Chapter 6 Unit Test over the American Revolution is on Wednesday, December 16. If you are leaving early, and will not be here on Wednesday, you are to take the test early, on December 15. You need to know and understand the sequential order of events leading to the American Revolution, with dates. Study and understand the significance of the listed people, their actions and/or word that helped in the independence of the colonists. Study and understand the Key Terms and Names from the entire chapter. Use the Ch. 6 Section "Quizzes", the Sequential chart and the people list as study tools for the test. We have done a lot of review in class, as we have gone along, but you will also need some home study time for this!

CHALLENGE OPTION #1--"Paul Revere's Ride", by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Read the poem, summarize each stanza in one to two sentences, and answer the four questions at the end of the poem. This is due on Thursday, December 17 (unless you are absent, and then turn it in on Jan. 4). Challenge Options points are given if an assignment receives an "A" or "B".

January 5--Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope you all had an enjoyable and restful vacation!

Yesterday we worked on a Bananagram, and that was to be completed as homework, if you did not finish.

Today, we started reading My Brother Sam is Dead in class. I will be reading this to the class over the next week or so. We also read Chapter 7, Sec. 1.  Please complete reading the section (we did not finish in class) and there will be a pop-quiz tomorrow.  We have vocab words that need to be defined by Thursday, January 7. The words are: boast, triumph, stall, idle, lascivious, subversion, principle, and vile.

January 6--Reviewed Ch. 7, Sec.1. Discussed various strategies when reading something that is difficult to remember/comprehend. Students had a hard time with the pop-quiz because they couldn't remember what they read. Take notes, question your reading as you go along, etc. HOMEWORK DUE TOMORROW--Go back to Ch. 7, Sec. 1, and come up with 3 cause and effect situations for each of the reading sections (red titles). You will have a total of 18 because there are 6 sections.

Jan.7--Ch.7, Sec. 2--Students are to read the chapter and either summarize each subsection or take bullet point notes. We will compare these tomorrow in class. Read Ch. 2 of My Brother Sam is Dead, and summarized in a few sentences.

Vocab (DUE MONDAY with additional words given tomorrow): meddle, scornful, injustices, wrath, cordial

January 8--Additional vocab words that must be defined (DUE MONDAY): traitor, disarm, clamber, desert (not the sandy kind)

Read Ch. 3 and 4 in My Brother Sam is Dead.

REMEMBER THAT THE HELPING HANDS PACKETS ARE DUE ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 12. YOU NEED TO DO SOME INITIAL HOMEWORK ON THE ORGANIZATION YOU ARE VOLUNTEERING FOR AND YOU NEED TO GET YOUR PARENT/GUARDIAN'S SIGNATURE. ONCE THESE ARE ENTERED INTO THE GRADE BOOK, I WILL GIVE THEM BACK TO YOU.

January 11--Reviewed notes that students completed for Ch. 7, Sec. 2. Partially completed the timeline. This will continue as we complete the chapter. Here is what needs to be completed for the timeline:

1776--British forced Washington from New York. Washington surprised the Hessians at Trenton.

1777--Washington won at _______________. Bergoyne lost at ___________________. Americans suffered at ______________.

1778--______________became America's ally. Clark captured ___________________. British captured____________________.

1779--________________captures Vincennes. __________________ defeated the Serapis.

1780--British captured ________________. _________________defeated Gates at Camden. ______________won at Kings Mountain.

1781--________________ and _______________ forced ___________________ to surrender at Yorktown.

1783--Americans and British signed the ____________________ ending the war.

Again, not all blanks can be filled in yet. We are still reading through the chapter.

Upcoming HOMEWORK--due Tuesday, 1/12, Helping Hands Packet signed and page three filled out. Due Wednesday, 1/13--Write a sentence for each of the 17 vocab words we have had so far from My Brother Sam is Dead. I will return the words you turned in today tomorrow. YOU need to create these sentences--do not use the sentence provided from the dictionary, or dictionary.com. If you missed a word, make sure you have the correct definition.

January 12--Pop-Quiz over Ch. 7, Sec.2. This was to see how well their note-taking and our review went. Most students did well! Yeah, note-taking is helping and will be a valuable tool for the future!

Started reading Ch. 7, Sec. 3. Student will take notes on this section also, and these are DUE on Thursday, Jan. 14. Come to class with these completed. ALSO DUE on Thursday: Page 200, Review Questions, 1 - 7. IQIYA, spelling counts, and proofread your work before you turn it in! Points will not be given if there are spelling mistakes, you have not answered the question correctly, or you have not included the question in your answer. At this point in the year, ALL of these should be happening without reminder.

Some new "laws" were laid today. My expectation is that if a student has not completed work by a due date, they should be in my room during their lunch period to get caught up. This has been said throughout the year. There are some students who I spoke with at the beginning of the second trimester, and I said that it is mandatory for them to come each day, to ensure that work is getting done, and they are caught up. If they have math tutorial, they need to let me know, and if they are not in math tutorial, they should be with me. So, the new rule is that if ANY student's work is not done, and they are not with me, they will be written up for a lunch detention. If a student becomes a repeat offender, meaning that they have received 3 lunch detentions, then I will assign them an afterschool detention. After their 3rd afterschool detention, they will receive a Saturday school detention. I go back to what I have talked to students and parents about since the first day of school--we are getting students prepared for high school, and completing and turning work in, on time, is key to their success. Thank you for your support with this!

