Week of 8/22/11

Sixth Grade:
This past week your students were involved in an archaeological dig in social studies. We were examining a bag of clean household trash to answer some questions. Using the evidence in the trash the students tried to determine the number of people who lived in the house, their ages, their interests and hobbies, if they had pets, and what their profession might be. This week we will finish our discussion by determining how this small dig could give us clues about life in the United States in 2011 and how historians and archaeologists use these clues to reconstruct the past. Towards the middle of the week we will begin to work on map reading skills and discuss why it is important to understand geography while studying civilizations.

Seventh Grade:
I am really enjoying working with your students again this year! They are enthusiastic, engaged and very funny! This past week we reviewed the concept of history as an investigation by examining different primary and secondary documents to try to reconstruct a fictitious event on campus. We discussed the reliability of sources and the students learned to identify possible bias in primary sources. This week we will begin where we left off last Spring with Rome. At the end of last year we ended with the assassination of Julius Caesar. We will discuss the rise of the empire and its achievements this week. A project called the Visual Rating Spectrum will be assigned in about a week. I will post a firm due date when it is assigned.