8th Grade U.S. History
9-18-14
A Day-Day 19
Mr. Smith
Objectives or Big Ideas:
What were some characteristics of early Mesoamerican cultures?
Locate the early Native American societies on a map.
Distinguish between fact and opinion in the Junior Scholastic.
You will use examples of fact and opinion in your own essay.
8.3.8.A.
8.3.8.C.
8.3.8.D.
R16-8.7
R16-8.2
R16-8.8
WHST6-8.1
WHST66-8.10
Agenda:
1. Take map and Mesoamerican cultures quiz results. First go to the class
website, go to 8th grade U.S. history, and scroll down until you find Quiz 1. Take
the quiz, after taking the quiz, ask Mr. Smith for the map quiz. Complete map
quiz, and turn it over when you are finished. Mr. Smith will collect all Map quizzes
at the same time.
2. Turn the map that you colored into Mr. Smith.
3. Go over the Visual Record questions as a class.
4. Next we are going to learn about what Central America is like today, and also what
drives people to migrate to the United States.
Background-About 63,000 children have entered the United States illegally-and alonesince October. (That’s more than double the number from the year before.) The
unaccompanied minors are coming primarily from three Central American countries: El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Many of the kids make the perilous journey north through Mexico to try and reunite with
family already in the U.S., while others are fleeing gang violence and poverty in their
home countries. The surge of unaccompanied minors at the U.S. border, which President
Obama has called a “humanitarian crisis,” has sparked a debate over how-and whether-to
help the kids.
First TaskWrite as much as you can for 5 minutes on the following prompt. Complete the prompt
on notebook paper. Use the following heading in the top left hand or right hand corner of
your paper:
Name
Date
Junior Scholastic-Immigration
Prompt questions:
1) What is illegal immigration?
2) What have you heard about it in the news recently?
3) Why might someone enter the U.S. illegally?
Students will share their responses with their classmates.
Second TaskShow the immigration video at www.scholastic.com/js
Copy the following questions down on your notebook paper:
4) Did the video change your opinion on immigration? If so, how?
5) Would you change anything in your free-write after watching the video? If so, what?
6) Did the video support your opinions or prior knowledge? Explain.
On Monday, we will read the Junior Scholastic about illegal immigration, and connect to
what we have been learning about in class about the early Mesoamerican cultures and
why people came to the Americas.
Homework:
1) Native American Journal assignment due 9-26-14 (84 points)
Over the next 7 days, you are going to write a series of journal entries from the
perspective of the early Native Americans. Do not wait until the last minute to
complete this assignment. You can earn up to 12 points for each journal entry.
For this assignment, you will need to write a journal entry for each letter day. For
example, F Day) Olmec, A Day) Mayans, B Day) Inca, C Day) Aztec, D Day)
Anasazi, E Day) Hopewell, and F Day) the Mississippians. Use the information
from the graphic organizer that you filled out in class, as well as any information
from your textbook or Internet to create a story from the perspective of a Native
American living in each society that you have learned about in class. Create 1
Google Doc for this assignment, and title it “Native American Journal-Last Name.
Looking for 2 paragraphs for each entry. See Rubric below for grading. You can
work on this assignment when you have downtime in class. Again do not wait
until the last minute to do this assignment. The assignment is worth 84 points.
Use Times New Roman, 12 point font, and double space.
CATEGORY
4
3
2
1
Creativity
The story
contains many
creative details
and/or
descriptions
that contribute
to the reader’s
enjoyment.
The author has
really used his
or her
imagination.
The story
contains a few
creative details
and/or
descriptions
that contribute
to the reader’s
enjoyment.
The author
has used his
or her
imagination.
The story
contains a few
creative details
and/or
descriptions,
but they
distract from
the story. The
author has
tried to use his
or her
imagination.
There is little
evidence of
creativity in
the story. The
author does
not seem to
have used
much
imagination.
Accuracy of
Facts
All facts
presented in
the story are
accurate.
Almost all
facts
presented in
the story are
accurate.
Most facts
presented in
the story are
accurate (at
least 70%).
There are
several
factual errors
in the story.
Spelling
and
Punctuation
There are no
spelling or
punctuation
errors in your
story.
There is one
spelling or
punctuation
error in your
story.
There are 2-3
spelling and
punctuation
errors in your
story.
Your story
has more
than 3
spelling and
punctuation
errors.