civil War: in the chest at Ball’s Bluff, in the back at Antietam and in the heel at Chancellorsville.• Confederate Private Henry Stanley fought for the Sixth Arkansas, and was captured at Shiloh, but survived to go to Africa to find Dr. Livingston.• George Pickett’s doomed infantry charge at Gettysburg was the first time he took his division into combat.• On July 4, 1863, after 48 days of siege, Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg to the Union’s General, Ulysses S. Grant. The Fourth of July was not be celebrated in Vicksburg for another 81 years.• Disease was the chief killer during the war, taking two men for every one who died of battle wounds.• North and South, potential recruits were offered awards, or "bounties," for enlisting, as much as $677 in New York. Bounty jumping soon became a profession, as men signed up, then deserted, to enlist again elsewhere. One man repeated the process 32 times before being caught.• African Americans constituted less than one percent of the northern population, yet by the war’s end made up ten percent of the Union Army. A total of 180,000 black men, more than 85% of those eligible, enlisted.• In November 1863, President Lincoln was invited to offer a "few appropriate remarks" at the opening of a new Union cemetery at Gettysburg. The main speaker, a celebrated orator from Massachusetts, spoke for nearly two hours. Lincoln offered just 269 words in his Gettysburg Address.• Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest had 30 horses shot from under him and personally killed 31 men in hand-to-hand combat. "I was a horse ahead at the end," he said.• The words "In God We Trust" first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864.• In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General, a rank previously held by General George Washington, and led the 533,000 men of the Union Army, the largest in the world. Three years later, he was made President of the United States.• Andersonville Prison in southwest Georgia held 33,000 prisoners in 1864. It was the fifth largest city in the Confederacy.•By the end of the war, Unionists from every state except South Carolina had sent regiments to fight for the North.• On November 9, 1863, President Lincoln attended a theater in Washington, D.C., to see "The Marble Heart." An accomplished actor, John Wilkes Booth, was in the cast.• On March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term. Yards away in the crowd was John Wilkes Booth with a pistol in his pocket. His vantage point on the balcony, he said later, offered him "an excellent chance to kill the President, if I had wished."• On May 13, 1865, a month after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana became the last man killed in the Civil War, in a battle at Palmito Ranch, Texas. The final skirmish was a Confederate victory.• Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first black man ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He filled the seat last held by Jefferson Davis.
Annotated Bibliography assignment
Annotated Bibliographies
Please write an annotated bibliography that will equal 50% of your total grade for the Symposium. You must have a minimum of 5 sources and at least 2 sources must be from print texts which can be reference books, works of literature, etc. The annotations are to be 1 paragraph in length.
Definitions
A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic.
An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation.
Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources.
Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say?
Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is it this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?
Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?
Why should I write an annotated bibliography?
To learn about your topic: Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. Just collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you're forced to read each source more carefully. You begin to read more critically instead of just collecting information.
Format
The bibliographic information: Generally, though, the bibliographic information of the source (the title, author, publisher, date, etc.) is written MLA format. For more help with formatting, see OWL's MLA handout at this location: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource.
The annotations: The annotations for each source are written in paragraph form.
Good research websites: http://perso.univ-lyon2.fr/ and http://library.thinkquest.org/ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-52739/vietnam http://www.fordham.edu/halsal/mod/modsbooks.html#india , http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu29me/uu29me03.htm
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Colonialism & Independence Symposium
This month, you will work in a group on a country selected from the list to analyze nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the movements that helped colonies become independent. You will share what you learn with your classmates in an academic "symposium" (a large meeting about a specific subject) about colonialism and independence. The Symposium will take place on May 29th.
The countries you may choose from are:
Each group will have to research the following questions about its chosen country and provide answers in your presentation at the Symposium:
1. How & when was country colonized? By whom? Why?
2. How was the country governed as a colony? Direct/indirect rule? Did the colonizers have indigenous collaborators? What was the impact of colonialism on the indigenous cultures and the environment of the colony? How did the native people resist colonial rule?
3. How and when did the country become independent? Was it a violent uprising, a peaceful process, or a combination? Who were the main figures in the independence movement?
4. How has the country fared since independence? Who have been the main leaders in the post-colonial era? What organizations or political parties have been influential? How do the leading economic indicators regarding health, education, the economy, sanitation, and political rights compare to other countries? What are the main successes and challenges in the country today? What are the lasting legacies of colonialism?
Helpful websites for current statistics: http://who.int, http://un.org
The countries you may choose from are:
- South Africa
- Argentina
- Dominican Republic
- Vietnam
- India
Each group will have to research the following questions about its chosen country and provide answers in your presentation at the Symposium:
1. How & when was country colonized? By whom? Why?
2. How was the country governed as a colony? Direct/indirect rule? Did the colonizers have indigenous collaborators? What was the impact of colonialism on the indigenous cultures and the environment of the colony? How did the native people resist colonial rule?
3. How and when did the country become independent? Was it a violent uprising, a peaceful process, or a combination? Who were the main figures in the independence movement?
4. How has the country fared since independence? Who have been the main leaders in the post-colonial era? What organizations or political parties have been influential? How do the leading economic indicators regarding health, education, the economy, sanitation, and political rights compare to other countries? What are the main successes and challenges in the country today? What are the lasting legacies of colonialism?
