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Mr. Rowan, Social Studies A

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Social Studies Update Week of 10/21/25

Greetings Social Studies Families,
Last week students finished Parts A and B of their Growth of US Map Project. For the next 3 Mondays, students will be learning about things relating to the presidential election. Topics will include the roles and responsibilities of the president, the history of voting, and the Electoral College. On Tuesday, we will complete Part c of the Map, which includes the Louisiana Purchase. Students will complete a Google Maps assignment following Lewis and Clark's expedition into the Louisiana Purchase. Students will then watch a short documentary from the perspective of the Native American tribes whose land Lewis and Clark passed through to understand that this land was already discovered and without the help of Sacagawea and other Native American tribal nations, they would not have been successful.
Please email with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan

Social Studies Update Week of 10/14/24

Greetings 8th Grade Families!
This week students will begin by analyzing the painting American Progress to begin to understand the causes and effects of America's expansion from 13 to 50 states. Students will learn about the Native American cultures that existed in the United States before colonization. They will then start their map projects where they will research and answer questions about how the United States acquired different chunks of land, who the important people and events were in those acquisitions, and who won and who lost because of those acquisitions. 
Please email with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan

Social Studies Update Week of 9-23-2024

Greetings 8th Grade Families!
There are a couple of important dates to remember this week.
  • Monday the Fall Conference signup links will be taken down Monday at 4.
  • Monday Advocacy teachers will email Fall MAPS and Quarter 1 Grade Reports.
  • Thursday is a 1 / 2 day of school for Virtual Fall Conferences from            1 - 5pm. 
  • Friday there is no school for In-Person Fall Conferences from 8am - 8pm.
This week students will analyze different Supreme Court cases that deal with student's rights at school. We will look to answer the question how are student's rights in school different from those outside of school and debate if we agree or disagree wit what the Supreme Court has decieded.
 
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan

Social Studies Update Week of 9/16/24

There are a couple of important dates to remember this week.
  • Monday the Fall Conference signup links will be sent out and you will have a week to choose a conference slot. Each teacher will send out their own conference signup link, so please choose the teachers you want to meet and sign up using their link.
  • Wednesday is the final day to turn in a late or missing work.
  • Friday teachers will be posting final grades for the quarter. Any work done after Friday will be added to Quarter 2 grades.
You can check Infinite Campus or have your student login to Teams to check on their progress. If students complete any missing or incomplete work, it is very important they email their teachers.
 
This week students will finish their studies on the Bill of Rights. We will use Monday and Tuesday to work on the Bill of Rights. Wednesday we will review for a test on The Constitutional Convention, The Preamble, The Three Branches of Government, Checks and Balances, and the Bill of Rights. Students will take this assessment on Thursday and Friday.
 
As we are finishing the first quarter, I would like to invite you all to regularly check Infinite Campus to check on your student's grades and identify any incomplete or missing assignments that may need to be finished. Click on the following link to create your Infinite Campus account if you do not already have one. https://4.files.edl.io/8b72/09/15/22/164611-24e1a24a-402c-49de-9a50-97e1e60c66bd.pdf
 
The following link will help you set up the Infinite Campus App, which is nice to have as you can set it to notify you whenever a grade is entered for your student. https://1.cdn.edl.io/X3X3DBQ7iIoHx1h6P5aI99A0RyC52XnQd9k5SnwDVIODKHgl.pdf
 
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan

Social Studies Update Week of 9/9/24

Greetings 8th Grade Families!
 
Last week students finished up learning about the three branches of government, each of their roles in our government, and how checks and balances were purposefully added so that one branch cannot become too powerful. As I told students last week, we will take half of the class for a final review and Q and A, and then the second half of class they will complete a quiz on the three branches and checks and balances. 
 
We will then begin to learn about and analyze the Bill of Rights and how those first ten amendments to the Constitution outline our rights, freedoms, protections, under the law. 
 
As we are 5 weeks into the first quarter, I would like to invite you all to regularly check Infinite Campus to check on your student's grades and identify any incomplete or missing assignments that may need to be finished. Click on the following link to create your Infinite Campus account if you do not already have one. https://4.files.edl.io/8b72/09/15/22/164611-24e1a24a-402c-49de-9a50-97e1e60c66bd.pdf
 
The following link will help you set up the Infinite Campus App, which is nice to have as you can set it to notify you whenever a grade is entered for your student. https://1.cdn.edl.io/X3X3DBQ7iIoHx1h6P5aI99A0RyC52XnQd9k5SnwDVIODKHgl.pdf
 
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan

Social Studies Update Week of 9/3/94

Greetings 8th Grade Families!
 
