Happy Holidays from the 8th Grade Team

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Montgomery Bus Boycott

Below is a video of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a televised announcement discussing the boycott. After watching the video, post a comment comparing and contrasting the real Dr. King with his portrayol by the actor Jeffrey Wright in the film Boycott for extra credit.



This is a segment from the Civil Rights Movement documentary series Eyes on the Prize:

Rosa Parks Act-it-Out

Rosa Parks

The following video is from an interview of Rosa Parks during the Montgomery Bus Boycott:



Here is a segment from an interview Rosa Parks gave later in her life:




Here is video someone took at the museum that displays the acuatl Rosa Parks bus:



This video is from one of my favorite TV shows, Histeria:

Thurgood Marshall

We have been watching the film Separate But Equal in class, telling the story of Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education. One of the main characters in this film is Thurgood Marshall, who at that time was a lawyer for the NAACP. I found some intersting interview footage of the real Thurgood Marshall who, in 1967 was the first African-American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

WWII Commemorative Stamp Sets

Recently, students processed what they have learned about World War II by creating “commemorative stamp sets” that illustrate the significance of the war. Specifically, they had to create three stamps that showed how three of the different groups of people that we studied were affected by the war, and one stamp that memorializes a specific battle or event.

Here is a sampling of what they did:

I Ain't Got No Home

In my REaD class today we finished reading the book "Zen, and the Art of Faking It" by Jordan Sonnenblick. I chose to read this book because one of the main characters and I share a love of Woody Guthrie's music. So, I thought it would be fitting on our last day of this REaD session for the class to sing one of the Woody Guthrie songs talked about in the book. Here is our rendition of "I Ain't Got No Home":

Audio Recordings of WWII Radio Broadcasts

Core A:



Core B:



Core C:



Core D:

WWII Radio Broadcasts

Student groups created World War II Radio Broadcasts in order to teach the rest of the class about how the war affected various groups of Americans including the government, consumers, women, Japanese Americans, Jewish Americans, American Servicemen, and African Americans.

Each broadcast included a promotional poster, introduction, lead story, advertisement, human interest story, and conclusion. All of the groups did a great job and the students really enjoyed listening to and learning from their classmates on the "radio".

Below are some pictures from this activity. I will post the audio recordings of the radio broadcasts soon as well.

Listening to a broadcast: Promotional poster: The audience: Inside the studio:

WWII: Edward Murrow Radio News Broadcast

World War II

Here is a newsreel-type cartoon that was created to explain the events leading up to World War II in Europe:



The War in Europe:



The War in the Pacific:



The Battle of Midway:



Iwo Jima:

The Grapes of Wrath

We are currently watching and discussing the film The Grapes of Wrath in class. Here is an original trailer for the movie that focuses on the popularity of the book at the time that it came out:

CD Covers

When we began studying the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, we analyzed two different songs: "Charleston Party" (which reflects the spirit of the 1920's), and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (which reflects the hardship and despair of the 1930's). As we finished our unit of study for these decades, students created CD covers for each of the two songs, showing elements of each time period that they learned about. I put these together into slide shows to go along with each of the songs:

"Charleston Party"


"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"

New Deal Act-it-Out

Civilian Conservation Corps

The CCC was one of Roosevelt's first New Deal programs. Here is a short video that gives a little more information about what this program did:

Civilian Conservation Corps

Shared via AddThis

Images of the Great Depression

Here are a couple of great slide shows of Depression era photos that I found. The first one focuses on the lives of migrant workers, people who left their homes in the midwest to seek work in California. The second has more pictures that show city life during that time period.

Great Depression Act-it-Out

All of the classes did a great job in preparing and performing their "Act-it-Outs" about the Great Depression. I put together a video that shows pictures from all of the classes accompanied with the audio from Core D's performance.

Apple-Pie Blues

As part of our study of the Great Depression we talked a little bit about Blues music. Students were encouraged to write a blues verse for extra credit. "Cuddlefish" Kate, however, went and wrote an entire blues song. It was pretty good, so I performed it live for Core D. Here is the video with a little bit of effect to make it look older:

Writing the Blues

Today in class we talked a little bit about the Blues and blues artists who made music during the 1920's and 1930's, and we even sang a little blues. For extra credit you can write a blues verse and submit it to me on Tuesday. I will take the ones that are good and turn them into a song.

Click on the title to this post to link to a set of "instructions" for writing the blues.

Crash!!

Here is the video I made of stock market activity "Crash!" that we did in class. It's accompanied by a great song from the 1920's.

Dancing the Charleston

As part of our study of the Roaring Twenties, a number of students attempted to learn how to dance the Charleston, the most popular dance of that decade. All of the students who tried the dance did great and everybody had fun, even those who decided to simply watch.

I posted the video that I made below. Don't forget to post your comments.

The Charleston

Today in class we compared the two songs Charleston Party (which characterized the mood of the 1920's) and Brother Can You Spare a Dime (which characterized the mood of the 1930's).

The instructional videos below explain how to do the Charleston, the most popular dance of the 1920's. Learn how to do this dance and we will perform it in class later this week. Anyone who participates in the dance (no matter how good you are at it) will earn extra credit.

Sufferin' Till Suffrage

The roles that women played in America during the first World War helped lead to the adoption of the 19th Amendment. If you don't remember what that was all about, here's a video that might help:

Immigration Role Plays

Current Events Analysis Form

Due to popular demand, I have uploaded a copy of the weekly Current Event Analysis form. There is a link to it on the side-bar under "documents".

