Social Responsibility Assessment

Social Responsibility
& the Civil War

In class, we have been expanding our knowledge of the social studies unit focusing on the Civil War by reading various texts including, “Civil War Journal” by Louisa May Alcott, and “Abraham Lincoln Photo-essay.” The theme of this unit is to understand how social responsibility and how one person can make a difference.
The assessment for this unit will include two components, a journal and a photo-essay. Students will brainstorm a way to get involved in their school, their home, or their community in a positive way. You could try to clean up the school or your neighborhood, work to eliminate bullying in the school, volunteer to read in a classroom, or anything you think helps improve a facet of your surroundings. You will then write a journal chronicling your experience, including a few pictures that will become a photo-essay. Please make sure:

 100 points: Your journal includes 10 entries, each at least 2 paragraphs apiece that show your creation of a project, how you implement it, and your reflection on how it made you feel and what you learned.
 30 points: Your photo-essay includes three pictures of you taking part in your project or three downloaded photos relating to the theme.
 20 points: Your presentation of your photo-essay to the class, no less than one minute in length.

Your journal will be collected on Friday, November 19th, and your photo-essay will be presented and collected on Monday 22nd or Tuesday 23rd.

Social Responsibility & The Civil War

As part of the service learning component of "Generation Yes," our ELA class will engage in a cross-curricular unit with Ms. Ventresca to examine social responsibility as it pertains to the Civil War. Students will activate their prior knowledge from social studies class to frame our readings; one is a personal diary called "Civil War Journal" by Louisa May Alcott, and the other is a photoessay on Abraham Lincoln. The objective is to understand social responsibility by examining these pieces and the ways in which the authors got involved. Then, students will write their own journal and present their own photoessay that chronicles their own attempt to be socially responsible through service learning! If you want to get involved, email me at jsmith49@scsd.us.