First Trimester Major Assignments in the Social Sciences
 

U.S. Geography Review and Test: Students receive their first major assignment in the first week of school.  In it students are preparing a packet of materials as a review of the basic facts and major features of United States geography.  There are four parts to the packet:

The review is worth 125 points (50 states points, 15 cities points, 24 physical features points, 36 graph points).

After all of the review parts are collected and returned, students will be given a test over its contents.  Students will NOT be allowed to use the review materials in the test, but may study from it leading up to the test day.  The test will include all 50 states, where spelling is not evaluated but correct identification based on location is, and also a sampling of major cities, physical features, and true-false statements about the graph. 

The geography review test is worth 75 points (50 points for the states and 25 points for the samples of the other items).

Socratic Seminar:  Socratic Seminar is an active, student-owned thinking strategy intended to allow for the exploration of ideas within historical or contemporary writing, speaking, songs, art, and films.  Rather that being merely a discussion led by the teacher, Socratic Seminar requires the teacher to play a background role, allowing for the emergence of truly student-directed discussions.  The teacher serves as moderator in the sense that all students need to be acknowledged before speaking, but essentially plays the role of active listener throughout the process.  There are likely to be seminars each trimester.  As students become more proficient, we'll include new techniques within the seminar and we'll challenge ourselves with longer pieces or multiple sources.
    Socratic Seminar will be a regular graded activity within the structure of the course.  Students are not graded on the basis of the number of times they speak, although their participation in seminar is recorded.  Students are evaluated in three parts: pre-seminar activity (consisting possibly of learning new vocabulary, a comprehension quiz, or pre-writing such as a position paper or reaction piece), seminar, and a post-seminar assignment (almost always some form of writing, usually on an area of the seminar that we weren't able to get to during the class time).  The areas where the assessment will generally fall are conduct, speaking, reasoning, listening, and reading.  Student preparation for seminar will include careful note-taking on the piece, and those notes will occasionally be collected as part of a students assessment.

The following list contains suggestions to the student on how to prepare for seminar:

These assignments will vary in value based upon the material prepared and the elements of the pre- and post-seminar assignments.

Revolutionary War Debate:  The unit after Exploration deals with the colonization of the Americas by the Spanish, French, and English during the 17th and 18th centuries.  The culmination of British colonization can be found in the events that lead to the American Revolution.  This assignment asks the students to take a role as a colonist or a British politician from 1775 and try to resolve who was to blame for the strained relations between Britain and her colonies by this time.
    To further enhance the experience, the students will be watching the video of the musical, "1776," which details the actions of the Second Continental Congress in the months leading up to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
   This is a debate for the whole class, which has been broken down into issues for the students to select and prepare.  Opening and closing statements are also expected.  The side the students will represent will be determined by a blind draw.  In preparation for the debate, students will be instructed in the rudiments of debate, including rebuttal skills.

The debate will be worth 76 points.  Grade is based upon the following:  Logical Argument (20 pts.), Public Speaking (20 pts.), Overall Effectiveness (20 pts.), Attempt of Rebuttal (16 pts.).Grades will be determined on an individual basis through a rubric by the teacher.
 

 American Revolution Test:  After the students have completed their study of the American Revolution, there will be a test over the unit.  This is a demanding test because it will cover all of the war as well as the material prepared for the debate, so it will evaluate the entire revolutionary period.
    All unit tests are designed the same way.  They are objective, often multiple choice, tests that will be completed on Scantron sheets.  A #2 pencil will be needed to correctly fill out the Scantron.  Generally the tests are from 30-50 questions in length, with the focus being on major lessons from the unit.

The test, as with all unit tests, is worth 100 points.  Each question has the same value, unless otherwise indicated.

Personal Declaration OR Revolution Personification:  For the first trimester writing assignment, the students may choose to create either a personal declaration statement or a revolution personification paper.
    For the Personal Declaration, students are allowed to declare their independence OR their loyalty to either their parents OR Kennedy Junior High School.  In any case, students will model the organization of their paper on the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson.  It has three major sections, beginning with the purpose of the institution (Jefferson was talking about the purpose of government, the students will be talking about the purpose of parents OR school), including the reasons for this declaration (Jefferson outlined 28 wrongs committed by the king, students will outline at least 10 wrongs committed by their parents or Kennedy OR, if the student is declaring loyalty, at least 10 actions approved by the student need to be outlined), and concluding with a formal statement of intention (Jefferson stated that the United States declares itself to be free, students will need to make a declaration appropriate to their paper.  The paper has a strict structure so length cannot be clearly specified.  Average length is about 3 pages, typed and double-spaced.
    For the Revolution Personification, students will select an object from the revolution period and personify it to show what has been learned about this historical period.  A chest of tea at the Boston Tea party, a quill pen at the Philadelphia meeting of the Second Continental Congress, a cannonball at the battle of Bunker Hill, a horse which carried Benedict Arnold or George Washington, a sword at the battle of Yorktown, are all legitimate possibilities, along with innumerable others.  The paper will be written from the point of view of the personified object and will trace that object's adventures through the revolutionary period.  The paper should be typed and 2-3 pages long, but no more that 5 pages, double-spaced.

The personal declaration and personification paper are each worth 100 points.  Grades will be based on creativity, grammar and mechanics, historical accuracy, adherence to the requirements, and timeliness.  Rubrics will be distributed with the assignment.