Week of April 7-11, 2025

STAAR Blitz:    Each day for 10 days (March 31-April 14),  students will review the 11 units we have covered this year.  This review is to prepare our students for the Social Studies STAAR Test on April 16. Each day will consist of the following:   Warm Up, Lesson, Assignment.

Monday:  Today’s unit to be covered is Unit 7:  Westward Expansion (Manifest Destiny

Tuesday:  STAAR Reading Test (Grades 6,7,8)

Wednesday:   Today’s unit to be covered is Unit 8:  Industrial Revolution (Part 1)

Thursday:   Today’s unit to be covered is Unit 8: Reform Movement (Part 2)

Friday:  Today’s unit to be covered is Unit 9:  Sectionalism

Week of March 31-April 4, 2025

STAAR Blitz:    Each day for 10 days (March 31-April 14),  students will review the 11 units we have covered this year.  This review is to prepare our students for the Social Studies STAAR Test on April 16. Each day will consist of the following:   Warm Up, Lesson, Assignment.  There will be a quiz over previous day’s unit at the beginning of the period; assignment assessment at the end of the period.

Monday:  Complete reporting category chart and introduce STAAR Blitz.

Tuesday:   Today’s unit to be covered is Unit 2:  Colonial America

Wednesday:   Today’s unit to be covered is Unit 3:  American Independence

Thursday:   Today’s unit to be covered is Unit 4:  Writing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Friday:   Today’s unit to be covered is Unit 5:  Early Republic:  Assessing Challenges

Week of March 17-21, 2025

Monday:  Analyze Abraham Lincoln’s ideas about liberty, equality, union, and government as contained in his first inaugural addresses and contrast them with the ideas contained in Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address.

Tuesday: Explain significant military and political leaders as well as major military battles/ events of the Civil War.  (Students will create a storyboard depicting the major events and leaders of the American Civil War. The storyboard should include six panels. Each panel should include an illustration and explanation of the importance of the illustrated event or leader.  Due Friday.  Due date has been changed to Monday, March 24)

Wednesday:   Students will work on their StoryBoard.  

Thursday:   Explain significant events of the Civil War, including the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation.

Friday:  Analyze both the Gettysburg Address(total of 271 words) and Lincoln’s second inaugural address.  

Students will memorize a portion of the Gettysburg Address for a test grade.  (By next Thursday, March 27)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. (30 words)

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. (64 words)

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.  (102 words)

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (271 words)

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

Week of February 17-21, 2025

Monday:   Presidents’ Day Holiday

A brief history of the Presidents' Day holiday | NYLESA

Tuesday: 

Bell ringer:   What motivated social reformers to advocate for social changes? (What were they thinking?)

Students will continue to examine and evaluate the impact of reform movements, including educational reform, temperance, the women’s rights movement, prison reform, the labor reform movement, religious influences and care of the disabled during the 1800s.  (Venn Diagram focusing on the following reforms: Religion, Prison and Mental Health, Temperance, Education, Women, Abolition, Transcendentalism, and Civil Disobedience.)

Wednesday: Benchmark test (Reading)

Thursday:   Continue to examine and evaluate the impact of reform movements.

Friday:   Unit 8:  Reform Movement (This is Part 2 of the Industrial Revolution Era).  Test will be Monday over Unit 8: The Reform Movement.

 

 

Week of February 10-14, 2025

Monday:   Teacher Workday

Tuesday:   Review Unit 8: Part 1 Industrialization and Reform Era. (less the reform movement which will be tested next Thursday.)

Wednesday:  Unit 8:  Industrialization Part 1 Test

Thursday:   Describe the contributions of significant political, social, and military leaders of the United States, focusing on the role of women in the struggle for rights as well as the historical development of the abolitionist movement.

Friday:  Continue examining the contributions of significant political, social, and military leaders of the United States, focusing on the role of women in the struggle for rights as well as the historical development of the abolitionist movement.

 

FYI: As of February 10, we have 31 days before our STAAR test. (Social Studies). 

Other Important Dates:

Benchmark testing:  February 19 (Reading), February 25 (Science), February 26 (Social Studies), March 5 (Algebra), March 6 (Math)

Spring Break:  March 10-14

STAAR Testing:  April 8 (Reading), April 15 (Science), April 16 (Social Studies), April 23 (Algebra), April 24 (Math)

 

Week of December 9-13, 2024

Monday:   Students will examine arguments (Supreme Court decisions)  regarding protective tariffs, taxation, banking system, as well as judicial review.

