Important Information!

Dearest students,

May 3rd will be our final day in the library. Ms. L will be giving a tutorial on how to put your articles and pictures into the newspaper format word document. This is a very important tutorial as this process can be quite tricky. It is also tricky to print the newspaper, so Ms. L will be helping everyone with that as well.

In order to be best prepared for this tutorial you should have all articles completely written and all pictures chosen. If you do not have all of your stuff ready you will not be able to receive help with the process of putting the newspaper together.

Don't forget that you should be keeping track of all the sources you use because I am expecting everyone to have a PERFECT works cited list.

Good luck and don't forget that you can email me if you are having problems and I will do my best to help.

Ms. McGill

French Revolution Newspaper Project

Dearest students,

For the next three classes we will be in the library working on the French Revolution Newspaper project. Press on the following links if you did not receive the outline or rubric for the project.


I will only be with all of you for four more classes!!!!!! Here is the schedule:

• April 27th - Library
• April 29th - Library
• May 3rd - Library
• May 5th - Last Day With Me - Storming of the Bastille Simulation?????
• May 9th - Ms. U takes over the class again & Due Date for French Revolution Newspaper Project

What Transpired?

Dearest students,

In class today we watched the following videos and completed a worksheet:

Block 1.2 - Current Events Lesson

April 13th, 2011 - This post is for Block 1.2 only.

Current Events - The Federal Election

Today, in electoral district C203 we held an election! After creating some political platforms our party leaders gave speeches on why you should vote for them.

At the end of the class there was an exit slip to complete. If you were present in class but had to leave early due to a sports event, please complete the following exit slip questions and hand in to me by next class.

Exit Slip

1. In our class election, who would you vote for? Conservatives, Liberals, Green Party or NDP.
2. In a short paragraph give an explanation for your vote.
3. In the upcoming federal election on May 2nd, which political party do you think will win. Give an explanation as to why you think that party will win.

Causes of the French Revolution

April 11th

On Monday we spent some time talking about the causes of the French Revolution. If you missed class please watch the videos in the last post, they will get you up to date.

The Philosophe Promotional Poster is due TODAY, April 13th. Please see me if you are handing in the poster late.

The French Revolution in Under 15 Minutes!

Special thanks to G in 1.2 for telling me about these youtube videos!

Philosophes

April7th, 2011

Dearest Students,

Today I introduced you to a new assignment, the Philosophe Promotional Poster. This assignment is due April 13th. If you are in block 1.4 we do not have class on April 13th due to Collaborative Time, so you can hand your assignment into my file folder at the front office. Just ask the secretary where the student teachers file folders are and then put your poster into the Ms. McGill file.

The outline for this assignment is available at the following link: Philosophe Promotional Poster Outline.

Please remember to finish the worksheet from last day which focuses on the leardership qualities of Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI.

Room Change for IR Test

For those students taking the Industrial Revolution test on Friday after school, the test will now be given in room B107. This classroom is right at the end of the B-wing. Proceed directly there after your last class on Friday.

Industrial Revolution Test

For those of you who have not written the Industrial Revolution test you will be able to do so on April 8th, which is this Friday. The test will be held in room *B107* (no longer in room C203) and it will take you 75 minutes to write.

The first part of the test is 15 multiple choice questions. These questions will be related to everything we covered in class and this part of the test is closed book.

The second part of the test involves writing two letters and this part of the test is open book. You will be writing a letter to someone during the Industrial Revolution and then you will be writing a response that letter. These letters will have something to do with Oliver Twist so make sure you are familiar with the plot from the portion of the movie that we watched. If you have Netflix you can view the movie again and if you don't have Netflix then check out some of the following websites and videos to fresh your memory on what happened in the portion of the movie we watched:

*Please note that you only need to know the plot from the beginning of the story to when Oliver runs away from the undertaker's house to London.*

http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/twist.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist (This article in Wikipedia is approved by Ms.McGill.)

Introduction to the French Revolution

Lesson Date: April 5th, 2011

Dearest students,

It's the beginning of the new unit! And this isn't just any unit, it's all about the French Revolution! We will not only being looking at what happened during this historic event but also the political ideologies that arose from it.

Today in class we had a class discussion on the motto's of several different countries. We talked about what message these motto's are trying to send and also some of the ideas that they represent.

• Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – USA
•  Liberty, Equality and Fraternity – French Revolution
•  Peace, Order and Good Government – Canada
• Peace, Land, Bread – Russian Revolution (Bolshevik)
• Decolonization, Democratization and Development – 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal

Next we looked at the Three Estates of France prior to the French Revolution.

• First Estate: The Clergy
• 1% of pop, with 10% of land. 
• They had wealth, land, privileges and they levied a tax on the peasantry, the tithe, which generally went to some remote bishop or monastery rather than the local parish priest. 
• The First Estate was perhaps 100,000 strong. 
• But note that there were many poor clergymen in this Estate, and they were going to support the Revolution.
• Second Estate: The Nobility
• 2-5% of pop, with 20% of the land. They also had great wealth and taxed the peasantry.
• 400,000 people.
• The great division among the Nobility was between the Noblesse d'epee (nobles who family lines date back to the Middle Ages) and the Noblesse de Robe (later nobles whose titles came from their possession of public offices.)
• Third Estate: Everyone Else
• 95-97% of the pop.
• There were some few rich members, the artisans and all the peasantry. 
• These were also class divisions: 
• The Bourgeoisie - 8% of the pop, about 2.3 Million people, with 20% of Land. They often bought land and exploited the peasants on it. In Third Estate, the most important group politically was the Bourgeoisie but they had no say in running the country,
• The Peasants - They had 40% of the land and formed the vast majority of population (approximately 20 million people). The Peasants paid the most tax: aristocrats did not pay. Peasants alone paid the taille (a land tax). They alone had to give labor service to the State. They also had to pay the tithe to the clergy.
• The Urban Poor of Paris - Artisans, factory workers, journeymen. Very poor but highly literate.

 Notes adapted from: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/lect/mod10.html.

Finally we started a worksheet that compares the leadership capabilities of Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. This worksheet is based on Activities Question 1 on page 68 of the textbook. This worksheet is due next day, April 7th.

Hello Students

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email me at msmcgill.socialstudies@gmail.com.