Helpful websites for current statistics: http://who.int, http://un.org
Global Symposium in 9 Steps
Steps Due Dates
Step 1: Picking & Choosing May 6th & 7th
Form a group of 3 or 4 classmates. Choose a country to investigate from the list of possible topics. Decide who will lead which sections of the team's presentation. Divide the primary and secondary sources each of you will read in class and at home.
Step 2: Become informed May 6th & 7th
Read the primary and secondary sources in class and at home. Look for information about your presentation topic and information that will be useful for presentations. Mark up your sources. Take notes. Ask questions.
Step 3 Compile notes and annotated bibliography May 16th
After Ms.Grady has approved your sources, write the first draft of your answers to the questions in your section and your annotated bibliography.
Step 4 Revise notes and complete annotated bibliography May 23rd
Review the feedback from Ms.Grady. Revise the rough draft of notes. Type your notes. Revise the annotated bibliography. Turn in notes and annotated bibliography.
Step 5 What is the story? May 19th
Figure out a way to tell your country's story that will be interesting to your audience. Do not kill us with boredom. Choose interesting images, graphs, short audio/video clips that will enhance your presentation (without becoming your presentation). Prepare your powerpoint if you plan to use one. Email notes to Ms.Grady
Step 6 Meet with Ms.Grady May 23rd
Discuss your ideas for your presentation. Let me know if you are stuck or are having issues within the group. Let me know about A/V equipment you will need.
Step 7 Practice May 23rd
Practice the presentation. Give your team members constructive criticism about how their sections can improve and praise what is good. Practice enunciation, projection and eye contact. Ask yourselves: Does this story make sense? Is it interesting? Have we answered questions thoroughly? Do we have evidence to back up what we are saying?
Step 8 Present! May 27th
Step 9 Reflection May 30th
Reflect on your work and your classmates. Write about the bumps along the way and how you and the group handled them. What did you learn from the group and the presentation about colonialism and independence that surprised you? What do you want to know more about? What could your team have done differently/better? Fill out the group and self assessment rubrics and give them to Ms. Grady.
Step 1: Picking & Choosing May 6th & 7th
Form a group of 3 or 4 classmates. Choose a country to investigate from the list of possible topics. Decide who will lead which sections of the team's presentation. Divide the primary and secondary sources each of you will read in class and at home.
Step 2: Become informed May 6th & 7th
Read the primary and secondary sources in class and at home. Look for information about your presentation topic and information that will be useful for presentations. Mark up your sources. Take notes. Ask questions.
Step 3 Compile notes and annotated bibliography May 16th
After Ms.Grady has approved your sources, write the first draft of your answers to the questions in your section and your annotated bibliography.
Step 4 Revise notes and complete annotated bibliography May 23rd
Review the feedback from Ms.Grady. Revise the rough draft of notes. Type your notes. Revise the annotated bibliography. Turn in notes and annotated bibliography.
Step 5 What is the story? May 19th
Figure out a way to tell your country's story that will be interesting to your audience. Do not kill us with boredom. Choose interesting images, graphs, short audio/video clips that will enhance your presentation (without becoming your presentation). Prepare your powerpoint if you plan to use one. Email notes to Ms.Grady
Step 6 Meet with Ms.Grady May 23rd
Discuss your ideas for your presentation. Let me know if you are stuck or are having issues within the group. Let me know about A/V equipment you will need.
Step 7 Practice May 23rd
Practice the presentation. Give your team members constructive criticism about how their sections can improve and praise what is good. Practice enunciation, projection and eye contact. Ask yourselves: Does this story make sense? Is it interesting? Have we answered questions thoroughly? Do we have evidence to back up what we are saying?
Step 8 Present! May 27th
Step 9 Reflection May 30th
Reflect on your work and your classmates. Write about the bumps along the way and how you and the group handled them. What did you learn from the group and the presentation about colonialism and independence that surprised you? What do you want to know more about? What could your team have done differently/better? Fill out the group and self assessment rubrics and give them to Ms. Grady.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Harriet Jacobs photographs
Please analyze the Harriet Jacobs photographs on this website http://xroads.virginia.edu. Use this format to analyze the pictures.
- Describe exactly what you see in the photo.
- What people and objects are shown?
- How are they arranged?
- What is the physical setting?
- What other details can you see?
- Summarize what you already know about Harriet Jacobs. State what you know about the people and objects that appear.
- What conclusions can you make about slavery?
Then analyze the memory project interview and write the following:
- Title and source of the document
- Who's speaking in the document? What can you tell about the speaker?
- What information do you draw about children in the Civil War?
- Is the information credible? Why or why not?
- What questions does this document raise?
College Essay II
Here are some tips on what colleges are interested in:
- your goals
- how prepared you are for the future
- how you interact with different types of people
- what you have to offer the college as a person and a student
- your extra-curricular activities in and out of school
- if you are a master at something
- if you have entrepreneurial spirit
- that you know how to tell a story that is your story
revised from Jim Burke's English Teacher's Companion
Global and National Issues
These are some current topics that might give you ideas for your personal statement. Please research the subject matter by reading a recent news article in the Boston Globe or New York Times. Then write a response in the comments section.
