Lincoln conclusions assignment

Greetings from the White House!

Today in class we focused on interpreting the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural by going over the document analysis questions that correspond to those speeches. We also discussed Sherman's March to the Sea and the concept of Total War.
We closed class by introducing the assignment that we will be doing in class tomorrow which focuses on the question: How should Lincoln be remembered?

Click here for a link to your assignment.

Click here for a link to the prep sheet

Click here for a link to the LucidChart example





Use these abbreviations in your chart:

• HD = "House Divided"
• LD = Lincoln-Douglas debate
• 1st = 1st Inaugural address
• Col = Lincoln's speech on colonization
• HG = Lincoln's response to Horace Greeley
• EP = Emancipation Proclamation
• GA = Gettysburg address
• 2nd = 2nd inaugural

The Gettysburg Address

Today in class we read Frederick Douglass' Men of Color, To Arms! which is in CDW.  We answered the questions on the analysis sheet as we explored how the Emancipation Proclamation was the impetus for Douglass' editorial and the impact of blacks being allowed to fight in the Civil War.  We then watched and discussed "Bottom Rail on Top", another scene from Ken Burns' The Civil War that showed us the NY Draft Riots and the role of African-Americans in the War.  We closed the first part of class by listening to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and thinking about why the ideas he expressed were necessary for the Union in the fall of 1863.
During the 2nd part of class students performed their own reading of the Gettysburg Address that we then posted to Ken Burns' website learntheaddress.org.  You can find our version HERE.
There is also an addition to the homework for the weekend. Students need to answer the analysis questions about the Gettysburg Address from the document analysis worksheet  and read and annotate Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural (AR) in addition to the DH readings listed on the calendar.

Group work - Lincoln's thoughts in August, 1862

We began class today by assigning everyone to read one of three documents in the packet:

• Horace Greeley's letter to Abraham Lincoln, A Prayer for Twenty Millions
• Lincoln's Address on Colonization
• Frederick Douglass' response to Lincoln, The President and his Speeches.

We then broke up into groups to create a Lucidchart that traced the factors that influenced Lincoln's beliefs in 1862 (See the linked directions).

Here is a link to the directions for today's group work.

When we finished and shared our Lucidcharts, we then returned  to the classroom to watch The Higher Object, a scene from Ken Burns' documentary.  When finished, we read The Emancipation Proclamation and then answered the questions from the packet about it.

Lincoln and the start of The Civil War

Today in class we took a quiz corresponding to the DH readings for today.  We then watched the clip "Secessionitis" from Ken Burns' The Civil War taking notes as we watched.  The video closed with the context surrounding Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address.  We explored that speech in the American Reader by answering the questions in the document analysis worksheet that is posted in the Unit 5 tab above.  As we discussed differing interpretations of the legalities of secession, the Union, and the motivations of both sides for war, we then brought in Frederick Douglass' viewpoint by reading the editorials titled "Nemesis" and "How to End the War" (both are found in the Lincoln/Douglass reading packet posted in the Unit 5 tab).  We responded to the questions about Douglass' editorials in the document analysis packet.

John Brown-Is violence justified in pursuit of a noble cause?

Today we began by doing a short in-class writing where students were asked to take two of the annotations that they made as they read Thoreau's A Plea for Captain John Brown, explain the quotations and describe why they were annotated.  They were also asked to use those to describe what Thoreau was arguing in the essay overall.
We then watched a clip from Ken Burns' The Civil War, called "The Meteor" which provided some additional perspectives on John Brown.  The notetaking sheet that we used with it is posted in the Unit Tab above.
We finished class with a series of fishbowl discussions about Thoreau's essay where we explored the following topics: when (if ever) is violence justified; how should John Brown be remembered; and in what way is John Brown "the most American of us all"?

The rise of Abraham Lincoln / Ongoing issue of slavery

We started today by watching an excerpt from Ken Burns's documentary, The Civil War. In the chapter, "A House Divided," we heard about ways in which issues surrounding slavery continue to plague the country, from "bleeding Kansas" to the beating of Senator Charles Sumner in the US Capitol to the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Here are a few excerpt from Uncle Tom's Cabin so you can get a sense of the ways in which it expressed the horrors of slavery.

Back in the groups we used for our study of Huck, we read several speeches from Lincoln, including his House Divided Speech and excerpts from his debates with Stephen Douglas.  The worksheet that we used is linked in the Unit 5 tab above (labeled Document Analysis Worksheet) and here.  Just to make sure you remember the difference, between Senator Stephen Douglas and Frederick Douglass, former slave,
here is Stephen Douglas:

and here is Frederick Douglass:

Huck: The Final Day

On Monday in class, we explored ideas from the end of the novel by using this WORKSHEET.  We also handed out the ESSAY that students will write to finish this unit.
For today, we will be discussing the last chapter of the novel as well as the Toni Morrison and Jane Smiley critiques from the back of our version of the book.  If you are using a different version, use the hyperlinks above to see these pieces (they are also posted in the Unit 4 tab above).  In groups we discussed each author's interpretation of the novel and identified three main points from each author.
The second part of class today will be spent working on the closing essay.

Huck - chapters 32-39 - Phelps Plantation

Today you returned to your groups - our work for the day is described here:

• Huck groups day 2 handout

After a class discussion about the end of chapter 31, we identified Huck, a 13-14 year-old boy, as both manipulative and well aware of the power of language.  He fools the duke into thinking he is heading in the wrong direction, and uses the n-word to powerful effect.

The events in these chapters are confusing and frustrating in many ways, revolving around the return of Tom.  We'll see how things play out in the final chapters over the weekend!

Huck - chapter 31

Here are some images of Spanish Moss - described by Huck at the start of chapter 31.

Today in class you read the first part of this pivotal chapter, up to the point when Huck wrote then tore up the letter he was going to send Miss Watson.  Jim was sold by the king and duke and Huck now commits to freeing him.  But at what risk? What does this decision mean for Huck?

Images of Jim

The collection of images below comes from a variety of versions of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published over the last 140 years.  They represent different parts of the novel, so as you view them you might see references to specific events, while others of them are simply portraits of the character.

1. Scroll through the images slowly and consider: Which image of Jim best reflects your sense of this character at this point in the novel?
2. Once you have selected an image, go to this link - it is a folder containing all of the images, although they are in a variety of sizes and not in the same order.  
3. Find and copy your image.  
4. Open a new Google document and title it - Images of Jim.  
5. Paste your image into the document, followed by a short personal explanation about why you chose that image.
6. Go back to the novel and identify a section corresponding to this interpretation of Jim. It might be something he says, something Huck says about him, or a piece of description.
7. Return to your document.  Insert the quotation, including page / chapter information, and explain it - when is it said, and by whom? what is it conveying about Jim? how? why?
8. Identify an image that portrays a different perspective - one held by a character in the book.
9. Copy and paste that image into the document.
10. Go back to the novel and identify a section corresponding to this interpretation of Jim. It might be something said by another character, or a piece of description.
11. Return to your document.  Insert the quotation, including page / chapter information, and explain it - when is it said, and by whom? what is it conveying about Jim? how? why?
12. Write a short conclusion - are the two images you selected (for #1 and #8) similar or different? Why?  What conclusions can you make as a result of seeing these two images together?

Satire - What is it? How is Twain using it?

Yesterday we read several examples of satire.  We discussed what it is and how it is done.  In groups, you identified potential places in the text where Twain might be using satire, thinking about what commentary he might be making about the world in which Huck and Jim exist, as well as the time and place in which the novel is set - mid 19th century America.  At the close of the day you worked with your group to start a map of this section of the novel.

Here is a link to the handout from yesterday.