Ms. Buchanan’s Social Studies Page

Read one of these books and write a review to earn extra credit.

A Long Way Gone

They Poured Fire On Us From The Sky

An Ordinary Man

     You may earn extra credit by watching one of the movies listed below.  Write a movie review including a summary telling what happened in the movie, your opinion of the movie, and what you learned from the movie that relates to what we have been studying in class. 

     Be sure to get permission from your parents/guardians before watching any of these movies.  Better yet, ask them to watch the movies with you!

     Check out the websites below for more interesting information including timelines and pictures.

Amistad-

      AMISTAD is about a 1839 mutiny onboard a slave ship that is traveling towards the Northeast Coast of America. Much of the story involves a court-room drama about the slave who led the revolt. Written by Michael Hatch  taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118607/plotsummary

Rated R

Hotel Rwanda-

     “[Fourteen] years ago as the country of Rwanda descended into madness, one man made a
promise to protect the family he loved and ended up finding the courage to save over 1,200
people. Hotel Rwanda tells the inspiring story of real-life hero Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle),
a hotel manager in Rwanda who used his courage and cunning to shelter over a thousand
refugees from certain death.
      While the rest of the world closed its eyes, Paul opened his heart and proved that one
good man can make a difference.”  taken from http://www.unitedartists.com/hotelrwanda/main.html

Rated PG-13

Sometimes in April-

       “…Both an edge-of-the-seat thriller and a chilling reminder of man’s incomprehensible capacity for cruelty, Sometimes in April is an epic story of courage in the face of daunting odds, as well as an exposé of the West’s inaction as nearly a million Rwandans were being killed. The plot focuses on two brothers embroiled in the 1994 conflict between the Hutu majority (who had ruled Rwanda since 1959) and the Tutsi minority who had received favored treatment when the country was ruled by Belgium. The protagonists (both Hutus) are reluctant soldier Augustin Muganza (Idris Elba), married to a Tutsi and father to three, and his brother Honoré (Oris Erhuero), a popular public figure espousing Hutu propaganda from a powerful pulpit: Radio RTLM in Rwanda….”  taken from http://www.hbo.com/films/sometimesinapril/

Rated TV-MA

 Blood Diamond-

      “An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonard DiCaprio). A Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou). Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman’s son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), this urgent, intensely moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact.”  taken from http://blooddiamondmovie.warnerbros.com/main.html

Rated R

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We have been talking about Judaism in class.  If you’re interested in finding out more information about the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is an excellent resource.  You can find a history of the Holocaust, read personal histories of people who experienced the Holocaust firsthand, see video clips, view maps and pictures, etc.

Click here to visit the site: http://www.ushmm.org/

Here are a few books you may want to read:

Anne Frank:  The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson

Terrible Things:  An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting

See more books for children here: http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/bibliography/index.php?content=childrens_books

You can see pictures of the town in France that I visited at the websites listed below.

http://www.oradour.info/

http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ora_tour/oradour.html

The links below show information and pictures of Dachau, the concentration camp in Germany which I visited.

http://www.kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de/memorial/tour.html

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/KZDachau/barracks01.html

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/KZDachau/barracks02.html

Welcome to the 2009-2010 school year at Carrington Middle School.  Here is your first extra credit assignment for Social Studies.  Go to the “About Ms. Buchanan” page and leave me a comment telling me something about yourself.  Make sure you include your first and last name so that I know who gets the points! 

If you would like to listen to the Islamic Call to Prayer, follow the link below.

http://www.balaams-ass.com/alhaj/calltoprayer.htm

To see a map of Israel and Palestine, click here:  http://unimaps.com/israel/index.html

Dr. Diehl has visited the Bethlehem Peace Center while she’s been in Bethlehem.  You saw a picture of it in class when we viewed the pictures she took.  Here is the center’s website: http://www.peacenter.org/index.php

If you would like more information on the movie, follow this link:

http://www.promisesproject.org/

If you’re interested, don’t forget about The Amazing Race on Sundays at 8:00pm on CBS.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/