Day 103: Medieval West Africa--Time to Create! (2/16/2012)

Standard: Study the Niger River and the relationship of vegetation zones of forest, savannah, and desert to trade in gold, salt, food, and slaves; and the growth of the Ghana and Mali empires.

Aim: The historians of 2017 will choose and complete one of the project options based on what they've learned so far on medieval West Africa.

Submit Homework

Quick Question: Describe the role of Islam in the Kingdom of Mali.

2. Now that we've been using video to change the structure of the lessons in the class for a week now, I want you to complete this survey.

3. I want you to spend some time completing your notes. From what I saw yesterday, very few of you have complete notes. I will be going through your notes over the break and grading you on completeness and quality of information.

Here are the presentations that you took notes on:

• Video: Geography in Medieval West Africa
• Video: Empire of Ghana
• Reading: Fall of the Empire of Ghana
• Video: The Kingdom of Mali

4. Project Time: Today you have three options for your project.

Option 1: Create a comic strip telling the story of the rise and fall of Ghana. Your comic needs to have at least six boxes, and you need to use the accurate information in your notes to tell a complete story.

Option 2: Create a Popplet using ALL the information in your notes. Like any good Popplet, you should have text, images, and even video. Make sure all of your notes are complete before you start your Popplet.

Option 3: Create a Google presentation on the Empire of Ghana and the Kingdom of Mali. Your presentation should include relevant images and accurate information directly from your notes.

After reading all three options, which project are you going to complete?

There projects are 100% due the Tuesday we get back after break!

4. If you would like to take a break from your work, you are welcome to watch today's episode of CNN Student News.

Homework: Have your family read the letter and fill out the the permission slip.

It is VERY important that you bring it back tomorrow. We will be doing an activity with video when you return from break.

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Day 102: The Empire of Mali (2/15/2012)

Standard: Study the Niger River and the relationship of vegetation zones of forest, savannah, and desert to trade in gold, salt, food, and slaves; and the growth of the Ghana and Mali empires.

Aim: The historians of 2017 will be able to describe and critique Mali's system for making money for the kingdom.

1. Pop Quiz

2. Since gold was how both the empires of Ghana and Mali got their money, after the pop quiz we are going to watch this great video from Hank Green about gold and why people find it so important.

3. Quick Discussion: If you are the king of a country, would you charge people to travel through your country on your roads? If so, how much would you charge them?

4. Watch my presentation on the Kingdom of Mali. Because it is a video, please pause, "rewind" the video as many times you need to in order to extract all the nuggets of information.

Please excuse the sound of my voice, I'm still getting over my cold.

5. After watching the presentation on Mali, please add to your Kingdom of Mali notes about the follow main ideas:

• Sundiata
• Mansa Musa
• Agriculture
• Economy (how the empire made money)
• Slavery
• Islam

6. Summarizing reflection

7. Go back and finish your notes or presentation from yesterday's reading. Remember, you were required to take notes or create a presentation based on what you and your group investigated yesterday.

Homework: For your homework tonight you are going to read about Islam in West Africa and complete the reflection questions.

(photo credit)

Day 101: The Fall of the Empire of Ghana

Standard: Study the Niger River and the relationship of vegetation zones of forest, savannah, and desert to trade in gold, salt, food, and slaves; and the growth of the Ghana and Mali empires.

Aim: The historians of 2017 will be able to read a grade-level text about the Empire of Ghana and extract three or more key points of information.

1. Submit Homework

2. Do Now: Fill in the events on this blank timeline in the correct order and embed it in your history portfolio.

3. Take this survey on cyberbullying.

4. You are going to spend time reading these pages on the Gold and Salt trade, the exchange of goods, and the decline of Ghana and extract the important pieces of information. Mr. Sanders will model for you how you and your teammates should use a text like this. You can add the information to your Cornell notes from yesterday or create a Google presentation, whatever works better for you. You will be finishing and turning this work in tomorrow.

5. We will close all our tabs and take an exit ticket. The questions for the exit ticket are directly related to what you read in the text.

6. If you finish early, I want you to go back through yesterday's assignment and make sure you've completed all the tasks. Next, watch the 'Week in Review' for last week and make sure you completed all the to do items.

Homework: Take home your video and picture permission slip and get it signed by your parents.

Fun: Want to learn more about the history of Valentine's Day?

(photo credit)

Day 100: Empire of Ghana (2/12/2012)

Standard: Study the Niger River and the relationship of vegetation zones of forest, savannah, and desert to trade in gold, salt, food, and slaves; and the growth of the Ghana and Mali empires

Aim: The historians of 2017 will be able to summarize how the empire of Ghana rose to power and how/why it fell.

1. Submit Homework

2. Quick Question: Is it okay for one country to take over another country if they promise to protect them in return for their loyalty?

3. We're going to spend some time reviewing the messages from Friday's presentation on cyberbullying. We're going use our history portfolios to take a pledge against cyberbullying. Please make a copy of the image below to use in for your post.

In your pledge, I want you to summarize why cyberbullying is dangerous and describe why you personally think we need to bring an end to cyberbullying.

4. I want you to watch this presentation on the empire of Ghana:

5. After you watch the presentation, add to your notes on medieval West Africa (you started taking these notes last week). From this presentation, you should be able to add the following notes to your section on medieval Ghana:

• how the empire got started
• where Ghana was located
• what Ghana traded
• how trading worked
• how Ghana was influenced by Islam
• how the empire of Ghana declined

6. We will finish today's class by taking an exit ticket on what you learned from the presentation.

Homework: I want to read more about the empire Ghana and complete this reading reflection.

(photo credit)