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Welcome to Social Studies 8:  American History, Geography, and Government from Jamestown through Reconstruction, 1607-1877

Welcome to Social Studies 8 for 2024-25 with Mr. Frankmann, Mr. Montello (Miss Kozar), and Mrs. Tyrrell! 

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2ND SEMESTER

American History Action Hero Padlets:

Tyrrell 2nd Period,   Tyrrell 3rd Period,  Tyrrell 5th Period, Tyrrell 6th Period,  Tyrrell 8th Period

Montello 3rd Period, 

Frankmann 5th Period,  Frankmann 6th Period,  Frankmann 7th Period,  Frankmann 8th Period

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Week 20: Class Officer Election / End of Reconstruction / American History Heroes

We hope you enjoyed your long, Memorial Day Weekend.  Memorial Day, FYI, began as "Decoration Day" after the Civil War when the Union Army Veterans organization, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) encouraged civilians to remember the veterans by decorating veteran graves in their local and the new national cemeteries. AURORA MEMORIAL DAY 2025 SLIDE SHOW

This week we will wrap up the course and the year.   Your American History Hero Action Figures look and read great... keep them coming and keep posting them to your class Padlet (see above or your Google Classroom).  We'll do more with these on Wednesday.

Also Wednesday first period are the Class Officer Candidate speeches to be followed by voting in your Social Studies Class.  Your Class President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer will be announced at the 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony Wednesday night.

Tuesday, we'll finish our work with Reconstruction and share questions and take aways.

After 1872, with Ulyssess S. Grant in office as President, Reconstruction will continue to proceed through a series of "Steps Forward/ Steps Back" until it officially ends as part of the Compromise of 1877 that decides the 1876 Presidential Election in favor of Ruthford B. Hayes.  We'll follow up on the Reconstruction 360 activity (sorry for the technical glitches) and work in some final ABC-CLIO for further background on the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, The Freedmen's Bureau, Sharecropping, Jim Crow Laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, and "Separate but Equal" plus more.  

After 12 years of trying to put the nation back together without slavery, when officially ended in 1877, would you consider the programs of Reconstruction to have been more of a success or a failure?  What does this time period teach about how change happens over time?

This is your last week of 8th grade, and we hope you'll finish strong.

Thursday, weather permitting, we plan on playing Civil War rules baseball (Baseball became a national pastime during the Civil War when it was played within, and between regiments during any down time between battles.)  If weather doesn't allow, we have other fun, final activities to do in the classroom.

Thursday is also the last day to turn in any missing assignments.  Friday is the teacher workday.  Our final grades are due to be submitted by the end of the day.

Have a great summer break full of adventures and good times with family and friends.  Then, we wish you the best of all possible starts to your high school careers whether at AHS or elsewhere.

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Week 19: Civil War End Game + Reconstruction 1863-1872

Civil War and Reconstruction Study Guide:  Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Index

Civil War and Reconstruction Resource Page

Freshman Class Officer Candidate Application Form:  Due by Thursday, May 22nd.

This week we will finish viewing the movie Glory, and then follow up by exploring the grueling timeline of the end of the Civil War from July 1863 through April 1865.  On hearing the news of the Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in July, 1863, it was hoped that the war would end quickly.  It didn't.  Confederate armies resisted to the bitter end... and hoped that by raising the human and economic costs of the war they could impact Northern public opinion in the Election of 1864 and vote for the Peace Democrat George McClellan (who was the Union commander at Antietam) who promised to end the war and let the South go.  Lincoln takes his fighting general Ulysses S. Grant from the Western Theatre and puts him in command of the Army of the Potomac back East... to fight Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia all the way back to Richmond.  Out West, Grant's 2nd in command, William Tecumseh Sherman will embark his army on a campaign of destruction across Tennessee to capture Atlanta and then continue through Georgia to the sea to destroy Southern supply lines and break the will of Southern civilians to continue to support the fight.

Thanks to Sherman's successes, Lincoln is reelected in November 1864.  Lincoln takes his 2nd term mandate and works with Congress to pass a 13th Amendment abolishing slavery before the end of the War.  We'll watch scenes from the movie Lincoln that explore the politics of passing the 13th amendment as well as the last couple of months of the war including Lee's surrender at Appomattox, and Lincoln's Assassination.  We'll also read closely Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address which gave his understanding of the cause and cost of the war, as well as his thoughts about rebuilding the nation after the war... in other words, "Reconstruction". 

Lincoln didn't live long after leading the Union to victory in the Civil War- only 6 days in fact. He was assassinated before he could  lead the nation in winning the peace by realizing his vision of Reconstruction. His Vice President Andrew Johnson will take over- and change the course for Reconstruction. This sets up conflict with a Radical Republican controlled Congress once it becomes clear that the Southern States won't respect the terms of their readmission to the Union and begin discriminating against the "Freedmen".  Congress will impeach Johnson and take over Reconstruction... and Reconstruction will proceed through a series of "Steps Forward/ Steps Back". This week we will explore the Reconstruction timeline to 1872, the 13th, 14th, and 15th "Reconstruction" amendments, great efforts to rebuild the South without slavery, and the start of serious resistance to those efforts.

Next week we will examine the End of Reconstruction through 1877 to finish our curriculum, reflect on the year by looking back at American History "Action Heroes,  and look ahead to Summer Break and your Freshman Year to follow.  Social Studies will also be the place that you will vote for your Freshman Class Officers.  More info to follow about that from Mr. Beaumont.

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Week 18: Civil War 1861-1863

Civil War and Reconstruction Study Guide:  Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Index

Civil War and Reconstruction Resource Page

Causes of the Civil War Summatives will be returned and reviewed later this week once all students have completed them.  This week we will begin our last unit of the year: Civil War and Reconstruction 1861-1877.  Thursday this week we will not have regular classes, but will follow a modified activity schedule because of the majority of the 8th grade going to Cedar Point for their Band, Orchestra, or Choir competitions/performances.

As feared, the election of the Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860, who won all of, but only the Northern Free States will lead to the beginning of a long feared Civil War. This week we will follow the course of events from Lincoln's Election in 1860 through the Secession of Southern States, to Lincoln's Inaugural in March 1861, and the First Shots being fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861.  We'll then examine the Balance of Forces (Northern and Southern Advantages and Disadvantages) and the Opposing War Strategies that resulted into the first two years of the War up to the Battle of Antietam in September 1862.  This will set students up to understand the movie Glory that we will begin viewing in class this week about the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment from recruitment, through training, to combat.  Glory teaches about the Civil War home front and warfront,  the politics of the war, the lives of soldiers, and the differences between North and South better than any other film that we have seen.

Our viewing of Glory will show you how Civil War units were formed, organized, and trained for battle.  You'll learn the different ranks, and see examples of good and bad military leadership.  You'll encounter many different perspectives on and purposes for fighting.  You'll witness tremendous courage and perseverance.  You'll learn about soldier life in-between battles, how troops stayed in contact with home and how and why they fought the way they did when battle came. 

This week you'll closely read and annotate the first of three key Lincoln documents, the Emancipation Proclamation, that together show his evolution as commander in chief over the course of the war. We'll introduce Civil War primary sources Artifacts, Letters and Diary Entries, Newspaper Articles, Songs and Lyrics, Photographs, Lithographs, and Sketches as we follow the course of the war from 1861 through 1863.  Finally, you'll make connections between what we study in Social Studies with the Civil War Poetry that you've been reading and analyzing in ELA. 

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Week 17: Timeline 1857-1860 + Causes of the Civil War Summative

Causes of the Civil War 1850-1860 Study Guide-  Guiding Questions, Identifications, ABC-CLIO Index 

Causes of the Civil War Google Site Resource Page

Mission U.S. endings and lessons learned will be discussed this week.  Your experiences in the game can and should be used as context for understanding the later course of events that we will study this week up through the Election of 1860 and can definitely be referred to as supporting evidence for your answer to the extended response question on the summative Friday.

ELA Classes will be doing their Poetry unit while we study these years during which poetry was one of the key genres by which ordinary people- not just published poets, expressed themselves about life and the issues of the day.  

Here are the timeline highlights that we will study this week.

In 1857, Dred Scott, an enslaved man in Missouri took his case for freedom all the way to the Supreme Court with the assistance of the abolitionist that he was suing in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford.  It was hoped that the decision would undo the Kansas-Nebraska act and the Fugitive Slave act but produced the opposite result... almost a worst-case scenario result that declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, stated that African Americans could never be citizens, and opened the entire country up to slavery. 

In 1858 Abraham Lincoln challenged Stephen Douglas for the Senate from Illinois and in a series of 7 debates that drew national attention and made Lincoln a national political figure, discussed all of the above.  Lincoln lost...when the Illinois State Legislature sent Douglas back to Washington, but will challenge Douglas again in 1860- for president.

Also in 1858, many residents of the town of Oberlin, Ohio together rescued a fugitive slave from slave catchers who had tracked him to Oberlin and recaptured him... the residents getting him to safety in Canada and daring the authorities to take them to court.  The authorities did- on charges of violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and that Oberlin-Wellington Fugitive Slave Rescue Trial held in Cleveland Ohio drew almost as much national attention as did the Dred Scott case. 

In 1859, the biggest event will be John Brown's failed Raid on Harper's Ferry that he meant to trigger a massive slave uprising that would lead to the end of slavery throughout the United States.  His trial and execution put the United States itself on trial, and made him a martyr to the cause of abolition that perhaps drove the final wedge between North and South.  Was he a hero or a villain?

For the Election of 1860 we'll examine the 4 parties that fielded candidates along with their platforms: The Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln,  the Northern Democratic Party and Stephen Douglas, the Southern Democratic Party and John Breckenridge, and the Constitutional Union Party and John Bell. Could any keep the Union united?  What issues did they stand on besides their positions on Slavery?  Did they have anything in common at all?  How would you have voted?

The Causes of the Civil War Summative is scheduled for Friday, May 9th, and will be a traditional Edulastic/Pear Assessment Test worth 50 points.

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Week 16: Mission U.S. 2 Flight to Freedom + Timeline 1850-56

Causes of the Civil War 1850-1860 Study Guide-  Guiding Questions, Identifications, ABC-CLIO Index 

Causes of the Civil War Google Site Resource Page

Maps will be returned this week with final scores.  Check out the Hallway bulletin boards for a display of some of the most interesting.

Highlights of this week:

On AIR testing days Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday you'll play and journal your experiences with Mission U.S. 2: Flight to Freedom in which you'll play the part of a 14 year old enslaved girl who runs to freedom from Kentucky to Ohio and then has to remain free through the years 1848-1852.  Your game journal and reflections posted to a Google Question will be due at the end of class on Friday.

