Back in Time
Topic 1: Union or Confederate? Mobilization Toward War
3. Presentation Performance
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I have practiced my presentation so that it is convincing, well organized, and polished.¨
I have appropriate props, costumes, and supporting materials.¨
I can answer practice questions posed by my peers.¨
I have a neat and complete copy of my Sources sheet.¨
I have reviewed the rubric to see if my project is missing anything.Causes of the Civil War: Various Schools of Thought Directions:
1. Appoint a group facilitator.
2. Read the brief summary provided about the school of thought or group of historians that you will be researching.
3. Divide the resources (online and print) among group members and begin individual reading and note-taking.
4. Once everyone has completed their research, reconvene as a group and discuss the questions below. Write your answers on a sheet of paper with all group members’ names included.
a. What are the most important beliefs—or tenets—of these historians’ school of thought as to the causes of the Civil War?
b. What are the strengths of this theory? What have we learned from our reading, discussion, and activities that might support this theory?
c. What are the potential weaknesses of this theory? What have we learned from our reading, discussion, and activities that might cause us to question this theory?
d. If we could classify this school of thought under a heading, which of the following unit concepts would be the best fit? (1) Sectional Tension; (2) Cause and Effect; (3) Individual Impact; or (4) Perspective. Or do we need to create a new phrase altogether?
e. What symbol would best convey the main ideas of this group of historians, or school of thought, to our classmates?
5. Develop an image and create a small poster based on your answer to questione,copying the key tenets of the school’s argument in bulleted or numbered form on the poster or integrating them as part of the overall symbol/metaphor.
6. Plan how your group will present its poster to the class so that all group members can explain the ideas.
Schools of Thought
Nationalist School: James Ford Rhodes Progressive School: Charles and Mary Beard
“Repressible” Conflict School: James G. Randall and Avery Craven Neonationalist School: Allan Nevins and David M. Potter
Free Labor Ideology School: Eric Foner and Eugene Genovese Party Politics School
Ethnocultural School: Michael Holt
Ever wanted to be The College Board for a day and create those challenging and intimidating prompts that get millions of juniors and seniors shaking in their boots? This is your chance to play the role of a test creator who designs a thoughtful, free-response documents-based question asking students to see the similarities and differ- ences between historical periods. If you create one that is particularly strong, yours may be the prompt for the entire class!
Directions:
1. Review the standards for free-response documents-based questions at apcentral.collegeboard.com.
2. Choose one of the following “Then and Now” topics (or propose a new topic, based on an antebellum or Civil War incident of interest to you):
THEN:1852 . . . Harriet Beecher Stowe publishesUncle Tom’s Cabin.
NOW:Over the past 50 years, who has written the most influential fiction or nonfiction focused on African American issues? (Lorraine Hansberry? Toni Morrison? Ralph Ellison? Martin Luther King Jr.? Malcolm X? Ella Baker? Randall Robinson?) How is the effect of this person’s work similar to or different from the effect of Stowe’sUncle Tom’s Cabin?
THEN:1854 . . . The Republican Party forms.
NOW:What is the platform of today’s Republican Party? How is it similar to or different from its original formation?
THEN:1856 . . . Buchanan defeats Frémont and Fillmore for the presidency.
NOW:What were the positions of our most recent presidential candidates? What were the significant events during our most recent presidential election? What similarities and differences do you find between these elections?
THEN:1856 . . . Sumner is beaten by Brooks in the Senate chamber.
NOW:What are the contentious issues in the U.S. Congress today, and how do representatives and senators treat one another? What is the level of civility or lack thereof? What is the level of partisanship and division?
What similarities and differences do you see between these historical periods?
THEN:1856 . . . Brown leads the Pattawatomie Creek Massacre and 1859. . . Brown leads the raid at Harper’s Ferry.
NOW:In the past 20 years, what civil insurrections, riots, and other forms of disobedience have reflected American society’s tensions regarding race relations? What incidents and types of civil disobedience have reflected the relationship of the citizen to government policy? How are these incidents similar to or different from John Brown’s Massacre?
THEN:1856–1860 . . . Civil war rages in Bleeding Kansas.
NOW:What states have been the battlegrounds for recent, momentous events or political dramas? How have incidents there shaped events on a national level? Consider the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections and the ballot and polling problems in Florida and Ohio. What similarities and differences do you see between the presidential elections of 1856 and 2000?
THEN:1857 . . .The Supreme Court issues the Dred Scott decision.
NOW:Which Supreme Court decisions of the past 75 years have had a strong impact on racial relationships in the United States? Consider decisions such asBrown v. Board of Education(1954) orUniversity of California Regents v. Bakke(1978). What similarities and differences do you see between these decisions?
THEN:1858 . . . Lincoln and Douglas debate.
NOW:What landmark presidential debates have tackled crucial issues in American history? Consider such debates as those between Nixon and Kennedy or Carter and Reagan. What similarities and differences do you see between these debates?
