3rd post Chapter 2 Brandon Maynard

Well, it finally happened. I found two chapters to write about that occurred in the classroom. This one is on chapter two which deals with comparing and contrasting. Well, the chapter is titled similarities and differences, but its basically tomato and tomato. In class, we discussed the differences between the north and south during the Civil War. I knew we were going to do this, it just never happened until today. The students were given the assignment to research what made the south so much different from the north, and then reverse it and discuss why the north and south were similar. It was a great discussion and the students should currently be working on their two page paper to turn in to me tomorrow about the topic. It’s amazing. The kids were really into the discussion. I started off talking about the differences. The biggest difference everyone knows is slavery…big surprise. Well, that was pretty interesting because the students came up with some reasons which made great sense. For example: One student said that the north did not need slavery because they were industrial. I said, great, now why do you think this. He said that slaves in industry could never work because they would slow production down in protest of them being slaves to a company that is making a ton of money. I was so ecstatic at that point I wanted to hug him. Smart little eight grader he was. From there we moved to similarities. Why was the north so important to the south and why was the south so important to the north. Those were the two major questions I presented to the class. It was not as good of a discussion, but still great. After the discussion I introduced a vin diagram, which I hate, and had the class write the differences and similarities in their appropriate spaces. After that, they were then instructed to take that diagram home and write a mini report comparing and contrasting the north and south. They never new that they had already outlined the main topics in the class discussion and vin diagram so I am interested for tomorrow.