January 14--No homework tonight! There will be a test over Chapter 7, in Social Studies, next Thursday, January 21. Students should start studying for this now by reviewing the chapter, their notes, end of section questions, etc. Tomorrow they will have more time to read Ch. 7, Sec.4 and answer questions on a sheet that was handed out today. That sheet is due on Tuesday. We are continuing to read My Brother Sam is Dead in class, and we should finish the book next week.

January 19--REMINDER...Ch. 7 Test on Thursday. Review the Key Terms, worksheets we have completed, notes you have written, questions you have answered, etc. You need to KNOW the seven sequential dates and events.
Homework for tonight--Page 200, answer Questions 8 and 9. IQIYA, be thorough, and check your spelling and punctuation.

January 20--Tomorrow I will collect the My Brother Sam is Dead Summaries through Ch. 11. These should be 3 sentences for each chapter, and you should go over them for proper sentence structure. Do not worry about the spelling for names, since you have not had a copy of the book in front of you. Other spelling will count.

CH. 7 Test tomorrow!

Monday, January 25--My apologies! I gave students a list of about 25 words today for Vocab, and I forgot to post them to schoolnotes before I left today. So, I will post these tomorrow morning. The words will need to be defined and put into a sentence by Friday. Sentences should be descriptive enough to show me that students understand the meaning of the words.

We are starting our lessons on Tolerance, and we will begin with the Japanese Internment. We will then move on to the Holocaust, and then the Civil Rights Movement. This unit will take about 6 - 8 weeks, and we will incorporate our lessons on the Constitution. In addition, students will be required to find a novel (non-fiction or fiction) having to do with tolerance.  More about this will be coming soon!

Finally, progress report grades are in, and I will update grades tomorrow morning, so that the grades you see are the grades that students will have on their progress reports. Conferences are next week. If your child is currently receiving a D or F, I will be calling or emailing you on Wednesday to hopefully set up a conference time for next week (Wednesday or Thursday, a 10 minute appointment between 3:30 -7:30). If your child is receiving an A or B, there really isn't a need to conference. Although, if you would like to meet with me, I would be happy to meet with you also. For any conferences, I would love it if your child came with you. As we head into the homestretch to high school, I think it is really important they they play a key role in their educational discussions.

Tuesday, January 26--Grades have been updated. Here are the vocabulary words that are to be defined and used in a sentence. The sentence should be descriptive enough to show me that you understand the meaning of the vocab word. These are due on Friday, 1/29.

Tolerance (n), discriminate (v), equity (n), segregate (v), genocide (n), diversity (n), stereotypes (n), unique (adj), appreciation (n), prejudice (n), racism (n), generalize (n), homophobia (n), multi-cultural (n), assumption (n), bias (n), internment (n), ethnic (adj), ethnicity (n), socioeconomic (adj), defamation (n), disseminate (v), injustices (n), bigotry (n), derogatory (adj)

Wednesday, January 27--Yesterday we watched a documentary about the Japanese Internment during WWII, and students were given the assignment to summarize the movie, and then choose something from the movie that "struck" them and expand upon that.

Today, we will look at the website www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html. Students will interpret and summarize Executive Order 9066, signed by FDR in February 1942, and Civil Liberties Act of 1988. If we do not have enough time to complete this in class today, we will finish it up in class tomorrow.

Thursday, January 28--Remember, Vocab is due on Friday, with definitions and sentences that show you understand the meaning of the word.

Today we completed our summary of Executive Order 9066. In addition, we went through Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and identified the following vocab that needs to be defined (no sentences) by Monday, 2/1:

ancestry(n), civilians (n), documents (v), adequate (adj), espionage (n), hysteria (n), material (damage) (adj), intangible (damage) (adj), incalculable (adj), compensation (n), fundamental (adj), civil liberties (n), recurrence (n), restitution (n), credible (adj), sincere (adj)

After reviewing the Tolerance Vocab, and work that was done incorrectly, I have given students a sheet with 25 sentences. Each sentence is to be filled in with the correct vocab word. This will be worth 20 points, and it is due tomorrow, 2/2.

There, They're, and Their sheets were handed out today. This is to be turned in on Thursday, Feb. 4. Slow down and proofread work!  Simple mistakes are being made that could be prevented with proofreading!

Spent class time "translating"/summarizing Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Now that you have completed the vocab for this, this document should be much easier to understand. Be ready to turn in your summary tomorrow. We will discus this tomorrow in class. If you are absent today, or you did not finish, look up the document online to complete this.

Monday, Feb. 8--Thank you for coming to conferences!  I appreciate you taking the time, and I know your child will benefit from this!

Today we read Ch. 8, Section 1 in Social Studies, and we are answering the questions (1, 2 and 4) on p. 209.  Make sure to follow the directions for #1, and EXPLAIN THE SIGNIFICANCE. For #2, I am going to have you create the answer in an outline format (see below). For #3, IQIYA.

#2.
I. Challenges Americans faced in shaping a new government
    A. Challenge #1
        1. Why was this a challenge?
    B. Challenge #2
        1. Why was this a challenge?
    C. Challenge #3
        1. Why was this a challenge?
This does not have to be done in complete sentences (Numbers 1 and 4 do need to be done in complete sentences). This is due on Tuesday, February 9.

There will be a pop-quiz over Ch. 8, Sec. 1 tomorrow, so make sure you understand the section.

We spent the other period proofreading and editing the newspaper article. A final copy of this is due on Thursday, 2/11, and it needs to be typed, 12 font, double spaced. Proofread before turning this in!