On regular schedule days, Monday and Thursday, we will survey the 1850 Compromise including the NEW Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and then learn about Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin that was written in response and went viral.  You'll also read/ hear some of Frederick Douglass' oratory about the times from his speech, What to a Slave is the 4th of July?  The we'll continue with the timeline up to the election of 1856

In 1854, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas, the "Little Giant" guided the Kansas-Nebraska Act to passage which opened up those territories to the possibility of slavery by leaving the choice up to "popular sovereignty"- The majority vote of the people in the territory when submitting their application for statehood.  The consequence was a civil war in the Kansas Territory that came to be known as "Bleeding Kansas"  as pro-slavers and free-soilers rushed in to decide that majority. John Brown from Hudson, Ohio, was one of the free-soilers who resorted to fighting violence with violence.  Also in 1854, Frederick Douglass connected abolitionism to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence through his speech "What to a Slave is the 4th of July?"

In 1856, the new Republican Party ran its first candidate for president- John C. Fremont who won 114 Electoral Votes- all from the North.

Week 15: Map Eval/ Quiz + Causes of the Civil War 1850-1852

We hope you enjoyed your long weekend, and are looking forward to seeing your masterpiece Territorial Growth Maps on Tuesday.  Tuesday, you'll exchange maps with a classmate for peer evaluation, and then, with your table group take an open map quiz about U.S. territorial growth from 1783 to 1853 and beyond.

Just FYI, we are working on scoring your Early Republic Presidential Interview Projects, and will return your scores with rubrics once all are finished.  So far, the are looking really good.

After Tuesday, we'll begin our Causes of the Civil War Unit by catching up with the Abolitionist and Women's Rights Movements, and then following the course of events from California Statehood in 1850 up through the Election of 1860 that set the stage for the Civil War.

Causes of the Civil War 1850-1860 Study Guide-  Guiding Questions, Identifications, ABC-CLIO Index

Throughout these years, the slavery issue dominated American politics.  Compromises in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution protected it, and the Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850 enabled it to continue expanding through the addition of new slave states on an equal pace with the addition of new free states.  In 1850 there was a perfect balance of 15 free and 15 slave states.  The admission of California in 1850 as a free state tipped the balance, but came with compromises that set North and South on a collision course.  The biggest divider was enforcement of the tough new Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which made it illegal to protect known fugitive slaves who had escaped to the Free States. 

Already, Reform movements were building in the United States.  The first and most insistent, was the Abolitionist movement to abolish slavery that took off in the 1830's.  Different approaches to the cause kept the movement divided, but among the most important advocates were women.  This political activism among women who were not able to vote or hold public office in order to effect the changes desired themselves led to the beginning of the Women's Rights Movement.  The Seneca Falls Convention held in 1848 is considered to be the official beginning of the national movement.  Roots of this movement lie with the young women who started working in the textile factories of New England- in particular at Lowell.  About them, you'll have the opportunity to play the Lowell Factory Girl game online for extra credit.

We'll read closely and annotate 2 key abolitionist and women's rights documents:  The 1831 Manifesto of the American Anti-Slavery Society and the 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments. 

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was the key concession to the Southern States given to win admission of California as a free state.  Meant to shut down the Underground Railroad, it effectively empowered Southern enslavers to pursue and recover their fugitive "property" anywhere, and required everyone- law enforcement and citizens alike to help them.  Of course this was resisted and only increased tensions.

The act prompted Harriet Beecher Stowe to write the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 which depicted the horrors of slavery in a way that made Northerners care about the enslaved themselves and became a runaway best seller quickly adapted into theater productions.  More than fiction, personal accounts of slavery shared by the enslaved who escape will convey the horrors of the institution.  Frederick Douglass' speech "What to a Slave is the 4th of July" will challenge the North to recognize the disconnect between the values of the Declaration of Independence and the realities of slavery. These  challenges lead Southerners to counter with their own stories of slavery that portrayed it as far better than the "wage slavery" endured by workers in Northern Factories.

Finally this week, you will be introduced to the next Mission U.S. mission: Flight to Freedom, where you will play the role of a 14 year old enslaved girl from Kentucky who runs for freedom to Ohio, where you will need to decide about how to pass for free while working to free the rest of your family and/ or continue on your path to guaranteed freedom in Canada. You will be given time in class to play this simulation on the AIR Math and Science testing days next week.

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Week 14: Mexican War, California Gold Rush and Statehood, and Final Map Workday

Check out the Final Presidential Interviews!

PRESIDENTIAL AI INTERVIEW PROJECT 

Frankmann Projects,    Montello Projects,   Tyrrell Projects

Throughout this week as we finish up your rough drafts through teaching the history that you are mapping, you should be working on your Final Territorial Growth maps as we finish up your rough drafts according to the instructions and rubrics provided in class.  Thursday, April 17th will be a full period Final Map workday in class.  Final Maps are due on Tuesday, April 22nd. 

Content-wise this week we'll follow up on last week's survey of American's heading West to Texas and Oregon from the 1820's to the early 1840's with a look at Texas Annexation in 1845 and the War with Mexico from 1846-1848 which resulted and led to the acquisition of all remaining territory west to the Pacific in 1848. Doing so will be driven by a sense of what has been called "Manifest Destiny" - a belief in the superiority of American politics, economics, and culture and that we had a right to acquire all of this territory. Meanwhile, mass migration to Oregon along a trail of the same name with branches to Utah and California will result in the U.S. dividing the Oregon Territory with Britain at the 49th parallel in 1846.  Mormons will follow a section of the trail to establish their settlements around the Great Salt Lake.  The California Gold Rush which begins in 1849 will attract so many migrants hoping to strike it rich that population will reach statehood levels in 1850.  Up until the admission of California as a free state in 1850, additional states have joined in an order to keep a balance between free and slave.  Admitting California will involve a constitutional crisis very similar to that provoked by the admission of Missouri... and the Compromise of 1850 that gets it done will set the stage for escalating tensions all the way up to the start of the Civil War in 1861.  (Causes of the Civil War is our next unit).  The U.S. will purchase one additional section of territory from Mexico in 1853, The Gadsden Purchase with the goal of connecting California back to the states in the East by a transcontinental railroad.

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Week 13: Presidential Interview Project and Manifest Destiny

This week you will work with your partner to prepare for, conduct, and then analyze your interview with your assigned president on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

All of the content resources needed for your Presidential Interview Project are located on the Google Site Presidents Page.  Additional online resources for each of the Early Republic Presidents are located on the Early Republic Unit Resource page... just scroll down to explore your assigned president.

Project documents will be provided through Classroom for you to share with your partner and then submit.

On Thursday we will follow up on Jackson, and pick up with the Territorial Growth of the United States into The West that was driven by a perspective that has come to be known as Manifest Destiny.

You will also be provided instructions, a checklist of what to map, and a blank U.S. Map on which to create your Final U.S. Territorial Growth Map which will count as a 50 point summative when turned in, peer evaluated, and scored, on Thursday, April 17th.  You can get started by working from your rough draft maps to map the growth of the U.S. form 1783 to 1836.

This week we will continue to add to your rough drafts through lessons on Texas Independence, and the trails that enabled Americans to migrate to Oregon, and into Mexican Territory in what will become Utah and California.

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Week 12- Early Republic II- Monroe, JQ Adams, Jackson 1817-1837

Welcome back from Spring Break!  

Early Republic Study Guide: Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Topic Index

AI Presidential Interviews Project Instructions

Google Site Presidents Page + Early Republic Resource Page

This week we will finish our survey of the Early Republic Presidents- finishing up with Monroe and Moving on through John Quincy Adams to Andrew Jackson to set up for the Presidential Museum project.

James Monroe, Madison's Secretary of State is elected president in 1816 and again in 1820 by a landslide. He is fortunate to preside over one of the great periods of peace and prosperity in American History which has come to be known as the Era of Good Feelings.  Many new states join the Union as a result of the end of Native American resistance and join in a pattern alternating between free and slave states.  Tensions rise over when the first truly new state West of the Mississippi applies for Statehood in 1820 as a slave state- Missouri, and claims boundaries beyond what the Free States were willing to allow.  Congress led by Henry Clay compromises on this  in the Missouri Compromise and figures out a way to keep the balance then- and into the forseeable future.  Under Monroe, the U.S. acquires Florida from Spain, and he issues his Monroe Doctrine stating that the U.S. will stay out of European affairs but will not allow Europe to meddle in American affairs... which they were considering doing to restore the newly independent Latin American republics to Spanish rule.

After Monroe steps down after his 2nd term, multiple candidates from the Democratic-Republican party run for president in 1824 including Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson.  None wins a majority of the electoral vote, and so again the election is decided in Congress which chooses Adams- even though Jackson had the most popular and electoral votes.  Bad blood that follows this "corrupt bargain" is going to poison American politics throughout Adam's presidency.

Meanwhile, two revolutions are beginning in America- the Industrial Revolution and the Transportation Revolution.  The government, pursuing and economic policy called "The American System" is going to promote both.  Protective Tariffs will protect American manufactures and raise revenue to be spent on "internal improvements"- especially roads, bridges, and canals to connect North, South, and West.  Railroads and Steamboats will follow to speed up connections. The North will specialize in factory manufacturing spinning cotton grown in the slave holding South into textiles for clothing. The demand for labor in the North will make it the destination for waves of Immigrants from Northwestern Europe  The Frontier West will specialize in agriculture to feed the Northeastern cities and Southern slave plantations.  The South becomes a "Cotton Kingdom" specializing in producing that with slave labor... and cotton becomes America's number one export.  Funds from cotton enable the South to become a market for everything from everywhere.  The unintended consequence though of promoting economic unity through specialization will be political sectionalism following from that specialization.

After winning more popular votes and more electoral votes in the 1824 election than any of the other 4 candidates- yet being denied the presidency by the "corrupt bargain" reached by the House to choose John Quincy Adams, Jackson spends the next four year preparing for the rematch in 1828.  By then, laws had changed in many states to remove the property qualification for voting, and Jackson's "common man" appeal wins a big majority of the popular vote and an even bigger majority of the electoral vote.  He heads to Washington as their champion, and delivers on his promises to advance their interests. His Spoils System, Cabinet Appointments, support for the Indian Removal Act, and his opposition to the National Bank were very popular with a majority of Americans.  With a mandate and a strong personality, Jackson will reinvent the presidency and increase the power of that office and the executive branch beyond those of any of his predecessors.  As a "strong"  president, he is credited with being America's first "modern"  president and for resetting the course of the nation.  He can also be seen as a nationalist who upheld national unity over states rights in his dealings with the Nullification Crisis provoked by South Carolina's resistance to the "Tariff of Abominations"

Andrew Jackson was a character who was loved by many, and hated by others.  How will you judge his presidency?  Do you think he is worthy of remaining on America's $20 bill?  If yes, why?  If no- who would you suggest replace him?

