Monroe Doctrine: Hands off the Americas

Good morning!  It is SNOWING here in New York!  There must be three inches on the ground!  Mother Nature was a day early with her April Fool's joke!!!

Ok, I'm done venting :)  Moving on to today's topic:

Hands off the Americas!

This was such a bold foreign policy move for the United States to make as a (relatively) new country.  This differentiated lesson utilizes partner work, whole class reading, primary source analysis and political cartoon analysis.  To begin the lesson, I use this topic as a means to review U.S. foreign policy - up to that point.  We review:

1.  Neutrality Proclamation
2.  Washington's Farewell Address
3.  The XYZ Affair
3.  Louisiana Purchase
4.  War of 1812

This review is a nice way to reinforce the difference between domestic and foreign policy.  It also serves as a way for kids to see, visually, how foreign policy begins to change in the early 1800's from one of (relative) isolation to one of involvement.

Then we conduct a whole class reading of a brief description of what is going on with our neighbors to the south:  Central and South America.  I regret that I no longer discuss individual revolutions.  Time always works against us Social Studies teachers!  Our curriculum is added to literally every day and I no longer have time to devote to revolutionaries like Simon Bolivar.

Then we get into some sticky territory.  Let's be honest.  The U.S. was not just looking out for these newly independent countries, but our own interests as well.  There are some classes that are insightful and mature - for 12 year olds!  I can have an intelligent discussion about what this really means.  Other classes just can't handle it.  You have to read your own students to see what level and direction your discussion takes.

Then it's time for some primary source analysis.  When I first started teaching I would actually read the entire doctrine with my honors class and pull it apart, analyze, discuss....it was awesome.  But, no can do anymore.  So I pull some key lines from the doctrine now and we basically translate each line.  I do love this though because it really gives us a focus and helps us to find the true meaning of the document.

The next activity is primary source cartoon analysis.  The cartoon above is so simple, yet powerful.  The middle school students get it.  This is what they remember about the Monroe Doctrine.  We will end the class  with a discussion of modern-day U.S. foreign policy in terms of getting involved.  Acting like a "policeman" or "security guard" of the Western Hemisphere...or our larger world.

Click HERE to check out my full lesson complete with handouts, teacher answer keys and accompanying power point.

Lewis and Clark: A Children's Book Project

Once upon a time, a group of students were given a project about Lewis and Clark... 

I have taught the unit on Lewis and Clark for over 15 years, but have changed it just about every year because I'm not always happy with how I present these ground-breaking explorers to my students.  But I have finally created something that I am truly happy with and, even better, it is a fun, student-centered alternative to what I have done in the past:

A Children's Book Project!

Students really take charge of their own learning by completing a detailed web quest to gain detailed background information about the Lewis and Clark expedition.  Then they organize the facts they learned from the web quest in a planning packet.  Finally, they use the planning packet to create a children's book showcasing all they have learned.

Story time?  In middle school?

Yes.  My colleagues may tease me but I like to break from what can be hum-drum, boring, same ol', same ol' and have story time with my students as a culminating activity to this unit and project.  Some students like to read their book aloud.  Others ask me or another student volunteer to read their book.  Either way, I have all kids leave their children's book on their desk and we have a "gallery walk" in which the kids "visit" each other's desks and skim through a fellow student's book.  It's always a fun day!

No paper-and-pencil test here....

Yes.  This project is a graded and takes the place of a traditional paper-and-pencil test on this unit.

Depending on the make-up of your school and/or district, this could even be an opportunity for your middle school kids to visit lower grades and read aloud to the younger ones :)  Great community connection here!

Time is always a factor.  But I love the culminating activity (day it is due) so much that I make it happen.  I may do a flipped lesson somewhere else in the Jefferson unit to make up a day or two.  Depending on the year and how much time I have, I make a timeline for the students with target dates for when they should have different aspects of the project completed.  While this may be time-consuming because I check up on the kids' progress (or lack thereof!) it generally results in better projects and few (if any) missing projects on the day it is due.

Take a look at some previews of the lesson and a detailed timeline here

St. Patrick's Day TPT Sale!

It's St. Patrick's Day today and why not have a sale, right?  For today only everything in my store is 20% off!  Come check out the lessons and activities I have posted...I hope you can use them in your classroom too!  Click the banner above to link to my store.  Have a great day!