Tuesday:   Students will identify the foreign policies of presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe and explain the impact of Washington’s Farewell Address and the Monroe Doctrine.

Wednesday:   Students will review Unit 5: Part 2 for their test on Thursday.

Thursday:  Unit 5: Part 2 Test Review

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Friday:  Review the following units for the semester test. (Units 1,2,3) 

Week of December 2-6, 2024

This Wednesday and Thursday, several of our students will be participating in our UIL District meet.   This is an exciting time for our campus, as we are striving to repeat as District Champions!  With this said, students who will compete will need to be very conscious of their assigned classwork while they are out on one or both days. I will post several assignments on our Google Classroom so they will stay caught up.    I will visit with my classes on Monday and Tuesday so they will know and understand the expectations for them. (for those who will compete and for those who will remain in class.)

Monday:  Students will examine arguments (Supreme Court decisions)  regarding protective tariffs, taxation, banking system, as well as judicial review.

Tuesday:  Explain the causes, important events, and effects of the War of 1812.  (Unit 5:3 Day 3 Warm-Up). Create a slide presentation that outlines the causes, events, and outcomes of the War of 1812.

Wednesday:  Identify the foreign policies of presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe and explain the impact of Washington’s Farewell Address and the Monroe Doctrine.

Thursday:   (Same as Wednesday: Identify the foreign policies of presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe and explain the impact of Washington’s Farewell Address and the Monroe Doctrine.

Friday:  Review for Unit 5:  Early Republic (Part 2) test on Monday.

Week of November 18-22, 2024

Monday:  Students will summarize arguments regarding protective tariffs, taxation, banking system, as well as judicial review. (President’s Cabinet assignment is due today.)

Tuesday:  Examine “Free Enterprise” and Laissez-Faire

Wednesday:  Review notes, graphic organizers, notes, etc for the test Thursday on Unit 5 (Part 1):  Early Republic.  (Students may come in Thursday morning by 7:30 for another test review.   Students will have access to a review video and notes posted on their Google Classroom.  These are additional tools that may help them be more successful on the test.)

Thursday:  Unit 5: (Part 1) Early Republic  Test

Friday:  Introduce “Student Progress Chart”.  (Identifying strengths/ areas to address by analyzing the unit tests and study sheet data.)

 

 

Week of November 11-15, 2024

Monday:  Student Holiday (Veterans Day)

Tuesday:  Leaders of the early United States acted to stabilize the new country by establishing the structure of government authority. (Unit 5:  Part 1:  Powerpoint questions are due Friday.)

  • Whiskey Rebellion
  • National Security (Establishment of the U.S Army (1784), U.S Navy (1794), U.S. Marines (1798)
  • Immigration Issues

Wednesday:  Students will summarize arguments regarding protective tariffs, taxation, and the banking system. 

Thursday:  Describe major domestic problems faced by the leaders of the new republic, including maintaining national security, creating a stable economic system, and setting up the court system.  (Study Sheet Quiz #6 (All of the 1st 4 eras:  Exploration, Colonization, American Revolution, and  Constitutional Eras.  Notes are in the students’ journal, their Study Sheet.

Friday:  Compare and Contrast: (Then and Now:)  Protective Tariffs, taxation, and the banking system. (Unit 5:  Part 1: Powerpoint questions are due)

We will postpone this activity until next week.  Unit 5:  Early Republic Warm-Up:  Without using your graphic organizer/notes, try answering the questions.  When you finish, and if necessary, check your notes and submit. 

Students are working on Unit 5:1 Early Republic (President’s Cabinet) assignment, which is in on our Google Classroom.  We worked on it yesterday and it is due Monday.  

 

Week of September 30-October 4, 2024

Monday:  Explain and chart significant major battles that were fought by the Patriots to gain independence.

Tuesday:   Break down the Treaty of Paris and its significance.   If time permits, analyze political cartoons/pictures representative of the struggle for independence.  Warm-up activity (Google Classroom)  As we have on each warm up, students will follow this procedure: Without using your graphic organizer/notes, try answering the questions.  When you finish, and if necessary, check your notes and then submit.

Wednesday:   Review for our Unit 3 American Independence test (Thursday)

Thursday:   Unit 3:  American Independence test

Friday:   Students will begin to chart their progress on the assessments they have taken thus for. (Unit 2 as well as Study Sheet Quiz #1 and #2.). Analyze strengths and areas for improvement.