THEN:1861 . . . Seven states secede to form the Confederate States of America.
NOW:What struggle between states’ rights and the federal government’s authority was the most significant during the 20th century? Consider the conflicts between federal and Southern state authority over civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. What similarities and differences do you see between these disputes?
3. Find four to five excerpts of relevant readings from online or print sources. If you can find more, wonderful!
Each time period(“Then” and “Now”)should have at least two readings.One of your readings may be a visual: a captioned cartoon, map, chart, photograph, and so on. Excerpts from written documents should be 250 to 500 words in length. For documents for the antebellum and Civil War periods, search the online source
“From Revolution to Reconstruction” at odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/.
Caution:If you are pulling readings from an online source, be sure to VERIFY THE LEGITIMACY OF THE WEB SITE YOU ARE USING. Sites that end in “.edu” or “.gov” are often legitimate, but some .edu sites are created by students for a college or high school class—students who may not have taken a lot of time—so be careful.
4. Create a prompt question that sounds like one that the College Board would have written. Use all or part of the follow-up questions provided in the “Then and Now” topic list. Remember that students answering the question will need to draw on outside knowledge, both from history class and current events, so the wording of the prompt needs to be comprehensible and accessible and should follow the format available on the College Board Web site.
Name
Directions:Rate your work on your project: 1 = “poor,” 2 = “on target,” 3 = “strong,” 4 = “excellent.”
Circle N/A if you did not have that aspect in your project.
My research 1 2 3 4
My writing 1 2 3 4
My acting 1 2 3 4 N/A
My Web page/poster/station’s visual display 1 2 3 4 N/A
My costume, prop design, and sound effects 1 2 3 4 N/A
My nightly work ethic 1 2 3 4
Here are a few specific examples in my project that elaborate on the ratings provided above:
I would like to compliment the following classmates’ projects for the reasons stated below:
I would like to constructively critique the following classmates’ projects for the reasons stated below:
The next time you assign this project, please keep this element or component:
The next time you assign this project, please make this change or use this new idea:
Unit Developers: Tracy Hamm with Suzi Juarez, Miki Reddy, and Cher yl Franklin-Rohr
Introduction
This nine-week unit for an advanced-level 3–D studio art course explores the chal- lenge of designing a three-dimensional ceramic or paper clay sculpture that can be hung. The finished piece may be functional or nonfunctional, and the project incor- porates the following elements:
• Wheel-thrown and/or hand-built techniques.
• Raku or Sagger firing techniques or an experimental combination of Sagger and Raku firing.
• A surface treatment that may include Raku glazes, slip coating, and textural methods.
As in all studio art classes, students spend the majority of their time working on their artwork. Each student determines the personal theme to explore in his or her piece, the building method for it, and the surface and firing techniques to use.
Instruction highlights the problem solving required to develop a personal theme, the necessary skill competencies in ceramic materials and techniques, and the elements of art and principles of design. Throughout students’ studio time, the instructor focuses on individual support and guidance.
Textbooks are usually not part of the learning process in studio art courses.
Instead, the resources are primarily visual: videos, slides, art reproduction posters, Web sites, and art books. Because there are so many resources that can influence the design process, in this unit, students use a sketchbook/journal to store and explore the visual ideas and techniques they encounter in their research. The
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all the components of the unit and provides ongoing process differentiation based on learning style.
Teacher Reflection on Designing the Unit
I created this unit while working with the art coordinator of the district where I was com- pleting my student teaching. The master ceramics teacher I was assigned to knew that ceramics is my own studio emphasis, and she encouraged me to develop a challenging unit.
I knew I wanted students to gain a better understanding of how contemporary ceramic arts is moving away from “functional craft work” toward a more fine-art focus. In the contemporary context, for example, a ceramic piece will morph into another form—
one that is not always ceramic-like. The content and theme being communicated guides the design and building process.
I began the design of this unit with my state’s five visual arts standards, each of which directs a component necessary to create a piece of artwork. The creation of art nat- urally lends itself to independent learning, and I knew I’d need to use several differenti- ated instructional strategies to meet the wide variety of needs I’d already observed in the students. To clarify needs further, I included a pre-assessment related to students’ experi- ences with building and firing techniques and student learning style, aiming to use the results to help me select and apply appropriate instructional strategies, including scaf- folding techniques and other accommodations. The sketchbook/journal would provide ongoing informal assessment—a way to monitor students’ successes and struggles.
Because reflective thought on creative decisions can’t be done in isolation, I wanted students to “Think–Pair–Share” to gain deeper understanding of the design process.
Another key decision in this unit’s design was the decision to include the Process/
Complex Learning Log as a way to help students document their artistic process and organize the many parts of the unit. Finally, the requirement to create a written artist’s statement and the incorporation of rubric-based self-assessment was my way of helping students connect what they learned with the artwork they produced.