This is a political map of Mexico. You will color the states, but do not label (otherwise there will be way too much writing on the map when we are finished.)
Today we are looking at how choices made by Europeans fundamentally changed Europe and the Americas.
In the first video we will look at what scholars call the Columbian Exchange. It encompasses the exchange of plants and animals, diseases, and ideas. As you watch identify the positive and negative exchanges. How important were they to the Americas? How important were they to Europe?
The second video is on the importation of kidnapped Africans to the Americas to be slaves. This, along with the attempted genocide of the indigenous peoples of the America, is the most shameful act of the European colonists of the Americas and later of the citizens of the United States.
EQ:
What were some of the effects of the Columbian Exchange on Europe and the Americas?
Understand the inhumanity of the transatlantic slave trade.
The Pequot Wars started with the death of one man and ended with making use of the word Pequot a crime. We often put the Puritans on a pedestal, due mainly to the pride many Americans have with being remotely descended from a passenger on the Mayflower as well as politicians constantly referring to them when they talk about our Judeo-Christian culture.
Essential Question: Is violence inevitable between indigenous peoples and colonists?
Mr. C is wanting to visit Canada next summer. He wants you to come up with an itinerary for the trip. His only instruction to you is he wants to see the real Canada, not the one portrayed in movies like Strange Brew!!!'
You will need to come up with 6 places Mr C absolutely, positively, without a doubt must visit while there.
After watching the video above, what other sources will you use to to find information about 'must do' places in Canada? Here are some of Mr. C's suggestions:
1) Do a Google search of places to visit in Canada.
2) Do a Youtube search of places to visit in Canada.
3) Ask around to see if anyone has visited Canada, and ask them.
4) Ask Mr. C if he knows someone who might be willing to to answer some of your questions about Canada. (Don't wait until Friday)
5) Visit the library, maybe they have some of those old things called 'books' that might have some information.
6) Check Wikipedia, maybe they have some good information.
7) Do a search for the Canadian Visitors Bureau.
8) Sit around until Friday and write down any junk you think of. (This one is probably not a very good suggestion, but you know how Mr. C likes to joke.)
Mr. C has worksheet for you to use to gather information.
Assignment Requirements
Find the 6 most Canadian places for Mr. C to visit.
Write down each place with your explanation of why he should visit there.
Add some pictures of each place. Mr. C does require you to cite where you get the picture from and to make sure the picture you picked is copyrighted so that you can use it legally. Creative Commons has a search engine you might want to use https://search.creativecommons.org/
Hyperlink the address where the picture came from.
For this activity, we will be making a couple maps of Canada. We are going to be creating a political, physical, and climate map. First, let's watch this EPCOT video from the Canada Pavilion:
Now that you get a feel for the 'flavor' of Canada, let's do a little learning about the country. You will label the capitals, provinces and territories and then color the climate zones of Canada and create a key which will let me know what the colors represent.
EQ:
What are the major climate areas of Canada?
What are the provinces, territories and capitals of Canada?
Colonial House is a television show created by PBS to examine what life would be like in Plymouth Colony circa 1628. 17 people were chosen to be on the reality show, living the life of a settler in a re-created Plymouth Plantation.
Imagine you have been selected to participate in Colonial House. Write journal entries describing about your living conditions. Are you a freeman, indentured servant, or even the Governor? What kinds of things do you do day by day? Are you having trouble keeping the rules?
Essential Question: What would it be like to live in an early American colony?
Many of us know what it is like to have to move to a new place. In this activity we are going to find out what it was like for the Pilgrims to have to leave England for Holland and then ultimately for North America. Just as you had many difficult emotions with the changes you experienced, the Pilgrims had them as well. They also had even more difficulty and danger than most of us.
As we watch this video we will try to place ourselves in the shoes of the Pilgrms and try to identify how we might have felt if we too had to make a desperate crossing.
EQ: Why did the settlers on the Mayflower come to the Americas?
Engage:
Solicit stories from students who remember moving to Noel.
How did you feel about moving?
What were the first days like after you came to Noel?