For any current events topic, please consider both sides of the issue and take a position. Use evidence and accurate details in your analysis.
For any current events topic, please consider both sides of the issue and take a position. Use evidence and accurate details in your analysis.
- The state of Texas's Child Protective Services intervention with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints religious sect. Children have been removed from their mothers and are now in foster care and shelters.
- Whale watching boats exceed the speed limit and cause harm to whales.
- Police want to search teenagers' homes to confiscate guns.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
John Brown: Martyr or Madman?
Please go to wikipedia http://wikipedia.com and search John Brown, abolitionist. Read the biographical information about him and answer the following questions. This will prepare us for a trial where we will defend or prosecute Mr. Brown.
1. How did John Brown die?
2. For what cause did John Brown fight?
3. What was the Pottawatomie Massacre?
4. What happened in Harpers Ferry, Virginia?
5. What are the lyrics to "John Brown's Body" (Battle Hymn of the Republic)?
In your opinion, was John Brown a hero or a terrorist? Please explain your position in order to prepare for the trial tomorrow.
1. How did John Brown die?
2. For what cause did John Brown fight?
3. What was the Pottawatomie Massacre?
4. What happened in Harpers Ferry, Virginia?
5. What are the lyrics to "John Brown's Body" (Battle Hymn of the Republic)?
In your opinion, was John Brown a hero or a terrorist? Please explain your position in order to prepare for the trial tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Apologizing for Slavery
Assignment: Please read this article and then the editorial that was written in response to it.
Respond to the editorial by answering this question: Which of the reparations do you think might be most meaningful to descendents of slaves? Do you have any other ideas for the Governor of Florida?
LEGISLATURE
Florida offers formal slavery apology
Recounting the 'shameful' ills of Florida's slave past, the state Legislature apologized for slavery, but stopped short of calling for reparations.
Posted on Thu, Mar. 27, 2008
BY MARC CAPUTO
PHIL COAL/AP
Sen. Tony Hill of Jacksonville, rear, and Senate President Ken Pruitt embrace Wednesday in Tallahassee.
TALLAHASSEE -- The Legislature issued an apology Wednesday for the state's ''shameful'' history in enslaving black people and passing laws that called for savage lashings and even the nailing of their ears to posts for crimes like burglary.
''The Legislature expresses its profound regret for Florida's role in sanctioning and perpetuating involuntary servitude upon generations of African slaves,'' said the resolution, sponsored by black lawmakers.
Democratic Sens. Larcenia Bullard of Miami and Arthenia Joyner of Tampa sobbed during the reading of the resolution and the recounting of the slave codes passed by the Territorial Council in 1822 and struck down in 1868 -- three years after the Civil War ended.
''I knew the facts, but to hear it put in those terms, I just fell apart,'' Joyner said. Said Bullard: ``I felt a pain that wouldn't go away.''
After the measure passed on a voice vote without opposition in the Senate, where President Ken Pruitt wanted no discussion or recorded vote, the House did the same. House Speaker Marco Rubio thanked both Pruitt and the black caucus for bringing up the resolution.
The measure stops short of calling for reparations for descendants of slaves, though Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said after the vote that he was open to the idea ``if we can determine descendancy, certainly.''
Crist, who attended the floor vote, said, ``Florida is sorry for the past transgressions and unfair treatment and in some cases just gross inequity as it exists toward members of the African-American community.''
Are there still inequities today, considering that about half the state's prison population of 96,000 is black, while only about 16 percent of the state's total population is black?
''That's hard to determine. You have to analyze these on a case-by-case basis,'' Crist said. ``Whether or not there have been injustices in a case based upon race must be determined by the facts of that case.''
Rep. Joseph Gibbons, a Pembroke Park Democrat, said the incarceration rate ``is a vestige of slavery . . . When you don't have opportunities, you turn to other things . . . you get frustrated and don't want to participate in the system.''
He said fellow black lawmakers ''aren't going to fall into that trap'' about reparations because the resolution wasn't ``about people wanting to get paid.''
Legislators in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia have recently issued formal apologies for slavery, and New Jersey became the first northern state to apologize in January, according to The Associated Press.
The curator of Florida's historic Capitol, former state house clerk John Phelps, read legislators a history of the slave codes in Florida and listed statistics showing the importance and brutality of the slavery in the state.
Phelps said that, according to an 1855 Senate journal, the state had nearly 111,000 residents, 44 percent black. And of Florida's $49 million in property value at the time, 55 percent was in slaves.
Phelps singled out a letter written by Gov. Richard Keith Call to a Northerner in the hopes of explaining the Southern mindset over slavery to avert the Civil War.
Of blacks, Call wrote: ``Here was an animal, in the form of a man, possessing the greatest physical power and the greatest capacity for labor and endurance. . . . A wild barbarian, to be tamed and civilized by the discipline of slavery.''
Call was a personal aide to future President Andrew Jackson when the general launched the Seminole Wars and made Florida a territory, in part to ensure that slaves escaping from Georgia had no safe haven to the south.
