American Studies Homework: September 28 - October 2

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For classes meeting Monday and Tuesday:

1) Blog Post of Key Principles for the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution: Search the Web for further explanations on the following terms. Fully define them in a blog post where you rank them in order of importance as to their value to society. At the end of your post, explain your thinking about your ranking system. Select each link to take you to a search results page. Try a few of the links on each page as you work to better understand the term. Remember to scan each source to look for information that meets your needs. 



Natural Rights, Social Contract, Right to Revolution, Popular Sovereignty, and Right of Self Determination

2) Self Assessment: Reflect about what you need to do to do better in the class and on future assessments. Write an email to Mr. Carpenter listing the specific steps you need to take. Write about what you need to do in class in general and specifically when you write the test. Title your email with "Your Name-Reflection".

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For classes meeting Wednesday and Thursday:

1) Blog Post: Analyze how the colonists were able to defeat the greatest world power of their time. Write a blog post describing your explanation. You might have to do some extra research to prepare your post.

2) Blog Post: Read through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (which is a part of the Constitution). Your book has copies of both with commentary that explains each section. Which ideas from these documents do you feel are the most important. Write a blog post ranking your top five choices. List each choice and then tell in detail why you feel it is important.

3) Reading: From the PDF called “French and Indian War”. Find the page numbers from the actual textbook pages. Scroll through until you get to page 85 and start reading. Stop at the end of page 89. Build your understanding of the effects of the French and Indian War. Also, start to see how the colonists began to question the King and Parliament. This reading is a review of the notes from Mr. Carpenter’s presentation and the videos. It should reinforce your understanding.

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For classes meeting Friday and Monday:

1) Mind Map Biographies: You will choose an important person from American colonial history to do research about. Your task is to create a Mindmeister mind map where you provide the following information. You will share your mind map with the class. There will be no official research writing report but a focus on taking good notes.

Start your mind map with your name then his name in the middle. Ex. “Myriam - George Washington”. Then create 4 nodes:

Background, Leadership, Skills, and Legacy (what the person is most known and remember for doing).

Mr. Carpenter will demonstrate how to do this, to then use the Note tool to record notes, and how to record where you gathered your information to cite your source using the MLA style system. Remember to always take notes in your own words and to use direct quoting when you want to have a quotation from the resource. They are due at the start of class on October 8/9 depending on when your class meets.

Here are the criteria for your research and what you will be assessed upon along with your writing techniques. 



-Brief background on where the individual’s geographical home was
-How did your person provide leadership?
-What special skills did he bring to the table?
-What was your person’s legacy?

Choices: James Madison, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin

2) PDF Reading: “Ideas and Revolution”. Start reading at the beginning with page 103 and read to page 107. The following section is the Declaration of Independence with commentary on the side. This is an optional read but you are challenged to review it especially after today’s class discussion. Pick up your reading on page 121 with the Colonists’ victory at Yorktown in Virginia. If you want to learn more about the battles of the War of Independence you can read pp. 114-120 as an optional reading assignment. 



Note: Mr. Carpenter will send you a copy of the OPVL document we used in class today.