Washington and the Forming of a Nation

As you know, American government was still in its infancy after the ratification of the Constitution.  How that government would work in practice however was (and is still today) still much in question.  Additionally, America was (and is) still defining the values and beliefs that were the foundations of American political and social thought.  Today, you will work to assess how the early nation was doing; how ideas like liberty were being developed; and whether or not, the new nation was accomplishing the goals set forth in the Preamble to the Constitution.

Instructions for class on 9/30/2011:

1) (15 mins.) In your American Reader read George Washington's Farewell address that begins on page 71.
Annotate the reading according to the actions and/or advice Washington offers in response to:

• The potential threat of political parties and interest groups
• The mounting criticism of government and the authority of the executive.
• The proper role of the United States in international politics.

2) (20 mins.) Next you will investigate a person or event that also influenced the early American republic.  Click on this link and find the person or event that corresponds to your assigned number.  Then you will research your term by going to the subscription databases on the Library website.  Using either the American History database, the Salem History database, or American National Biography online, research your assigned person or event.  Take notes about the key facts or details that are necessary to understand the significance of your assigned person or event.  Note-you may need to go to more than one database to get a full understanding.

3) (20 mins.) Write a post that does the following:

• Has a creative title that says something about the significance of your assigned person or event.
• Summarizes enough key details so that someone reading your post will understand your assigned person or event.  This may be written out in paragraph form or a list of bullet points.
• Contains a paragraph that links your assigned event or person to George Washington.  According to his Farewell Address, what would George Washington say about the information you discovered?  In what way did (or didn't ) your person or event reflect the values or ideals that Washington defined in his address? 
• Contains a paragraph with your assessment of this person or event.  How does your person or event match up with what we've been studying so far?  Does your research help to expand any ideas or notions of liberty that you've seen already?  Are there Constitutional questions that arise as a result of your research?  Does this person or event help to accomplish or go against the goals set forth in the Preamble?

4) (15 - 20 mins.) When finished with your post. Spend time exploring the events or people that your classmates have written about on their blogs.  

5) (20 mins.) After reading at least 4 or 5 others, write a final response to this activity in your notebooks.  Based on what you've seen in your research and your classmates' blogs, how would you assess this era?  How is the United States growing as a nation?  Are there any links or connections that you can make between any of the issues that arose then and what you see in the nation today?  Be sure to check your final notebook entry in with Mr. Kramer or Mr. Rigler.

Speaking of Government...

Just thought we might find this story to be interesting - questions from the Federalist papers continue to resonate!

Connecting Historic Documents to Today

In class today we studied writings from Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine.  Now, you will revisit those works along with a collection of photographs about 9-11 we viewed last week.
You can find those pictures here.
There are other collections of photographs here and here. 
Scroll through the photographs while you have the documents handy.  What you are looking for an image you want to match with a quotation from one of the documents.
To post this onto your blog, open a "new post," then browse through the photographs in another open window.  When you see an image you want to use, just right click it, go back to your post, and paste it in.  Hit the enter key then type the quotation under the image.  If you have time, go back and find another pair. 
Then, hit the enter key again and spend a few sentences explaining your thinking behind this pairing.  What is it like to see the words of 1776 paired with images of 2001?  What connections do you see?
Hit "publish post."
When you are done, please go back to the class blog then visit the blogs of other students to see what they created.

Remembering 9-11

For the past few weeks we have been reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close as part of our look at the 10 year anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001.  In class we showed you the website associated with the 9-11 Tribute Movement, 911day.org.  We wrote "I will" statements and shared them in class already, but we're also inviting you to share them (or another statement) as part of this official website.  Just click on the link above and enter your thoughts.  Thanks!

Here is an image of the notecards we wrote:

Questions for first blog discussion of EL&IC

After you create your blog today, you will respond to one of these questions:

1. What are your thoughts about Oskar at this point in the novel, after "Heavier Boots"?  Do you sympathize with him?  Are you critical of him?  Choose a specific action of his as the basis for your comment.
2. How do the different story lines in the novel work together?  Do you detect any specific similarities in terms of topics and themes?  What are they?  Name both the similarity and the different ways in which the novel expresses and explores it.
3. How does the variety of images, layout, typography, and narrative voice affect your reading and understanding of the story up to this point.  Select 1-2 specific examples to use in your response.