Phelps ticked off the various lashings -- 39 in some cases and a lethal 100 in others -- that slaves would suffer for being accused of robbery, burglary or for simply walking around with a pass from his or her white master. Those convicted of rebellion were executed. Seven slaves together without a white person couldn't travel public roads. Slaves who gave false testimony could have their ears nailed to posts and were whipped publicly.
Jacksonville Sen. Jim King, a Republican and past Senate president, said he didn't know about the specific horrorsand supported the resolution. But he acknowledged that some lawmakers might be uncomfortable with the resolution because it could lead other groups to push for reparations.
''What about the American Indians? They were killed and shoved into a corner of places like Oklahoma,'' King said. ``What about the treatment of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II?''
For many, the resolution is ''too little, too late. But it's better than not recognizing at all that black slaves built Florida,'' said Marvin Dunn, retired psychology professor and researcher of black history in Florida.
Dunn said the state ''wouldn't dare'' approve reparations that would put dollars into black residents' bank accounts. Such a move would be unwieldy and unrealistic, he said.
Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida NAACP, said she embraced the resolution as a step that needed to be taken.
''Those who suffered are not here to hear the words,'' she said. But ``the descendants of those who were enslaved deserve to hear the words uttered that it did exist.''
Miami Herald staff writer Andrea Robinson contributed to this report.
Posted on Sun, Apr. 06, 2008
Make the apology meaningful
By MARVIN DUNN
At last, Florida apologized for the enslavement of African Americans within its borders. My grandmother's father was a slave in Gadsden County; so, why don't I feel better?
Maybe it's because the apology is a meaningless act that only a dolt or outright racist would oppose. It cost the state nothing and of course, there was not a word about the thorny question of reparations. As one of the African Americans to whom the apology was aimed, it was not enough. Frankly, I would love to get a reparations check but how is the state to determine who gets paid and who does not? The complexity of the issue is sufficient grounds for the state to recoil at the very thought of reparations. Beyond the messiness of it, any white legislator who voted for reparations would be road kill back at home. Florida whites today are unwilling to pay for the sins of their fathers, especially since they may not even have been the sins of their fathers, given that so many whites have migrated to Florida from some place else.
In light of these obstacles, not to mention the cost of reparations, what Florida and other states of the Old South should be considering is how to pay reparations to African Americans as a whole, rather than to individuals. Gov. Charlie Crist says he is open to reasonable ideas regarding reparations. Here are some suggestions:
• First, help us to find out about our slave ancestry in Florida. Since the state and the various counties have detailed records of who was owned by whom those records should be digitized and made available to anyone who wishes to research his or her ancestral history in Florida during the time of slavery. These records exist in great detail in tax records, wills, estate records, probate court records, etc. In order to accomplish this, the state should fund a permanent position for an archivist at Florida A&M University whose sole duty would be to digitize and make those records available to the public.
• Second, Florida should erect a monument in Tallahassee commemorating and honoring enslaved African Americans who contributed, albeit under the whip, mightily to the early growth of the state. Most people in the state may prefer to bury slavery rather than memorialize it but monuments are erected to many horrible things including the Holocaust, wars and epidemics. Why not to slavery?
• Third, Florida should ensure that this uncomfortable past of its history is not lost nor the contributions of those who suffered under it forgotten. The state should sponsor the making of a broadcast-quality documentary film such as those done by noted documentary filmmaker Ken Burns on the history of slavery in the state. The film in DVD form should be placed in every public school in Florida.
• Finally, education is the great equalizer. Given that it was illegal in Florida to teach slaves to read, 1,000 fully-paid college scholarships to Florida colleges and universities should be made available each year to African-American students who can establish that their ancestry was enslaved in Florida. Those students would be required to meet the same admissions criteria as other applicants.
We African Americans have some emotional work to do, too. Bury the anger. Don't hold whites who had nothing to do with slavery responsible for happened to our ancestors. I know the counter argument, ''They may not have owned slaves but they are the direct beneficiaries of those who did.'' True, but to quote Vice-President Dick Cheney: ''So?'' Meaning, what are they to do about that? Change color? The open wound on Florida's soul that was slavery can never be excised by any means other than exposure to the clear light of day. The apology provides a whiff of fresh air but like most deep infections, true healing requires a continuous breeze.
Marvin Dunn is the former chair of the psychology department at Florida International University.
© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
Respond to the editorial by answering this question: Which of the reparations do you think might be most meaningful to descendents of slaves? Do you have any other ideas for the Governor of Florida?
LEGISLATURE
Florida offers formal slavery apology
Recounting the 'shameful' ills of Florida's slave past, the state Legislature apologized for slavery, but stopped short of calling for reparations.
Posted on Thu, Mar. 27, 2008
BY MARC CAPUTO
PHIL COAL/AP
Sen. Tony Hill of Jacksonville, rear, and Senate President Ken Pruitt embrace Wednesday in Tallahassee.
TALLAHASSEE -- The Legislature issued an apology Wednesday for the state's ''shameful'' history in enslaving black people and passing laws that called for savage lashings and even the nailing of their ears to posts for crimes like burglary.
''The Legislature expresses its profound regret for Florida's role in sanctioning and perpetuating involuntary servitude upon generations of African slaves,'' said the resolution, sponsored by black lawmakers.
