WINTER RECESS ASSIGNMENTS

APUSHers:

Here is your assignment for the Winter Break.

1. Continue to keep pace with the readings. Remember, 5 pages a night! Based on that pace, we need to be up to Chapter 12 in the review book by January 5th (when we return from Break!). In order to help you with this, I will be posting notes shortly, I promise!

2. Complete the War of 1812 WebQuest. Here's what you do:

• CLICK HERE to access the project website. All of the other information will be contained here as well. As you scroll down, you will see links for videos, etc. related to each part of the project.
  
• CLICK HERE. Download, and PRINT the file.
  
• CLICK HEREfor the slideshow related to this project. Use the slides to answer the questions
  
• Using the slides, and information that you found here answer the questions related to each slide.
  
• Bring your completed work to class with you and return on January 5th.
  

Tonight's HW - "When the Levees Broke"

Assignment: Due Date: 12/23/08
1. Carefully read the questions below. Then, based on your viewing of "When the Levees Broke," use the questions to construct an essay of at least one page in length.
2. Please type, or neatly hand-write your essay. Turn it in tomorrow, first thing when you enter the classroom.

Background Info:
Hurricane Katrina caused America to take pause and challenged our government's values.

What does it mean to be a citizen?

What type of citizen are you?

What is the role of government?

Should the federal government help the less fortunate or provide a safe atmosphere to allow people to become fortunate?

Obviously there were some mistakes made by the federal government.

Have we learned from the mistakes?

In the aftermath of Katrina were decisions made based on race? class? Or need?

Now that we have all seen the Spike Lee documentary what is our responsibility?

CLICK HERE. See what last year's classes in our school, and Queens High School of Teaching had to say. Do you agree, disagree?

Tonight's HW -

STAY ON PACE!!!

Hello, APUSHers:

REMEMBER! Even if it's not assigned, you still have 5 pages a night to read, including weekends.

The way the schedule works, we have 9 days "off" from reading. So, if you've used up your days, you're going to have to double up, triple up, etc.

You should be up to page 166. By the end of vacation, you need to be up to p. 241, through chapter 12. I know it seems like a lot, but, at 5 pages a night, you will get there before you know it!

Tonight's HW

Hello, APUSHers:

CLICK HERE for tonight's HW!

Post your comments on our blog. See you Monday!

Tonight's HW 12/17/08

Hello, APUSHers:

Here's tonight's HW.

Watch this Video. By now, everyone should have a POWERMEDIAPLUS account. If you don't, you need to set one up. Please look back at old posts to find the passcode.

CLICK HERE. Read these notes. These notes are excellent.

CLICK HERE . Choose any FOUR questions from Assignment #1, and any FOUR questions to Answer from Assignment #2. Post your answers here.

See you tomorrow!

Extra Credit Assignment!

Hello, APUSHers:

Here's a chance to have some fun, get in the holiday spirit and study APUS History, all at the same time!

So, what do you have to do?

http://www.historyteacher.net/AHAP/Projects/HolidayCarolPage.htm

Choose a Christmas, Chanukah, or Kwanza "carol" to re-word.
Then choose an historical topic, event, individual personality, or historical group
and re-word your "carol" with lines pertaining to that choice.
It must be historically accurate and contain the major terms, ideas, etc., associated
with the subject of your "carol."
You must have at least eight, 4-line main stanzas, OR six, 6+ line main stanzas.
[The chorus doesn't figure in to this count, even though you have to re-write
the chorus as well].
Your new version of the "carol" must follow the same pace, cadence, syllables,
and rhyming pattern as the original!
Type out your history "carol" [you can get fancy, if you wish].
DUE DATE: Tuesday Dec. 23rd

Tonight's HW 12/17/08

Ch 7 Writing
The War of 1812 created a split within the United States. While many Westerners and Southerners, led by the War Hawks, advocated going to war with Great Britain, many New Englanders derisively called the conflict "Mr. Madison's War." A radical faction at the Hartford Convention even advocated nullifying acts of Congress, and perhaps even seceding from the Union.

Directions: Read the following documents and answer the essay questions that follow.

President Madison's war message, 1812

"British cruisers have been in the continued practice of violating the American flag on the great highway of nations, and of seizing and carrying off persons sailing under it, not in the exercise of a belligerent right founded on the law of nations against an enemy, but of a municipal prerogative over British subjects....Under pretended blockades, without the presence of an adequate force and sometimes without the practicability of applying one, our commerce has been plundered in every sea, the great staples of our country have been cut off from their legitimate markets, and a destructive blow aimed at our agricultural and maritime interests..."

"In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States our attention is necessarily drawn to the warfare just renewed by the savages on one of our extensive frontiers--a warfare which is known to spare neither age nor sex and to be distinguished by features peculiarly shocking to humanity."

Hartford Convention, 1814

"First. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers of free persons....

