Wednesday, October 31, 2007

American Revolution Study Sheet

Review Sheet for AP Exam 11/ 2:
The American Revolution &
Foundations of US Government


Key Developments and Events
Ben Franklin’s Plan of Union/ Albany Plan of Union
Albany Conference of 1754French and Indian/ Seven Year’s War
Treaty of Paris/ Proclamation of Paris 1763
Royal Proclamation of 1763
Treaty of Land Harbor 1768
First Continental Congress
Committees of Correspondence
Sugar Act
Stamp Act
Stamp Act Congress
Nonimportation Agreement/ Movement
Declaratory Act
Revenue Acts
Townshend Acts
Tea Act
Boston Tea Party
Intolerable Acts
Coercive Acts
Boston Port Bill
Quartering Act
Quebec Act
Lexington and Concord
Second Constitutional Convention
Declaration of Causes for Taking up Arms
Olive Branch Petition
Declaration of Independence
Common Sense
Treaty of Alliance
French and Spanish Alliances
Saratoga
Yorktown
Continental Congress
Articles of ConfederationLand Ordinance 1785
Northwest Ordinance 1787
Shay’s Rebellion
Annapolis Convention
Post-Revolutionary Depression
Virginia Plan
New Jersey Plan
Great Compromise

General Vocabulary

Retribution
Republicanism
Propaganda
Virtual representation
Actual representation
Coercion
Delegate
Confederation
Protectorate
Federalists
Anti-Federalists

Key figures

Acadians
Cajuns
William Pitt
Neolin
Pontiac
Iroquois Confederacy
Benjamin Franklin
Whigs
Thomas Jefferson
John Peter Zenger
James Otis
Samuel Adams
Patrick Henry
John Hancock
John Dickinson
Virginia House of Burgesses
Governor Hutchinson
Thomas Gage
Sons of Liberty
Crispus Attuckus
Committee of Safety
Minutemen
Loyalists
Tories
Provincial Congress
Committee of Safety
John Adams
George Washington
Ethan Allen
Abigail Adams
Deborah Sampson
Phyllis Wheatley
George Cornwallace
Horatio Gates
Daniel Shay
James Madison
Alexander Hamilton
Montesquieu

In addition, be familiar with geography of the American Revolution and the impact this conflict had on colonial borders.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Blog #6 - The Bill of Rights: In action or not?


Directions: Actively read the following article posted below (also available for view at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9906E2D91438F933A15756C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print)


1. Based in the following NY Times article, summarize Richard Minsky’s (the artists’) view on the Bill of Rights and it’s role in modern US society.


2. Analyze two of his criticisms based on your knowledge of US government and the Bill of Rights.


3. Finally, respond to the following question:Is the Bill of Rights reflected in or distorted in modern US society. Refer to anecdotal (personal stories) or academic evidence to support your answer.


Your blog must be a miniminum of 200 words and include a response to at least one other student's post.For your reference, a copy of the Bill of Rights is available on page and at: http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------May 20, 2002 "Artist Depicts the Bill of Rights in a World Out of Joint"

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL'


'I like art that gives you a reality fix,'' says Richard Minsky. A reality he treasures is the Bill of Rights, so Mr. Minsky, 55, a Greenwich Village artist and professional bookbinder, has found a way to exemplify the first 10 amendments to the Constitution as artworks.


For the First Amendment protecting freedom of expression, for example, he burned a copy of Salman Rushdie's ''Satanic Verses'' and sealed up the charred volume in an arabesque windowed reliquary.For the Sixth Amendment guaranteeing a speedy and public trial, he glued a black-leather glove daubed with red onto a copy of Jeffrey Toobin's best seller ''The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson.'' (''I used paint, not real blood,'' Mr. Minsky said, ''not that I haven't, or wouldn't.'')And for the Eighth Amendment, barring cruel and unusual punishment, he took a book on penology, ''Forlorn Hope: The Prison Reform Movement'' by Larry E. Sullivan, a professor of criminal justice, rebound it in stripes and chained it to a little jail. ''You can take the book out for exercise,'' Mr. Minsky said, ''but then it must go back to its cell.''