Democratic Sens. Larcenia Bullard of Miami and Arthenia Joyner of Tampa sobbed during the reading of the resolution and the recounting of the slave codes passed by the Territorial Council in 1822 and struck down in 1868 -- three years after the Civil War ended.
''I knew the facts, but to hear it put in those terms, I just fell apart,'' Joyner said. Said Bullard: ``I felt a pain that wouldn't go away.''
After the measure passed on a voice vote without opposition in the Senate, where President Ken Pruitt wanted no discussion or recorded vote, the House did the same. House Speaker Marco Rubio thanked both Pruitt and the black caucus for bringing up the resolution.
The measure stops short of calling for reparations for descendants of slaves, though Republican Gov. Charlie Crist said after the vote that he was open to the idea ``if we can determine descendancy, certainly.''
Crist, who attended the floor vote, said, ``Florida is sorry for the past transgressions and unfair treatment and in some cases just gross inequity as it exists toward members of the African-American community.''
Are there still inequities today, considering that about half the state's prison population of 96,000 is black, while only about 16 percent of the state's total population is black?
''That's hard to determine. You have to analyze these on a case-by-case basis,'' Crist said. ``Whether or not there have been injustices in a case based upon race must be determined by the facts of that case.''
Rep. Joseph Gibbons, a Pembroke Park Democrat, said the incarceration rate ``is a vestige of slavery . . . When you don't have opportunities, you turn to other things . . . you get frustrated and don't want to participate in the system.''
He said fellow black lawmakers ''aren't going to fall into that trap'' about reparations because the resolution wasn't ``about people wanting to get paid.''
Legislators in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia have recently issued formal apologies for slavery, and New Jersey became the first northern state to apologize in January, according to The Associated Press.
The curator of Florida's historic Capitol, former state house clerk John Phelps, read legislators a history of the slave codes in Florida and listed statistics showing the importance and brutality of the slavery in the state.
Phelps said that, according to an 1855 Senate journal, the state had nearly 111,000 residents, 44 percent black. And of Florida's $49 million in property value at the time, 55 percent was in slaves.
Phelps singled out a letter written by Gov. Richard Keith Call to a Northerner in the hopes of explaining the Southern mindset over slavery to avert the Civil War.
Of blacks, Call wrote: ``Here was an animal, in the form of a man, possessing the greatest physical power and the greatest capacity for labor and endurance. . . . A wild barbarian, to be tamed and civilized by the discipline of slavery.''
Call was a personal aide to future President Andrew Jackson when the general launched the Seminole Wars and made Florida a territory, in part to ensure that slaves escaping from Georgia had no safe haven to the south.
Phelps ticked off the various lashings -- 39 in some cases and a lethal 100 in others -- that slaves would suffer for being accused of robbery, burglary or for simply walking around with a pass from his or her white master. Those convicted of rebellion were executed. Seven slaves together without a white person couldn't travel public roads. Slaves who gave false testimony could have their ears nailed to posts and were whipped publicly.
Jacksonville Sen. Jim King, a Republican and past Senate president, said he didn't know about the specific horrorsand supported the resolution. But he acknowledged that some lawmakers might be uncomfortable with the resolution because it could lead other groups to push for reparations.
''What about the American Indians? They were killed and shoved into a corner of places like Oklahoma,'' King said. ``What about the treatment of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II?''
For many, the resolution is ''too little, too late. But it's better than not recognizing at all that black slaves built Florida,'' said Marvin Dunn, retired psychology professor and researcher of black history in Florida.
Dunn said the state ''wouldn't dare'' approve reparations that would put dollars into black residents' bank accounts. Such a move would be unwieldy and unrealistic, he said.
Adora Obi Nweze, president of the Florida NAACP, said she embraced the resolution as a step that needed to be taken.
''Those who suffered are not here to hear the words,'' she said. But ``the descendants of those who were enslaved deserve to hear the words uttered that it did exist.''
Miami Herald staff writer Andrea Robinson contributed to this report.
Posted on Sun, Apr. 06, 2008
Make the apology meaningful
By MARVIN DUNN
At last, Florida apologized for the enslavement of African Americans within its borders. My grandmother's father was a slave in Gadsden County; so, why don't I feel better?
Maybe it's because the apology is a meaningless act that only a dolt or outright racist would oppose. It cost the state nothing and of course, there was not a word about the thorny question of reparations. As one of the African Americans to whom the apology was aimed, it was not enough. Frankly, I would love to get a reparations check but how is the state to determine who gets paid and who does not? The complexity of the issue is sufficient grounds for the state to recoil at the very thought of reparations. Beyond the messiness of it, any white legislator who voted for reparations would be road kill back at home. Florida whites today are unwilling to pay for the sins of their fathers, especially since they may not even have been the sins of their fathers, given that so many whites have migrated to Florida from some place else.
In light of these obstacles, not to mention the cost of reparations, what Florida and other states of the Old South should be considering is how to pay reparations to African Americans as a whole, rather than to individuals. Gov. Charlie Crist says he is open to reasonable ideas regarding reparations. Here are some suggestions:
• First, help us to find out about our slave ancestry in Florida. Since the state and the various counties have detailed records of who was owned by whom those records should be digitized and made available to anyone who wishes to research his or her ancestral history in Florida during the time of slavery. These records exist in great detail in tax records, wills, estate records, probate court records, etc. In order to accomplish this, the state should fund a permanent position for an archivist at Florida A&M University whose sole duty would be to digitize and make those records available to the public.
