That's right, we're going out with a bang.  In order to give you as much time as possible to prepare, we will be having our Civil War history test the day before Spring Break.  It isn't ideal, but it's better than forgetting everything over 9 days of break and then coming back to take the test.  Also, I want your break to be a true break.  I don't want you to have to worry about an upcoming test.

If you are leaving for Spring Break early and won't be at school that Friday, I highly encourage you to take your test early.

Your essay question will be an easy one this time:

"List three of the freedoms provided in the Bill of Rights and the responsibility that comes with each."

The test will be over ch. 8: The French and Indian War, The American Revolution, and the US Constitution.

This week we started researching the people and events of the Revolutionary War period.  Right now your child is gathering information about their topic.  Some students have had a great start and others will need some encouragement at home.  At first glance, the "Research Gathering" sheet might look pretty confusing, but for as much time as I've spend trying to make it clearer, I this is the best I can do.  I'm happy to help if you have questions, but most of the students do seem to understand the format.

Here's what your child should have at this point:

1. Library books checked out from the library
   
2. Three logical topics chosen (These will later be the three body paragraphs.  For example, if I was researching the Battle of Bunker Hill, my three topics might be be Causes of the Battle of Bunker Hill, The Battle, and After the Battle.  If I was researching a person, my topics might be Early Life, Family Life, and Major Accomplishments.  Of course, these aren't the only way by any means.)
3. Three resources written down for each topic (At least one must be a library book.)
   
4. About 1/3 of their research done (Maybe one of three topics is complete and the other two are empty, or maybe 1/3 of each topic is complete.)
5. Facts should be written in keyword outline form (This if frustrating to some kids, but I think it is very important for a number of reasons, so this format is important to follow through on.)

Check out these examples of Keyword Outlines and Summaries to see how you can improve your own work.

.

These people did very well in some areas, but also made a very common mistake.  The topic sentence of the first starts with "Here are some facts..." and the second starts with "This paragraph is how".  Some other people made the same mistake by starting with "This paragraph is about..." or "This has lots of facts..."

Remember:  Don't refer to your own paragraph in your topic sentence.  Take a look at the two paragraphs above to see what you might have written instead.

Today, we're going to get set up for your research project.  You will take a look at potential research topics, and what resources you will have available.

Begin by saving a copy of this Research Starter for yourself and completing it.

In order to give people more time to study and do their best on our History test, we decided to move it to Friday morning.

Thanks to your hard work today, there is now a complete library of stories to help you study for your History test this Thursday.

It is relatively locked down at this point, so you can study it without accidentally changing it for everyone.

View the stories here.

Today we will be dividing and conquering yet again in order to make a huge amount of information manageable.

Please go to our shared classroom folder in Google Docs to begin working on your assigned story.

Georgia - Kelly, Anna
Delaware - Luke, Rebecca
Puritans - Jake, Alyssa
Maryland - Cameron, Stephanie
Virginia - Jacob, Austin
Pennsylvania - Abby, Conor, Sydney
Rhode Island - Tanner, Sam, Abbie
New York - Bryce, Sharon
Jamestown - Shania, Josiah
The Carolias - Megan, Andrew
Plymouth - Jordan, KJ

In addition to a number of questions which will check your understanding of basic facts relating to early Colonial America, and a surprise extra credit question, you will also be given two deeper inferring questions on this Thursday's test.  Here are the two inferring questions you will see three days from now:

1.  In which early colony would you feel most at home?  Please provide at least three specific reasons based on facts from the text.

2.  How is the Mayflower Compact like the US Constitution (the document that governs our country today)?  ­­­­­­­­

Good luck!