Sixth Grade Homework

Sixth Graders!

Remember that you need to finish your homework tonight. You need to ask three adults (or high schoolers) these questions: Should we study history? Why or why not? You need to write down at least three sentences for each person you ask along with telling me who you ask.

If you have your notebook for my class already (due Friday for credit!) put the assignment in there. If not, please hold on to it and put it in your notebook when you get one.

I will check your notebook for this assignment on Friday.

Current Events Presentation on Voting Rights

This activity is designed to introduce and encourage students to become aware of current issues in the community, state, nation, and world. You will search for original current event articles a few times this semester and give mini-presentations. Some possible topics you may research include: political figures, elections, campaigns, political crises, major court cases, major crime investigations, civil rights issues, famine or natural disasters, developments in science and technology, business and finance, health breakthroughs or disease outbreaks. Stories centered on sports and entertainment are not acceptable for this assignment.

This current event presentation must be about current voting rights or vote suppression. You may search newspapers, news magazines, or news-oriented websites.


Your presentation should compare your chosen topic to the vote suppression that happened during the Reconstruction era.

Once you find an article, you must do the following:

• Include the article in your document after the summary and the bibliographical citation.  (5 points)
• Include a short summary of the article. Summary must be neatly written or typed. Summary must include (5 points):
• Who and what the article is about
• Where, when, and why
• Implications for the community, state, country, or world
• Whether and how it affects you
• How it relates to any current class discussions
• Include bibliographic citation (on summary page) in the following formats (5 points):
• Newspaper article: Author's last name, first name. "Article Title." Newspaper name Date: page number.
• (example) Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients." Washington Post 24 May 2007: LZ01.
• Magazine article: Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Day Month Year: pages.
• (example) Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71.
• Website article: Author's last name, first name. "Article Title." Name of online publication. (Date posted). Date accessed. <Complete URL>.
• (example) Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. (16 Aug. 2002). 4 May 2006 <http://alistapart.com/articles/writeliving>.

Your spoken presentation needs to include the information in your summary. Your presentation needs to be at least sixty seconds long, and should have a strong beginning and a solid ending. Practice good eye contact and volume to get the best grade.

Eighth Grade Work

Eighth graders need to write a paragraph in response to the Louisiana Literacy Test we "took" today. You might explain how it would have felt to face this barrier to voting. You might discuss how this test was used. You might add in your reaction to finding this test is from 1964, and not from the 1860s.

Write the paragraph in your composition book.

Eighth Grade Test on Friday

The test will cover from the election of 1860 (who ran, what were their positions, what were the results?) to the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865 (by whom, how, why, where, and with what effect?)

General topics on the test will include the strategies and goals of both the USA and the CSA; their capitals, strengths, and weaknesses. Battles covered will include Fort Sumter, First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas, Shiloh/Pittsburg Landing, Antietam/Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Sherman's March to the Sea, and the close of the war at Appomattox.

People covered on the test include President Lincoln, President Davis, General Grant, General McClellan, General Lee, General "Stonewall" Jackson, and General Sherman.

Students will be allowed to have one side of a piece of paper (written, not typed) for notes. The test will be this Friday.

Sixth Grade Homework

Students read the You Decide! in our textbook on whether Confucianism was a good solution to the problems that Confucius' society faced. Then they answered questions one and three. Three must be an essay of at least three paragraphs and use quotes and modern-day examples.

Sixth Grade Homework

We're still learning about the philosophies of China and East Asia (Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism.) Today we reviewed all four, and learned a bit more about Legalism. Our homework, though, is to make our own Yin-Yang design and represent the Taoist "unity of opposites" with fifteen pairs of opposites inside the Yin-Yang.

Please use color! Remember that the opposites are not always good/bad. Other examples could be: stillness/motion or night/day.

Due tomorrow!

Eighth Grade Homework

Students read this blog post by a historian arguing that Sherman's March to the Sea was not a war crime. Read it, then answer these questions.

1. What did Sherman ask Hood for help in? How did Hood respond? What was Sherman's response to Hood? Does this correspondence affect whether the March was a war crime? Why?
2. What reason did Halleck say justified Sherman's foraging?
3. What reasons does the writer give for her position? Do you agree with her?

Periods one and two, due tomorrow. Periods five and six, due Friday.