As we study the years 1820-1836, we'll also keep updating the Map of the United States as new states are admitted and new boundaries are drawn, and some interesting developments take place just over our borders.

Once we finish up with Andrew Jackson on Friday, you'll choose a project partner, draw the name of one of the Early Republic Presidents, and start planning your Presidential Interview Project which will be completed in class Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week.

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Week 11- Early Republic I- Jefferson, Madison, and the War of 1812 

This is the start of 4th Quarter.

Early Republic Study Guide: Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Topic Index

AI Presidential Interviews Project Instructions

Google Site Presidents Page + Early Republic Resource Page

Last week we introduced the Leadership Characteristics used by the Historians in the C-SPAN Presidential Surveys to rank presidents against each other.  You worked with these characteristics to evaluate Washington and Adams, and will apply the same to Jefferson.  We'll continue to work with these this week and next until we've completed our survey of the Early Republic's 7 Presidents- adding Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson to set the stage for our AI Presidential Interview Project

We also began mapping the territorial growth of the United States under the Early Republic Presidents, and will continue to do so this week.

Monday, we'll follow up on the Election of 1800 which ended up having a surprise twist that will lead to the 12th Constitutional Amendment.  We'll then see how Jefferson does at living up to his campaign promises during his first term.  Tuesday, we will view an incredible video: Lewis and Clark, Great Journey West which follows the expedition sent by Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase out to the Continental Divide and beyond all the way to the Pacific to assert the United States' claim to the Northwest.  Then we'll finish up with Jefferson, and survey Madison and the War of 1812 before you head off to Spring Break.

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Week 10- Early Republic I- Washington and Adams and the Election of 1800.

Early Republic Study Guide: Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Topic Index

AI Presidential Interviews Project Instructions

Google Site Presidents Page + Early Republic Resource Page

Articles to Constitution Summatives will be released and reviewed later this week once all students have completed them.

THIS IS THE LAST WEEK OF 3RD QUARTER.  PLEASE CHECK YOUR PIV'S AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE EVERYTHING TURNED IN.

We hope you enjoyed the Playhouse Square production of Harriet Tubman and the Underground RR that we viewed in class on Friday.  We will follow up on this Monday- and then connect back to it again during our Causes of the Civil War Unit in April.

This week we are beginning our Early Republic unit which will explore how the Constitution was put into action and how our early Presidential administrations and Congresses dealt with key domestic and foreign policy challenges. In responding to a question about what form of government the Constitutional Convention of 1787 had created, Ben Franklin famously replied, "a republic if you can keep it".  America's first 7 presidents and the Congresses that they worked with and against will be put to severe tests during the time referred to as "The Early Republic".  Overall we will study Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson covering the years 1789 through 1836.  Each president's administration is a case study in leadership that we will explore through a variety of activities.  In the end, you and a partner will interview one of the first 7 presidents using Magic School AI an for our Presidential Interview Project and see how your "live" interaction confirms or changes your first impression of your assigned president.

We will judge the performance of each president against the 10 leadership characteristics used in the C-Span Historical Rankings by Historians surveys.  This will be a major exercise in thinking like a historian that will really help you see connections between past and present.  Washington invented the presidency during his two terms as he juggled emerging, opposing political parties within his own cabinet,  worked to secure both the government and the economy of the United States which had both struggled since the end of the War for Independence, and then had to deal with the consequences of the French Revolution which, due to our alliance with France, threatened to draw us into a new world war.  ABC-CLIO provides great background on all of this, but first of all you'll be challenged to consider the options that Washington had to choose among in the Critical Decisions of George Washington game or a Be Washington simulation, or both.  The Facing History Organization approaches history this way.  Their sloga is, "People make choices, and choices make history". After voluntarily stepping down after two terms (a very important precedent)- Washington leaves advice to both his successors and the country with his Farewell Address. How relevant do you still find his vision for our country today?

In 1796 Washington's vice president, John Adams runs as a Federalist and wins the presidency. Thomas Jefferson- the leader of the Democratic Republicans finishes 2nd, and thus serves as Adam's vice president.  The two compete from the start- most outspokenly over foreign policy and how to respond to the threat of the growing conflict between Britain and France that continually impacts American trade.  For a while, France will emerge as the greater threat.  Because Americans split along political lines in support for Britain or France, their politics will threaten American unity and provoke action by Congress that limits political free speech along with immigration and naturalization in the name of national security through the Alien and Sedition Acts.

In the Election of 1800 which we will simulate with a mock campaign debate, Jefferson will defeat Adams for the presidency.  Because of a glitch in the rules of the Electoral College his vice presidential candidate- Aaron Burr actually ties in the count. Congress will thus decide the election and Alexander Hamilton- again the leader of the Federalists uses his influence to give the election to Jefferson who he considers to be "less dangerous".  Despite the ugliness and divisiveness of the campaigning, power transfers peacefully from one party to the other... and is so remarkable in that, that it is referred to as the Revolution of 1800.  Once in office, Jefferson will work to deliver on his campaign promises, and you will discover quite a record by which to judge his presidency.   Overall he has a pretty successful first term. We'll study Jefferson's 2nd term next week.

Another long term activity that we'll begin with this unit is the mapping of the territorial growth of the United States.   You'll be provided a large blank 11 X17 inch map of the U.S. that we'll keep updated as new states are added whether free or slave, and as new territory is added to the United States itself. This rough draft will then help you complete your final Territorial Growth Map of the U.S. 1783-1853 project during our Manifest Destiny unit which follows.

See the Assignments page for links to specific ABC-CLIO articles, other online features, and electoral maps for each president that we will work with in class, but if you want to explore more, check out the Presidents page, along with the Resources/ Early Republic page that are linked to the menu to the left. 

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Week 9- The Bill of Rights + Articles to Constitution Summative

Articles to Constitution Unit Study Guide:  Guiding Questions,  ID's,

Your Race to Ratify game journal and results are due on Tuesday after the Long Weekend. The Articles to Constitution Summative is Thursday, March 6th.

A Bill of Rights  is finally promised to win Anti-Federalist support for ratification, and is delivered with the First Ten Amendments to the Constitution that are introduced as among the first business of the new government under the new constitution and ratified by 1791.  We will survey all 10 of these amendments and relate them back to the grievances in the Declaration of Independence that document our experiences with tyranny under British rule.  We'll continually ask the question, "could that happen here all over again, under our current constitution"?  We will also take a look at a couple of school incidents that reached the Supreme Court to see how the Bill of Rights truly does impact you on a daily basis.  We the People Lessons 23-24, and 27 examine school-centered civil rights court cases.  To learn even more about the Bill of Rights, you might try playing iCivic's "Do I Have a Right"  game.  (If you do- play in Bill of Rights only mode).

Tuesday we will discuss the results of your iCivics Race to Ratify games which are due to be finished when you walk into class.  If you played the role of a Federalist, were you able to get the Constitution ratified by at least 9 states as required by the Constitution?  If you played the role of an Anti-Federalist were you able to prevent that by winning enough states to block ratification?  What did you learn about additional arguments for and against the Constitution as well as about different interests among the 13 states.  Which ever role you chose, you were playing politics... and politics get both local, and personal.  

Our Constitution was written with the hope that Political Parties wouldn't emerge in the United States as they had in Britain.  But, the origins of our first political parties go back to the opposing viewpoints taken in the debates over ratification of the Constitution.  Once our new government is elected under the Constitution and begins to operate in the Spring of 1789, Federalists and Anti-Federalists will only become more organized as each looks past the Constitution to advocate for different approaches to specific domestic and foreign policy challenges.

The Summative on Thursday. will be on Pear Assessment, be worth 50 points and consist of 30 multiple choice / matching type questions plus 2 Extended Response questions.  As always, there will be 2 bonus questions where you can earn 2 points of extra credit for sharing your feedback about the unit. Don't forget to review your guiding questions and ID's list that have been posted to classroom since the first day of the unit, and don't forget to review all of your notes, papers, and activities.  This test will cover: The Articles of Confederation, The Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Shays Rebellion, your class Mock Constitutional Convention as well as the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the compromises reached in each between different interests.  This test will also cover the Preamble of the Constitution, the Separate Branches, How a Bill becomes a Law, Checks and Balances, Federalism, Federalists and Anti-Federalists, the Ratification Debates, and the Bill of Rights. 

Finally on Friday, we have a special treat.  We have gotten access to a streamed Playhouse Square production of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad that we will view and discuss in class.  This is a preview of the America of our Causes of the Civil War unit which will run through most of April.

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Week 8- The U.S. Constitution and Ratification 

Articles to Constitution Unit Study Guide:  Guiding Questions,  ID's,

Don't forget that the Preamble/ Presidential Addresses Extra Credit opportunity is due this Friday, February 28th.  See your Google Classroom.

Good job everyone on your excellent Mock Constitutional Convention last week.  You'll soon see how the personalities and politics that were most prominent in your Convention, were also in place in the actual convention.  The topics that took the most time for you to decide, were also the same as those that most challenged the framers in the 1787 Constitutional Convention.

Monday, students will give their signing statements, in character, and either sign their support or sign their opposition to the Constitutions written by their class last week during our Mock Constitutional Convention.  We will then compare class constitutions to each other before beginning our exploration of the actual U.S. Constitution that was written behind closed doors through the Summer of 1787...

However far your class got in working through the Agenda of our Mock Constitutional Convention, you will be asked to analyze what you have decided, and then, from the point of view of the delegate you played announce and explain whether or not you could sign the Constitution in progress and recommend that it be ratified by your state. Ben Franklin's Speech to the actual convention will be read, and you can take his advice or leave it. We will then analyze your class constitution to see if it favors any of the particular 8 different interests or if it effectively has them balanced.  We'll then compare your constitution to other class constitutions, to the Articles of Confederation that it was meant to revise or replace, and then to the actual Constitution itself.

How did your class constitutional convention compare to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention?  Which delegates were the most influential?  Which topics sparked the most debate and discussion?  What compromises did you reach?  We'll work with the ABC-CLIO Topic: Constitutional Compromises as well as We the People Lessons 13,14,and 15 to dig into the details.

One of the great fears held by the founders as well as a majority of Americans who had lived under British Tyranny and fought for more freedom and democracy was that any government tended towards becoming too powerful.  Did the Constitution as drafted protect America from the development of tyranny under American rule?  As originally written there was no national Bill of Rights included.  Many Americans, including many of those involved in the drafting of the Constitution were concerned that the built in protections of Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, Federalism and more weren't enough to protect America from tyranny.  You will be challenged to complete a Constitution Scavenger Hunt to fully explore the document and discover it's key details, rules, and principles for yourself.

