Niki Connor 6th Grade Social Studies: February 2019

If you'd like to review the monotheistic religions, read pages 561-563 in the textbook.

For our Ancient Civilizations study we are reading: Mesopotamia 560-561; Ancient Egypt 592-595.

Links for Ancient Civilizations:

Four Empires of Mesopotamina - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sPVe5mjphA

Write Like a Babylonian - https://www.penn.museum/cgi/cuneiform.php

The Epic of Gilgamesh - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axVubWiGUMM

Nubia Article - http://www.history4kids.co/2013/02/the-land-and-people-ancient-nubia.html

Nubia/Kush Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoSgZHVocHE&t=41s

Not in the stations - Persia site - https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/persian-empire

Just for fun, Persia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHiawE84Kls

Ancient Mysteries Project!

You’re going on an archeological exploration. Sadly, Indy can’t make the trip, but you can! With the other people who have the same mystery highlighted on the back of this sheet, you will explore that sight and bring back images and information to share with the rest of the class!

We will set up stations around the room to rotate through, so that you get to “visit” each site. Not all sites will be covered in each class, so your presentation may be shown to other classes. Your job is to make a visual presentation for your station/ancient mystery.

You must:
• create a presentation with at least 6 images of your site.
• include the name of the mystery.
• give the name of its location and show its location on a map.
• tell who built it – and when and why they built it.
• include at least 5 interesting facts about the place in addition to the information above.
• document your sources.
You may:
• create a movie, a slide show, a Prezie, an online scrapbook, or any other visual presentation format that you have access to and can present in class.
• use in class time and at home time to work.
• ask for Activity passes to work with your group.
You may not:
• make a presentation that takes more than 4 minutes to watch from start to finish.
• make up anything about the historical site or its history.
• tell us speculative facts, undocumented information, or conspiracy theories.
• present live.
• include bloopers. (Sorry, but you are welcome to show them to me between classes!) 

________(30) Who, what, when, where and why – there, accurate
________(25) 5+ additional facts are interesting and accurate
________(20) Images and presentation are clear, appropriate, easy to follow (organized),
4 minutes or fewer
________(10) Presentation is accessible and ready to go at the beginning of class
________(15) All sources are documented

Research

When we research information, we are getting information from someone else, from a source. The most important things to remember when finding and using sources for research are:

· Does this relate to my topic/questions? Is it relevant?

· Is this source reliable?

· Have I avoided plagiarism by giving credit to my source(s)?

IF we take a quote from a source – whether we already knew the information or not – you must CITE the source – give credit to them. A quote MUST be inside quotation marks, must be word for word – punctuation mark for punctuation mark - the same as the original, and must be cited in some way. NO EXCEPTIONS – this also applies to ANY and ALL visual images.

Things get a little more complicated when you use summary, paraphrase and/or common knowledge.

Summary is when you take only the main idea (and possibly some of the most important details) from a source and put them in your own words. In your own words does not mean you copy down the sentence and just substitute a couple of words or switch the order of words. The sentence structure should be completely different. It is possible to have a word or phrase in quotation marks within your summary.

Paraphrase is when you take ALL the information (in whole or in part) from a source and re-write it in your own words. This means the words, phrasing, sentence structure are all new and unique.

BOTH summary and paraphrase must be cited UNLESS the information is common knowledge. It’s usually to better to be safe than sorry with summary and paraphrase and cite the source. Even though the information is in YOUR words – the information comes from the SOURCE – and you are stealing their intellectual property if you do not give them credit.

Common Knowledge is information that is general information – such as the dates of a war or another major historical event, or the full name of a famous person, or the capital of a country. Common Knowledge is a bit of information that can be found in thousands of places (online, in print, in people’s heads).

When to cite Common Knowledge is where things get complicated. It is always better to be safe than sorry – if in doubt, cite the source – you will never get in trouble for giving credit to a source. You will get in trouble (zeros, expulsions, fired, prosecuted) for failing to cite a source. Generally speaking though, if the information is TRULY common knowledge and/or you already knew it before you looked anything up, it doesn’t have be cited.

Once you have taken notes/gotten information from your sources the big question is: how do you cite your sources? The important skill for documenting is learning to FOLLOW a FORMAT. There are multiple formats and those formats are constantly changing, so you need to learn to read everything and follow directions (sound familiar?)!

1. Give the citation at “point of use” – for example giving the name of a book and author within the sentence or the name of the person you interviewed. This kind of citation does not include any additional information, so this is often not a good choice when doing formal research.

Title of Paper

In Scaredy Squirrel, Melanie Watt creates a loveable, yet neurotic character.

2. Use Footnotes, Endnotes, Bibliography page, or Works Cited page. This kind of citation is when you put a “marker” in the paper to show the reader, “I got this information from a source.” Then, somewhere else – either on the same page or at the end of the book/report/paper, there is a complete citation about the source indicated by the same “marker”. These “markers” are usually numbers or the author’s last name.

Title of Paper Works Cited

Scaredy Squirrel is afraid of just about Watt, Melanie, Scaredy Squirrel. New York:

everything in the world. In fact, he "never Kids Can Press, 2006.

leaves his nut tree" (Watt 2).

3. Create a separate Works Consulted page. When an author reads a bunch of information on and around a topic, but then writes their own thoughts, they still need to create a list of sources that they consulted. This kind of citation will not have any direct citations with in the book/report/paper, but have a list of the sources the author “consulted” at the end. This is also an appropriate way to cite when the research topic is generally considered “common knowledge”, but be VERY careful using it this way.

Works Consulted

Squirrel Corp. "List of Fears." All About

Scaredy Squirrel. 2012. 2 June 2016.

Watt, Melanie, Scaredy Squirrel. New York:

Kids Can Press, 2006.

Niki Connor 6th Grade Social Studies

Friday, February 15, 2019

North Africa and Middle East/Southwest Asia Textbook and Video

Monday, February 11, 2019

Ancient Mysteries Project Due: 2/22

Friday, February 8, 2019

Religions Chart Key

Thursday, February 7, 2019

3rd Nine Weeks Important Dates