Spanish-American War: Reflective Historical Essay

The purpose of this assignment is three-fold:

1. Summative – how much did the students learn and can apply from a major section of the unit?

2. Introduction to the style of historical writing of the kind that will be required in high school under the Common Core Standards and college.

3.  Reinforce writing skills learned in Language arts and Reading.

The assignment:

 SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR: REFLECTIVE HISTORICAL ESSAY

OBJECTIVE: To write a concise essay, supported by textual evidence from a variety of sources.

OBJECTIVE: To write from the perspective of a historical character’s worldview and experiences

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate, decide and explain if the Spanish-American War was justified to be fought and/or worth the expense.

 

CRITERIA:

Title Page

Proper Heading

Essay Title

2-3 pages, single spaced typed (title page does not count)

Topic sentence/thesis statement ( your position, what you will prove)

Answers question: “Was the Spanish-American War justified (“Right thing to do”) and worth the expense?”

Is written as if the author was one of the historical characters listed below

Position argued fits the character selected (ex. – Senator Henry Cabot Lodge supports imperialism)

Argument is supported by numerous textual examples (“numerous” = “many”)

Concluding sentence (in historical writing, summarizes major evidence why you are right)

Accurate information ( ex -the Rough Riders did not have droids or mutant wizards)

Free of spelling/punctuation/basic grammatical errors

 

SOURCES: Lecture notes, Movie notes, Handouts, Primary sources, textbook, internet

POINTS: 40

 

DUE DATE: Monday March 12

 

HISTORICAL CHARACTERS:

Select one of the following characters, read their biographies below and write from their perspective.

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924)

Lodge was a US Senator, lawyer and historian from Boston, Massachusetts. A close friend and mentor of Theodore Roosevelt, Lodge was a member of one of the wealthier and most socially prominent families in America . Lodge grew up in Boston’s exclusive Beacon Hill neighborhood, attended Harvard university, where he received a law degree and PhD before entering politics. A powerful senator and forceful personality, Lodge was a strong nationalist, a fervent imperialist and a believer in the superiority of the “Anglo-Saxon race” over other peoples.

 

Colonel Charles Young (1864-1922)

The son of former Slaves, Charles Young was one of the first African-Americans to overcome severe discrimination and graduate from West Point US. Military Academy, to receive a commission in the US Army and the first to reach the high rank of Colonel. Young fought with and commanded units of Buffalo Soldiers in the Indian Wars as a Lieutenant and as a Major in the Spanish-American War, where Young personally led a squadron of 10^th Cavalry Buffalo soldiers at San Juan Hill, fighting alongside Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. After the war, Young went on to work as an intelligence officer, military attache as a professor of military studies before fighting in the Mexican Expedition of 1916 . When WWI began, Young was considered for a major command in France when racist elements in the US Army forced Young to retire under protest for “medical reasons”, though Young was later reinstated by the Secretary of War and promoted to Colonel.

 

One of Young’s proteges, Sgt. Maj. Ben Davis, later became the first African-American General in US History, Gen. Benjamin O. Davis)

Clara Barton (1821-1912)

A former school teacher from Massachusetts, Clara Barton was the founder of the American branch of The Red Cross. Famous for her humanitarian work nursing soldiers injured during the Civil War, Barton lectured, worked for civil rights, women’s suffrage and social reform before organizing the American Red Cross. As the President of the Red Cross, Barton provided assistance to people suffering the ravages of war, natural disaster and disease across the world. In her seventies, during the Spanish-American War, Barton provided medical help to anyone in Cuba – insurgent, Spaniard or American soldier or Cuban civilian – who was injured or sick.

.Emiliano Aginaldo (1869-1964)

A Filipino general, politician, independence leader, guerrilla commander and President of the Philippines, Emiliano Aguinaldo was at different times a friend, enemy, subject and ally of the United States. And not in that order. 

8th Grade Worldview Project

Students are working on a worldview project this week and next in Social Studies that will culminate in a poster or 3-D object that illustrates and explains the 8th grade LJHS worldview.

Time has also been allotted in class for purposes of planning and coordinating among group members, designing the project, checking for progress, using computers and other collaboration.

Students have exchanged contact information and received the first of many handouts and will be given daily group task lists in order to stay on track.

The project is dueMonday, October 3rd and is worth 100 points.

Making Learning Stick with S.U.C.C.E.S.S.

Interesting post at the wonderful Eide Neurolearning Blog regarding learning, creativity and memory:

Made to Stick Learning

Urban legends, conspiracy theories, Internet memes, and popular advertising campaigns all have something in common: they know how to make information ‘stick’ – now if we can just apply some of these tools to education, we might really have something. The brothers Heath in Made to Stick have come to an interesting conclusion about creativity – not only is it not highly unpredictable or idiosyncratic, in fact it’s just the opposite – it’s systematic and that means it can be taught.

