About Me

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I am a History Teacher at Providence hall Jr. High Charter school. I have a love for helping students reach their potential. I created this blog in order to showcase my ideas for my classroom. Only a few of these lessons have been tested in an actual classroom and any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for visiting, Mr. Owen

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Photo Analyis: Vietnam War




Objectives: Students will analyze photographs taken from Vietnam War (primary sources), by making assumptions and putting themselves in the photograph.
State Standards:
Idaho:USII 1.1/ 5.1
Utah:USII 8.2

Put the fallowing photograph on the board:

Ask the students to:

  • ž  Observe the Photo

Study the photograph for 2 minutes. Form an overall impression of the photograph and then examine individual items. Next, divide the photo into quadrants and study each section to see what new details become visible.
Create a chart to list people, objects, and activities in the photograph.

  • ž  Inference

Based on what you have observed above, list three things you might infer from this photograph.

  • ž  Questions

What questions does this photograph raise in your mind?

  • ž  Create a caption for the photograph

Break up the class into groups of 2 or 3, then pass out these photographs. Have the students do the same thing by answering the same questions. After 10 to 20 minutes have the groups share there photographs and some of their observations, inferences, Questions, & Caption.
















Notes: I gave this lesson as a long term sub for 11th grade US History, it when OK the students had never done anything like this and took a lot of prompting. They seemed to enjoy it.
Depending on the level of the class students can take their questions and see what research can be done. This lesson can also be applied to any other topic as long as they are primary sources for the time period.

Photographs from the Library of Congress

Saturday, March 23, 2013

What do you want me to do about it? Procedures for Absent and Late Work



There are always going to be students that are absent, turn in late work or have questions about their grade on an assignment. The question that teachers always think when they are asked questions are “What do you want me to do about it?” This is the system that I plan on using to help with these issues and to empower students to find out what is required of them on their one.
WORK BINDER: Each subject will have a Work Binder with a brief description of what was done in class and the assignment. This will be updated daily  at the end of the day, depending on the students the updating may be assigned out to a class leader and a copy of any notes may be included when applicable written by the students.  The Idea is that students will know where to find out what they are missing instead of lining up at the teacher’s desk.

LATE /ABSENT /CNTENDING CARD:  When a student has any late work they will be required to fill out a Late /Absent / Contending Card and attach it to their work. This card will answer the questions teachers have concerning late work by asking the fooling question; was it just late, or absent? ; When was the assignment due, and when did you turn it in? This cared is also designed to address any questions or contending a grade given to the students assignment.  There is also space provided for comments or concerns, or questions about their grade.  Here is an example it should only take a quarter of a page or less:

What do you want me to do about it?
Circle one:
 LATE / ABSENT / CONTENDING
Due Date_________________________
Today’s Date______________________
Comment/ Concerns / Questions: _____
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________


This should be explained during the first day of class and again when the first assignment is given depending on the grade level more reminders may be needed.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Sensitivity Module: Senior Interview



