Personal Portfolios

As we begin to wind down the school year ahead of Cambridge exams, students were asked to compile all of their work for the year into a Personal Portfolio Website.

You can view each student's work on their website below.

Adrian

Angelina

Carly

James

Jane

Joseph

Mackenzie

Matthew

Pierre

Humanities History Website

Humanities has collectively created a website to bring together all of the work they did over the course of the year for both American and World History.

You can view the site and their work at www.hyshistory.weebly.com

Closing out 2017

The year continues to move quickly forward as we head toward 2018.

We have been playing a lot of games in Humanities lately, figuring out how to take over the world in order to understand why the German's two front plan in WWI was doomed to failure from the start, to demonstrate what they learned about WWI as a whole (students build board games to teach others about WWI), and to learn and explore some geography, including the countries of Europe, the US States, and the state capitals.

In addition, we have been backfilling some of the major topics that would have led us too far afield during WWI, such as the Russian Revolution (you can view the website the Humanities Class built about it) and the major events in US history between the Civil War and WWI (look for these projects to be posted shortly after the upcoming break).

At the same time, we are neck deep into Inherit the Wind, the play about the Scopes Monkey Trial, our second major text of the year, which will set us up for reading Henry V when we return from break, and students are working on longer essays on their own, as we continue learning the craft of writing.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

eamonn.obrien@asu.edu

WWI Continues

World War I continues to rage on in Humanities.

We have explored the causes of the battle and the unease that was rampant throughout Europe in the years leading up, the style of fighting most commonly used (Trench Warfare) as well as why, and now are examining some of the key battles of the war to understand not only the thinking of both sides, but also to comprehend the scale and magnitude of the loss of life that occurred.

Students were asked to examine a specific battle, and develop a presentation describing the causes of the specific battle, what notable events occurred during the battle, and what the long term ramifications of the battle were in the greater war.

Carly 





Joseph



Adrian





Pierre




Angelina





Matthew

James

Jane

Secret River Songs

Now that we are about halfway through our first novel of the year The Secret River, by Kate Grenville, we opted to summarize the book a little differently, rather than simply by writing an essay.

Students were asked to compose and record a song, summarizing the book so far. Below you can find the links to access the songs.

Coggins and Angelina's Song

Pierre and Carly's Song

James and Joseph's Song

Adrian and Jane's Song

Another week, another project

In order to better understand the build up to World War I, students were tasked with doing a brief (1 hour of research time) project on the history of one of the major powers in Europe on the eve of WWI, and then reporting back to their classmates through a multi-media project. You can view the projects below.

Austria- Hungry - Carly

England - Joseph

France - Pierre

Germany - Matthew

Italy - Jane

Russia - Adrian

Serbia - James

Spain - Angelina

World War I Begins (Sort of!)

Humanities has left the Civil War behind (mostly) and pressed forward into World War I (or at least the build up). We have begun by exploring the major countries in Europe on the eve of the war and their interconnections. Topics that we are pursing include Nationalism, Imperialism and Militarism.

We are also covering some geography by playing a video game regularly to build spatial awareness of Europe. You can try it here.

We also have continued our reading of The Secret River, with students taking more responsibility for unpacking the primary and secondary understandings, and occasionally lifting the corner on tertiary understanding.

In writing, we have been exploring the key components of an essay, primarily Claim, Evidence, Rational, and Explanation, through short paragraphs in order to hone our explanatory skills and not operate on the assumption that just because it makes sense in our head everyone else will see it the same way.

If you have any questions, or need to contact me, email is the best option. You can reach me at eamonn.obrien@asu.edu.