The 10 works are on display at the Louis K. Meisel Gallery at 141 Prince Street in Soho through June 1. Twenty-five editions of the set are being offered at $18,000 each. (The works are viewable online at www.minsky.com.)Mr. Minsky, who has been exhibiting his art for 30 years and founded the nonprofit Center for Book Arts at 626 Broadway, said he thought long and hard about celebrating the amendments, whatever their consequences. ''While you got them, enjoy them,'' he said.For the Second Amendment on the right to bear arms he chose a book about violent hate groups, ''Gathering Storm: America's Militia Threat'' by Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Mr. Minsky depicts the author in the bull's-eye of a target.The Third Amendment, barring the forced quartering of soldiers in private homes, was represented by a reimagined nuclear football -- an attaché case like the one bearing the codes for unleashing atomic war. It contains a copy of ''Seven Days in May'' by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey, a novel about the nation's top military commander seeking to commandeer the White House, and a DVD of the movie with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.For the Fourth Amendment, against unreasonable search and seizure, Mr. Minsky chose a copy of ''Neuromancer,'' William Gibson's 1984 science-fantasy novel presenting cyberspace as a realm vulnerable to governmental intrusion. He built a slipcase with an imbedded network interface card and hot-stamped it with the text of the amendment in hologram foil.


The Fifth Amendment, guaranteeing due process of law for criminal defendants, was exemplified by a novel in the form of an epic poem, ''Branches'' by Mitch Cullin, about a brutal Texas sheriff who takes the law into his own hands. Mr. Minsky bound the book in khaki, affixed a badge -- and peppered the cover with nine-millimeter slugs.For the Seventh Amendment, providing for jury trials in civil cases over $20, he selected ''The Litigation Explosion: What Happened When America Unleashed the Lawsuit'' by Walter K. Olson, and rebound it in mock $20 bills that replaced the image of President Andrew Jackson with that of James Madison, father of the Bill of Rights.For the Ninth Amendment, reserving all unenumerated rights to the people, Mr. Minsky highlighted ''the right to privacy,'' using a book of that name by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy and re-illustrating it with photos of Diana, Princess of Wales, including endpapers depicting her fatal car crash.The 10th Amendment, protecting states' rights, stumped Mr. Minsky for some time. ''I was wracking my brain, and then, out of nowhere, I thought of November-December 2000.''


He downloaded the United States Supreme Court decision intervening in the Florida-vote controversy and handing the presidential election to George W. Bush. Mr. Minsky bound the docket in brown leather like a law book with the spine title off-center. ''It's a little crooked,'' he said.The works are available only as a set, Mr. Minsky said. ''People ask me, 'Can I get one?''' he said. ''I say, 'The government is trying to take them away one by one; you have to have them all.' '


'Correction: May 23, 2002, Thursday An article in The Arts on Monday about Richard Minsky, an artist and bookbinder who has created artworks representing the Bill of Rights, gave an outdated address for the Center for Book Arts, a nonprofit group he founded in New York. It is at 28 West 27th Street, third floor

Monday, October 29, 2007

Weekly Assignments 10/29-11/2

You must meet with your study group one day this week to review notes and generate questions as a review for Friday's exam. One member of your group should submit notes with the names of all members present for the meeting.


For Tuesday, 10/30
Read pp.239-245 (up to "Bill of Rights") in Out of Many. Create a graphic organizer incorporating key terms, figures and developments in the "Critical Period" 1781-1788. Extra credit will be merited for creative efforts. (9 points, graded like a journal, but should be completed in your notes.)


Wednesday 10/31 and Thursday 11/1
Have a happy and safe Halloween! Study for exam, work on Signatory project.

Friday 11/2
Blog # 6 due
Exam on the American Revolution and Foundations of US Government

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Comparative History: Revolution and national identity in U.S. and France



In History Lessons: How Textbooks Around the World Portray American History, authors Dana Lindelman and Kyle Ward note that "we live in extraordinary times. Through our televisions, compuiters, radios and newsprint we have access to what seems like the entire world....What this instant access reveals to us is that people and groups around the world are very unique... One way to begin to understand these diverse societies is to look at their history, how time has formed them and who they are." The authors go on to point out that "It is ironic, that, today. many history classes in theUnited States are taught form an isolationist standpoint, where events in US history are portrayed as if they occurred in a historical vacuum. If other nations are mentioned in US History textbooks it is often only within the context of the impact of US foreign policy or from the viewpoint of US interests." (Lindaman and Ward, 2004.)

