7th grade social studies 2011-12

Hello All,

Great class on Tuesday. We went over the “the terms to know “ words and phrases that the class will be formally tested on next Tuesday the 20th. I was going to administer the test this Friday but was convinced by the students that they needed more time to study. We will see how that goes ! Each student should have the terms in their planners as we did them in class and for homework and they were advised to keep them for future reference.

If your child does not have the complete list he or she will need to look them up again. They may choose to borrow the “We the People” book to do so. The list of words is below.

On Wednesday, I also handed back their homework assignments.

The majority of the class on Tuesday was spent on students reporting out on the additional articles they chose to read in the UpFront magazine for homework. We finished them on Wednesday (We had three classes this week). One article that several students chose to read was, “ The Rise of China”. It was focused on education, the economy and more. There was some startling facts and information that you may want to read about yourself. It is in the September 5th issue.

Today, Friday , next Tuesday and the first class after we return from vacation we will be viewing scenes from the Ken Burns film, “Prohibition”. The viewing will include time for comments and discussion. This is a very complex subject for 7th graders. Ken will be talking with us and the 6th and 8th grade about a variety of topics interwoven in his latest film.

Homework is to study for the “terms to know’ for next Tuesday’s test. The students asked me to list them below and so you will find them at the end of this note. The test will be a matching test (terms and definitions will be listed) and the test will be on 20 or 25 of the 28 “terms to know.

Ken Burns will be with us on the 6th of January at 8:30 am in the theater, so please feel free to join us .

Wishing you all a very happy holiday. Thank you for having your child(ren) here at TGS. As I have said before, this is a very special class.

Best,
‘
Steve

PS Junior Iron Chef. We talked about this for a while and went to the Junior Iron Chef, Vermont Website. We will need to know how many children are interested and create teams before we break for the holiday, next Wednesday, so we can send in our application and fees. If parents and children can’t decide by then, we will just have to see if there are still openings available in January. There has been talk of getting professional chefs to help us with the teams as they practice e for the event which will be at the end of March. Participation is not mandatory and we will practice for the contest as an after school event. I think the practices will be just as much fun as the contest itself.




Terms to Know:

separation of powers
checks and balances
legislative branch
judicial branch
executive branch
abridging
petition
redress of grievances
freedom of expression
faction
political parties
Federalist Party
Republican Party
filibuster
super majority
gerrymandering
moderate
Tea Party
constitution
constitutional government
autocratic or dictatorial government
higher law
private domain
natural rights
government
absolute power
state of nature
consent
social compact or social contract