Sensitivity Module: Senior Interview  
State Standards
Utah: US2: 7/ 8
 
Honors U.S. History II
My thoughts for this unit are to make it for an honors or leadership class. It involves a lot of work on the teacher’s part and places a lot of responsibility on the students, and until it could be perfected I would not recommend it be done for a standard History class.
Interviewing elderly about their childhood (1940’s or 1950’s) unfortunately the placement of this lesson will change over the years the original lesson was with WWII vets and there are not many left.
The ideas for this lesson come from Values Clarifications: a Handbook of Practical Strategies for teachers and Students (Simon©1972) Strategy Number 45
Objective: Students will gain a greater respect for those that lived through history by interviewing the elderly in their community. This will give a primary source on growing up in these periods.
Before begging this unit contact a local Nursing Home, Assisted living center or Senior Citizen organization and see if there are any seniors that would like members  (no more than two) to come and visit them and ask them about their early years. Find out general information to give to the students such as: Birth, Place of birth, perfusion, family status, and best times to meet with them, as well as any other things that may be nice to know.
Before assigning seniors to students teach the students the importance being professional with these seniors, and preparing them to be the interviewer. Take a class period to have them practice interviewing as pares and then have them write down a list of questions that they would like to ask their senior. There are many movie clips that can be shown to help this way. Also remained the class that when taking a recorded interview and typing it out it is customary for folklorist to write exactly how it is said with ums and accents sounded out…
If you have made arrangements with a nursing home or assisted living center, and time permits class time could be used to go as a class and do the interviews, otherwise arrangements will need to be made on an individual bases, the interview should take at least a half hour but not go much longer than an hour. If the students want to visit more have them return another day…
From the interview students will write a report, or the stories that they learned.  A rubric will need to be created for students to fallow according to the desired outcome. 
Flow, Spelling and Grammar 15pt
Strong introduction 10pt
Narrative (story 3-4 paragraphs from interview) 50pt
Reflection 20pt
Above and beyond (just over the top good) 5pt
Total 100pt
Extra: if this project is a success and there are a few students that bond and create a great report and interview have a life time achievement night to honor one or two of the seniors that were interviewed. Have the students do most of the work and expound on their lives. Have them make a presentation and honor the seniors at a “big event” a dinner with the class their family and friends or whatever fits your community.
It is my hope and belief that by having young people interact and learn from these seniors they will gain a greater respect for their elders and grow to become more understanding of others.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Kaleidoscope: Civil Rights and Tolerance



Kaleidoscope: Were Difference Brings Us Together

Civil Rights and Tolerance
Objective: teach student facts that lead up to the civil rights in the subjects of Racism.  Engage students in activities through role play, lists, Debate, and visualizations.
 

State Standards:


Activity: Divide the class into teams so that they can collect points for each question they can answer correctly. There are two types of cards FACT CARDS (questions) and SITUATION CARDS (role play etc.) for the first half of the class do the FACT Cards and then move SITUATION Cards.
Sours: I found this little game at my local thrift shop and tried to configure it to fit a History Class. It is my belief that teachers should engage students and try to get them to think about issues and come up with their own solutions. This game I found has many more topics that will come later.

