Research Tools - Good starting points

Use this site to help find key words, their meaning, and visuals from large bodies of text:

http://www.wordsift.com/

Below are some links that will be good starting points for research on your journals.   I will be adding to this post on a regular basis, please continue to check back to view additional sources.

Primary Source Documents for American History:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/PrimDocsHome.html 

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/

Before, During, and After the Civil War Primary source documents:

http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/choosepart.html 

http://www.newsinhistory.com/feature/newspaper-articles-about-slavery-precursor-civil-war

Slave Narratives:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/teachers/primary-source.html

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/resources/online.html 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/title.html

Homework for Blocks E,F, and H over the Weekend of 2/10-2/14

In class today we discussed and alayzed the question:

Is it possible to compromise on an ethical issue like slavery?

This is the essential question for this unit.  At first it may appear to be a simple question with a simple answer, but after a bit of discussion, and some challenging ideas, we came to realize that there is nothing simple about it.  Continue to think about this question over the weekend and come into class with some questions that you have for me about it. 

Also, choose a charcter from the list below that you would like to  keep a journal for.  Remember, you will be telling a story from this persons perspective about what life was like during the 1800's.  You will be required to find primary and secondary sources of information to include facts from history in order to more accurately tell this story.  Here are some things you will have to consider when developing this character:

Who is speaking?
Consider your character – what is/are their background, social status, language abilities, gender, feelings, desires?
To whom is the speaker speaking?
Is the character writing for themself or hoping someone else will read their journal?
Where is the speaker speaking?
Where is the specific locale, what country, what city, what place within the city?
When is the speaker speaking.
Consider the mood of the times – what sense of mood would need to be communicated
How is the speaker speaking?
Consider the way they speak – what is their pace, tone, pronunciation, volume?
Why is the speaker speaking?
What is the overall message they want to communicate to their audience?

Then commence the thinking about CHARACTERIZATION that will allow you to fully develop your character in the audience’s eyes by analyzing and describing the character you are trying to create:

What are their physical characteristics?

What are their social characteristics?

What are their psychological characteristics?

What are their moral characteristics?

What is the general nature of the character’s personality?

What is the character’s life history and habits?

What is the character’s attitude toward life?

How does the character behave?

How does the character’s behavior make us respond?

List of possible characters (if you have a character in mind that is not on this list, please come see me):

Slave

Slave owner

Emancipated Slave

Child Slave

Run Away Slave

Abolitionist

Secessionist

Child of a Slave owner

Northern Politician 

Southern Politician

Plantation Owner

Factory Owner

Factory Worker

Christian Pastor

Abolitionist Newspaper Editor

Union Solider

Confederate Solider

Homework for Feb 8th and 9th

Please define the following words.  Use your own definition, do not just copy what is in the dictionary.  Also, draw a picture that represents the words, and include the Vietnamese equivalent.

Abolition 
Secession
Emancipate

Actively read "Setting the Stage - The Union Challenged"

Answer the following questions on the back of that paper:

How is the blue eyes/brown eyes exercise from the video we watched related to the Sioux prayer, "Help me not judge a person until I have walked in his shoes"?


Based on the discussions that we had in class and new information that you are aware of, please try to redefine "race" in one to two paragraphs.

Homework for Feb 6th and 7th

Watch the first 10 mins of the video we watched in class.  While watching it, think about the following questions:

• If the color of someones eyes makes no difference as to how intelligent or kind they are, then why do we think that the color of their skin does?  Where do these prejudices come from?  What kinds of things can we do to change them?
• What kinds of prejudices do you have?  Where do they come from?
• Why does prejudice and discrimination often lead to violence?

Here is the link to the video:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/

Click in the center of the screen where it says, "watch the full program online."  

Homework for January 31st and February 1st

Answer the following questions on the back of "Section 7 - The Amendment Process."  I will check this next time in class.

1. Why did the Framers make it possible to change the Constitution, and why did they make is so difficult to change?
2. Why do the States play such an important role in amending the constitution?

Homework for December 8th - December 13th

Blocks E,F, and H - Actively read section one taking notes and summarizing the main ideas.

Block B - Finish coming up with the "why's" for the Bill of Rights.  Try to answer the following questions about each of the Bill's ten rights:

Why did the Framers write in these protections?
Why do you think they felt it necessary to protect these specific things?

Also, see if you can come up with any new students rights based on the Universal Declaration of Human and Children's Rights that I gave you in class.  If you can't come up with anything new, see if you can come up with modifications to the existing rights that you presented. 

Constitiution Power Point