Those fearing strong government organized to oppose the ratification of the new constitution and became known as Anti-Federalists.  Leaders among the Anti-Federalists were Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry.  Those who believed America needed a stronger national government and argued that the Constitution was set up in a way to make dictatorship impossible organized as Federalists.  Leaders of the Federalists were Alexander Hamilton and John Jay who- along with James Madison wrote a series of over 100 essays that they published as the Federalist Papers to explain how the new constitution was meant to work- to make it make sense, and to win its ratification.  You'll see arguments on both sides and decide for yourself which party was most persuasive.  Playing the iCivics game Race to Ratify will deepen your understanding of American politics and theories of government.

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Week 7: Presidents' Day and Mock Constitutional Convention

We hope you enjoyed your long Valentine's Day / Presidents' Day weekend.  On Friday, We explored a number of exciting AI Social Studies applications that we are hoping to bring into future units of study- Chatbots in particular that will enable you to have simulated conversations with historical characters.  Stay tuned.

For Presidents Day, we are offering an Extra Credit opportunity working with a selection of Presidential Inaugural Addresses and the Purposes of Government as presented in the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States.  See your Google Classroom for the instructions and materials. Due date Friday, February 28th.

This week we will run our Mock Constitutional Convention.  Each student will be assigned a role that represents a specific delegate representing a specific state who was actually at the Convention.  12 of the 13 states sent delegates- the exception being Rhode Island which didn't trust what was going on.  Each delegate will introduce themselves giving some background and at least one thing that they wish to see written into either revisions to the Articles of Confederation or an entirely new Constitution.  Regardless of their specific positions and proposals, each delegate represents a combination of 4 out of a total of 8 interests:  Big State or Small State,  Strong Government or Weak Government, Northern or Southern, and Liquid or Landed.  Students will learn and use Parliamentary Procedure during this simulation as they work together to craft a Constitution for the United States.  

They will work through the big debates that actually occurred at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 including the number of houses for the Legislature, the basis of representation, how to count population, issues involving slavery and regulation of trade, decisions about the Executive and Judicial branches and their powers, along with concerns about terms, term limits, and checks and balances.  Students will work through an agenda as far as they can this week- and then whatever they accomplish, they will need to decide if they could sign it in their role as their specific delegate.  Afterwards we'll compare class constitutions to each other- and to the actual Constitution.

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Week 6: Winning is Easy, Governing is Harder: Articles to Constitution Unit Begins

Articles to Constitution Unit Study Guide:  Guiding Questions,  ID's,

Slavery and Liberty Summatives will be released and reviewed this week as soon as all students have completed it.

This week we will finish our crash course on how the U.S. won independence after declaring it, and then study the years following during which our new nation struggled under the provisions of its weak, first constitution, the Articles of Confederation.

It was by the Treaty of Paris that Britain recognized both American independence and the boundaries of the new United States.  We'll review the extent and costs of the war, and the challenges that the U.S. faced during peacetime which will set the stage for our new unit:  Articles to Constitution.

This new unit will explore how the U.S. struggled to remain united following victory in the War for Independence under it's original constitution, the Articles of Confederation from 1783 through 1787, and then simulate the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that produced our current Constitution. We'll then explore the structure and principles of The Constitution including separation of powers, checks and balances, and limited government, the ratification debates, and the addition of the first 10 amendments known together as the Bill of Rights.  Everything that we have studied so far in Social Studies 8 has led up to the Constitution, and every thing that we study afterwards will follow from it.

The problems faced by the new United States after the war are not unlike those faced by the Colonies and Britain as part of one Empire after the end of the French and Indian War.  This time though, the U.S. will have to handle them alone and with a much younger national government, much less unity, and a far smaller economy.

During the war, each colony declared independence from Britain in its own time, drafted its own constitution, elected its government and began functioning as an independent state.  During the war, the Continental Congress drafted our first constitution, the Articles of Confederation which set rules for the operation of the Congress.  As a Confederation, the U.S. was governed as the union of separate states- each of which was self governing.  Powers were limited purposely to respect the independence of the states and focused on managing common issues.

Having competed with each other as colonies, the states returned to that competition after the war.  Wartime unity disappeared quickly.  Lack of consensus led to struggles in dealing with the post war problems facing the country as a whole that fell differently upon the different states.  What about enslaved blacks and free blacks?  What about Native Americans?  What about competing claims to Western lands?  What about paying off the debts incurred during the war, making good on promises made to American soldiers and sailors and their families?  What about taxation?  What about restoring trade?  What about the Loyalists?

The greatest accomplishments of the Congress under the Articles after winning the war came in figuring out a plan for Western expansion and the admission of new states through the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.  The greatest weaknesses of the Congress under the Articles were revealed by its inability to deal with resistance to taxation in Massachusetts in 1787 that looked like a revolution was starting all over again.  This crisis was known as Shays Rebellion and led the states to call for a convention in 1787 for the purposes of revising the Articles of Confederation.

Next week we will recreate that event with our 4 day Mock Constitutional Convention. Roles will be assigned and instructions provided this Thursday, February 13th

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Week 5: Career Day, Slavery and Liberty Summative, War for Independence

Slavery and Liberty Study Guide: Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Slavery Index, 

Slavery and Liberty Google Site Resource Page,

This week will begin with a Career Day with your Guidance Counselors on Monday.  After checking in with your Social Studies teacher, classes will combine in the Commons in the Morning and in the Band Room in the afternoon to learn about potential careers and how your future goals will schedule your class choices.  AHS Counselors will then come to Harmon on Friday to meet with each one of you to finalize your schedule for next year.

Also to be assigned on Monday and due Thursday for HW is the America the Story of US Revolution Part I Edpuzzle.  This will help you review for the following.

Tuesday we will review for Wednesday's Slavery and Liberty Summative.

Following the Summative on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we will do a quick survey of the War for Independence to set up for our next unit. Because of our 3 days off in January we have had to condense this greatly to keep on pace with our curriculum.

Once the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the 2nd Continental Congress in July, 1776, the Revolutionary War became the War for Independence.  Fighting to secure American independence will go on for 6 more years, and negotiating a peace treaty recognizing American independence and boundaries will take 2 more.  The Treaty of Paris which officially does both won't be signed and ratified until 1783.

To study the War for Independence through which the United States won their independence in 1783 after declaring it in 1776, we will take a case study approach that explores both the perspectives of Continental Army soldiers and the leadership of George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army.  The film "We Fight to Be Free" that was created as the Mount Vernon visitor's center orientation movie explores Washington's experiences in the French and Indian War as background to his leadership in realizing the desperately needed surprise victory against the Hessians at Trenton after send the remnants of the Continental Army across the Delaware on December 25th, 1776. This will be followed up by the Be Washington online simulation of his decision making at the 2nd Battle of Trenton. 

America the Story of U.S. American Revolution Part I and Part II Edpuzzles will provide the big picture background on the War for Independence.

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Week 4: The Declaration of Independence

Slavery and Liberty Study Guide: Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Slavery Index, 

Slavery and Liberty Google Site Resource Page,

HW ALL WEEK IS TO COMPLETE ANY ACTIVITIES NOT FINISHED IN  CLASS

Plans have been updated to adjust from the cold days missed last week.  All classes have finished the Mount Vernon Lives Bound Together project by now and are moving into the Liberty part of the Slavery and Liberty unit.  (See below for a summary of key events of 1775-76 that provide the context for the Declaration of Independence which will be our focus this week).  Our Slavery and Liberty Summative has been rescheduled for next week for Wednesday, February 5th.

This week there are Parent Conferences on Wednesday, and all students should be getting teacher signatures on their scheduling forms for 9th grade.  Your Social Studies options are Social Studies 9- Modern World History, or AP Modern World History (signature required).  See your teacher if you have questions.  Mr. Frankmann will be signing schedule forms in class on Monday.

Again, please see a summary of this week's class content below- from April 1775 through the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.  

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Week 3: Slavery and Liberty: MLK Observance, Project Sharing, Timeline 1775-76, Declaring Independence.

Slavery and Liberty Study Guide: Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Slavery Index, 

Slavery and Liberty Google Site Resource Page,

Given the forecast for extreme cold and the possibility that school will be cancelled either Tuesday, or Wednesday, or both, please check back for plans once all is decided. Here however are the topics that we will be exploring this week once back to school.

First up, we will follow up on Roots and your Lives Bound Together Interview projects. On Tuesday you'll peer evaluate each other's project and then work together to connect the lives of the people whose lives you explored.  Here are links to the projects.

Lives Bound Together Interview Project Pages 2024-25   Frankmann     Montello     Tyrrell 

Then, having examined 18th Century Slavery we will follow up by examining the other side of the "American Paradox" - Liberty.  While at the same time Slavery was practiced in all 13 Colonies, patriots in all of the 13 Colonies were comparing their lives under increasingly restrictive British rule to slavery and demanding liberty for themselves.

After the first shots of the War were fired on April 19th, 1775 at Lexington, Concord, and along the road back to Boston, it took over a year for the Revolutionary War to become the War for Independence.

This week, we will look at the timeline from April 19th, 1775 through July 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was finally adopted. 

Throughout 1775 American Patriots represented by local committees and the 2nd Continental Congress pursued a policy of peace and strength at the same time.  After militia defend the high ground against a British attempt to break out of Boston at Bunker and Breeds Hills on the Charlestown Peninsula in June 1775, the Congress sends an Olive Branch Petition to Britain offering negotiations at about the same time that they appoint George Washington to travel to Boston to organize the militia there into the "Continental Army".  The King refuses to even see the petition and declares the Colonies to be in a state of rebellion. We will analyze both of these documents.  Meanwhile, "Green Mountain Boys" led by Ethan Allen will take the initiative and seize British Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York along with all of its canon... which will be hauled 300 miles through the wilderness to support the Siege of Boston. 

Following up on their capture of Ticonderoga, American forces invade Canada on two fronts in hopes of taking that foothold away from the British and winning the French Canadians over to the American cause.  Americans to take and hold Montreal for a while, but are defeated at Quebec.  French Canadians fear Americans more than the British, and remain loyal.  By December, 1775 American hopes to gain Canada as a 14th colony are dashed.  Similarly, most Native American groups will choose to fight for the British against Americans who they see as the greater threat.

In the competition for the hearts and minds of American Colonists as well as enslaved African Americans, Virginia Governor Lord Dunsmore issues a Proclamation offering freedom to the enslaved belonging to rebel enslavers if they run and support the British cause.  This will remain British policy throughout the war. In January 1776, a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine and entitled Common Sense makes the case for outright independence and sells like hotcakes throughout the colonies.