Second. No new state shall be admitted into the Union...without the concurrence of two thirds of both houses.

Third. Congress shall not have power to lay any embargo on the ships or vessels of the citizens of the United States...for more than sixty days.

Fifth. Congress shall not make or declare war...without concurrence of two thirds of both houses....

Seventh. The same person shall not be elected president of the United States a second time; nor shall the president be elected form the same state two terms in succession."

Essay Questions:

1. What reasons did President Madison give Congress for declaring War on Great Britain?

2. What changes in the Constitution did the Federalists of New England propose?

3. Did the Treaty of Ghent (1815) solve the problems Madison presented in his war message? If so, how were the problems resolved, and if not, what did the United States actually gain from the war?

Tonight's HW 12/16/08

Based on your viewing of "When the Levees Broke:"

1. Which agency, or part of the gov't is most responsive to the emergency? Why do you think it was effective, and how did it compare to other agencies and response organizations?

2. What point does the film-maker seem to be making about leadership?
3. What is the "Cajun Navy?" Why was it needed?
4. How do you evaluate President Bush's statement "no one anticipated the breach of the levees?"
5. How did you respond to the images of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arriving in New Orleans before the Federal Government?
6. How does the lack of response reflect upon the local, state and federal governments?

BE THOUGHTFUL...ONE WORD ANSWERS WILL NOT COUNT!

Tonight's HW - 12/16/08

APUSHers:

Tonight's HW:

Review Chapter 7, as we will try to catch up from Monday.

LISTEN to the LECTURE. Take Notes!

You can print the text, and use that to help take notes as well!

Then, click here for the discussion.

Answer the following question in a post below.

Was Thomas Jefferson justified in authorizing the purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803?

QUIZ WEDNESDAY

12/10/08 HW

Tonight's HW:

READ 108-113

IMPORTANT: KEEP UP YOUR READING OVER THE WEEKEND. By Monday, you should be up to page 131. Remember, you have to stay on pace!

Tonight's HW 12/9/08

1. Watch the Lectures Below:


Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists

Development of the two-party system

2. READ and OUTLINE pp. 102-107

See you tomorrow!

Tonight's HW 12/8/08

Hello, APUSHers:

Here's tonight's Assignment:

1. READ AND OUTLINE 96-101. If you've already done this, consider this time to review.
2. COMPLETE the Document Based Assignment below. It might be a good idea to print out the document and highlight key information.

Directions:
In the document below, Patrick Henry outlines a powerful dissent to the new federal constitution. Read the document carefully, recognizing that the language of the eighteenth century was greatly differently in many respects from the language of the twenty-first century. You may need to read the document several times, underlining specific words or phrases that are not clear to you. After reading the document, answer the questions that follow.

"...I need not take much pains to show, that the principles of this system, are extremely pernicious, impolitic, and dangerous. Is this a Monarchy, like England---a compact between Prince and people; with checks on the former, to secure the liberty of the latter? Is this a Confederacy, like Holland--an association of a number of independent States, each of which retain its individual sovereignty? It is not a democracy, wherein the people retain all their rights securely. Had these principles been adhered to, we should not have been brought to this alarming transition, from a Confederacy to a consolidated Government. We have not detail of those great considerations which, in my opinion, out to have abounded before we should recur to a government of this kind. Here is a revolution as radical as that which separated us from Great Britain. It is as radical, if in this transition our rights and privileges are endangered, and the sovereignty of the States be relinquished: And cannot we plainly see, that this is actually the case? The rights of conscience, trial by jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities and franchises, all pretensions to human rights and privileges, are rendered insecure, if not last, by this change so loudly talked of by some, and inconsiderably by others. Is this same relinquishment of rights worthy of freemen?..."

-Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratification Convention, 1788

Questions:

1. What do the terms 'pernicious' and 'impolitic' mean? Why did Patrick Henry use such terms in describing the underlying principles of the eventual U.S. Constitution?

2. In what ways did Patrick Henry place the early American experience within both a) a recent historical context, i.e. to what prior events does he make reference and b) an international context, i.e. what comparisons did Henry make with other systems of governance?

3. In the document's final lines, Patrick Henry raises concerns about individual liberties and freedoms that he felt were endangered. In what way did the Federalists act to alleviate some of his concerns in the final phases of the Constitution's ratification process?


CLICK HERE for the LECTURE to HELP YOU!

Tonight's HW 12/4/08

Hello, APUSHers:

Here's tonight's HW:

READ the DOCUMENTS on pp. 116-120 of the Review Book.
Highlight, and ANNOTATE the documents. Remember, read the historical context, or the background information behind each document.

Then, based on what you've learned from the docs, and what you know about Social Studies, answer questions 1 and 2 (only) on p. 120.

Thanks!

HW 12/2/08

Hello, Everyone:

Tonight's HW:

pp. 115-116

Multiple Choice.

Use the reference material previously listed to help you.

See you Tomorrow!