From this perspective, History Lessons promotes comparative history; examining events in US history through the lenses of historians and records from other nations as well as American narratives. This kind of historiography, they argue, leads to a more complete and accurate understanding of history and how it has shaped U.S. foreign relations, global politics in general. As memebers of the CSIHSIS community, we value these methods as they are fully aligned with our Graduate Profile goals of being Academically Prepared, Culturally Aware, Literate for the 21st Century and Aware of World Events and Global Dynamics. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=csihsis+graduate+profile)

As most of you know, Ms. Kaplan has arranged a learning exchange between CSIHS and a high school in Carvin, France. In an effort to welcome to our French learning exchange partners who are presently studying U.S. History to this blogspace, I thought we could reflect together on one of the major connections among our respective national histories; the struggle for liberty embodied by both the American and French Revolution.

In order to prepare for this week's blog assignment, read the following article outlining similarites and differences among the revolutionary movements in 18th century France and Colonial America:
http://www.pbs.org/marieantoinette/revolution/america_france.html

Then consider the following quotes from the foundational documents of American and French democracy (The Declaration of Independence, and The Declaration of the Rights of Man, respectively.)

The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, Et. al., 1776:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security..."

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, Marquis de Lafayette, 1789:
"1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

2 The aim of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation.

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.

5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.

6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents."

Reflection Guidelines:
Discuss how the fundamental principles laid out in each declaration have shaped the national identity of the nation where you live. Then explain wether or not you believe these principles are truly reflected in modern-day France and the United States: has society met the demands of your nation's revolutionary pioneers or have paridigms and priorities shifted since the 18th Century? Do you think people around the world would agree with your position on what it means to be a citizen of the United States or France? Provide evidence (anecdotal or academic) to support your answer.

CSIHS students are reminded to comment on at least one other post and write at least 200 words. This blog is due no later than 7 p.m. Sunday, 10/28/07. The deadline has been extended due to techincal delays.

You are all encouraged to include a brief bio or hello to our new online learning community.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Homework assignments for 10/22- 10/ 27

AP US History Assignment Sheet: Week 6

For Tuesday 10/23
please read 217-229 in Out of Many
Take notes in your journal on important developments in the revolution. There will be an open-note
reading quiz on this section tomorrow or Wed.
Journals last name A-M should be submitted


For Wednesday 10/24
Draft of DOI comparison paper on flash drive due - must be brought to class to workshop/peer edit.

For Thursday 10/25
Read: The Articles of Confederation (hand out)
Journal: Assess the strengths and weaknesses of this document using an analytical voice OR from
a fictionalized historical perspective (250 word minimum)
Journals last names N-Z should be sumbitted

For Friday 10/26
Blog is due

By Thursday 11/1 study groups are expected to meet and prepare notes on the key points in
Out of Many Chapters 6-7. Your group should come to consensus on accurate responses to the
chapter questions and make a list of key terms and figures. One set of notes should be sumbitted.
10 quiz points.

Test on the American Revolution and foundations of government scheduled for 11/2

Project on founding father due 11/7

Friday, October 12, 2007

Blog #4: Does popular culture promote a nationalistic view of U.S. History? (American Revolution case study)


Inspiration:
"Ms. Francis, this class has challenged everything I know about US History!" - Sam Goon

Context:
Many of you have noted, as Sam did, that a lot of what is taught about US history in grammar and middle school is lacking historical context and accuracy. In fact, many historians argue that the conventional approach to teaching US History in public schools often " perpetuates popular myths (e.g., the first Thanksgiving)...lies by omission... leaves false impressions.... avoids negative images even from primary sources... fails to portray whole people, distort events and attitudes ... avoid conflict and controversy at all costs ...and fundamentally shun anything that would put history, people, and movements into context... Instead, students memorize the archetypes and the myths built around them without thinking about their likelihood—or improbability." (Scriff, Diane, 2004. http://www.slywy.com/bookreviews/liestold.html)
With that critical lens in mind, I'd like to devote this week's blog to reconsidering some popular culture potrayls of the American Revolution and the foundational principles of American Democracy.