In March, 1776 Washington is able to maneuver the cannon from Ticonderoga onto the Dorchester Heights which command Boston Harbor and force the British to Evacuate Boston.  The Navy takes not only the British Army, but tens of thousands of British Loyalists away to Nova Scotia to regroup

From then on through July 1776, declaring independence is delayed by American politics which will also have a big impact on the wording of the Declaration of Independence itself. 

We will study all of the above, and really dig into the ideas, ideals, grievances, and language of the Declaration of Independence which remains the single greatest "statement of the American mind" that has ever been written, and which has remained the inspiration for American progress in all endeavors to the present day.

Finally, we will view scenes from the Musical 1776 that bring the politics of writing and adopting the Declaration of Independence to life.  In many ways, this was the original "Hamilton!" 

Again- check back to see final plans posted to the Assignments page once decisions are made about the weather and school for this week.

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Week 2: Slavery and Liberty: Roots Conclusion and Mount Vernon Lives Bound Together Interview Project

Slavery and Liberty Study Guide: Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Slavery Index, 

Slavery and Liberty Google Site Resource Page,

We hope you enjoyed your surprise long weekend! Monday, we will finish our viewing and discussion of Roots Episode II.  Unless otherwise announced by your teacher, all your Roots work will be due at the end of class on Monday. On Tuesday, we will continue our Slavery and Liberty Unit which explores the institution of slavery as it existed in 18th Century America at the same time as American Patriots were pushing for more liberties and using the language of slavery to describe their status under British rule. To follow up on Roots, we'll dig deeper through a case study mini-project into the institution of slavery in the 18th Century. You'll choose a partner or two to work with in investigating the lives of the enslaved who lived on George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation and bring them to life with a 10 Questions Interview mini project.  This project will introduce you to the Lives Bound Together exhibit that was developed by Mount Vernon along with extensive resources on 18th Century Slavery that have been created by Colonial Williamsburg.  Work will be done in class, and your project is due to be posted for presentation and peer review by Friday, January 17th.   Tuesday, January 21st will be our observance of the life an legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in recognition of his holiday on Monday. We'll then pick up the timeline towards Declaring Independence with a focused look at 1775-1776.  See your Google Classroom for materials in support of all the above.

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Week 1: Slavery and Liberty- Transatlantic Slave Trade and Roots

Welcome to 2025 and Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed your Winter Break, had great times with family and friends, and are rested and recharged and ready to power through the rest of your 8th grade year.  It won't be long before you plan your schedule for Freshman year, can you believe it?  2nd Semester in Social Studies includes some fascinating topics that we'll explore through some great activities and projects. Many of the topics though will involve hard history that we need to study to approach American History honestly.

We will begin 2025 and 2nd Semester with our Slavery and Liberty Unit which explores the institution of slavery as it existed in 18th Century America at the same time as American Patriots were pushing for more liberties and using the language of slavery to describe their status under British rule.  

Slavery and Liberty Study Guide: Guiding Questions, ID's, ABC-CLIO Slavery Index, 

Slavery and Liberty Google Site Resource Page,  Roots Viewing Guide

Our 18th Century Slavery unit explores the Atlantic Slave Trade along with Slavery throughout the 13 Colonies.   Thursday and Friday we'll begin a guided viewing of the 1977 TV Mini-Series ROOTS.  Specifically we will be viewing and fact checking Episode 2 which begins in 1767 at the time of the Townshend Acts and opens with the main character, the young Mandinka Warrior Kunta Kinte who was captured into slavery in Gambia participating in an uprising of enslaved Africans during their middle passage on the slave ship Lord Ligonier.  Once the crew regains control and completes the voyage, Kunte and the surviving Africans are sold at auction in Annapolis, Maryland.  Kunte is sold to a Virginia tobacco planter named John Reynolds, and an enslaved driver named Fiddler is given responsibility for teaching him how to speak English, and work hard doing exactly what he is told.  Life on a Virginia tobacco plantation with all of its roles and different circumstances and perspectives is presented honestly- especially those of Fiddler and Kunte as they grow to know each other.  We will explore the concept of human agency as it was exercised by every one of the enslaved in defense of their human dignity, relationships, and culture.  The 2 hour mini-series episode is divided up into 4 daily viewings which we will complete and discuss together in class.  The completed viewing, fact-checking, personal reflections guide is worth 60 points and will be due at the end of class on Friday.

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1ST SEMESTER

Week 18: Road to Revolution II up to the Shot Heard 'Round the World

Road to Revolution I Summatives will be returned and Reviewed this week.  Friday, is the last day of 2nd Quarter and the last day that any missing assignments may be turned in for any credit.

Because of all the other tests in Math, Science, Language Arts, and Science, we are not going to be giving a summative this week in Social Studies.  Each day's activities will stand alone, and count towards your 2nd Quarter grade.  What you don't finish in class needs to be completed before your next class.

This week we will follow the course of events from 1772 up through the first shots of the War for Independence that were fired at Lexington and Concord on April 19th, 1775.

After the Boston Massacre Trials conclude in late 1770, economic resistance continues, and in 1772 turns violent in the Gaspée Incident in Rhode Island.  In 1773, in order to prop up its struggling East India Tea Company by guaranteeing it the American market, Parliament passes the Tea Act.  To resist the threat of monopoly and to again stand up for No Taxation without Representation, patriots boycott the tea and find ways around paying the tax.  In Boston, enforcement of the boycott leads to a standoff that is resolved through the destruction of 3 shiploads of tea during the Boston Tea Party.  Britain will respond to this with the Coercive Acts (known as the Intolerable Acts by the colonists) and the Québec Act in 1774 which punish not only Massachusetts directly, but threaten all of the 13 Colonies indirectly.  The Committees of Correspondence organize the First Continental Congress which has delegates from most of the Colonies meet in Philadelphia to coordinate economic and political resistance, draft a statement of rights, and direct the training of militia throughout the colonies.  By the Spring of 1775 tensions are so high around occupied Boston, that Patrick Henry will predict the inevitability of war- and argue that America could win in his Give me Liberty or Give me Death speech.  War begins a month later at Lexington, just outside of Boston when British troops clash with Colonial Militia.  No one knows who fired the "shot heard round the world" (Though we will try to figure that out), but the running battle that follows from Lexington to Concord and all the way back to Boston will result in significant casualties on both sides.

You've previewed much of this through your play of Mission U.S.,  this week you'll explore this all in depth.  After break, we'll follow up on this timeline by studying the other side of the American story when patriots were calling for more liberty- Slavery.  We'll view Episode 2 of the 1977 TV Miniseries Roots to experience the realities of 18th Century Slavery, and then discover the humanity in the lives of the enslaved living on George Washington's Mount Vernon Plantation and outlying farms through the Mount Vernon Lives Bound Together project.  After that, we'll pick up the timeline to learn the course of events during which the 2nd Continental Congress declared independence along with the much longer war during which the Continental Army and Navy, along with European Allies enabled the United States to win independence through the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the war, set American boundaries, and recognized the United States as an independent, sovereign nation.

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Week 17: Summative: French and Indian War and Road to Revolution I 1754-1770

This week we will wrap up our combined French and Indian War and Road to Revolution I units with an Edulastic/ Pear Assessment summative on Wednesday.  This is a day later than originally planned due to last week's snow day.  

To prepare you need to start by organizing your papers in chronological order- if you haven't already, and then going through them with a highlighter noting important people, places, events, and vocabulary.  Match up your notes with the ID's given in your study guide.  Sketch out answers to the guiding questions.  Work with the timeline.  Remember the experiences you had, the perspectives you heard, and the lessons you've taken away from Mission U.S. and the Boston Massacre Mock Trial.  After reviewing, study the MAIN IDEAS!

To start the week, we will follow up on our Boston Massacre Mock Trial by comparing different results in different classes, and then by exploring the actual results and consequences of the trials.  We'll also compare what you learned in the trial to what you experienced in Mission U.S... and look ahead at the consequences which played out in your "Epilogue"... the rest of your story.  This will help you review for the summative.

After the summative we'll pick up the timeline following the Boston Massacre Trials and launch into our Road to Revolution II unit to explore the events of 1770-1775.

The shock of the Massacre, and the sense of justice that came from what were seen to be fair trials led to a temporary calming of tensions.  Both sides stepped back to reorganize.  Britain pulled troops out of Boston and repealed all of the Townshend Acts except for the one on tea.  Patriots, led by Sam Adams, one of the leaders of the Boston Sons of Liberty- organized Committees of Correspondence in major cities and towns to communicate via letter about local developments and to coordinate efforts to stand up for colonial rights throughout the 13 colonies.

Economic resistance continues, and in 1772 turns violent in the Gaspée Incident in Rhode Island.  In 1773, to prop up its struggling East India Tea Company by guaranteeing it the American market, Parliament passes the Tea Act.  To resist the threat of monopoly and to again stand up for No Taxation without Representation, patriots boycott the tea and find ways around paying the tax.  In Boston, enforcement of the boycott leads to a standoff that is resolved through the destruction of 3 shiploads of tea during the Boston Tea Party... ._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Week 16: Boston Massacre Mock Trial 

We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Break with your family and friends. This week we will be running our Boston Massacre Mock Trial, and your assignments will depend on your trial role as noted below.  If you didn't complete Mission U.S. 1 and write up your Game Journal before break, then you have until next Monday to complete that.

We are looking forward to seeing how your Mission U.S. I game play turned out.  In the end, did you choose the path of a Patriot, a Loyalist, or a Neutral Colonist?  Why?  We'll share and debrief experiences next Monday, December 9th when your game journal is due.  During the game you'll have witnessed the Boston Massacre and been asked to testify in the trial of the 9 soldiers accused of firing upon and killing the 5 civilian colonists who lost their lives in the tragedy.  That is great background for what we'll be doing this week.

This week we will run our Boston Massacre Mock Trial. Trial order is shown on the Assignments page.  The trial will proceed in that order in each class step by step.  Some classes may move faster than others, but all should wrap up and be able to debrief by Friday when we will compare our class trials with the actual trial.

Monday, we will read through the background essay together so that everyone is clear on the basic facts of the events of February and March 1770 that were connected to the tragic massacre on March 5th, 1770. Students will be assigned roles on Monday and given instructions for their role, as well as for the trial.  Assignments will vary depending on role.

Day 1 assignments are as follows:

Attorneys:  Work with the background, your role sheet, and your exhibits to prepare your opening argument.  Interview your witnesses to make sure they are prepared, learn how they can help you prove your case, and decided the order in which to call them to the stand.

