Social Studies-8A-Mr. Rowan

Course Description

We meet every day from 1:00 - 2:00.
 
We cover 8 grade social studies standards.My goal is to provide students with the essential skills and attitudes for living in the twenty-first century, which will enable them to acquire the knowledge, abilities and judgment to continue to learn for themselves; to explore and understand the past so they can better understand what is happening today; to deliberate responsibly on local, national and international issues; and to understand that we are all individuals whose human and civil rights deserve respect.
 

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Posts

Weekly Update - March 5

This week students will be taking what they learned about what makes a good presentation and the public speaking tips we saw to finalize their Civil War Battles Presentation Rubric. After brainstorming ideas on a good presentation and watching 4 videos, students will finalize the components of the collaborative class rubric they will then use as they do their next presentation. This is part of my public speaking/presentation skills sub-unit. 
As students are doing this, we are taking notes on the advantages, disadvantages and battle strategies of the North and South as the Civil War started. We will begin to look at the major battles of the Civil War, the strategies used and the major turning points and participants.

Weekly Update - February 26

Students will present their Civil War biography presentations this week. Once completed, we will begin to look at the advantages and disadvantages of the North and South leading up to the Civil War. In addition, we will look at the battle strategies used by each side. We will then begin to look at the famous battles of the Civil War.

Weekly Update - February 19

This week students will finish their Civil War Biography PowerPoints and their Bottle Projects. Students will present their work next Monday.

Weekly Update - February 12

After being gone for three days, I will be checking in on the completion of the Antebellum America Map projects and the research on their Civil War Biography. Students should be able to complete their research and powerpoint slides by Thursday. 
 
As part of this Biography Project, there is a craft component where students create a miniature of their famous Civil War Era person out of a two liter bottle, 3-inch styrofoam ball, felt, buttons, paint, etc. This bottle character will then be used in our end-of-unit chess match. I am asking that anyone who can bring in their own two liter bottles and 3-inch styrofoam balls for their project will be appreciated. I have paint, hot glue, felt and some other supplies, and will buy whatever students need. I just don't have a way to get extra two liter bottles.
 
 
 

Weekly Update - January 29

At the beginning of the week, we will focus on learning about the causes of the Civil War. We will do this by watching a video and taking notes in OneNote. We will then begin our Biography Bottle Project. Students will be given an important person from the Civil War era and they will design a 2 liter bottle that looks like the character. In addition, they will complete a short Biography PPT about their character and then present this information. An important part of this will be determining what type of chess piece their character should be based on what they did during the Civil War. We will focus the skills that make a good presentation.

Weekly Update - January 22

Most students finished up their persuasive writing piece on whether the Confederate Battle Flag should have stayed up in South Carolina (First Amendment) or come down (Civil Rights Issues) on Friday. We will now start looking at the causes of the Civil War and layer this over the timeline of Westward Expansion from last quarter. Before we do that, students will complete a KWQL chart to identify what they know, questions they have and what they want to learn about the Civil War.
 
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Weekly Update - January 16

This week we will finish up our news analysis worksheets from five different sources in regards to the Confederate Flag Controversy in South Carolina. Groups will report on their findings and then we will write a persuasive paragraph on whether the flag should stay up or come down. We will then start looking at what we know and want to know about the Civil War and what the causes of the war were. 

OneNote Class Notebook

With this new website, there is no more digital locker on the website. Instead the students have Office 365, which has the OneDrive cloud storage, student email, word, PowerPoint, OneNote Class Notebooks, and much, much more. You as a parent are able to download Office365 for free, but if you do not want to download it, all the previously mentioned items are available online for the students to use. If you have questions on how to download this, please let your Advocacy teacher know.

All assignments, documents, links, videos will be uploaded to each student’s OneNote Class Notebooks.

For the students to login to their Office 365, they must go to login.microsoftonline.com

Username: [email protected]

Password: same as your school computer password.

Weekly Update - January 8

Important Dates
April 18: Training and Outfitting for Civil War Reenactment, 9:30-3:00
April 21: Civil War Reenactment Fundraiser, 6-9 pm
April 27: Civil War Reenactment, 8-3
 
 
Welcome to the second semester of social studies. This quarter we will be focusing on the Civil War, what events led to this war and the effects it had on the people, society and country. In addition, we will be participating in the annual Civil War Reenactment. The reenactment will take place on April 27. I will have more details on this as we get closer. To pay for this reenactment, students will develop and put on a Civil War Reenactment Fundraiser on the evening of April 21. 
 
We will begin by looking at the recent controversy in South Carolina involving flying the Confederate battle flag at the state capitol building from the perspective of civil rights vs. first amendment rights. This will bring back to the front of our minds lessons we learned when studying the Bill of Rights and wonder what in history led to this controversy.