Civil Rights, Day 11 - Class Recap

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. Photo taken in 2011.

Dear class,

I hope that you enjoyed your sunny weekend! I know I sure did, especially with being able to go through all of your activist projects! Today is really the last day of the Civil Rights unit. Here's what we did:

Learning Targets Addressed:
SS.HS.KN.ALT.17: I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place or region.
SS.HS.KN.ALT.19: I can explain the role and impacts of social hierarchies.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.01: I can organize ideas in a logically sequenced manner and in a way that is appropriate to the content area.

Soundtrack: “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2. Selected for today because the song is about Martin Luther King Jr., who was one of your options to write about in the in-class DBQ. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/15/14:
News Brief
Activist Project Grades
DBQ Write
Make Up Work Time

Homework: Turn in any late/missing work by next Wednesday for progress report grades. Read the blog! Next news brief: Caden

News Brief: Lauren selected this story to talk about today in class: FOXNews.com - Van kills boy, 4, returning from father's funeral. What an absolutely heartbreaking story. The details are just terrible. The boy's father was killed by a stray bullet intended for a 16-year-old. The boy himself was running towards his mother. Just awful, awful news. Not really much else I can say.

Activist Project Grades: If you turned in the activist project last class, I graded it and got it back to you today in class. How is that for a quick turnaround? Here is how I broke down the grading rubric for the assignment:

RE.ALT.04: Use evidence

Present evidence = look of poster/brochure, amount of time and effort put into the design and writing sections, slogan

Synthesize specific information = overall message/point and how well it is conveyed

CO.ALT.01: Organize ideas

Transitions effectively/develop the topic thoroughly = spelling, grammar, amount of time and effort put into the writing

CR.ALT.04: Evaluate information 

Conclusion = strategies and recommendations for help section

Clearly analyze and explain strengths and weaknesses = opposition section

Please see me if you are at all confused about the grade you received. Thanks for your hard work on these!

DBQ Write: The rest of the class was for actually writing the five paragraph Document Based Question that we started brainstorming last week. The entire Civil Rights unit was fair game for writing about and using in your essay response to the prompt of: How did social hierarchies lead to the Civil Rights Movement and which method of activism was more efficient for promoting change?

The document packet (which you had to use two sources from) contained perspectives from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as to their methods of activism. There were also a lot of other in class materials that you could use to get to your four total sources needed. Thank you for your hard work on this in class! I know this was not the most fun day for many of you. The ability to write a basic essay is so important for your academic success, though!

Make Up Work Time: If you were able to finish the DBQ early, the rest of the time in class was for making up missing and/or late work for me. Please be checking your grade print outs (by student ID) in the room, to stay updated about your current grade as progress reports and the end of the year approaches!