This Week in US History

This week we are starting our look at Progressive Politics, beginning with an introduction to Theodore Roosevelt and his Square Deal.

Monday - Because of some schedule changes last week and since I am out with a migraine today, students will start the week by finishing the Action Figures (Learn more here.) they started on Friday. I am so excited about these! I have done them before by simply giving students a blank space to draw, but the addition of the Funko Pop! outlines really made a difference. Students were less intimidated by the process and were able to quickly produce some really gorgeous figures. I can't wait to see their finished products! 

Tuesday - Today we finally get to meet President Theodore Roosevelt, beginning with a short reading about his life before the presidency. We don't have time to do this with every person in history, but I do try to spend time whenever possible really introducing students to the people we are studying. In this way, they become more than just names in a text, but instead real people who  - for better or worse - are influenced by the past as they make decisions about the future. We will end the day by completing a Frayer Model (Learn more here.) about Roosevelt's Square Deal. I did, however, change the last box in the activity so that instead of drawing an image, students will compare Roosevelt's policies to those of his predecessors.

Wednesday and Thursday - Students will spend two days completing an Iron Chef Activity (Learn more here.) to dig deeper into Roosevelt's policies. I have modified this activity to allow students to work on their own as well as to force them to connect what they learn about Roosevelt to ideas from our previous lessons. This thinking will set them up for success when we get to the culminating activity in this unit. As they finish, students will use what they learned to answer a series of questions and finally draw conclusions about the Roosevelt Administration.

Friday - We will end the week with a quick look at the Taft Administration and the Election of 1912. Time permitting, we will also spend some time in "Zornville" learning more about the election process. I've used this activity for years to help students understand popular vote vs. electoral vote, the winner-take-all system, etc.

And because it worked as well last week, students will also practice the vocabulary words essential to this section with the Fast and Curious protocol (Learn more here.). Our goal is to complete this process three times this week, improving our class averages each time. So far, students have really enjoyed this and have been very excited to watch their scores go up.