The topics we discussed this week were:

Spanish encomienda and the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

French colonization of the Americas – fur trapping and trading with the Native Americans

Jamestown and Plymouth – gentlemen and indentured servants in contrast to Pilgrims and religious persecution

We are going to wrap up the early colonies unit this upcoming week with a discussion about colonial government and how the early settlers were able to build their societies out of the wilderness.  We will look more at Jamestown and the origin of the southern colonies and contrast it with the goals of the Pilgrims and Puritans and their religious society.  Our test is next week Thursday and will cover the Spanish, French, and English colonization.  The students received study guides on Thursday to help their studying.  These are to be completed and handed in on the day of the test and will be worth 25 points.

I have entered in grades for the past four assignments we have had this week, the French fur trappers activity, the Spanish/French Venn Diagram, the Virtual Jamestown worksheet, and their accountability sheets for the past two weeks.  If there is a 0 by your grade, do not panic!  That simply means I do not have that assignment from you, so you need to get it to me or Mr. Little as soon as possible.  The 0 is there to remind you to do that, not to scare you.

And of course do not forget about History Fair!  Keep researching because we are at a critical point.  Continue gathering facts and sources.  The 40 facts and 10 sources due next week Friday is of course the minimum needed for our class project.  Ms. Pfister of the History Fair administration said that winning entries typically have 25 sources.  Remember to contact Mr. Little or myself if you are having trouble finding sources or information.  I know that all of you are capable of doing high quality research and producing projects that are going to astound the judges.  Keep working, and it will all be worth it!

World’s Fair/Columbian Exposition of 1893:

• http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html
• http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/wce/tour.html
• http://www.chicagohs.org/history/expo.html
• http://www.hydepark.org/historicpres/ColumbianExp.htm
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/e_court.html
• http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/pbcote/courses/archive/2010/gsd6447/ashi/index.htm
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklyn_museum/2784215013/
• http://travelphotobase.com/s/ILCEXPO.HTM

Chicago Fire:

• http://www.thechicagofire.com/
• http://hiddentruths.northwestern.edu/fire_accounts.html
• http://www.nationalcenter.org/ChicagoFire.html
• http://chicagology.com/chicago-fire/
• http://www.chicagohs.org/history/fire.html

Use these to find more, specific facts about Chicago:

• http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org
• http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215480/
• http://www.chicagohistory.org
• http://chicagology.com/
• http://www.lib.depaul.edu/eresource/subject_search_infotype.asp?TopicID=141&SubjectID=13

Skyscrapers:

• http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=101030&bt=2&ht=2&sro=1
• http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?cityID=4
• http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/faculty/erics/web/arcchicago.html

Neighborhoods of the City

• http://neighborhoods.chicago.il.us/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_neighborhoods

Landmarks and Places

• http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/chihist.html
• http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/List.html

• Excellent Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Avenue_(Chicago)
• City of Chicago’s page on South Michigan Avenue: http://egov.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/M/MichBlvd.html
• List of old/famous buildings on South Michigan Avenue: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/st/?id=179946
• History of Grant Park: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/538.html
• More Grant Park History!: http://www.grantparkconservancy.com/home/briefhistory.html
• And the Mag Mile’s commercial site: http://www.themagnificentmile.com/

Immigrants and FOOD!:

• History of Greeks immigrants and their food in Chicago: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/548.html
• History of Chinese immigrants and their food in Chicago: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/285.html
• Polish: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/982.html
• Mexicans: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/824.html
• Italians: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/658.html
• Chicago Style Hot Dogs: http://www.hotdogchicagostyle.com/chicagodog.php
• History of Chicago Pizza: http://members.cox.net/jjschnebel/ddishpiz.html
• Again!: http://www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/5337.html

I can’t think of a better way to teach about historical interpretation than with the story of Pocahontas.  We probably are all familiar with the Disney version of the story.  If you need a refresher, here is the video for “The Colors of the Wind” from the movie.

Disney is entertaining and does teach some good things about colonial Jamestown; the English settlers believed that land could be bought and sold and then utilized for economic advancement.  The Native Americans believed that the resources of the earth were communal and thus could not be owned by one person.  I think that is shown beautifully in this video.

Did Pocahontas really save the life of John Smith?  There is no one clear answer.  The popular legend says that John Smith was about to be executed by Powhatan, the Native American chief of several local tribes and father of Pocahontas, when Pocahaontas threw herself upon Smith and begged her father not to kill him.  Did this actually happen?  Smith wrote about it many years after the fact.  He may have forgotten some of the details of the story or flat out made it up.  Another explanation is that the Native Americans were taking part in a ritual and did not intend to actually kill him.  There is not enough evidence to say definitively what happened.  That is the beautiful thing about history; it requires a great deal of critical thinking and analysis in order to find out what really happened and why.

What is the point of all this?  The point is that history is not black and white.  It is gray, sometimes very gray with no clear cut answers.  This is very important to keep in mind with History Fair.  Remember to find a wide variety of sources about people and events in order to get the big picture.  John Smith probably thought that he was going to die when he was captured by the Native Americans.  Powhatan probably was not going to kill him.  Two people in one place at one time saw an event in two very different ways.

If you are interested in learning about the real Pocahontas, take a look at some of these links:

Historic Jamestown

Stanford’s Version

Descendants of Pocahontas

I didn’t require extra credit, or even announce it to the kids. But I have 12 emails from parents or kids showing me them helping their neighbors.

Pretty cool kids we got here…

1. How to shape a research question that drives your work.
2. What kind of facts they need to answer that research question!
3. How to really research, moving beyond background information collected from common sites.

STOP it with Wikipedia! Great researchers don’t use Wikipedia. Does a gourmet chef use Cheese Whiz? I mean, I like Cheese Whiz, but not when I want a classy dinner. Wikipedia is awesome if you’re just trying to get familiar on a topic. But for serious research? Eeek.

Here’s a sample sheet we expect students to show us. We’re moving towards 25 total facts from 7 unique and great sources. Evaluate my sample sheet. What is good about it? What’s wrong with it? We’ll go over this next week.

And by “prove,” I don’t need anything crazy, just an email from the neighbor, mom/dad, a photo or video of you being nice, just some kind of evidence you did the deed!