Assessment: Some of these questions can be used in testing, or the situations can be used to write papers.
Racism Fact Cards:
This base ball hall-of-famer led the Pittsburg Pirates to a championship. He was killed in an airplane crash as he was ringing relief supplies to earthquake-stricken Niearagua.
       a.       Lefty Gomez
       b.      Tony Conigliaro
       c.       Roberto Clemente
She was the first Mexican American to become treasurer of the US (1971- 1974). She developed a small tortilla factory into a multimillion dollar business. She also operates a scholarship foundation which enables many Mexican American youth to attend college.
       a.       Romana Banuelos
        b.      Julia Mundo
        c.       Hulianne Martinez
A disciple of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this man became director of Operation Breadbasket in 1966, and founded Operation PUSH in 1971. This activist has made contributions to the advancement of civil and equal rights.
       a.       Ralph Abernathy
       b.      Andrew Young
       c.       Rev. Jesse Jackson
This man founded the Niagara Movement, helped organize the NAACP, acted as consultant to the founding convention of the UN, and organized the Conference of World Peace in 1949.
       a.       Marcus Garvey
       b.      W.E.B. DuBois
       c.       Marcus Benton
Kwanzaa is a celebration created in the US to celebrate this culture.
      a.       Japanese American
      b.      African American
      c.       Latino American
The year a Japanese born person was granted the right to become a U.S. citizen.
      a.       1889
       b.      1953
       c.       1961
This Supreme Court decision concluded that racial segregation was illegal.
      a.       Plessey vs. Ferguson
            b.      Brown vs. Board of Education
            c.       Thomas vs. The Church of Christ
T. or F. The Amendment gave citizens the right to vote by stating that this right could not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition. This meant that men and women of color could vote.
False – Women were not given the right to vote until the 19th Amendment; therefore only men of color gained the right to vote.
Born in 1820, she became one of the chief engineers of the Underground Railroad, which helped runaway slaves escape to freedom.
      a.       Ida B. Wells
      b.      Jeanna Lea
      c.       Harriet Tubman
When “Black History Week” was changed to “Black History Month,” this month was chosen.  
      a.       January
      b.      February
      c.       October
The first man to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909.
      a.       Admiral Robert Edwin Peary
      b.      Richard Noam
       c.       Matthew A. Henson
He planted the American flag as Admiral Peary saluted. Of the six men two were first to reach the North Pole, one was Black (Henson), four were Asian, and one was White (Peary).
The term used to describe the bigotry that occurs when many Whites move out of a school district because it was more than 25% people of color.
       a.       Segregation
       b.      Bussing
       c.       White flight
This is not a Native American invention.
      a.       Canoe
      b.      Parka
      c.       Kayak
      d.      tomahawk
T. or F. When Asian immigrants were brought to the U.S. they could own land, become citizens and have inter-racial marriages, because they were viewed as the “model minority.”
FALSE—they were barred from all of these privileges
T. or F. there are more White people in the world than there are people of color.
FALSE
The estimated prescient that Asian Pacific Islanders make up of the U.S. population.
      a.       2%
      b.      8%
       c.       12%
T. or F Theodore Roosevelt mad English the official language of Puerto Rico even though the vast majority of the population spoke Spanish.
TRUE
This particular department store was targeted for “sit-ins” at the lunch counters because it was a national chain. This allowed civil rights activists working in the south to be supported by those in the north who could protest at this department store.
     a.       K-Mart
     b.      Woolworths
     c.       Sears
A spokesperson for the Black Muslim separatist philosophy, giving militant and brilliant voice to the arguer and frustration of the Black masses, On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated.
       a.        Malcolm Little
       b.       Malcolm X
       c.        El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz
       d.       All of the above
Borne Malcolm Little, as a Muslim changed to Malcolm X, after his pilgrimage to Mecca changed to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
This Institution has played an important role as a force for Black culture.
     a.       Education
     b.      Family
     c.       religion
T. or F. Lincoln freed all slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation.
FALSE….

T. or F. Blacks were the only slaves in American history.
FALSE—Indians as well as some Whites were placed in slavery.

By refusing to give her seat on the bus to a White person, she added to the Spark of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s.
      a.       Rosa Parks
       b.      Barbara Jordan
       c.       Lenora Fulani
The year Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
     a.       1964
     b.      1962
     c.       1960
The famous bus boycott of 1955 began in this city.
      a.       Montgomery, AL
      b.      Memphis, TN
      c.       Atlanta, GA
This group celebrates the Cinco de Mayo holiday.
      a.       Mexican Americans
      b.      Chinese Americans
      c.       Native Americans
T. or F. When Columbus discovered America in 1492, there were 10 – 12 million Native Americans already living here.
TRUE
A major college first instituted primarily to educate Indians.
      a.       Harvard
      b.      Dartmouth
      c.       Yale
Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michale Schwerner were:
      a.       A musical trio
      b.      African American politicians
           c.       Civil rights activists who were murdered
This labor organizer founded the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) in 1962. By declaring a strike against California grape growers in 1965, the UFW won a decent wage of grape pickers.
     a.       Jerry Brown
     b.      Caesar Chavez
     c.       Ronald Reagan
In 1966, just as the civil rights movement was beginning to fall apart, this group was founded by young Blacks in Oakland, CA. Some of its leaders included Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis and Stokely Charmichale.
     a.       Black Power
     b.      Black Panthers
     c.       NAACP
A. Philip Randolph founded this organization in 1925.
a. NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
b. BSCP (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters)
c. AFL (American Federation of Labor)
In 1940, a postage stamp honoring the first African American was dedicated to this person.
      a.       Booker T. Washington
       b.      George Washington Carver
      c.       Harriet Tubman
The year the U.S. Congress officially declared Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a national holiday.
     a.       1978
     b.      1983
     c.       1985
A famous contemporary writer and poet whose work includes, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
      a.       Alice Walker
      b.      Maya Angelou
      c.       Paula Giddings
This is the year the redress and reparations of r Japanese Americans interned during WWII (1942-1945) was signed
      a.       1946
      b.      1976
      c.       1988
This great orator spoke out against slavery and was also a champion for woman’s rights.
      a.       Fredrick Douglas
      b.      Marcus Garvey
      c.       W.E.B. DuBois
Director of the United Negro Improvement Association, he believed in racial pride and purity, and demanded that Blacks become independent. He started the largest urban mass movement in modern history.
       a.        Marcus Garvey
       b.       Booker T. Washington
      c.       Dred Scott
The Onondaga people, more popularly known as Iroquois, were governed by a constitution they created known as “the Great Law of Peace,” It is over a thousand years old. Many of the principles of this constitution were “borrowed” when this other document was written.
       a.        United States Constitution
       b.        Declaration of Independence
      c.       Bill of Rights
In 1896, this case made legal the “separate but equal” philosophy of racial segregation.
a.       Plessy vs. Ferguson
      b.      Brown vs. Board of Education
      c.       Thomson vs. The Church of Christ
T. or F. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, and action forcing the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans into concentration camps in 1942.
TRUE
Choctaw, Chippewa, Seneca, Paiute, Cree, Onondaga, and Hopi are:
      a.       Indian Nations
      b.      Famous Indian Chiefs
      c.       Indian tools