Witnesses (including the 3 Soldiers who are the defendants Captain Preston, Private Kilroy, and Private Montgomery).  Reread the background essay along with your role sheet to prepare 5-7 questions for your attorneys to ask you so that you can tell your story and help them win the case.  Rehearse, and become an expert on your role so that you can also answer questions that might be asked by the opposing attorneys.

Jurors. Reread the background essay focusing on the defendants to create at least 10 questions that you need to have answered to determine if each is guilty of murder, manslaughter, or not guilty by reason of self defense.  You will share these with each other and use them to set up your notes.

Day 2 assignments are as follows:

Attorneys: Work from your notes from testimony to prepare your closing arguments.

Witnesses:  Write up a 1 page, in character, 1st person journal entry telling of your time on the stand.  What did you try to help prove?  Did you help or hurt your side of the case and why?  Based on the trial so far, how do you think the jury will find the defendants when they reach their verdict?  Or- if you write afterwards, do you agree with their verdict? Why?

Jurors: After reaching your verdict, write up a one page opinion in which you explain why you found what you did for each of the defendants... even if you disagreed with the majority of the other jurors. 

Looking ahead to next week, we will debrief on Mission U.S. on Monday as part of reviewing for the summative on Tuesday.  Tuesday's summative will cover BOTH our study of the French and Indian War AND Road to Revolution I.  Historically they are connected through cause and effect.  Therefore, we are combining them- in chronological order on the Summative. 

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Week 15: Mission U.S. and Thanksgiving Break

Road to Revolution Study Guide (Part I 1763-1770) Guiding Questions and Identifications + Timeline 1763-1770

Mission U.S. I:  For Crown or for Colony Game will be played in class 11/25, 11/26 and Game Journal is due 12/9

Here are direct links to the D.C. Hot Spots Project Pages

Frankmann Classes     Montello/Kozar Class     Tyrrell Classes

This week both class periods will be give to playing Mission U.S. where you are a 14 year old Printer's apprentice navigating revolutionary Boston in the Spring of 1770- the Spring of the Boston Massacre.  Will you choose a patriot, loyalist, or neutral path in the end?  Keep a record of your experiences, decisions, and your thinking in your game journal which is due by December 9th and will be discussed as part of our review for the French and Indian War / Road to Revolution Summative on December 10th.  

We hope you'll enjoy your Thanksgiving Break.  If you're with family, you could share your D.C. Hot Spots Project.  Links to those are above, and we are hoping to get your scores posted and rubrics returned with comments before you leave on break.  We have been enjoying your most excellent projects, which are well worth the time they take to grade, so thank you for doing your best to profile / showcase YOUR personal DC experiences.

The week after break we will run our 2nd Mock Trial about the Boston Massacre.

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Week 14: Organizing Colonial Resistance 1763-1770

Road to Revolution Study Guide (Part I 1763-1770) Guiding Questions and Identifications + Timeline 1763-1770

We are working hard to read and score your D.C. Hot Spot Projects which we are greatly enjoying.  We plan to return these with scores and comments when all have been graded, probably the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving Break

This week we will continue to work through the years 1763 to 1770 to set up two activities that will bookend Thanksgiving Break:  Mission U.S. 1 for Crown or for Colony along with the Boston Massacre Mock Trial.  Remember we are connecting the French and Indian War Unit with the Road to Revolution I unit.  These two units will be assessed with their summative on Tuesday, December 10th.

Combined violent, economic, and political protests against the Stamp Act will produce results that favor the colonies.  However, the victory will proved to be short lived.

Repeal of the Stamp Act is followed by British announcements of the Declaratory Act and Townshend Acts which Parliament is determined to enforce, "In all cases whatsoever".  Britain will go so far as to send troops into the cities that are most actively resisting British policies, and that will serve only to further escalate tensions.

You will get to experience this time in history by playing the online simulation Mission U.S. For Crown or for Colony.  In this role playing game, you will play the role of a 14 year old apprentice printer in Boston and have to figure out how to do your job in the midst of escalating tensions where everyone's politics matter. By 1770, the mix of angry colonists and angry British soldiers becomes volatile wherever they meet in the Colonies.  The mix explodes in March, 1770 in Boston in the tragedy known as the Boston Massacre. This is an event that you'll witness in Mission U.S. and one that you will have to take a position on.  We'll then further explore multiple perspectives on this event through our second mock trial scheduled for the week after Thanksgiving Break.

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Week 13: Veterans Day, Hot Spot Project Viewing, Problems After the French and Indian War 

Harmon Veterans Extra Credit Padlet 

For your Hot Spots project: Google Site Washington D.C. Trip Page with links to EVERYTHING including Bus Photos

French and Indian War Study Guide (Guiding Questions and ID's).  French and Indian War Resource Page

We will start our week by observing Veterans Day on Monday, November 11th and will explore the veteran stories students have posted to the Harmon Veterans Padlet.   Students will then share their DC Hot Spot Projects with each other to further explore stories of military service through the many Hot Spots dedicated to commemorating America's Wars:  Antietam National Battlefield, Arlington National Cemetery, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam...

After this, we'll finish up viewing Last of the Mohicans and conclude our study of the French and Indian War, the "War that made America" to set up for our follow up unit:  Road to Revolution I 1763-1770

Following the Battle of Fort William Henry that is depicted in Last of the Mohicans, fortunes change, and the British Army and Navy supported by American Colonial Militia launch an all out attack on several fronts at the same time that the French cannot stop.  One fort after the next falls until British forces arrive to besiege and capture Québec in the fall of 1759. Montréal then falls in 1760 which marks the end of the war in North America.  Fighting continues globally until peace is agreed to with the 1763 Treaty of Paris that changes the map of North America more than anywhere else.

Our next unit- Road to Revolution I will explore the immediate aftermath of the French and Indian War and the start of the course of events from 1763-1770 that led to America's War for Independence.

Sometimes it is easier to win a war than to "win the peace".

The French and Indian War began with the push by colonists from Virginia to expand their settlements into the Ohio Valley which was also claimed by the French.  The war that started spread throughout  Northeastern North America and resulted in a complete British victory- but at a great cost in lives and money.  By the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the war in 1763 French government was removed from North America, and all of New France fell under British rule while Louisiana was split between Britain and Spain. French settlers kept their homes and farms, but lived under a new government.  Native Americans on both sides were faced with an onrush of pent up land hunger which American Colonists were quick to show. With the French threat removed, Americans flooded to the frontier and provoked a massive Native uprising known as Pontiac's Rebellion beginning in 1763.  Tribes that had allied with the French formed a coalition with others that had allied with the British to attack and seize British forts and settlements all across the frontier and laid siege to Fort Pitt itself in Western PA (formerly the French Fort Duquesne.)

Faced with the potential of unending war, Britain decided to control what it could- it's colonists, and ordered all to return east of a line drawn along the crest of the Appalachians- reserving the West to Natives.  This was the order enforced with the Proclamation Act of 1763.  Britain then also looked to the Colonies to start paying their fair share of the cost of the war with a series of new policies and taxes: The Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, and the Quartering Act. The latter saddled the colonies with the burden of housing British soldiers who remained in the Colonies for their defense- but also used in the new role of enforcing British laws on the colonists.  Colonists quickly organize resistance which they justify by declaring British policies a violation of their English rights- most specifically "No Taxation without Representation"- resistance that they carry out successfully through economic, political, and violent means of civil disobedience.  You'll learn about the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, the Stamp Act Congress, and Ben Franklin's testimony before Parliament.  

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Week 12: Project Work Days and Last of the Mohicans

Harmon Veterans Extra Credit Padlet (due Mon, November 11th)

For your Hot Spots project: Google Site Washington D.C. Trip Page with links to EVERYTHING including Bus Photos

French and Indian War Study Guide (Guiding Questions and ID's).  French and Indian War Resource Page

Lots is coming together this week.  You have Monday and Friday to work on your DC Hot Spot Project.  The Extra Credit Veterans' Padlet is still open for you to share stories of your family and friends who have served.  We will also follow upon Washington's missions into the Ohio Valley wilderness by studying the course of the fighting from 1754 to 1757 to set the stage for our viewing of Last of the Mohicans which brings to life the turning point Battle of Fort William Henry with historical accuracy and respect to the many different groups involved- along with their perspectives: British, American Colonist, French, Canadian Colonist, and Native Americans on both sides. See links above.

As for the French and Indian War here is where we're going this week.

In 1754, Washington's 2nd mission to present Virginia claims to the Ohio Valley to the French in Canada begins with a firefight at Jumonville Glen launched by Washington, his Virginia Militia, and his Native American guides including Half King.  It ends with his surrender of his men at his hastily built Fort Necessity to superior French and Native American forces and his signature of a document in which he unknowingly admits to having "assassinated" a French diplomat in the initial encounter.  And so a war begins that quickly becomes international- in reality, a World War.

A British attempt to contain the war by having the Colonies organize under the Albany Plan of Union to defend themselves fails later in 1754.  Then, in 1755 an overconfident attempt by the British regular army under General Braddock (with Washington and other Colonial Militia serving as guides and scouts) to take Fort Duquesne and establish British control of the Ohio Valley once and for all ends in disaster.  General Braddock and hundreds of British soldiers are killed in a French and Native American ambush that he led his men into against advice from Washington and other Colonial officers. We'll review these two key events this week.

As you'll then learn this week, the French successfully repulsed every British/ American advance into French territory from 1754-1757 which pushed some of the tribes allied with the British to the point of considering at least withdrawing their support if not siding with the French. Overseas however- in Europe and in the West Indies, Britain and its allies were beginning to prevail over the French in ways that prevented them from reinforcing their troops in North America.  The Commander of French Forces in Canada- General Montcalm thus took the gamble- given his dwindling forces, of going on the offense in hopes that a couple of victories on British soil would win over enough Native American support, that the British and American Colonists would have no choice but to sue for peace.  This sets up the turning point battle at Fort William Henry in upstate NY just north of Albany.  This battle is the historic centerpiece of the 1826 Novel Last of the Mohicans which has been turned into film several times.  We will view excerpts from the Academy Award winning 1992 version of the story. To make a long story short, the French win the battle, but don't include their Native American allies in the surrender negotiations.  Angered, some of the Natives take things into their own hands- to get their due and settle old scores, and ambush and massacre and capture a large number of British troops, Colonial militia, and civilians following their departure from the fort.  French intervention to stop the support and rescue the victims breaks their alliance with the tribes involved in the massacre.  The British and Americans consider the act to be a war crime. (How would you judge it according to modern International Humanitarian Law?  The Geneva Conventions?)