How are things now?
Explore:
The students will watch Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower.
The United States is a nation of immigrants. The country was founded mainly by Englishmen who were part of the European colonization effort of the 15-17th centuries. After the US was formed immigration continued to be an important part of its world identity as memorialized by the Statue of Liberty.
While you may argue otherwise, the Statue of Liberty mainly celebrates European immigration as we saw it happen at Ellis Island. Below is a video outlining what it was like to come through Ellis Island as an immigrant.
Unfortunately for many of you, the Statue of Liberty may not capture the spirit of immigration from your ancestors, especially if your ancestors didn't come from Europe. I have done some research to see if I can find other memorials or monuments in the United States that celebrate the immigration of those who were not from Europe and they are indeed difficult to find.
This is your opportunity to remedy that!
You are tasked with the responsibility to create a monument that celebrates the immigration of your ancestors. You should research where they came from, why they came, and what symbols would be culturally appropriate to use as part of the monument.
If your ancestors, like mine, did come through Ellis Island and are represented very well by the Statue of Liberty you can still participate. Create a new monument celebrating your ancestors too. This is an opportunity for you to make it more specific to your original culture. For example I could choose my Scots Irish ancestry to celebrate or my German/Jewish ancestry.
Make your monument with the following guidelines:
Identify where your ancestors immigrated from
Incorporate symbols appropriate for their original country
Create a plaque that celebrates immigration. It doesn't need to be a poem like on the Statue of Liberty, but it does need to reflect your intent for the monument.
Create a drawing of your monument or create a model of your monument. If you make a drawing, make it very detailed and include the words on the plaque.
Show the pride you have in your family and the gratefulness you have for the sacrifices they made to immigrate.
Essential Question:
How would you memorialize your immigrant ancestors?
Imagine your shock when arrive at your destination, the city you plan to conquer only to realize that is the cleanest, most beautiful city you or any of your fellow conquistadors have ever experienced.
You arrived from one of the most powerful nations on earth, having sailed from one of the largest and most prosperous cities in Europe, only to find that it pales in comparison to the city you thought would be primitive, not unlike the people you plan to enslave.
How would you feel?
After reading the article provided on the worksheet, put yourself in the place of a Spanish conquistador seeing Tenotichlan for the first time. You will write about your experience, but not using words.
The pictures above are Aztec script symbols. They use the symbols to share their information. We do something similar with emojis. If using symbols to tell a story was good enough for the Aztecs, it is certainly good enough for you.
Your assignment is to write your story using emojis not words as a conquistador first entering Tenochtitlan.
Read the story.
Write a story as though you are a conquistador traveling with Cortes into Tenochtitlan for the first time, describe what you are seeing.
Use the Emoji Keyboard to rewrite your story using emoji.
Copy the story and paste it into a Google Document and then share the document with me.
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the continental borders of the US. Why did the Spanish set up colonies in what is now Florida? What were they looking for and did they find it? Why did France later set up a colony and what happened to it? These are the questions we will be answering with this lesson.
Essential Question: What countries colonized the land that is now Florida?
Engage:
Can you name which countries colonized the Americas?
Anecdotes from my trip to St. Augustine over the summer.
Castillo de San Marcos the history of this fort is very interesting. What famous Native American leader's wife spent time in jail here? Another interesting fact is that the moat around the fort was dry until it was decided to create a field to play a popular game, which caused them to fill it with water. Can you guess the game?
Gene Kelly, who is considered one of the greatest choreographers of musicals as well as a prolific actor and director, will be seen again soon when we watch the luminescent An American in Paris which ironically is the movie he just finished when he was brought on to head Singin' in the Rain with Stanley Donen. He has an amazing dance scene with the transcendental Cyd Charisse (who goes on to star in the Movie Silk Stockings (1957) which is a remake of the movie Ninotchka (1939) which we will be watching later this year.)
Donen, a protege of Kelly, went on to direct a lot of great movies including Damn Yankees, The Pajama Game and Kismet, as well as the troublesome Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. He also directed the Lionel Ritchie music video "Dancing on the Ceiling".