Directions:
"Schoolhouse Rock" was a saturday morning cartoon show that aired in the late 1970's- 1989. It covered everything from algebra to zoology. Predictably, my favortie episodes were those that focused on US History and Government. These resources are basic in their teachings but directly reflect the general public's understanding of critical events from US history.

1. Watch "No More Kings" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofYmhlclqr4
lyrics available at: http://www.postdiluvian.org/~gilly/Schoolhouse_Rock/HTML/history/nomorekings.html


and

"The Shot Heard Around the World":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VQA5NDNkUM

2. Assess the historical accuracy of these cartoons by comparing and contrasting them to our current class materials on the American Revolution. Then share your thoughts on the following questions:

Does popular culture promote a nationalistic view of US History? What cultural, political or economic purpose does this serve in modern US society?

Expectations:
I remind you to draw on direct facts from our current unit of study in your response. Also, remember to reflect on at least one other blog. 200 word minimum is required for a grade higher than N on this assignment.

Extra Credit:
Create your own creative representation of the american Revolution through images, music or video. It can be posted on the blog or emailed to me at bridgettefrancis@aol.com

Monday, October 8, 2007

Blog#3 : Would you support the American Revolution?

This week's essential question asks you to balance various perspectives on the issue of American independence. Consider all the economic, political and cultural factors that led to the American Revolution. Then factor in the risks associated with taking on the British Empire and loosing the security of the food and munitions reserves that could be provided to you as colonists if a crisis should incur. Would the benefits of independence (liberty, representation and tax releif) outweigh the comforts of British rule?

You may respond to this essential question from a purely analytical standpoint OR reflect on it creatively by adopting one of the following characters and creatively presenting his/her perspective:
-a young man or woman who would be aiding in the war effort
-a wealthy merchant benefitting from colonial trade
-an indentured servant or slave

So, would you support the American Revolution? (Please leave baseball and Michael Vick out of this week's discussion.)

Be prepared to discuss your response in a seminar format on Friday 10/12.

Assignments for Tuesday 10/10

I made copies of the documents for those of you who don't have the ability to download them, but didn't see any of you at the end of the day. The assigned readings are pages 92-106 in Out of Many and documents 2-3 and 2-13 on the CD ROM. If you don't have the CD, you may use the following links to view the documents:

2-3 "An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves"
http://www.law.du.edu/russell/lh/alh/docs/virginiaslaverystatutes.html

2-13: "The Passage of Indentured Servants"
http://www.urbandaleschools.com/files/teachers/parrottj/PassageofIndenturedServants.pdf
if you don't have adobe Acrobat, you can view it as an html file at:
http://www.faulkner.edu/academics/artsandsciences/socialandbehavioral/readings/hy/servitude.asp

Your written assignment is to take chapter notes in your format of choice and journal on the following topic:

Identify and evaluate the justifications for slavery and indentured servitude in colonial America.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Blog Assignment #2: Is history destined to repeat itself? (Due Friday, October 5)


Read the articles a)"Fight for the Top of the World" : http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1663445,00.htmland b)"CIA Expands it's Inquiry into Interrogation Tactics":http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E3DC1F3EF93AA1575BC0A9629C8B63


Both articles make allusions to topics we've recently covered in class. Article A discusses the colonization of the Arctic and clearly relates to the scramble for colonial territories in the Americas that occurred during the 15th-17th centuries. Perhaps more controversial is the position that harsh interrogation tactics toward suspected terrorists as described in article B can be likened to the persecution of suspected witches in the New England colonies in the 17th century (collectively referred to as the Salem Witch Trials.)


Consider our recent study of culture and poltics in pre-revolutionary colonial North America. Reflect on the relationship between these current events articles and your study of history. When is the use of colonial power and harsh interrogation tactics justified? Is history destined to repeat itself?Sound off E Block!


You may reflect on one or both of the articles assigned. Remember to respond to the question as well as the comments of at least one other classmate. Your response should be at least 200 words.


Image: "The Snow Queen", Hans Christian Anderson, 1844.