Socorro Middle School
8th Grade Pre/AP Social Studies
Independent Summer Project/Assignment Syllabus
Students in the eighth grade can be characterized as inquisitive, enthusiastic, and impressionable learners. They are beginning to ask questions about society and the world around them as they expand their ability to analyze and evaluate relationships between ideals and practices. This class will be encouraged to discuss and share within a wide range of current and historical topics.
This Social Studies Pre-AP Summer Assignment Requirement will provide all students with necessary support to perform at a rigorous academic level. This expectation will be reflected in the following assignments andthroughout the year so that all students are consistently being challenged to expand their knowledge.
Pre-AP students will become:
- Knowledgeable: exploring concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance.
- Thinkers: exercising initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions
- Communicators: understanding and expressing ideas and information confidently and creatively
- Principled: acting with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities
- Open-minded: understanding and appreciating their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities
- Caring: showing empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others
- Risk-takers: approaching unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought
- Reflective: giving thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience
Online Interaction
As the year progresses we will engage in many inquiry and project based learning experiences. In addition to research, we will be using the following websites to create projects to share what we have learned with our peers, family, and community. At times this may require students to create accounts to online websites. When used in conjunction with assignments, these sites will be accessed throughout the school year so please become familiar with these sites and create your account.
Grade 8 Pre-AP Social Studies Summer Assignments
To prepare for next year’s lessons in 8th grade Pre-AP Social Studies, students are required to read “Blood on the River: James Town, 1607” by Elisa Carbone
You will need to purchase or check out a copy of the novel andcomplete the 3 assignments described below.
All parts of the assignment must be typed in plain 12 point font, and submitted to theinstructor online via our online classroom at . Edmodo is a free and secure social learning network for teachers, students and schools. Edmodo provides classrooms a safe and easy way to connect and collaborate. We will be using Edmodo to create a real-time platform to exchange ideas, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. You will turn in your summer project using Edmodo.
Create an Edmodoaccount and use the group code: he67g5
Select and join the 8th grade Summer Pre-AP group.Note: This assignment is due by August 1st, 2016 before 7:30 a.m.Theseassignments will not be accepted late,so please do not procrastinate.
Summer Assignment Overarching Questions:
What challenges and hardships were faced by the earliest settlers to arrive at Jamestown? How didthese challenges and hardships affect the way that the settlers interacted with each other, the AlgonquinIndians, or the natural environment around Jamestown?
Assignment One:Active Reading Notes: Timeline and Vocabulary
TIMELINE: Create a detailed, chronologically ordered list of historical events. For each event include captionsthat explain how they relate back to the guiding question. This list should incorporate 10 events that occurthroughout the story.
VOCABULARY: Create a list of key terms from the novel that are unfamiliar to you. For each term: 1) write the term 2) rewrite the sentence where you found the term and the page number where it was found, 3) provide an explanation of the meaning of the word in your own words and incorporate these words within your timeline.
Assignment Two: Post-Reading Response: Jamestown Journal
Imagine that you are either one of the Jamestown settlers or one of the Powhatan Indians. Using the list ofhistorical events, which you generated in your Active Reading Notes, choose atleast two of these significantevents and write your own account of what happened. Entries should fully describe the event in detail and should also be written in first person as if you were keeping a journal.
Assignment Three: Blood on the River FINAL ACTIVITY
CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING.
1.The Powhatan Indians—Research and writing activity:
The Powhatan Indians inhabited a large portion of the Tidewater Region. Throughout the many years of living near the coast, these Native Americans managed to be successful hunters and farmers. Men, women, and children each played important roles in their tribe. Their culture is one of great importance. Choose one aspect of Powhatan daily life to research, including (but not limited to) transportation, food, language, clothing, hairstyles, and recreation. Create a poem to share what you have discovered in your research. The assignment will include illustrations with your poem in a collage of pictures – printed from the internet or found in articles or magazines.
-OR-
2. Use chapters 10 and 11: Make 3 houses out of wattle and daub.
Suggested materials: Popsicle sticks, twigs, clay, straw. Information on old-fashioned wattle and daub follows:
“Daub and wattle are building materials used in constructing houses. A woven latticework of wooden stakes called wattles is daubed with a mixture of mud and clay, animal dung and straw to create a structure. It is normally whitewashed to increase its resistance to rain. Examples of buildings which use wattle and daub can still be found in many parts of the world. In half-timbered buildings, the wattle and daub is contained between wooden beams. This usually gives the building a black and white appearance when the daub is whitewashed, or black and brown if it is not.”
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Scoring: 100 pts. total
Pre-reading Response _____/10 Reading Notes - Timeline _____/10
Reading Notes - Vocabulary _____/10 Jamestown Journal _____/50
Creativity/Planning Evident______10 Neat and Organized _____/10
PLEASE COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:
Name of Student: (Please Print) ______
Name of Parent(s) or Guardian: ______
Phone Number:______
Email Address:______CIRCLE ONE: mom - dad - student
I received the information for the 2016 8th grade Social Studies Pre-AP Summer Assignments and understand that these requirements and deadlines must be met to be enrolledin this course.
Signature of Student: ______Date: ______
Signature of Parent or Guardian: ______Date: ______