Immigration Poll

Since we are currently discussing the issue of immigration in U.S. today, I have added a poll about this issue to the side-bar. All responses are anonymous, so feel free to vote your conscience without having to explain anything. We'll discuss the final results in class next week.

Immigrant Interview with Mrs. Stan

President Obama's Speech to Students

Outsourcing Your Brain

Let me know your thoughts on this issue:

NP Social Studies on Twitter

I have set up a Twitter account (@npsocialstudies) for our class! I will use this to post updates on what is going on in class, homework assignments, and more. You will also be able to read my Tweets on the sidebar of this blog.

Go to Twitter.com/npsocialstudies to find out more.

Extra Credit - Interview Questions

To help us better understand what the experience of immigration is like, I am going to interview someone who immigrated to the United States using questions submitted by students. I will then post the interview on this blog and we will watch it in class.

I will give extra credit to students who submit questions for the interview. To participate, simply write your name, core, and question on a 3x5 index card and turn it in to me by this Friday (Sept. 4th).

Immigration Through Ellis Island

Welcome Back

To welcome you back, here are some videos about the first day of school:





And you may remember this one from the first day of Social Studies last year:



I'm very excited to be teaching 8th Grade Social Studies. While everything will be new to you this year, remember that it will also be new to me. I have never taught
8th grade, or this time-period before, so I am very excited about trying new things.

the curriculum will cover modern American history and Current Events. Here are a couple of videos that will serve as preview of what our focus will be this year:

The End

I just wanted to let everyone how much I've enjoyed this year. As I mentioned at our awards ceremony, this has been one of my favorite groups of 7th graders that I've had here at North Prairie. I hope that you have learned a lot about our country's history and that you had fun doing so.

Enjoy your summer!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

The Gettysburg Address

Math in Social Studies???

In order to better understand the differences between the Union and Confederacy at the start of the Civil War, we looked at the major resources for each side. Students took the amounts that each side had of each of these resources and converted them into percentage so that they could create pie-graphs showing the difference between them.

A Dividng Nation

Recently, students played the role of U.S. Senators in the first half of the
1800's. Some of them represented the North and some represented the South. They had to make compromises in order to keep the country together as issues such as slavery in the territories, the Dred Scott case, the Kansas-Nebraska act and the election of 1860 threatened to tear the country apart.

Gettysburg Address

The Lincoln-Douglass Debates

The Dred Scot Case

Frederick Douglass

Harriet Tubman

Slavery Story Quilts

We recently learned that slaves in the early 1800's used story quilts to pass on information to future generations. In order to show our knowledge of the conditions slaves lived under, and the things they did to cope with those conditions, we made our own "story quilts". The quilt squares convey information about such topics as; working conditions of slaves, living conditions of slaves, how slaves were controlled, how they resisted slavery, slave families and communities, slave churches, leisure time activities, and African American culture.

Into the West - World on Fire

This music video for the song "World on Fire" was used as a trailer for the Into the West mini-series. For extra credit, comment on this post explaining some of the ways that the film reflects the experiences of those who went west in the mid 1800's.

Life in the West

Life in the West

In order to learn about what life was like for the different groups that went West in the 1800's, students will be creating mini-dramas. The first step in this project involves each student group reading about the group of settlers they have been assigned and finding out why they moved West, the hardships they faced, and the legacies that they left.

Happy 200th Birthday Abraham Lincoln!

Manifest Destiny: A Review

**For extra credit, post a response answering this question: Which lands would you say were acquired in an honorable way and which ones weren't? Explain your answer.**


Here is the video "Elbow Room" from Schoolhouse Rocks:


Three of the major acquisitions that we discussed in class (Texas, Oregon, and the Mexican Cession) took place during the Presidency of James K. Polk. Here is a fun song about his term in office written by the band They Might Be Giants.



Lyrics:
In 1844, the Democrats were split
The three nominees for the presidential candidate
Were Martin Van Buren, a former president and an abolitionist
James Buchanan, a moderate
Louis Cass, a general and expansionist
From Nashville came a dark horse riding up
He was James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump

Austere, severe, he held few people dear
His oratory filled his foes with fear
The factions soon agreed
He's just the man we need
To bring about victory
Fulfill our manifest destiny
And annex the land the Mexicans command
And when the votes were cast the winner was
Mister James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump

In four short years he met his every goal
He seized the whole southwest from Mexico
Made sure the tarriffs fell
And made the English sell the Oregon territory
He built an independent treasury
Having done all this he sought no second term
But precious few have mourned the passing of
Mister James K. Polk, our eleventh president
Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump

12 Angry Men

As a follow-up to our study of the Constitution we are watching one of my favorite films; 12 Angry Men, and discussing how our rights, specifically those listed in the 5th and 6th Amendments often must compete with our human nature.

Here is a trailer for the film:


For extra credit, post a comment answering this question: In what way does the film show us the importance of the 5th and 6th Amendments, specifically when it comes to the role of "reasonable doubt"?

Springfield Trip

There is still plenty of room on the Springfield Trip for students and parents. E-mail me for details.

The 19th Amendment

Constitution Test

REMINDER: The U.S. Constitution Test will be taken on Wednesday, January 28th.

Constitutional Law Competition

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Here are two very different takes on the process by which a bill becomes a law. The first is the famous "I'm Just a Bill" from Schoolhouse Rocks. The second is a scene from the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in which a naive new senator's secretary explains the difficulty of actually getting a bill passed.

CONSTITUTION TEST!!!!!!!

The Constitution Test will be on Wednesday, January 28th. Study Guides will go out either Monday or Tuesday of this week.

E-mail me if you have any questions.