• Second, Florida should erect a monument in Tallahassee commemorating and honoring enslaved African Americans who contributed, albeit under the whip, mightily to the early growth of the state. Most people in the state may prefer to bury slavery rather than memorialize it but monuments are erected to many horrible things including the Holocaust, wars and epidemics. Why not to slavery?
• Third, Florida should ensure that this uncomfortable past of its history is not lost nor the contributions of those who suffered under it forgotten. The state should sponsor the making of a broadcast-quality documentary film such as those done by noted documentary filmmaker Ken Burns on the history of slavery in the state. The film in DVD form should be placed in every public school in Florida.
• Finally, education is the great equalizer. Given that it was illegal in Florida to teach slaves to read, 1,000 fully-paid college scholarships to Florida colleges and universities should be made available each year to African-American students who can establish that their ancestry was enslaved in Florida. Those students would be required to meet the same admissions criteria as other applicants.
We African Americans have some emotional work to do, too. Bury the anger. Don't hold whites who had nothing to do with slavery responsible for happened to our ancestors. I know the counter argument, ''They may not have owned slaves but they are the direct beneficiaries of those who did.'' True, but to quote Vice-President Dick Cheney: ''So?'' Meaning, what are they to do about that? Change color? The open wound on Florida's soul that was slavery can never be excised by any means other than exposure to the clear light of day. The apology provides a whiff of fresh air but like most deep infections, true healing requires a continuous breeze.
Marvin Dunn is the former chair of the psychology department at Florida International University.
© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
Writing Assignment Revisions
Today we will revise our writing assignments. In order to get an "A" on each assignment (5 minimum, 10 maximum for 1 - 2 test grades), please follow the directions and complete all parts of each assignment. Also, edit your own work or work with a friend/teacher/tutor to do so. Do not submit work that has misspellings, etc!
In addition, make sure that your writing expresses a main idea or lesson learned.
For example, Why is this book important?
If you did the Reader's Sketchbook, check the instructions and make sure that you have included the following:
In addition, make sure that your writing expresses a main idea or lesson learned.
For example, Why is this book important?
If you did the Reader's Sketchbook, check the instructions and make sure that you have included the following:
- Chapter title or number
- Summary of the chapter
- Drawing of events related to the chapter; specific details to show that you read the chapter closely
- Discussion of what the chapter means, what matters most, and why you think that; provide specific examples or details to support your ideas
- A quotation and your explanation of that quote's meaning and/or its connection to your world
All work is due Friday, April 11th. No exceptions.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Slave Narratives Part II
Name
Former Slave Narratives Worksheet
Directions: Choose 1 former slave narrator interview to read. Then write the following information on this worksheet that you will later post on the blog.
1. Name
2. Age
3. Rewrite/Paraphrase 1 paragraph
4. Write 1 idea that surprised you
5. Write 1 question you would like to ask the former slave
You will find the interviews at this website:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snvoices
Former Slave Narratives Worksheet
Directions: Choose 1 former slave narrator interview to read. Then write the following information on this worksheet that you will later post on the blog.
1. Name
2. Age
3. Rewrite/Paraphrase 1 paragraph
4. Write 1 idea that surprised you
5. Write 1 question you would like to ask the former slave
You will find the interviews at this website:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snvoices
Current Events
Assignment: Please read these articles. Then write a 1-3 paragraph response to an article. Your response should be specific, thoughtful and express your opinion.
Today we are trying to make connections between themes in our books:
women's rights, culture and choices, romance and education, arranged marriage and financial independence and themes in current events.
The article titles are:
Today we are trying to make connections between themes in our books:
women's rights, culture and choices, romance and education, arranged marriage and financial independence and themes in current events.
The article titles are:
Olympians Torn on Protesting China's Policies
Students of Virginity
It's Not You, It's Your Books
Wed to Strangers, Vietnamese Wives Build Korean Lives
All of these articles are in Sunday's New York Times and can be found using the search tool in http://nytimes.com/
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Harriet Jacobs
Explain this quote from page 59 and connect it to the previous chapter or the following chapter. Please sign and post your comments for credit!
"After the alarm caused by Nat Turner's insurrection had subsided, the slaveholders came to the conclusion that it would be well to give the slaves enough of religious instruction to keep them from murdering their masters."
"After the alarm caused by Nat Turner's insurrection had subsided, the slaveholders came to the conclusion that it would be well to give the slaves enough of religious instruction to keep them from murdering their masters."
Poem
Please follow the format of this poem and use the book by Harriet Jacobs to write an original poem.
The Dead
Susan Mitchell
At night the dead come down to the river to drink.
They unburden themselves of their fears,their worries for us.
They take out the old photographs.
They pat the lines in our hands and tell our futures,which are cracked and yellow.
Some dead find their way to our houses.
They go up to the attics.
They read the letters they sent us, insatiablefor signs of their love.
They tell each other stories.
They make so much noisethey wake usas they did when we were children and they stayed up drinking all night in the kitchen.
