Week in Review for Feb 11

Watch the Week in Review to double-check that you completed all the to do items in the class last week.

UPDATE: The Europe and South America grades will be added to the gradebook on Monday! Sorry for the delay!

Day 99: The Salty History of the Empire of Ghana (2/10/2012)

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 take notes on medieval African civilizations and correctly submit a link to their notes.

Quick Question: How is it possible for salt to have been just as valuable as gold?

2. Review: How did the silent trade in Ghana work? You might need to go back and look at the primary source materials from yesterday.

3. Watch this video:

4. Create a copy of this graphic organizer. You will be using it to take notes on the different empires in West Africa.

Watch the presentation below on West African civilizations and complete your Cornell notes for the "other civilizations" category.

Make sure you add notes for both the Empire of Kush and the Romans presence in North Africa.

Turn in the link to your notes here. Watch this video so you know how to turn in your notes correctly.

5. Go to your Google Reader and read three or more current events. Only one can be about sports or entertainment. The other two need to be about another topic. One of the articles you should read is this one about virtual schools from the CNN student blog.

6. We're going to close our computers and discuss current events and watch CNN Student News together.

Homework: New current for Monday.

(Photo Credit)

Day 98: Primary and Secondary Sources (2/9/2012)

Standard: Students distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and verifiable from unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories.

Aim: The historians of 2017 will be able to articulate the difference between primary and secondary sources.

Pre-Assessment: What is the difference between a primary and secondary source?

2. To review today, watch the BrainPop on the Savanna and take the interactive quiz afterwards.

Username: palmbeach

Password: palmbeach

(If BrainPop isn't working, because it was down for a little while this morning, watch this video instead)

3. Go through this presentation to help you understand the difference between primary and secondary sources.

After you go through the presentation, tweet out what you think the major difference is between primary and secondary sources.

4. As a class we're going to play a Socrative "Space Race" where we determine the difference between primary and secondary sources.

5. Examine this primary source on West African silent trade and complete the reflection question. We will start our lesson tomorrow with reviewing how silent trade in West Africa works. If you have trouble understanding how it works from the primary source, look on the web for some secondary sources that might help you understand.

Homework: Complete the Ghana trade preview activity.

(photo credit)

Day 97: Early African Civilizations (2/8/2012)

Standard: 7.4.1 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 investigate an African object from the British Museum and summarize what they learned in a Tumblr post.

1. Submit Homework

2. Quick Question: Which African geographic zone would you like to live near? Why?

3. We're going to watch this video. To save bandwidth, we're going to close our computers and watch the video whole-class:

4. We are going to have a discussion using Socrative. (Kansas, if Mr. Sanders' isn't in class yet, we will have this discussion at the end of the period. Go directly to the next step.)

5. Go to the British Museums website and choose one of the African Objects from the list. Investigate that object and create a tumblr post where you summarize what you learned about that object for your teammates.

How you should start your Tumblr post:

For my investigation, I took a closer look at (object name). I learned that the object is from (place) from the (year or century). This object was interesting to me because...

You may/should include a picture on your post.

Homework: Read about the Empire of Ghana and complete the reading reflection.

If you finish early you can watch more of the BBC's documentary on the Lost Kingdoms of Africa and e-mail me a reflection of an extra credit point.

(photo credit)

Day 96: Geography of Africa (2/7/2012)

Standard: 7.4.1 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 the four major vegetation zones in Africa and analyze their impact on the development on medieval West African societies.

1. Submit Homework

2.Tweet storm: Which physical feature in West Africa do you think people benefitted most from living near or in? Why? (140 characters of less) Make sure you use the hashtag #KSFB7 so the Social Media director will be able to track your tweets.

3. Add the following two locations on your maps of Africa:

A. Empire of Mali

B. Empire of Ghana

Use the map resources to find out where are you map you should put them.

Finish your maps. Make sure you have all the information from both today and yesterday's post.

4. Watch this video to help you understand the important parts of the this week's lesson.

5. Create a tumblr post where you describe one of the major vegetation zones in Africa and how it impacted the development of medieval West African culture.

Homework: Complete the where city's develop activity.

(photo credit)

Day 95: Introduction to Medieval West Africa (2/6/2012)

Standard: 7.4.1 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 create a map of West Africa featuring the important geographic features.

Submit Homework

2. Quick Question: If someone asked you to describe Africa in three sentences, what would you tell them?

3. We are going to watch the first few minutes of this documentary and write a reflection afterwards.

After watching the video, open Mr. Sanders' Socrative room and wait for the first writing prompt.

4. Open this blank Google draw map and create a map that accuratly shows the following key geographic features in West Africa:

-Niger River

-Sahara Desert

-Shahel

-Forest

-Savanna

-gold mines

-salt mines

Map Resources

When you finish, embed your map on your history portfolio.

5. After you complete your map, answer this reflection question/exit ticket.

Homework: Read the introduction to Early Societies in West Africa and complete the learning reflection.

(photo credit)

Day 94: How Do Ideas Spread? (2/2/12)

Standard: 7.2.4 Discuss the expansion of Muslim rule through military conquests and treaties, empha­sizing the cultural blending within Muslim civilization and the spread and acceptance of Islam and the Arabic language.

Aim: The historians of 2017 will be able to summarize why and how ideas, and in this case religions, spread.

Quick Question: How Do Ideas Spread?

2. You will have some time to finish up your maps from yesterday. After you finish your map showing the spread of Islam, embed it into your history portfolios. Here is a video if you need help embedding it.

3. We are going to take our geography map tests here. To prepare for the test, why don't use one of these NEW games to study:

Europe (requires your headphones)

South America (requires your headphones)

4. You're going to have time with the people at your table to come up with an argument for why/how ideas spread. After we finish sharing, you are going to create a Tumblr post where you explain your opinion for how ideas spread.

5. Because Friday is a department day, we will watch Thursday's episode of CNN Student News.

Homework: New current event for Monday.