Following this battle, fortunes change, and the British Army and Navy supported by American Colonial Militia launch an all out attack on several fronts at the same time that the French cannot stop.  One fort after the next falls until British forces arrive to besiege and capture Québec in the fall of 1759. Montréal then falls in 1760 which marks the end of the war in North America 

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Week 11: DC Hot Spots Project and Washington's 1753 Journal

Harmon Veterans Extra Credit Padlet (due Mon, November 11th)

For your Hot Spots Project: Google Site Washington D.C. Trip Page with links to EVERYTHING including Bus Photos

Thank you everyone for a fantastic trip together to Washington D.C., Antietam National Battlefield, and the Flight 93 Memorial.  We can wait to see what you'll share about it in your DC Hot Spot projects.

Monday, we'll discuss the trip and ask you to write 2 thank you notes- one to your bus chaperone, and one to any other staff member that helped you make the most of the trip.  Then we'll move on to project work starting with planning... choosing images, and sketching out captions.  Your Google Slides template will be assigned to you so that you can begin work in earnest on Tuesday.  Additional whole class period work days will be provided Monday, November 4th, and Friday, November 8th.  The project is due for peer-review on Monday, November 11th.

In between project work days we'll begin our next mini-unit: The French and Indian War 1750 to 1763.  This is a turning point conflict that we'll approach from multiple perspectives: American Colonist, British, French, Canadian, and Native American.  Before the war, the 13 Colonies were proudly British.  During the war, differences emerged.  There is a PBS documentary that calls the French and Indian War "The War that Made America", and it is true that after the war, changing British policies towards the Colonies will drive them towards revolution.

It all begins when a young Virginia surveyor and Major in the Virginia Militia named George Washington is sent on a mission to the frontier by Virginia Governor Dinwiddie.  The mission is to deliver a message to the commander of the French military which is in the process of expanding French control from the Great Lakes down the Ohio to the Mississippi by constructing a series of forts/ trading posts.  The one to be built at the forks of the Ohio (the site of modern day Pittsburgh) is on land claimed by both Virginia and New France, and on land shared by several Native American tribes.  The message to the French? Get out and stay in Canada.  This is a story that we'll read in Washington's own words in his 1753 Journal/ Report to the Governor.  It is a story that gets wide publication and which makes the young George Washington famous not just in the Colonies, but in Britain as well.

On Washington's 2nd mission, the shooting starts and ignites the 4th and final French and Indian War.

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Weeks 9 and 10- Washington D.C. Preparations and Washington D.C. Trip

Google Site Washington D.C. Trip Page with links to EVERYTHING 

Looking ahead to Washington D.C. and beyond to Veterans Day, we have created an extra credit padlet: Harmon Veterans 2024 on which you can honor family and friends who served.  We will be visiting many war memorials and museum exhibits and hope that you will include your honored veterans in your DC Hot Spots Project as personal connections.  When posting, be sure to have logged in to Padlet through Google so that your name will be attached to your post.  This extra credit will count towards 2nd Quarter, and you can post all the way up to Veterans Day, November 11th.

While this is the last week of 1st quarter, the 13 Colonies Summative was the last item that will be counted towards your 1st quarter grade.  We have a number of students who have yet to take that, and will post grades, and return and review the test as soon as all have.  Please take the time to check your PIV to make sure of your grade.  Ask about any missing assignments.  As of Friday, October 18th, your first quarter grades will be FINAL.

Between now and the DC Trip next week, we will be using Social Studies to help you get ready to make the most of your trip.  We will go over everything, and all of the slides and info we'll share can be accessed through the link above.

YES, there is a project to be completed about your experiences in D.C. called the D.C. Hot Spots Project.  Sample projects can be viewed at the link above- and we'll do our best to help you plan yours before you go, get the photos and information that you need on site, and then put together your project after you get back.  What you'll have when you finish is a digital scrapbook documenting your 8th grade self in our nation's capital along with on the trip to and from.

Please see the Assignments Page for the day by day activities that we'll be doing to get you ready to go.

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Week 8- Colonial Economy, Mercantilism, 13 Colonies Summative.

This is a short week due to NEOEA Day on Friday.  We are having our DC Chaperone meeting Monday, and will post the DC Bus Rosters on Thursday.  Your 13 Colonies Maps are due Thursday which is also the day of the 13 Colonies Summative

We will be having bus meetings and starting our DC prep in Social Studies on Tuesday, October 15th. Medication forms and medications are due to be turned into the nurse by Wednesday, October 16th.  Here is a link to all things DC-  

Harmon SS8 Google Site DC Page

13 Colonies Study Guide: Guiding Questions + Identifications List

13 Colonies Resource Page

Monday and Tuesday this week we'll explore the Middle Colonies through ABC-CLIO along with the witticisms of Philadelphia's favorite scientist/printer/philosopher Ben Franklin, a primary source description of Philadelphia in 1744, and the Petition of the Germantown Mennonites- the first know written argument against slavery in the 13 Colonies.  These activities will help you finish your 13 Colonies Maps.

On Wednesday, we'll take a look at the colonial economy as a whole and it's connections to Great Britain, Africa, and the West Indies through the Triangle Trade including the Middle Passage by which enslaved Africans were brought to the West Indies and the 13 Colonies.  You'll learn about the British economic policy of Mercantilism which controlled trade to benefit the mother country- England (which joins with Scotland to become the UK- United Kingdom in 1707) along with building the 13 Colonies.  The Colonies will serve as a source of natural resources, cash crops, and other raw materials to be exported to the UK along with being a market for British manufactured goods, and will grow and prosper all the way up to 1750 when conflict with French colonists and Native Americans on the frontier will set the stage for the final French and Indian War- which we will study in our next unit after the Washington D.C. trip.

Again, your maps are due on Thursday- and are what you should study along with your notes to prepare for the 40 point 13 Colonies Summative on Pear Assessment on Thursday.  YES, you will be asked to label maps as part of the summative.

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Week 7- Bacon's Rebellion and Consequences + Southern, New England, and Middle Colonies

It was great seeing so many parents at the DC Parent meeting last week.  Final forms emails have since been sent with the slide show and the packing list that were provided along with follow up information about medications, meal planning, and more.  The DC trip fee is due this Friday.  We will be having bus meetings and starting our DC prep in Social Studies on Tuesday, October 15th. Medication forms and medications are due to be turned into the nurse by Wednesday, October 16th.  Here is a link to all things DC-  

Harmon SS8 Google Site DC Page

13 Colonies Study Guide: Guiding Questions + Identifications List

13 Colonies Resource Page

We still have a number of students yet to take the Early Settlements summative.  Once all are finished we will return and review them with you.

This week we will finish up with our case study of the turning point Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia which will have huge consequences on the future course of history in the Southern Colonies.  We will then take a look at the other Southern Colonies: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and begin work on a thematic mapping activity as a way of organizing your notes graphically.

We will then examine the plantation culture that developed around the cultivation of rice in coastal South Carolina and then we'll move on to New England: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut to study how education and economics set that region apart as much as did its continued focus on religion established by its Puritan majority.  Next (probably next week), we'll explore the Middle Colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.  These colonies started out Dutch or Swedish before they were occupied and expanded by the English in the mid 1600's.  The region will feature great ethnic and religious diversity, develop the two biggest cities in the colonies at New York and Philadelphia, and develop a prosperous economy built around farming and manufacturing and trade.  One of the most distinctive groups to settle this area, the Quakers, will craft a society built on the ideals of hard work, equality, and tolerance and be among the first to begin arguing for the abolition of slavery.

ABC-CLIO's Regional Development of the Colonies overview article will continue to be your gateway to specific information and videos about each of the 3 Colonial Regions this week.

As we work on each of the Colonial Regions in turn, you will work on not just labeling, but adding historical, economic, geographic, political, and cultural information to your Close up Thematic Regional Maps that help you develop a Mental Map of the 13 Colonies and prepare for the 13 Colonies Summative on Thursday, October 10th. 

Your thematic maps of each region should be completed as we explore each region in turn, but can be continually improved until the end of the unit when you will turn them in at the summative.

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Week 6- Salem Witch Trial concludes, Unit Review, Early Settlements Summative.

Please remind your parents about the DC Parent Meeting at 7pm, this Thursday, September 26th in the Aurora Commons.  We hope that every family can be represented as we will be going over all of the details- including packing, the itinerary, security, DC dress, meals, EVERYTHING and will stay until we've answered everyone's questions.  DC trip fees, Dr's medical forms, and medications are due to be turned into the office by next Friday, October 4th.

Reminder: Win the White House Game Extra Credit Assignment is due Tuesday

This week we will finish up and debrief our Mock Salem Witch Trial and then review for our Early Settlements Unit Summative on Thursday.

To prepare, be sure to work with the Study Guide (Guiding Questions and ID's) that you've had since the first day of this unit.  Review your notes and handouts.  Go through them and highlight key people, places, things, events, and vocabulary. Maybe try the Quizzes that are at the bottom of the Topic Essentials sections on the ABC-CLIO Topics:  Native Americans and Europeans, Jamestown, and Settling for Determinism.  The 30 point summative will be on Pear Assessment and feature multiple choice based questions, sorting and matching, document based questions, and 2, 5 point short answer questions.  More specifics will be provided in class.  In addition, Frankmann classes will be turning in their Social Studies 8 notebooks to be checked.

Thursday, the day of our unit summative is also the last day that you can turn in any missing assignments from the Early Settlements unit for credit.

On Friday we will transition into our 13 Colonies Unit with a primary source based investigation of the events of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia which had the effect of changing Virginia from a society with slavery to one based on slavery that was codified into Virginia law.  We'll then take a regional approach to each of the 3 Colonial Regions: Southern, Middle, and New England as they each grew and developed up through 1750.

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Week 5-September 16-20: Pilgrims and Puritans, Constitution Day, and Mock Salem Witch Trial begins...

Thank you for getting signed up for your DC roommates/ bus partners.  This week we will be assigning groups and chaperones to busses, but these won't be posted until the week before the trip.  On Thursday, you received your fee slip for the DC trip.  All information needed about payment is on the letter.  If you pay by check, please turn them into the office.  Fees are due by Friday, October 4th, which is also the deadline for medications to be turned in along with doctors' notes allowing their administration by nurses and staff.  Please remind your parents of the DC Parent Meeting coming up next week- Thursday, September 26th at 7pm in the Harmon Commons. 

This week we will follow up on Plymouth and the Pilgrims along with their Mayflower Compact and Winslow's Thanksgiving Letter to study the next group that came to New England- the Puritans who establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony at Boston.  Over time, stressors and conflict will cause New England to fall apart.  Dissenters will challenge the strict social rules of the Puritans and leave to establish their own colonies of Connecticut, and Rhode Island.  New Hampshire will also be established and go its own way.  In Massachusetts, peak troubles will result in the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials which we will recreate and analyze in class.  