Or follow this link and read and respond to abolitionist but and the other articles, photographs.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections
The Dead
Susan Mitchell
At night the dead come down to the river to drink.
They unburden themselves of their fears,their worries for us.
They take out the old photographs.
They pat the lines in our hands and tell our futures,which are cracked and yellow.
Some dead find their way to our houses.
They go up to the attics.
They read the letters they sent us, insatiablefor signs of their love.
They tell each other stories.
They make so much noisethey wake usas they did when we were children and they stayed up drinking all night in the kitchen.
Or follow this link and read and respond to abolitionist but and the other articles, photographs.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections
Pictures to analyze
Using these images to inspire you, write a story about Phyllis Wheatley, Sojourner Truth, Dorothea Dix, Lucretia Mott, mental hospitals and abolition. Be creative but use the facts that you have learned from history. I encourage you to use http://wikipedia.com
Due Dates/Reminders
- Literature Circle Notes packets are due March 24th. Please complete all 6 pages before submitting this.
- Typed and edited writing assignment #1 due March 25th.
- A number of writing assignments due April 11th, minimum 5, maximum 10. Extra points for early submissions.
- The Underdogs and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich are to be finished March 28th. The Kitchen God's Wife is to be finished April 11th. Open book tests will be taken Friday, March 28th.
All Juniors, please register for the college fair at http://www.techboston.org/batec
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Tents of Hope Project
Everyone is welcome to stay after school tomorrow for our speaker who will talk about Darfur and what we can do to help the people there.
I have 4 panels that need to be painted today. The panels will go to Darfur next month. Please see me about staying after school today and/or tomorrow. I will provide snacks!
More pictures will follow. . .
Literature Circle Assignment
If you choose to do #3 (Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Story/Character) you can use this poem as your inspiration.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Wallace Stevens
I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.
II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds.
III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.
V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.
VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause.
VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you?
VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.
IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles.
X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply.
XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds.
XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.
XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Wallace Stevens
I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.
II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds.
III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.
V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.
VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause.
VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you?
VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.
IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles.
X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply.
XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds.
XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.
XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Free Rice
This is a link to a website that allows you to play a vocabulary game, learn new words and donate rice to hungry nations.
Please do this on Tuesdays as your do now.
http://freerice.com
Please do this on Tuesdays as your do now.
http://freerice.com
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Writing
March 11, 2008
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Writing Assignment
Dear Students,Please choose 1 writing assignment to complete this week. Length of assignment is 1 page typed.
Due Tuesday, March 18th.
Written Dialogue: You will be writing a letter about what you have read in the book. The letter will show your classmates your thoughts of such things as what the book is about, why it is good/boring/confusing, what the author is trying to accomplish, or why a particular character acted a certain way.
Or
Character Log: Write about Harriet’s life as you read her book, noting essential details and discussing the complexity of her decisions. Questions to consider: Why did she act or think a certain way in a certain situation? What does she believe in? What motivates her? What is important to her and why? How does she change and why? What is her relationship with others in the story and how does that relationship change?
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Writing Assignment
Dear Students,
Due Tuesday, March 18th.
Written Dialogue: You will be writing a letter about what you have read in the book. The letter will show your classmates your thoughts of such things as what the book is about, why it is good/boring/confusing, what the author is trying to accomplish, or why a particular character acted a certain way.
Or
Character Log: Write about Harriet’s life as you read her book, noting essential details and discussing the complexity of her decisions. Questions to consider: Why did she act or think a certain way in a certain situation? What does she believe in? What motivates her? What is important to her and why? How does she change and why? What is her relationship with others in the story and how does that relationship change?
Monday, March 3, 2008
Slave Narratives
Dear Students,
Today we will listen to the interviews with former slaves.
Please go to this link http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/title.htmland take notes on what you hear. Write 3-5 questions that you will research and respond to your questions in the comments you post today. Please sign the posts for credit!
Today we will listen to the interviews with former slaves.
Please go to this link http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/title.htmland take notes on what you hear. Write 3-5 questions that you will research and respond to your questions in the comments you post today. Please sign the posts for credit!
College Essay
These are the personal statement prompts that The Common Application includes to help determine eligibility for college entrance. Please choose one and write an essay (250 words minimum) about yourself as a person and as a student.
1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Boston and the world
Dear Students,
Today we will be analyzing the way that others view our city and compare this view to what we think of cities from our history studies. Please go to these links as resources:
http://abostonvignette.blogspot.com/
Choose 1 assignment:
- Write a photo-essay about a neighborhood shown on universal hub.
- Respond to an article or post on the website.
- Compare Boston and our social problems and assets to a city that we have studied in class together.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
cherokee quiz
Please answer these questions for a quiz grade. Post to comments.
1. Sequoia spent 12 years doing what?
2. Cherokee people are know for?
3. Appalacian Mountains include (name 1 state).
4. The Indian Removal Act moved Cherokee people where.
5. Name of President who signed the Indian Removal Act.
1. Sequoia spent 12 years doing what?
2. Cherokee people are know for?
3. Appalacian Mountains include (name 1 state).
4. The Indian Removal Act moved Cherokee people where.
5. Name of President who signed the Indian Removal Act.
Slave narratives
Dear Students,
Today we will be analyzing photographs, artifacts and stories of former slaves.
