Liberty, Knowledge and Independence

Yesterday in class we went over John Adams dissertation on Liberty and Knowledge. Today, we'll start by hearing the conclusions that you made about your characters and their desire (or lack thereof) for independence. After hearing your conclusions, we'll look briefly at the arguments in the Continental Congress for and against independence exemplified by the speeches of John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and John Adams of Massachusetts. Then we'll get into the specific text and language of the Declaration of Independence, using these questions to guide our work: Declaration of Independence Worksheet.

In-Class Writing

Today you'll be doing an in-class writing that asks you to make some conclusions about what it means to be an American based on the initial work we've done in class this week. In your U.S. History folders, you'll find a document with the full prompt on it. Please write your response directly on that document and then submit it to turnitin.com.
If you haven't signed up for turnitin.com yet, here are the instructions: Turnitin sign up instructions.

Reading Documents

Today we began to think about how best to read a primary source document. We went over the Mayflower Compact as our model and then took a baseline quiz using The Model of Christian Charity.
We also took time to discuss what makes a good notebook entry and compiled the following list:

• Date/Title
• Summarization
• Use and analysis of specific details and quotations (quotations when using primary sources).
• Identifying main ideas.
• Offering opinions (agreeing or disagreeing)
• Making connections
• Answering prompts.

2nd Day

Yesterday in class we continued our look at the essential question of "What it means to be an American" by first writing about and discussing the articles read for homework and then examining additional American Voices.  Here are images of the "written conversations" we had about them.

Welcome!

Welcome to United States History!
The essential question asked in this course is who we are as individuals and as Americans.  What does it mean to be an heir to our history?  We are a part of a country that greatly influences the world; that bears with it a responsibility to know and understand our past and how that past continues to shape our present, and our future.  We have come to this country at different times and under different circumstances.  Our individual and familial histories necessarily influence how we see our collective history.  But we are all a part of this grand experiment.  Over the course of this year, we will listen to voices of the past.  We will examine their thoughts on what it means to be an American and think about how that definition has grown and changed over time, and how it has remained constant.
Here is the link to the COURSE EXPECTATIONS (also posted in Course Info tab).
Here is the link to our first ASSIGNMENT SHEET (also posted in the Unit 1 tab).