As background to law in New England we'll study the growth of Constitutional Government in England along with the expansion of "English Rights" which carried over to the English colonies in North America.  For Constitution Day on Tuesday, September 17th, we'll learn about the Executive Branch, the Presidency, and Presidential Elections, and you'll have the opportunity to earn extra credit by playing the iCivics online game: Win the White House.

Wednesday, Guidance Counselors and Town Hall II will be presenting lessons about Sucide Prevention to 8th grade Social Studies Classes.

Thursday and Friday, we will begin our recreation of the Salem Witch Trials.

Background to the History we'll be studying this week: 

About Massachusetts Bay: In 1630, another group of “Separatists” known as the Puritans followed in a much larger and well financed colonization project known as the “Great Migration”. Organized as the Massachusetts Bay Company, over 15,000 Puritans migrated to the area now known as New England and established themselves in and around Boston. They lived their lives based upon their strict interpretation of the Bible and social rules. These rules were enforced by the elders of the church community. Dissent will be an issue, and in the most famous case of cracking down on “dissent”, Puritans in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, will accuse a large number of non-conformists (mostly poor, and mostly women) of witchcraft resulting in the execution of a large number of the accused. We will be conducting the Salem Witch Trial Mock Trial to determine if the accusations were justified.

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Week 4- September 9-13, From Jamestown to Plymouth + 9/11 Observance 

Monday we will finish up getting students into Pairs for DC.  Starting Tuesday, Pairs will pair up to make Bus / Roommate Groups of 4 by signing up together.  These forms are due t be turned into your Social Studies teacher by Friday.

Thanks for a great Aurora Walkabout / Be the Change Day.  You were fun, respectful, and engaged, and really did Harmon Proud.  Thank you for being such great groups.  If you have any good pictures to share, please e-mail us as we'll in turn share them with our city hosts.  We'll also take 15 minutes at the start of class on Monday to write them some thank you notes.  You'll be surprised by how much from Friday connects to what well be doing and experiencing on the DC Trip.

Early Settlements Study Guide:  Guiding Questions and ID's

Early Settlements Resource Page

See the Assignments Page for the Day to Day specifics, but here is your big-picture summary for the week.

Following up on your final answer to the Jamestown DBQ- Early Jamestown, why did so many colonists die? , we'll work with ABC-CLIO Jamestown along with an EdPuzzle dramatization to learn how, after a tragic beginning, the Jamestown Colony not only survived, but came to prosper.  What lessons were learned at Jamestown good and bad that would have informed the next English colony?  Do you know the story of Pocahontas and John Smith?  How about Pocahontas and John Rolfe?  Next up is Plymouth founded by a small group of Pilgrims arriving on one ship- The Mayflower, to the area known as New England in 1620.  The Pilgrims bring different motives than the Jamestown settlers- and endeavour to be self governing from the start according to principles agreed to in their Mayflower Compact.  How well do you know the Thanksgiving story? How historically accurate is the story?  We'll check story against History by closely reading a letter from the pilgrim Edward Winslow- a primary source The success of the Pilgrims will inspire a 3rd much larger and better funded Puritan settlement to follow at Massachusetts Bay beginning in 1630.  Unfortunately, early success will not last as conflict with Native Americans and struggles with dissent among the settlers themselves will culminate in a period of crisis by the late 1600's best symbolized by the Salem Witch Trials.  We will set the stage for our Mock Salem Witch Trials this week, but will conduct the trials next week.  

On Wednesday, September 11th, we will be observing the 23rd  anniversary of the 9-11 Terrorist Attacks on the U.S. with a focus on Flight 93.  We will preface this with an introduction to the Basic Rules of International Humanitarian Law established by the Geneva Conventions to see how they are an expression of American Values, and how they were grievously ignored by the attackers on 9-11... yet guided the World's response.  We will be visiting the Flight 93 memorial on our DC Trip, and our activies will draw from materials provided by the Memorial.  We'll also connect these activities to Aurora Fire Chief McBirney's presentation about values during our visit with him on the Walkabout.

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Week 3-September 2-6, Early Settlements:  Jamestown- Lessons Learned for Plymouth, England's 2nd Settlement

Washington D.C. "Bus Partner" sign ups run this week.  Forms will be passed out in Social Studies classes and at lunch and returned to your Social Studies teacher on Friday.  Bus Partner pairs will pair up next week to make Roommate groups of 4.

Study Guide:  Guiding Questions and ID's

Early Settlements Resource Page

This week we will finish working with the documents in the Early Jamestown: Why did so many Colonists Die DBQ as you determine, based on the evidence, what killed the most settlers during the early years of the colony.  Once finished, you'll write up your answer and make your case in a 10 point extended response that will count as a summative.  This begins our year long process of learning to "Think Like a Historian" in pursuit of the number one objective of our curriculum:

Primary and Secondary Sources are used to examine events from multiple perspectives and to present and defend an opinion.

We'll then take a look at how Jamestown eventually found stability after finding relative peace through strength with the surrounding Powhatan tribe, finding profit in the cultivation of tobacco, the beginning of local self government through a representative legislature called the House of Burgesses, and unfortunately, the gradual replacement of indentured servant labor with that provided by enslaved Africans who are kept under control through the passage of strict laws known as Slave Codes.  By the time of the American Revolution, Virginia will be the largest colony in size and population as well as the wealthiest in trade.  Looking for our roots, an awful lot of what makes America started in Virginia.

Looking ahead, you'll suggest which lessons from Jamestown the next colony should pay heed to if it wishes to enjoy quicker, and more peaceful success. That next colony will be Plymouth- founded by an English Protestant group known as The Pilgrims in 1620.  They came for very different reasons, but were well aware of the story of Jamestown.  10 years later, another English Protestant group known as Puritans will follow in far greater numbers to plant their colony next door to the Pilgrims at Massachusetts Bay.  The two will combine over time and settle throughout the region that will be known as New England.  That will be our focus next week.

This Friday, September 6th is the 8th Grade Aurora Hometown Walk About   This local, on foot field trip is something that we started doing before Covid, and are happy to continue.  During your morning or afternoon on the town, you'll visit the Fire Station, Aurora Historical Society, City Hall, Police Department, and Aurora Cemetery to meet with Fire Chief McBirney, our firefighters and EMS, local historian John Kudley, Mayor Ann Womer Benjamin, Police Chief Byard and his officers and dispatchers, and VFW/ American Legion chief Tony Dockus and several of his fellow veterans.  All are excited to meet you, and through them, we hope that you'll find personal connections to Aurora and America's past, present, and future.  This half day walkabout will also give you a preview of the way we work together on the DC trip.  During the other half of the day, you'll be engaged in a special series of activities called Be the Change back at Harmon.  After 1st period, you and your Social Studies class will be together through the rest of the day.  Permissions were due this past Friday but are still being accepted. Without parent permission, you won't be able to participate in the walk about part of the day.

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Week 2: August 26-30, Early Settlements Unit: Early Jamestown- Why did so many colonists die?

Your Aurora Walkabout Permission Slip is due to be turned in to your Social Studies teacher by Friday.

Thanks for a great first week of school last week.  We appreciate how all of you brought your best to each class.  Keep that up, and this will be a really, really good year. 

We look forward to meeting your parents Wednesday evening at Open House to go over the course and preview a bit about the DC trip.  Don't for get to show the information about the 8th Grade Aurora Hometown Walk About that we have planned for Friday, September 6th.  Your signed permission slip for that is due to be turned in to your Social Studies teacher by Friday.

This week we will begin our curriculum with the start of our Early Settlements Unit.  Here are your Guiding Questions and ID's for the unit.

Study Guide:  Guiding Questions and ID's

These will always be provided on day one of every unit and together serve as the study guide for the unit.  By the summative at the end of the unit students should be able to answer the guiding questions with specific examples of people, places, things, and events taken from the ID's list.

Another great resource is this: Early Settlements Resource Page,  this is a direct link to the unit Google Site page under Resources where we have gathered the best of what we've found on the web about the topics in this unit.  We will use many of the links as part of class activities, but there are always more that we invite you to explore for your own enrichment.  Be curious.  Ask questions. Investigate.

This week we will focus on Jamestown, England's first permanent colony in North America.  We will set this in the context of the Atlantic World that connected Europe, Africa, North and South America and the Caribbean through increasing trade and competition from the time of Columbus' voyages in the 1490's to the start of English attempts to catch up with the Spanish, mainly (but also the French and the Dutch and the Portuguese) around 1580 in reaping the riches of the New World through colonization. A first attempt at Roanoke from 1585-1590 that was set up to support privateering operations against Spanish treasure fleets fails... and disappears without a trace. The 2nd attempt- Jamestown, which is chartered by the government of England, but financed and operated by the Virginia Company of London, struggles desperately during its first 10 years, but ultimately succeeds by trial and error at great cost in lives and investment but ultimately becomes profitable and successful after focusing on the cultivation of tobacco. After giving background on the World of 1600 and a big picture of the timeline of Jamestown using the Nystrom Atlas of American History, and ABC-CLIO's Native Americans and Europeans and Jamestown Topic Centers among other resources, we will explore the topic of why so many of Jamestown's first settlers died.  Both with Virginia Company documents provided through Google Classroom, and then through the collection of resources curated by the DBQ program, you'll practice analyzing and annotating primary and secondary source documents for evidence to think like a historian and explain the causes of Jamestown's struggles.

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Week 1: August 20-23, Introductions to Each Other along with Social Studies 8 Content, Approaches, and Resources

This week we will do a number of activities that will help us get to know each other and start working with a number of course approaches and resources.  You'll log into your Google Classroom, bookmark and explore this Harmon SS8 Google Site, read over the Course Syllabus, and visit and take a first look about your online textbook, ABC-CLIO American History.  To approach both past history and current history we'll work with the Idea of America framework to see how American democracy works to represent different perspectives by balancing opposing American values: Unity and Diversity, Private Wealth and Common Wealth, Law and Ethics, and Freedom and Equality.  Which of each of these pairs do you personally favor?

You'll share your thoughts individually, and work together collectively in a variety of activities to share what you know, and where you come from, and what you want to learn in this course.  We look forward to your active participation, and can't wait to read and hear your questions- and to join you in seeking out answers.

This week will establish our classroom routines and expectations.  By Friday, you'll be ready to start our first unit of study:  England's First American Settlements: Jamestown and Plymouth.  Coming back Monday, you should be ready, set up, and supplied to charge full speed into the story of America and the meeting here of Three Worlds.

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