.JPG)
Camels in front of the entrance to The Treasury in Petra, Jordan. Photo taken July 2014.
Hi everyone,
We really started preparation in earnest for your DBQ (Document Based Question) essay test next week. This is a somewhat complicated process, so I wanted to be as clear as possible as to what you need to do and how you will be successful in answer
Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.
Soundtrack: "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Selected for today because of the association with Halloween! Lyrics here.
AGENDA 10/31/14:
News Brief – Jesus
USA Culture Analysis
DBQ Prep
Work Day
Homework: Read the blog. Prepare for the DBQ, which I will be handing out next class (the actual essay test will be on Thursday). Here are some assignments that will help in your preparation:
1) Cornell Notes on Culture definitions/iceberg PowerPoint
2) Surface culture worksheet (National Geographic photos PowerPoint)
3) Nacirema writing (neatly written or typed, 200 words minimum)
4) Time for School Notes/Answers
5) USA Culturegram activity (see today's blog)
Next news brief: Martin.
News Brief: Jesus had the news brief today and selected this story to talk about: BBC.com - Costa Rica issues warning as volcano erupts. We found Costa Rica on our world maps to go along with this. I also brought up this recent video that a woman made while just walking around New York City: CNN.com - What 10 hours of street harassment in NYC looks like. We need to promote a culture of respect, wherever we are. Catcalling anyone is unacceptable and disrespectful. Just thought it was worth highlighting - especially with the amount of hands that went up when I asked if it had happened to anyone in the class.
We also watched the VICE News "Beyond the Headlines" clip on YouTube before moving on. Martin, you have the next news brief!
USA Culture Analysis: This was built around going the group responses from last class, in regards to this reading:
Each member of the group was supposed to help by completing one or two of the seven cultural traits that the group chose to do on this worksheet:
To go over these, I used the random popsicle stick method of calling on people to share out what they wrote about various aspects of United States culture. One of the questions that was brought up had to do with how large the United States economy is in comparison to others. Here's a look at the Google chart of Gross Domestic Product (the value of all the goods and services produced in a country in one year) in countries. I am hopeful that this will be quite useful for your DBQ prep!
DBQ Prep: Speaking of DBQ, we started looking at how to prepare for your first DBQ in high school (only one or two students had done this before, so it was mostly new). I handed out this "How To" packet, that I think will be useful for you this year and in years to come (DBQs are a feature of Social Studies classes here at Westview):
DBQ Prep: Speaking of DBQ, we started looking at how to prepare for your first DBQ in high school (only one or two students had done this before, so it was mostly new). I handed out this "How To" packet, that I think will be useful for you this year and in years to come (DBQs are a feature of Social Studies classes here at Westview):
I used random calling via popsicle sticks to have students help me with reading this. I know it is quite a lot to take in, which is why we are preparing for two days before the test. Remember that the essay question you will be answering for the test is: "How does culture both reflect and shape society?"
You will be using your documents (listed above in the homework section) to prepare for the DBQ. For the actual essay test, you will have 8 documents to analyze and choose from to write your essay, which will consist of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Review your previous assignments and the above guide to think about how to write your essay!
Finally, I passed out this paper that helps review and prepare for the DBQ. If you answer "no" to any of these questions, then you might need to be better prepared for the culture unit DBQ final!
Work Time: The rest of the class was devoted to starting to create possible DBQ responses and analyzing your culture unit documents to try and answer the question of: How does culture both shape and reflect society?
That was it for the day! Have a great weekend!
