Tuesday, October 09, 2012

October 9

We briefly assessed Lincoln's time as President, and the differing perspectives on his abilities as leader of the nation. As I said in class, C-SPAN does a survey every so often that ranks the U.S. Presidents. If you're interested, here is a link to their 2009 Presidential survey.
I also started a lecture on the Reconstruction Era. I have made some changes to the PowerPoint, so I will post the new version on the wiki tomorrow. Please remember to study for your Civil War Test (on Friday and Monday), please see the study guide on the wiki in the U.S. Civil War section.

You wrote "The Patriot" quiz at the start of class. I then had you move back into your Articles of Confederation groups  to continue the activity that we started on Friday. You have to understand a few things about the Articles of Confederation, for one, it was a product of its time, so it's important to bear in mind the historical context in which this document was created. The United States had just successfully defeated the British in the Revolutionary War and there was a feeling among many Americans that they had just overthrown tyranny in their everyday lives. They didn't want a strong central government that they feared could grow just as powerful as the tyrannical government that had rid themselves of. That's why you see certain measures in the Articles of Confederation such as no executive branch. There are several conditions that led to the creation of the U.S. Constitution. There is a document on the IB 20 wiki under the Independence Movements section that is entitled Conditions in the USA 1781-1787 that should help you understand the motivations behind wanting to re-write the constitution. I started to deliver a lecture on the U.S. Constitution today, which I should be able to finish tomorrow. On Thursday, we will be having a constitutional convention simulation and you have all be assigned an actual delegate to that convention. Please follow the delegate research guide that I put up on the wiki. Check your e-mail for the link to the page on the wiki. I tried to include a mix of delegates who actually signed the Constitution, and those that did not.
You wrote your Unit 1 WRA II Essay today in class. This took all the period.

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