Mother Nature vs.....Us

Here in the northeast, we are having some crazy weather.  50° one day and then 25° the next!  Kids don't know what to wear to school, the classroom is either blazing hot or freezing cold......you get the picture. But this erratic weather trend is an opportunity for students to really see how we are at the mercy of mother nature.  Try as we might, sometimes there is just no stopping her.  How can we relate this to our study of history?

This is a powerful lesson because the region where I teach was deeply affected by Sandy.  Some families are still affected to this day.  In the past I have taught this lesson using Hurricane Katrina as a modern-day comparison.  The focus of the lesson is how these natural disasters affected the American people.  The students analyze primary source images from both time periods.  This one from the Dust Bowl always resonates with me:

The students analyze the photographs and answer questions about each.  One of the sets of photographs includes the technological aspect of the disaster.  There are some powerful photographs from the Dust Bowl but today, we have satellite photos of storm and weather systems:   

Students are struck by the awesome power of Mother Nature and that even in the 21st century we are at her mercy.  Take a look at the full lesson here

Is technology a gift or a burden?

My husband and I were talking earlier about when we first started teaching.  I started in 1996 and he started the following year.  Our school had a mimeograph machine that looked like this:

Yikes!  For real.  I remember using this.  Unbelievable.  Now our copiers staple and collate, but of course jam all the time.  So that brings me to the topic of today's blog:

Is technology a gift or a burden?

This is also the guiding question for a fun lesson that students really get into because it relates to their lives in so many ways.  Also, their knee-jerk reaction is "of course technology is a gift!"  But once we start having discussions about modern technology they realize that.....hmmmm.....maybe all of the devices that I have are not so great. Maybe social media is not all it's cracked up to be........

I set up the front wall of my room with two signs on opposite ends of the wall.  One sign reads "Technology is a gift" and the other sign reads "Technology is a burden."  As students walk in they are given a post-it note and the guiding question "Is technology a gift or a burden?" is displayed on my smart board.  Students answer the question (anonymously) on the post-it note and then post it (ha ha) on the side of the wall that matches their opinion.  

The class discussion that ensues after all students hang their post-its could take an entire class period itself.  Depending on how much time I have, sometimes I actually let it go on for a half period or more. But usually I do not have time (shocker!) for more than a 5-10 minute discussion.  I do have an eBoard and have also used edmodo and I always tell kids they can feel free to post comments on either if we do not have time to address their comments in class.

I then segue into the content portion of my lesson.  I distribute a handout that looks like this

Then I show students the images on a power point and they have to decide (individually) what they think the image is and what it was used for.  This is fun because some of the kids really have some outrageous ideas about what the images are!

Then I segue into a station activity.  There are seven stations and each one contains a folder with the corresponding image and information about what it was and what it was used for.  Depending on my class, sometimes I have the kids physically get up and move to another station and other times I just rotate folders.

After kids have moved through all seven stations, we go over the handout using a power point presentation and conclude with the question:  Why would this group of inventions be considered "revolutionary"?

For homework, kids create an advertisement for a particular invention (either from the lesson or a modern-day invention) and the ad must reflect whether the invention is considered a gift or a burden.  I choose exemplars from this assignment to create a hallway bulletin board.

This is one of my favorite lessons to teach all year.  Students who, at the end of the year fill out class evaluations, have mentioned this as a favorite as well.  

Click here or the image below to see the full lesson plan, student handout, teacher key, power point presentation, entrance activity signs and homework assignment.

Should Andrew Jackson be removed from the $20 bill?

I stumbled across this article arguing for the removal of Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill.

This directly connects with one of my favorite lessons of the school year:  a web quest in which students research background information about Jackson and ultimately decide whether or not he should remain on the $20 bill.

Students really take charge of their learning by visiting a variety of websites to investigate background information about Andrew Jackson.  One of the ways the web quest is differentiated is that not all of the websites require reading.  There are two videos to watch (narrated by none other than Martin Sheen!) and the kids either use the computer lab headsets or their own ear phones to listen to them.

At my teachers pay teachers store, I have the web quest, which includes a detailed question sheet (step-by-step, website-by-website) and teacher answer key as well.  Here is the link to the Andrew Jackson web quest