Declaring 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.

Liberty and Knowledge

Today, with a partner, you'll do a close review of John Adams' Liberty and Knowledge that you read for homework.
In your U.S. History folder, you'll find a worksheet to guide you through your reading. Discuss EACH response with your partner and then write the answer on your own copy. Some answers require analysis and interpretation and thus need a full sentence; others may be answered in one word. Make sure to define the vocabulary words according to how they're used in the document.
When finished, submit your responses to turnitin.com.

At the end of class, Mr. Kramer will explain the homework (make sure you look at the changes made on the assignment sheet).

How to Read a Document

Today, after confirming our seats, we'll practice reading documents by reading three selections from early American history that all in some way show roots of key American ideals and values.
The Mayflower Compact
Model of Christian Charity
Letters from an American Farmer

What Does it Mean to Be an American-First Conclusions

The first thing you need to do today is enroll in this class on turnitin.com. If you've already done this in another class, your account should still be valid.  Here are the instructions: turnitin signup.

The rest of the period is going to be spent making some conclusions about the materials you've read and worked with this week. I've intentionally let you work through a lot of this material on your own or with peers. Thus, today, you'll be doing an in-class writing which is your opportunity to express what you've understood from the work this week. Here is the question you'll be responding to:

“What does it mean to be an American?"  In your first paragraph, spend some time on your own to answer to this question.  Consider, how would you define “American”?  Once you have developed that, in your 2nd (and/or 3rd paragraphs) enter into conversation with at least three of the readings that we have done this week.  Respond to specific text from three authors, explaining how their ideas are related to yours (you may agree, disagree, both).  You must choose one from each of the following lists:

1) Foner, Baldwin, Von Drahele

2) Excerpts

3) Landrieu

Use the entire period, and spend a couple of minutes editing at the end.  Remember that this is the first of your writing that I will read this year; impress me with your depth of thinking. Submit to turnitin.com when you are done.  If you need a few more minutes to finish, you can do that, but please have it submitted by noon on Sunday.

What Does it Mean to Be an American (contd.)?

Today we made some conclusions about the three articles we read for class today and then in groups on big paper we looked at and annotated excerpts from other articles that also added to our ideas about what it means to be an American.

Welcome!

Welcome to United States History. Today in class we'll begin our discussion of "what it means to be an American" by considering the events in Charllotesville from last week. We'll start with this video recap from CNN (What Happened in Charlottesville)and then we'll let this article by Eric Foner help to guide our discussion: Confederate Statues and "Our" History. Please take note of the assignment sheet posted to the right for tonight's homework.