Friday, April 26, 2013

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Welcome to U.S. History

Thank you for taking the time to visit our U.S. History blog.  We are looking forward to a great school year in all of our classes.  This blog is used to post periodic updates about what our classes are working on.  It is a good place to stay informed about upcoming assignments and important dates.  There will some projects during the year that will be posted on the blog.  These projects are usually completed in class, but the instructions are posted here for students to look at during course of their work.

Now that we've mentioned the purpose of the blog, we'll say a couple things about the purpose of the class:
  • At the end of the school year, students will take the End of Course Test (EOCT) in U.S. History.  The primary goal of this class is to make sure that students at Troup High School are well prepared for it.  Passing this test will count in place of a student passing the social studies portion of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT).
  • Passing that test is a big deal, but we believe that history is even more important than that.  You can simply memorize facts in order to pass many tests in a history class.  We want students to understand history, and this goes beyond memorization.  We will look at the story of the United States.  There are lessons to be learned from our successes, our failures, and everything in between.  By learning those lessons, we all become wiser, and by becomeing wiser - we can make America a better and more just nation.
"History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are. "
David McCullough

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Vietnam-Era Protest Song

Students will write a protest song from the time period of the Vietnam War.
The Requirements for the song are:
  1. song title
  2. 3 verses
  3. a chorus
  4. shows knowledge of the Cold War
  5. shows knowledge of the feelings and points of view of the anti-war protestors
Once the song is complete, students will create a Powerpoint presentation that used pictures to  reflect the message of their song.  These pictures should be from the time period.  The presentation should be at least 10 slides long.

This assignment will be graded based on:
  • Creativity
  • Knowledge of the time period
  • Effort / Use of time

Monday, February 28, 2011

World War Two - Illustrated Timeline

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE COMPLAINING OR ASKING QUESTIONS!!!

You will be using Microsoft Word to create a timeline that includes the major events of World War Two.  You can be creative about how you make your timeline, but it must include all of the items listed below.

Place each of these items in correct order on your timeline.  For each of the events, you must include:

  1. The name of the event
  2. The date of the event
  3. A description AND the significance of the event ("significance" = why was it important?)
  4. An image that represents the event (for most of the events, you should be able to find photos of the actual event using the "image search" feature on www.bing.com)
____________________________________________________
List of Events:

  • Lend-Lease Act
  • Bombing of Pearl Harbor
  • Japanese Surrender / V-J Day
  • A. Philip Randolph's Proposed March on Washington D.C.
  • The Manhattan Project
  • Internment of Japanese Americans (Executive Order 9066)
  • Los Alamos
  • Battle of Iwo Jima
  • V-E Day / German Surrender
  • U.S. Bombs Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Roosevelt's Death
  • Battle of Midway
  • Fall of Berlin (Soviets capture Berlin)
  • Battle of Okinawa
  • D-Day

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Unit 5 Project (Starting 12-1)

SSUSH10 The student will identify legal, political, and social dimensions of Reconstruction. a. Compare and contrast Presidential Reconstruction with Radical Republican Reconstruction.
b. Explain efforts to redistribute land in the South among the former slaves and provide advanced education (Morehouse College) and describe the role of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
c. Describe the significance of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments.
d. Explain Black Codes, the Ku Klux Klan, and other forms of resistance to racial equality during Reconstruction.
e. Explain the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in relationship to Reconstruction.
f. Analyze how the presidential election


Here are a list of links for students to use for their Unit 5 "Reconstruction Newspaper" Project:






http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Home.jsp

For information on the 13th, 14th, or 15th amendments, use the search feature @ http://www.ourdocuments.gov/
You do not have to limit yourself to these sites, but you MUST make sure that your information is accurate.  Use your research time wisely, and be creative.


Tips:
- Do this project in steps:
  • step 1 - Look over the information in the websites
  • step 2 - Chose topics that interest you as the topics for your articles
  • step 3 - Spend time researching these topics (take notes!)
  • step 4 - Look at the website for LaGrange Daily News (http://www.lagrangenews.com/) to see how the different parts of a newspaper are written and organized.
  • step 5 - Begin writing your factual articles and your editorial IN YOUR OWN WORDS.  (see your project handout for guidelines)
  • step 6 - Proofread your articles
Political Cartoons

You need to include a political cartoon.  This can be "copy-and-pasted" into your newsletter, but you MUST have a caption explaining what the cartoon means that is written by you.  For examples of political cartoons from the Reconstruction era, look at the following websites:




Classifieds

To make your classified ads, you will need to figure out what types of items for sale or job openings you want to advertise.  After you have a list of items and jobs, you will need to figure out what your items are worth or how much your jobs would pay.

To convert today's money into 1866 money, go to the following website:  http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Enter the amount of money, then enter 1866 as the "initial year."

For example, if a job you are advertising pays minimum wage ($7.25/hour in today's money), it would have paid $.52/hour in 1866.



Putting Your Newspaper Together

To put your newspaper together, you can choose one of two options:
  1. Use Microsoft Publisher to put your articles into a "newsletter."  Put your articles, political cartoon, and classifieds into the places that fit best.  Replace the pictures that come in the newsletter with pictures that fit the Reconstruction era.
  2. Use newsprint paper to write articles by hand and draw your own political cartoon.