Dred Scott Decision: Peel the Fruit Routine

8th Grade Historians examined the Dred Scott Decision today. This landmark case reinvigorated the anti-slavery movement and propelled the United States toward war. Dred Scott, a slave, sued for his freedom because he had lived in free territory with his master. The Supreme Court ruled that Scott wasn't considered a citizen and therefore had no grounds to sue. The Court also stated that slavery couldn't be denied in the western territories. This ruling was a huge step back for all people against slavery.

Students completed a Peel the Fruit Visible Thinking routine to delve deeper into the feelings and thoughts surrounding this case.

The outer ring asks students to state what they notice about the topic. The second ring requires students to pose questions about the case and the impact it had on America. (These questions can be rhetorical.) The third ring requires students to practice an essential social studies skill: they must consider different perspectives and viewpoints, step into those roles, and predict how those people may have felt about the topic. This is also another great character education activity because students are becoming more empathetic while they examine these viewpoints. The final ring asks students to get to the core issue at the center of the topic. 

Peel the Fruit is a challenging and intriguing routine that effectively scaffolds learning and expects students to go beyond rote memorization to synthesize learning. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Historical Perspective and Peel the Fruit Thinking Routine

Image
Practicing historical perspective is an essential social studies skill. Historical perspective is being able to step into a historic situation and examine the motivations, biases, and beliefs of a person or group of people. Students have to revert to the beliefs of a group of people even if those beliefs completely contradict the views we have today. They must weigh decisions based on the situation of the time, not necessarily how situations are viewed today. The C3 Framework for Social Studies states that "Historical understanding requires recognizing this multiplicity of points of view in the past, which makes it important to seek out a range of sources on any historical question rather than simply use those that are easiest to find. It also requires recognizing that perspectives change over time, so that historical understanding requires developing a sense of empathy with people in the past whose perspectives might be very different from those of today." http://www.so
Read more

Industrial Revolution Haiku

Students have been learning about the Industrial Revolution in the mid1800s and how it changed life in New England. Today students processed their learning by creating haiku poems on the subject. They were challenged to think about and evaluate this topic within the structure of a haiku, a 3 line poem with 17 total syllables--5 in the 1st and 3rd lines and 7 in the second line. The poems have been impressive and some will be posted here soon.
Read more

Name That Executive Role!

Image
Students today learned about the many roles of the head of the Executive Branch, the President of the United States. I found several images of former Presidents in these roles--can you guess which is which? Post your answers below or email them to me. Choices: Commander-In-Chief Chief Executive Political Party Head Chief Diplomat 1.  President Eisenhower 2. President George HW Bush (on the right side of the picture) 3. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt  4. President Reagan meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (this one's a bit of a giveaway!)
Read more