Last week students finished up their work on the Constitutional Convention. Students were tasked to list the pros and cons of the following conflicts:
 
This week students will begin to learn about the different parts of the Constitution. We will start by translating the different lines of the Preamble to understand the kind of government that the Founding Fathers wanted to create and then decide if the country is living up to those ideals. Students will then learn about the three branches of government and what each branch is responsible for. In this discussion we will learn about checks and balances and how each branch plays a role in making sure that no one branch becomes too powerful.
 
As we are progressing through the first quarter, I would like to invite you all to regularly check Infinite Campus to check on your student's grades and identify any incomplete or missing assignments that may need to be finished. Click on the following link to create your Infinite Campus account if you do not already have one. https://4.files.edl.io/8b72/09/15/22/164611-24e1a24a-402c-49de-9a50-97e1e60c66bd.pdf
The following link will help you set up the Infinite Campus App, which is nice to have as you can set it to notify you whenever a grade is entered for your student. https://1.cdn.edl.io/X3X3DBQ7iIoHx1h6P5aI99A0RyC52XnQd9k5SnwDVIODKHgl.pdf
 
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan

Social Studies Update Week of 8/26/24

Greetings 8th Grade Families!
 
Last week students finished up their work on the Articles of Confederation and were introduced to the conflicts of the Constitutional Convention. Students were tasked to list the pros and cons of the following conflicts:
 
1. Should the federal or state governments have more power?
2. Should states with larger populations have more representation in congress or should states have equal representation.
3. Should slavery continue to be legal under our new constitution?
4. Should a bill of rights be added to the constitution listing citizen's individual rights.
 
Students will finish up this work and then they will debate and create their proposals on how they think these conflicts should be resolved. They will need to compromise to make sure their final proposals takes into account the needs of all the states. After students submit their proposals, I will show them a video about what our founders decided. 
 
As we are progressing through the first quarter, I would like to invite you all to regularly check Infinite Campus to check on your student's grades and identify any incomplete or missing assignments that may need to be finished. Click on the following link to create your Infinite Campus account if you do not already have one. https://4.files.edl.io/8b72/09/15/22/164611-24e1a24a-402c-49de-9a50-97e1e60c66bd.pdf
The following link will help you set up the Infinite Campus App, which is nice to have as you can set it to notify you whenever a grade is entered for your student. https://1.cdn.edl.io/X3X3DBQ7iIoHx1h6P5aI99A0RyC52XnQd9k5SnwDVIODKHgl.pdf
 
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan
 

Social Studies Update Week of 8/18/24

Greetings Social Studies Families!
 
This week students are digging in to the first constitution of our country: The Articles of Confederation. They are analyzing different features of these articles and brainstorming how the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation affected how this new government blueprint actually functioned when put into practice. 
 
Students will finish their analysis and brainstorming which is due Monday. 
On Tuesday students will create a tombstone made for the Articles, describe its "life" and the weakness that led to its demise which is due Tuesday. On Wednesday, students will take a quiz on the Articles of Confederation.
 
We will then begin our investigation of the creation our new constitution; the one we still use over 220 years later.
 
Grades and feedback are being entered into both Teams and Infinite Campus. If you have the capability I would suggest you download the Adams12 Infinite Campus App, create a login, and turn on notifications. That way you will get an automatic update every time one of your student's grades is entered.
 
Email with any questions or concers.
 
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan (he/him)

Social Studies Update Week of 9/12/24

Greetings Social Studies Families!
 
For our first week students will be answering the question "What is History?"  To do this, they will analyze images, video, vocabulary, and text to understand that history is not a single story but many, and that the job of historians is to analyze multiple primary and secondary sources to create theories about what happened in the past and why.
 
On Thursday and Friday, we will use half of the day for students to take their Fall NWEA MAPS assessments in Reading and Math. Over the course of those two days, students will have each of their content classes one time.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask
 
Sincerely,
Mr. Rowan (he/him)