 | Happy 2015! Here at Junior Historians, things have been picking up steam. We have been ramping up our content on this space (as well as on twitter and instagram) and sharing more about how we utilize primary sources in the middle school classroom. We have a lot planned for 2015, so please bookmark our site and make us a part of your online reading routine. This week marked the start of the second trimester at Harlem Academy and the start of two new Junior Historians' Field Manuals. This term the seventh grade will be investigating 19th century US History and the eighth grade will be investigating the Cold War. Let's take a closer look at what's in store ... |
Each new trimester in the Junior Historians curriculum begins with an immersive and experiential look at a pivotal turning point in American history.
 Click here for the Junior Historians' first assessment on "Bleeding Kansas" |  Click here for the Junior Historians' first assessment on the Tonkin Gulf Resolution |
| Book Five: Tension, War, & Reconstruction Turning Point: Bleeding Kansas To introduce the students to Bleeding Kansas, students engage in an "act-out" briefly reenacting the debate over slavery in Congress in 1854. The compromise of "popular sovereignty", or popular vote, is introduced and students are then assigned to be "Free-Soilers" or "Border Ruffians." They conduct an experiential exercise where the groups must collect tiles to decide the winners and they record their experiences in a graphic organizer that connects their experience to the historical realities. Students then examine the text of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and explore the geography of the United States in the 19th century. This includes Manifest Destiny expansion, Free vs Slave states, and a view of a Civil War map. This week long unit culminates in a mini-assessment, or "twiz" (quiz/test), which you can view by clicking the image above. | Book Five: The Cold War Turning Point: Tonkin Gulf Incident/Vietnam War To introduce the students to the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, students watch a brief excerpt from Robert McNamara's recollection of the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Brief enough to not inform the students that, in fact, the second attack on the USS Maddox from August 4th never happened. Students then watch President Johnson's speech informing the nation that we had begun bombing targets in North Vietnam and explore the Tonkin Gulf Resolution text. Students are also exposed to Cold War geography through maps of Southeast Asia and the "Iron Curtain" in Europe. This week long unit culminates in a mini-assessment, or "twiz" (quiz/test), which you can view by clicking the image above. |
 Poor lighting and an old iphone make for bad photos - apologies - but you get the idea. |  Poor lighting and an old iphone make for bad photos - apologies - but you get the idea. |
Over the course of the trimester, Junior Historian students investigate the events that led up to their turning point, thus providing context to the events they "experienced" in the first week. This approach helps students nest historical events in proper context and flush out cause/effect and problem/solution relationships. There's a nice article about this approach here from Harlem Academy's Winter 2013 Newsletter.
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