Change of plans - I decided to do this blog instead of the one on who's to blame for the Cold War. I figured this might be easier, plus you get another day to do it since I didn't put it up yesterday, and I could use the feedback. We're practically done with the school year and you've been working with our most recent American history (1941 - present) in a backwards, thematic manner. This semester, I've taken several issues or problems that we see in the news regularly - the Iraq War, the economic meltdown, energy costs and renewal, nuclear weapons and terrorism, foreign policy, Hurricane Katrina - and show you the roots of these problems by working backwards from the present.
What I'd like you to do in this blog is assess your learning:
1. Do you think you learned history better by learning it backwards or in this case, starting with a modern day problem and then working towards its root causes, much like a case study? Or was this approach more confusing because we didn't learn history in the traditional manner? Or wouldn't the approach matter - history is confusing? Why?
2. What do you think are the benefits of learning backwards? What are the faults or drawbacks?
3. Compared to what your friends in other U.S. history classes learned, do you think you learned more, less, or the same amount of stuff? Why?
4. Which unit do you think you learned the most in? Why? Which unit do you think you learned the least in? Why?
Due by Tuesday afternoon- 4 p.m. - 200 words minimum.
Thanks for your comments in advance. I appreciate all the feedback; it helps me improve for next year's class. I used last year's classes to help improve the flaws from last year and I hope to make this class better for next year.