Other cards may be developed for FACTS and SITUATION
SITUATION CARDS:
Role Play. You are dating someone who is a different race than you. You bring this person home to meet your family; they are obviously uncomfortable with this…
Debate. In response to what some White people feel is “reverse discrimination,” some students are advocating the creation of “White student unions.” This would mean that the services and the space itself would be meant to serve only White students.
Debate. Should it be mandatory for students to take at least one African American/ Latin American, etc. studies course during college?
Respond. There is a theft in your complex. The robber is identified as a young Hispanic male. There is no indication that the robber is a resident of the complex, yet the complex manager is asked by the police to supply the names of all the Hispanic male residents in the complex. Do you agree with the action of the police? Do you think if the thief was described as a young White male that the police would have responded similarly? Explain.
Debate. Affirmative Action was made into law to begin to counteract some of the discrimination witch people of color as well as certain other groups faced. Unfortunately, at times, people have turned this philosophy of equal opportunity and affirmation action into a quota system or have labeled it as reverse discrimination. Have one team support affirmative action the other against.
Role Play. You are White. You are in a grocery line and the person in front of you is a person of color. The child who is with you begins to comment on the “funny skin color” of the person in front of you… t eh child persists….
Recall some messages you received about people who are different from you racially. What were some of those messages? Were you at all influenced by some of these messages?
Visualization. You are White. Imagine for a moment the following scenario that people of color often expense. People assume that you were hired or that you were accepted into school BECAUSE you were White, to fill a “quota.” Your colleagues or professors do not direct any of their conversations or questions to you unless they want the “White perspective.” Your friends of color tell you that they don’t even think of you as White, and that some of their best friends are White. How does this make you feel?
Respond. You are an Asian American. People are constantly congratulating you on how well you speak English. They also assume that you are really smart and that your career goals are in computer technology. You are also often asked in you could teach them karate.
List Five ways in which people of color are discriminated against in our society.
Recall a time in your life when you were conscious of your color. Describe the situation and how you felt.
Role Play. You arrange a meeting with your professor to discuss your grade. You are quite concerned since you need a certain overall GPA for acceptance into law school. Your professor tells you not to worry since you are Black and law schools are always looking for Black candidates…
List five ways in which White people can begin to work on their own racism.
Create a plan. You are the only African American in your sociology class. Repeatedly the professor has called on you for the African American perspective, but rarely calls on you for any other topic. How might this make you feel? What do you do?