Period 4: Historical Investigation, Day 2 - Class Recap

Another picture from my Spring Break trip to Washington, D.C. in 2010: this is the National Archives building, where the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution are held. Those are extremely important documents for historians researching the American Revolution!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Spring Break! Remember that you definitely have some work to do before I see you again. Here's what we did in the last class before the break:

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart? - Obviously, your historical investigation into a revolution of your choice will have elements of answers to these questions.

Soundtrack: "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. Chosen for today because if you have not been doing very well in this class (or in school), the historical investigation is a great time to "make that change" - do you want to be successful? You have to put in the work to do so! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/22/13:

News Brief/Blog Recap

Part A, Explained

Citations/Part B

Computer Lab Time - S210

Homework: Please work on Part B - researching your historical investigation! 2-3 pages will be due shortly after the break! Have a great and safe Spring Break!

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News Brief: We actually did not have a news brief today, because we just got back from the Multicultural Assembly (which was AWESOME, by the way), I wanted to give everyone as much time as possible in the computer lab, and because neither assigned student brought in an article. Remember, no students were assigned news briefs for directly after Spring Break.

Part A, Explained: After the start of class, I passed around this slip of paper that explains how to write a research question and complete your Part A paragraph (at least, at first - you should be aware that this could change as you keep researching):

Google Drive: Historical Investigation, Part A - Steps to Follow

I went over this in detail with the class. Hopefully it made sense, because the paragraph was due at the end of the class, either printed out or emailed to me at luke_fritz@beaverton.k12.or.us - I also wanted you to save a copy for yourself over break. Again, a good way to do this is to email yourself the paragraph, or simply print another copy.

Citations/Part B: Before we headed over to the Computer Lab again, I went over the MLA citations guideline and how you should be citing your information that you find as part of your investigation. Here is the paper that I passed out in class: MLA citation guide - 7th edition. Every source that you use for your project should fit into one of those categories on the second page. That is what you are adding to your bibliography (Part E) as you go along. Maria pointed out that the Beaverton School District has a website with links showing how to do citations in papers (or just doing them for you).

Finally, for Part B - the Summary of Evidence, here are the two documents you will need to look at as your are researching over the break. Feel free to download and print them out during class, study hall, or after school:

Google Drive: Part B Overview (Requirements)

That document will help you with understanding what Part B is all about. We will go over it in detail after break, but remember, Part B (which is 2-3 pages) is due for Periods 2 and 4 on Monday, April 8th - soon after we get back from break. It is very important that you get a good start on this.

To help with Part B, here is the second document - a template for filling out as you find good sources of information that relate to your research question:

Google Drive: Part B Template Document

This is a nice and easy way to complete Part B. Remember that you need to have at least four sources (so you could fill out this document four different times, if you wanted) - a maximum of three can be electronic sources. Again, no Wikipedia - the source has to be reliable information. A GREAT way to find good, reliable information is through a search on Google Scholar, which looks through academic articles (make sure you aren't using a book review as a source, though).

Computer Lab Time - S210: After explaining all of this, we headed over to S210 to finish Part A. I wanted to make sure that I approved each research question before you moved on to writing out the whole paragraph for Part A. Hopefully, everyone was able to complete this in class. If not, email it to me ASAP, please. Also, this could have been a time you were looking at what to do for Part B and printing off the documents above.

Have a wonderful and safe Spring Break! See you in April! Make sure to check in if you have any questions or comments! I know this is quite a lot of information, all at once. I am here to help at almost any time! :-)