As we watch this movie we want to pay attention to the use of sound in the movies. We will be looking at this this PowerPoint from the British Film Institute to discuss this further. As we watch, try to figure out:
How were the tap dancing sounds created during the Singin' in the Rain musical sequence?
How were the voices dubbed in the movie?
Who actually sang the song Singin' in the Rain during the performance at the movie premiere?
How does the music impact the scenes in the movie?
Francisco Coronado heard a story about the Cities of Cibola, the Seven Cities of Gold, from a friar named Estevan. He decided he would mount an expedition to find these cities. What did Coronado plan to do when he found these cities? Did he eventually find them? What controversy surrounds the expedition?
Essential Question: Why did Coronado explore the southwest part of North America?
Engage:
Vocabulary
Students will define the vocabulary word using their own words on worksheet
Explore:
Conquest of America: Southwest video (44:51) Youtube video
Explain:
Was Coronado suitably punished for his role in the death of the 'Turk'?
The trade routes that we collectively refer to as the Silk Road started as far back as 2,200 years ago. Although the types of trade goods were varied, it is called the Silk Road because of the demand created for silk from China.
While we may tend to emphasize the economic implications of these trade routes including cities created as stopping points that became wealthy, a much more important trade was taking place throughout this period, the trade of culture. Languages, mathematics, literacy and religion were all shared throughout large areas of the world because of these trade routes.
Essential Question: What led to the rediscovery of the Americas and its colonization?
Engage:
We know that Columbus 'rediscovered' the Americas, but what events led to the need for this exploration?
The history of the Americas started well before Columbus. Unfortunately, because of the lack of or destruction of written histories, archaeologists have to rely on the discovery of artifacts to further our knowledge of these peoples. In this lesson we will learn about different theories of migration and also discover that this area is constantly changing and updating do to new discoveries.
Essential Question: Where and when did the first immigrants to the Americas arrive?
The first two movies we will be studying are linked by place, but not by impact. Algiers (1938) is a remake of the movie Pepe le Moko (1937) based on the novel by Henri La Barthe, a French journalist, detective and writer. Both movies share the same plot, a wanted gangster hides in the Casbah in Algiers protected by friends and the woman who loves him. Things change when he meets another woman visiting from Paris.
The movie stars Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, and Sigrid Gurie. Boyer, who we will see again in Gaslight during our look at Film Noir, was famous for his smooth charm and wonderful French accent. Hedy, whose first name is actually Hedwig!, made her Hollywood debut in this movie. She had starred in several movies in Germany before coming to the United States. She was also very intelligent and patented a way for changing radio frequencies during radio transmission to stop signal blocking. After making just a few movies, Sigrid transitioned to creating art including paintings and jewelry.
While watching Algiers (1938) we want to look at setting. We will book trying to answer the following questions:
What is the Casbah?
Where is Algiers?
Why are the French in charge of the police and military in Algiers at this time?
Is there a political bias in this film?
What connection does Pepe Le Pew have with this movie?
The second movie we are going to watch is The Battle of Algiers. This movie will be a completely different style of movie from Algiers (1938). The first is more of a standard film noir, while The Battle of Algiers (1966) is a much, much different style of movie. It is considered to be a neorealist style, which means it seems real, although it isn't.
The movie is based on the Algerian War (1954-1962) which eventually led to the departure of French forces and the finish of French control in Algeria. The film depicts accurately portrayed bombings and terrorist attacks from the war. According to Wikipedia, "The Battle of Algiers gained a reputation for inspiring political violence: in particular the tactics of urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism in the movie were supposedly copied by the Black Panthers, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front." Again we will be revisiting setting in this film as well as discussing the following questions:
What impact did this film have worldwide?
Which side, as depicted in the film, is morally superior?
How did the style of film affect your understanding?
At any time during the film did you think you were watching real footage from the war?
Interestingly enough both films were nominated for Academy Awards. Algiers received four nominations while The Battle of Algiers earned three, but neither won. Which movies won the awards in those nominated categories?