Please go to these websites to do your research.
http://http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=13921
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snvoices02.html
Use the worksheets to take notes.
Today we will be analyzing photographs, artifacts and stories of former slaves.
Please go to these websites to do your research.
http://http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page.cfm?ID=13921
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snvoices02.html
Use the worksheets to take notes.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Save Darfur
Dear Students,
This week we are learning about the genocide in Darfur. You are welcome to stay after school Wednesday, March 5th to paint Tents of Hope panels that will go to Darfur to let people know that we are thinking of them.
Meanwhile, here are some sites for you to read/watch to learn about the situation in Darfur. Please brainstorm questions as you read text and watch videos.
http://stopgenocidenow.org
http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/darfur/staring_genocide_in_the_face/
http://savedarfur.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7elCghe040
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4YoOo_DE5A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q6Ms1vvH6I
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8664385719599276470
Finally, please write a response to one of the links that you read. Write about your questions, feelings and ideas. Post to comments so that your classmates can read.
This week we are learning about the genocide in Darfur. You are welcome to stay after school Wednesday, March 5th to paint Tents of Hope panels that will go to Darfur to let people know that we are thinking of them.
Meanwhile, here are some sites for you to read/watch to learn about the situation in Darfur. Please brainstorm questions as you read text and watch videos.
http://stopgenocidenow.org
http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/darfur/staring_genocide_in_the_face/
http://savedarfur.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7elCghe040
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4YoOo_DE5A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q6Ms1vvH6I
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8664385719599276470
Finally, please write a response to one of the links that you read. Write about your questions, feelings and ideas. Post to comments so that your classmates can read.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
A Tale of Two Cities writing assignment
A Tale of Two Cities
Writing Assignment
In this analysis, you are reviewing the book. Pretend that you work for a publishing company and will make a $ profit $ from sales of this book (pretend that it has recently been discovered after sitting in Charles Dickens’ ancestors’ attic for 150 years!).
Who? Brook Farm Academy Humanities 11 students
What? Writing Assignment for A Tale of Two Cities, Term III
Where? In class, at home, at the library
Why? We will increase our knowledge of the novel and improve our writing and thinking skills. We will reflect on the historical setting of the text as well as the writing style of Charles Dickens.
When? Draft #1 due 2/15/08. Draft #2 due 3/3/08.
How? Write, read, write and read. Meet with Ms. Grady, meet with writing center tutors. Include wonderful passages from the book as evidence of your understanding. Use proper format.
Think of this as an advanced book report. Your essay will show me your knowledge of the book. Choose 1 of the following to analyze:
v Analyze the plot including when, where, what time, who, why. Strip the story to its essential details. Include historical content from the French monarchy and French Revolution.
v Analyze a character: Madame Defarge, Sydney Carton, Jerry Cruncher, etc. What does this character say about others? What does he/she say about him/herself? What do others say about him/her? What does he/she do? What does he/she think? How does he/she do things?
v Analyze the setting of the novel by answering these questions about some of the chapters: Where? What does it look like? What does it smell like? What would you touch there? How hot or cold is it? How does it sound at night? What would you see if you walked around the place? If you were a detective, what would you notice? Would you like to visit or live there?
=
Writing Assignment
In this analysis, you are reviewing the book. Pretend that you work for a publishing company and will make a $ profit $ from sales of this book (pretend that it has recently been discovered after sitting in Charles Dickens’ ancestors’ attic for 150 years!).
Who? Brook Farm Academy Humanities 11 students
What? Writing Assignment for A Tale of Two Cities, Term III
Where? In class, at home, at the library
Why? We will increase our knowledge of the novel and improve our writing and thinking skills. We will reflect on the historical setting of the text as well as the writing style of Charles Dickens.
When? Draft #1 due 2/15/08. Draft #2 due 3/3/08.
How? Write, read, write and read. Meet with Ms. Grady, meet with writing center tutors. Include wonderful passages from the book as evidence of your understanding. Use proper format.
Think of this as an advanced book report. Your essay will show me your knowledge of the book. Choose 1 of the following to analyze:
v Analyze the plot including when, where, what time, who, why. Strip the story to its essential details. Include historical content from the French monarchy and French Revolution.
v Analyze a character: Madame Defarge, Sydney Carton, Jerry Cruncher, etc. What does this character say about others? What does he/she say about him/herself? What do others say about him/her? What does he/she do? What does he/she think? How does he/she do things?
v Analyze the setting of the novel by answering these questions about some of the chapters: Where? What does it look like? What does it smell like? What would you touch there? How hot or cold is it? How does it sound at night? What would you see if you walked around the place? If you were a detective, what would you notice? Would you like to visit or live there?
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
victorian era
Please go to webenglishteacher.com. Then choose literature at the side bar, then find Charles Dickens. Finally, choose the last option "Victorian England". Read about work, education, social classes or another category. Take notes in your notebook on the selected topic. Present topic to class.
http://www.shelbycs.org/ms/media%20center/victorian%20england/index.htm
http://www.shelbycs.org/ms/media%20center/victorian%20england/index.htm
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