1950s

It's time for a 1950's sock hop! Girls, wear your poodle skirts and saddle shoes and boys, get out those muscle shirts and biker jackets! Don't be square, we'll see ya there!

Apprentice

Complete all of the following:

1. Read A History of Us, volume 10, chapters 7-16 and Brown vs. Board of Education 

2. Write the definitions to the following terms from the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy on note cards:

• Korean War
• partition
• Zionism
• McCarthyism
• Jim Crow laws
• hydrogen bomb
• Warsaw Pact
• Sputniks
• balance of terror

3. On your fold-out timeline in your history binder, look up the dates and label the important political events for the 1950s, including: Korean War, construction of hydrogen bomb, Stalin dies, segregation ruled illegal, Montgomery bus boycott, Warsaw Pact, Hungarian Revolution, Suez crisis, Sputnik launched, NASA founded.

CONTEST: See if you can find important events for your timeline in other areas like science, entertainment, sports, etc. We will vote on the best or most unique one found! There will be a prize :)

4. Create a notebook page or two for your History binder on the events from the 1950s. Be creative and artistic. Include a summary of the chapters you read and include any applicable pictures and maps. Write a paragraph or two about your conclusions about these events. What do you think about them? Also, print or draw some pictures and write short bios on the following people: Joseph McCarthy, the Rosenburgs, Ray Kroc, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Elvis Presley, Ho Chi Minh, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Walt Disney, and Nikita Khrushchev. (These are also found in The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.) 

5. Optional: Watch one of the following films: "Remember the Titans" or "October Sky"

Journeyman

This may look like a lot of work, everything on this list is really short. Do the work so you can party with us!

1. Read Understanding the House of Israel (online picture book)

2. Read Orson Hyde's 1841 Mission to the Holy Land (Ensign, Oct. 1991)

3. Watch this video on Zionism and the Balfour Declaration

4. Watch this video on the partition of Israel and Palestine 

5. Study maps of Ancient Israel through the time of Christ, from time of Christ to 1947, and a modern map. Print these for your notebook page.

6. Watch this slideshow on the history of Israeli-Palestinian conflict (slides 4-11)

7. Write for 5 minutes from the perspective of an Israeli. How do you feel about the creation of Israel and the war that began the next day? Then, switch sides and write for 5 minutes from the perspective of a Palestinian. How do you feel about the creation of Israel and the resulting war?

8. As an LDS youth, with the perspective of the revelations in the scriptures for the destiny of the Jewish people, what are your thoughts on the formation of the state of Israel?
 

Master

1. Read The Chosen by Chaim Potok 

2. Choose one of the following topics that most interests you and write down some answers that you found in the book. Include quotes and page numbers that back up your answers. Come prepared to discuss your findings in our book discussion.

     • How does Potok weave together personal and political events in his novel? How do   politics and world events contribute to the novel’s plot and character development?

     • How does Potok use silence as a narrative technique?

     • Discuss the meaning of the novel’s title. Who or what is chosen in the book? Which is more desirable: to be chosen or to make a choice?

     • Compare Reb Saunders’s political ideology to David Malter’s. At times, each father feels threatened by the other’s views. At other times, each father displays strong respect for the other. How are the two men different from one another, and how are they are similar? How can they both dislike and respect one another at the same time?

     • Throughout the novel, Potok uses imagery of eyes, glasses, and other items associated with vision and perception. What do these images symbolize? Discuss several examples, including at least two in which eyes reveal a character’s feelings.