Week in Review: March 29 - April 2

American Studies: We are concluding the unit on imperialism and the progressive age. The students are working in teams to write up their study guides. We will start the next unit on WWI this coming week.

IB History: This will be my last post for IB History as our remaining weeks will be going through the revision process. The seniors created their assigned study guides and will review them in the coming weeks.

Week in Review: March 15-19

American Studies: The students continued reflecting and writing this past week. As we complete this unit on imperialism, the students are answering the Essential Questions working individually and with partners. They used mind maps to brainstorm their responses to then make connections between their ideas. The next step was to write an outline answer that they then wrote into essays.


IB History: We completed the unit on 20th century China by having the students create possible questions for the exam and then write rubrics for them. See below for examples of the student developed questions. Looking at the coming week, we have the Paper 1 Mock exam on Monday and Tuesday. The remainder of our time together before the IB exams will be reviewing using the student created study guides on all the topics from the past two years of study.

China Unit Questions:



How did Mao rise to power? What were his methods? What was his skill set?

In what ways was the CCP a single party, totalitarian state?

To what extent was Mao  successful in advancing the nation socially, economically and politically?

What were the factors leading to the Communist victory of the Chinese Civil War?

Week in Review: March 8-12

American Studies: We continue to learn about American imperialism during the latter part of the 1800s and the start of the 20th century. The Spanish-American War was a case study that involved a look at the media and its power to influence public opinion. Continuing on the theme of newspapers, the students are now writing an OP-ED article for their blogs on the following question. Do take some time to read their posts and make comments.

Looking back at the start of American Imperialism in the latter 1800s and into the 20th century, in your opinion, did the positives outweigh the negatives for American expansionism? Look at this question from an American & from an outside of the US perspective.

One of the important tools teachers use is when we provide the structure or scaffolding as we say to guide students through the learning process. In the case of the OP-ED piece, the students had reading and notes from a previous lesson to draw upon. They then had to build out the following chart with responses as they prepared their article.

Causes of Imperialism in US in latter 1800s>>>>

Examples of Imperialism in US in latter 1800s>>>>

Effects of Imperialism in US & other territories in latter 1800s>>>>

Arguments for imperialism>>>>

Arguments against imperialism>>>>

Write your op-ed outline>>>>

Write your op-ed article>>>>


IB History: Mock exams are over and we now move into reviewing mode for the exams in May. You can view the topics and assigned study guides at the Revision Learning Pursuit site.

Week in Review: February 22-26

American Studies: With the completion of the unit on the Industrial Revolution, we began our study of the next unit entitled “Expansionism, Imperialism and Progressivism”. With all these “isms”, the students are already working to build their understanding of these concepts by seeing how they are in also in place in our world today. 

Our time frame of study is the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. The content for the unit centers on American efforts to compete with European powers for territory and influence. 

Here are the Essential Questions for this unit:

• Why do nations expand? 
• How can nationalism go too far? 
• How to control excesses?

IB History: We completed our study of 20th century China up through 1977. With mock exams starting Monday, the students will do some review work for the China exam during the following week. The full review for the IB exams in May will then begin in earnest. 

To assist the students in their review work, I created the Revision Learning Pursuit site. The site is divided into one page for each of the exams. One can find a listing of the IB main themes and subtopics for each exam listed on each page. You will also find the names of all the seniors assigned to specific topics. Each student will be responsible to prepare a study guide for his/her fellow learners on the assigned topic.