Recap: Now What Do We Think About America's Character?
Learning Goal: Students will evaluate whether or not their opinion of American character has changed after learning about the Revolution and the Cold War.
Hook: Presidential Inauguration
Lets pretend for a second that you are becoming the president of the United States. You want to make a dramatic enterance by defining for the American people what it truly means to be American. The trick is: you want them to be able to remember it so it must be no more than 8 words. What would your definition be?
Silent Conversation (Again)
For the first few minutes of class, please silently go around the room and answer the questions that are posted. Once you have gone around the first time, please continue to go around and read what other people have written. You may either add new ideas that you came up with or agree, disagree, or extend a comment that someone else made. Please make sure your answers are thoroughly explained.
The questions posted around the room are:
What defines America today?
Do you think we have the same values as the colonists who rebelled to create our country or have they changed throughout the years?
What do you think America will be in 100 years?
What is the role that history can play in improving the nation? What is your role?
Thoughts?
Now that we have done the same exact activity that we did at the beginning of the year again, how did your thoughts change? Why did they change?
America's Character Through Art
Based on what we know so far about American history, pick one picture from the following galleries that you think best defines America. Once you have done that, please write a short paragraph on why you think that picture best captures what America is all about.