In an interesting Israeli study assessing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, researchers found that instruction in certain successful creative approaches improved the creativity and positive attitude ratings 50% higher than non-instructed controls.  In a similar vein, the Heaths began analyzing extra-sticky ideas and stories and found that they often shared the following qualities:

Simple
Unexpected
Concrete Imagery
Credible
Emotion-Provoking
Stories

The pattern makes sense if you think about how the brain is wired to remember (novelty / surprise, imagery, association, emotions, stories) and in regards to simplicity, the brain’s limitations regarding working memory. The Heath’s have a nice Teachers Guide (see below), but the emphasis is on helping students to realize how using the SUCCES  approach can focus and target their communication, but we could also envision a different Teachers Guide providing suggestions and examples for how to help teachers focus their own communication.

Imagine if lessons plans incorporated simplicity, novelty, imagery, and compelling personal stories on a daily basis! Michael Sandel’s great Justice course (bottom video below) shares SUCCES elements and that might be a reason for its extraordinary popularity.

Made to Stick Teachers Guide pdf

Political Spectrum Project: Group Planning Day 2

The Action-Decision Process instructions for Wednesday for the groups to plan their presentation or product:

ACTION-DECISION PROCESS PART II. ” THEME, NARRATIVE & CONTENT”

1. Make certain that your group has done step 4. from yesterday’s  instructions and examined all the note cards.

2. Make a list of similarities shared by the subtopics that make them all part of the same point on the political spectrum. Then compose a list of differences.

3.  The group objective is to explain a point on the political spectrum. When you organize your ideas you begin with your THEMES, then construct a NARRATIVE structure or outline and finish by inserting in your research CONTENT.

THEMES – the two or three largest ideas that will tie everything together

NARRATIVE - the structure, sequence and point ”story” of what you are trying to say.

CONTENT – the examples, facts, anecdotes and images that fill out and support the narrative

4. STORYBOARDING – use the Storyboard sheets to lay out the narrative and sketch the narrative and the content and images that you think you might want to use. Storyboarding is not a “final” version or a rigid plan but a very rough draft or guideline to follow as you design your presentation or make your product.

It is a good idea to xerox your storyboard so that everyone has a copy or in case it gets lost.

THE PROJECT IS DUE ON MONDAY DECEMBER 13

Phase II. of Political Spectrum Project: The Group Presentation/Product

Students have completed their individual research phase.

On Tuesday, their groups were given options and the first part of their Action-Decision Process. Today, they began the second part of the Action-Decision Process.

First, the choices they had:

PRODUCT OPTIONS – Political Spectrum Research Project:

1.Design and Publish a multipage NEWSPAPER devoted to your topic that contains:

Masthead Headline Lead Story (Who, what where, when, why)

2-3 Articles per Group member Photographs Multiple pages Political cartoon

Neat, clean, attractive, well-designed composition, “realistic” look.

Grammatically correct and free of spelling errors.

2.Design and present a 10 minute SLIDEWARE PRESENTATION on your topic:

“Slideware” means using Powerpoint, Sliderocket or Prezi presentation apps/software

Organized Visually interesting Accurate Informative Comprehensive

Creative Grammatically correct Each group member contributes

Clear Intro and Conclusion Entertaining

3.Videotape and present (i.e. – it will play for your class) a 10 minute NEWS BROADCAST on your Topic (alternately you perform this LIVE!):

In style of Network News Anchorman Reporters with 3-5 story segments

Requires a typed Script Moves smoothly Fast paced Informative Accurate

All segments together comprehensively explain topic May have commercials

You can have non-group members as “extras” as needed

4. Design a series of three (3) PETER DURAND STYLE POSTERS

Examples at http://www.alphachimp.com

75 % text/25 % images Visually Interesting Factually Accurate Colorful Comprehensive

Posters are a series where information is coherently presented in a logical sequence

Spelling Neat & Clean Legible lettering Creative Good Composition Attractive to look at

 

Next are the Decision -Action Process instructions from Tuesday:

1. Discuss Presentation options

2.  Exchange contact information – home and caell phone #, email etc.

3.  Schedule times to meet outside of school

4. Review all the note cards as a group. Identify areas of research strength and weakness. strong areas will become the core of your presentation/product.

5.  Identify strengths of group members – what rols and tasks are they best suited to do?

The presentation/product selected should be a realistic match for the talents, research material, interests and time available outside of school for the group.

Wednesday’s instructions will be a separate post.