American Studies-8-1 Assignments

What caused the Great Depression? DBQ - Essay Response

After reviewing and answering questions on the background reading and 11 documents, you will craft a five paragraph essay responding to the question: What caused the Great Depression? As with any argumentative piece of writing, you’ll first want to develop your central claim statement and use that to structure the rest of your writing.

Required components:

-Organization into five paragraph, following argumentative structure

-Claim statement addressing the central question

-Evidence from minimum 5 documents with in-text citations

-Use of 5 economics vocabulary words from the background reading

Find the organizer on Google Classroom to help outline each step of your writing.

DUE: Friday, May 10th

Quiz next week on World War I - Quiz guide is up on Google Classroom under "Resource"-> Quizzes by Unit

Create your own Propaganda Poster - Instruction on Google Classroom

American Journey - Chapter 21: Section 2

-Define Vocabulary

-4 bullets for each "Main Idea"

Midterm Exam - 8th Grade American Studies

(Wednesday, January 23rd. 8:40-9:50 AM)

Part 1 - Document Based Question

You’ll be given two or more excerpts from primary and secondary documents which you may have no prior knowledge of. You’ll be responsible for reading, analyzing, and comparing the documents from a historical perspective. Keep in mind the strategies in the Reading Historical Documents sheet under the “Resource” section of Google Classroom:
-Identify the author

-Consider Context

-Compare Sources

You may wish to review some of the primary document comparisons we’ve done in class (Battle of Little Bighorn, Chinese Exclusion Act, Sinking of the USS Maine).

Part 2 - Political Cartoon Analysis

You will be responsible for analyzing and interpreting political cartoons which connect to content we’ve studied throughout the semester. You’ll need to rely on the strategies we’ve employed throughout our discussion on cartoons, and it may be useful to review the Political Cartoons: Devices slideshow under the “Resource” section of Google Classroom.

-Observations
-Connections to the content

-Devices used by the artists

-Artist’s intended message

Part 3 - Essay/Extended Response

This section will focus on your writing structure and will pose a broad prompt based on one of the themes or big questions we’ve focused on in class, asking you to integrate knowledge from one of our units of study (Antebellum/Civil War, Reconstruction, Westward Expansion, Gilded Age, and Immigration and Imperialism). You must address the prompt using a claim statement of your own words. It may be helpful to review the Argumentative Writing - Structure slideshow under the “Resource” section of Google Classroom. You will be graded based on:
-Claim statement that addresses the prompt

-Writing Structure and Form

-Connections to content/ historical examples

-Use of historical examples to support a claim

Find a news article where the headline grabs your attention and read it. You may use social media, Google, or printed newspapers to find one.

Respond to each in writing:
-Summarize the article in 3-4 sentences

-Do you feel the headline fits the article? Why or why not?

-If you had to re-write the headline for the article, what might you write and why?

Industrialization:
Argumentative Essay

To demonstrate what you’ve learned over the course of our unit on the Gilded Age, you will be writing a 5-paragraph format argumentative essay answering the prompt: Did Industrialization represent a positive or negative change for Americans? For this prompt, you will also need to include a “counter-claim” which addresses an argument made from the opposing viewpoint in order to strengthen your own argument. Please refer to the “Argumentative Writing - Structure” slideshow under the Resource section of Google Classroom to help frame your writing. Since you have a week to complete this, you should take plenty of time to organize your thoughts before you begin writing. An organizer is included on Google Classroom to help you plan out each section of your essay.

Required components:

Structure:

-5 paragraphs: Introduction, Conclusion, and three body paragraphs
-Clear and concise claim statement addressing the prompt

Evidence:

-Minimum three pieces of evidence from the unit, clearly explained

-Counter-claim: address an argument from the opposing viewpoint

-Context explaining why this evidence supports your claim statement.

Presentation:

-Proof-read for spelling, grammar, punctuation and fluency

DUE: Monday, December 17th

Total Points: 50

American Journey - Chapter 19: Section 3
Fill out your vocabulary as necessary and add notes to your T-chart on Industrialization based on notes you take from the reading. 

Add to your vocabulary list based on textbook and in class readings. 

American Journey - Chapter 19: Section 1
For this section define all bolded and highlighted words, and respond to each of the "Reading Checks" throughout the section using complete sentences and information from the text.

There will be no quiz for our unit on Westward expansion, however, there will be an open-note in-class writing prompt on Friday, 11/9 featuring short answer and extended response to conclude our unit.

Read the article on the Carlisle Boarding School on Google Classroom, write a 5 sentences summary in response.  

Read and take notes in American Journey - Chapter 18: Section 3. Use the guided notes from Wednesday's class as a model for your organization. 

Finish notes on American Journey - Chapter 18: Section 2 that we began in today's guided note activity. 

Read "An Overview of U.S. Westward Expansion" (on Google Classroom) and respond to the short answer in 4-5 complete sentences using two specific examples from the reading to support your idea. 

Read and take notes in your textbook, American Journey - Chapter 18: Section 1

Upcoming Quiz on Wednesday, October 17th
Reconstruction
Students can use their vocabulary lists and guiding questions to study. Tuesday's class will be a review day.

Finish short answer responses to "The Southern Perspective on Reconstruction" reading from class. 

American Journey - Chapter 17: Sections 3 & 4
Read and take notes in your textbook in "Q & A" format. There is a guided note taking document available on Google classroom. 

American Journey - Chapter 17: Section 2
Read and take notes in your textbook. Add to your vocabulary as you go. Be prepared to discuss Key Terms in class.

American Journey - Chapter 17: Section 1
Read and take notes (about one full page of notes is plenty) in your textbook.

Students are to finish their individual response to the Civil War text comparison activity and submit via Google Classroom.

Since one section was not told during class about the homework, all assigned reading and notes this week are due on Thursday:
Read and take notes on Chapter 16 of your textbook- American Journey. By Thursday you should have notes on:
-Section 1
-Section 2 ("Emancipation Proclamation" only)
-Section 3

Students' first short writing assignment for this class will be a comparison and contrast of the economies of the North and South during the Antebellum Period (1820-1860). 

Required components:
-One full paragraph (6-10 sentences)     
-Comparison between one or more areas of the economy between North and South (Industry, Agriculture, People, etc.)
-Inclusion of detail from class reading: Industry and Economy During the Civil War
-Proof reading for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and fluency