Friday, November 14, 2008
Court Case Monday: The People of the 21st Century v. The Mongol's Historical Reputation
I know that in 3rd period the bell rang earlier than I thought, so it was a bit chaotic getting this assignment out. If you guys have any questions, feel free to post them here. All classes can also use this area to discuss anything regarding the case. If you lost the directions sheet (which means you've lost 1/3 of your evidence), you can at least download the directions by clicking here. All the best on this one...
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33 comments:
so...basically you look at all of your evidence...explain facts that are brought up to support your side of the argument...think of three questions to ask the other side...and explain your final opinion and whether or not you agree with it????
thanx!!!
essay format right? Or just anyway to express the information?
Do we have a reading quiz tomorrow? I didn't know if we still did because of this court case thing.
Hey Mr. Prill
I got the movie "Mongol" and am planning on watching it on this fine Sunday morning, but a lot of the film websites say that it isn't historically accurate ,which was contrary to what you said on Friday. The websites were saying it is nothing more than a glamorized love story....
Well i am going to watch it now, so we can converse about it later if you get on or on monday.
I don't undestand...what is an example of a cross examination question!?!?
miss persyn, no case brief format, which is the format i laid out in the directions. have it divided into those four sections...
mr. dixon, in response to your question... the reality of the nature of a film like mongol is that obviously dramatic license has to be taken with a young chingis since so little is known about his early life. what is in there is correct though... dad being poisoned, on the run for his life, capture, wooden collar, etc. where mongol really shines though, historically, is that it captures the culture of a people responsibly that is never really caught on film. the cultural nuances are very well captured, for example a focus on the idea of "anda" for much of the film. i think what some have accused of being historically inaccurate is inevitable in the first installment of this trilogy since the info available on young temujin is admitedly scanty. i'll put it this way, i was pleased to see so many things that i have been teaching about the mongols for a few years now actually being caputured on film for general audiences. enjoy.
I don't UNDERSTAND!! What is an example of a cross-examination question??
I have no idea
you know, just like in an actual courtroom setting (not judge judy, but real court). for instance, lawyers for the prosecution ask witnesses for the defense a series of "cross-examination" questions to help prove their case. for example: "could you explain what exactly happened to the city bukhara in march of 1220, and explain how this was not, in your opinion hellish behavior on the part of the mongols?" why would you ask such a question? because the mongols were very destructive against bukhara in that initial campaign against persia, and as the prosecutors charging that the mongols are horsemen from hell, you want to get this information out in the open, for me, the judge to review. of course, i'm able to ask such questions because i've read of the documents provided so that i can defend my position effectively in win my case.
so im really confused im pro mongol and all i need to do is write those fact that are pro mongol?
well, again, read the formatting directions carefully. in the first section, you're just giving a brief summary of the issues up for trial (the horsemen from hell vs. pax mongolica debate that continues among historians). in the second section, you have to come up with three cross-examination questions to ask the prosecution in this case. i've explained how to do this in a post above. this is seriously the most important part of the case as cross examination is going to take up the bulk of our time tomorrow. in order to be effective here YOU HAVE TO READ ALL THE DOCUMENTS THAT YOU'VE BEEN PROVIDED (ALL!!!). not only do you have to have a detailed knowledge of the evidence to defend your side, you also have to be able to have a deep knowledge of the documents to be able to effectively answer the other side's questions that will be thrown at you and then be able to put an effective spin on them. the third section consists of your final opinion (in the legal sense, not in the "oh you're so opinionated" sense). this is you laying out your final argument. again, this is crucial because these are your final words tomorrow in presenting your case, and i will judge accordingly. your argument is weak (indeed it's no argument at all) without at least THREE PIECES OF DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE. miss hammond in your case, leo de hartog's article, the secret history of the mongols, and some of the russian chronicles are going to be especially useful in arguing your side. finally, perhaps you do not agree with the side i assigned you to argue, or maybe you do. in any case, that's what the fourth section is for-- for me to know where you, in reality, actually stand on the issue. cheers!
the important thing here folks is that we're acting like historians/lawyers/responsible global citizens by forming opinions based on actual analysis of documented evidence that is available. this is a truly useful skill, yet unfortunately lost art in american society, that you should put to use in everyday life.
Hey I have a question, i just want to make sure of this. But the Mongols cant be held responsible forthe Black Death because the black death was at its peak in europe a century after the mongol empire disintegrated?
INCORRECT... the mongols are most certainly responsible. remember from the lecture on friday, the black plague was, in fact, one of the factors that came into play in the disintegration of mongol controlled yuan china. the plague killed nearly 30% of the population of china between the 1330s and 1340. this was key in weakening the mongol regime. because of the new surge in merchant trade because of the mongol yam system (discussed in vivid detail by marco polo in document 4 in that six document list you received on friday), the black plague arrives in europe at unprecidented light speed in europe by 1347!!! remember, the mongols aren't thrown out of china until 1368 with the white lotus society rebellion. the plague had arrived in moscow and done its damage to europe by 1351, 17 years before the mongols get run out of china (control central of the mongol system). this really is a golden opportunity to take everything you've learned over the past 7 weeks and tie it all together, which makes it such a powerful season finale (as in fact they all are).
so is this supposed to be in paragraph form or something or can we just number it?
Sapp
apparently you've already assigned who is doing what side, but i'm not sure which one i am. i'm gonna go ahead and do pax mongolia, is that ok?
are we supposed to have answers for our questions already written?
wait so we have to just read all the evidence and come up with three questions?
what is all this about writing down facts? do we just like take our own notes on facts that we read throughout the evidences? and bring them in along with three questions? im so confused
miss sapp... labeled sections i would prefer.
miss venick... that's fine, and just questions are fine, if you've already provided answers, no harm done.
miss moon... again, facts of the case just is a brief summary of the issue up for trial.
mr p what isthe pax mongolica mean again? or anybody that can help
mongol peace
miss stucke, in answer to your earlier question, there is no reading quiz even scheduled for tomorrow on the calender.
i really hope this 1 works or im gonna cry lol jp
but um so is it ok 4 me to use legal terms and u mentioned about how ull know if its not a powerful argument but if u dont agree with the side u were given or ur on the fence its not gonna b 2 convincing so r we just supposed 2 b a good pretender cuz to be honest i thnk the mongols were malicious wen necisary but in reality key parts in development nd can be civilized! for example they really just wanted to trade with persia untill they started crap but then again they moto is "Submit and live Resist and die!" so im on the fence here!!
yay im really happy it worked lol now i dnt need ne tissues lol gosh that was so frustrating lol ne ways is it to destracting for me to dress up nd bring a brief case?!?!?! im gonna go all out cuz i love to argue lol nd if i get into ill do better i promise lol 8D o nd i sent u an email just in case it didnt work again lol
miss wilcox, if you were a lawyer you would fine that you have to defend certain clients who you are fully aware are guilty, but that doesn't matter because you're being paid to defend them. your job tomorrow is defend the mongols, and you have plenty of VERY convincing evidence to defend them. what you feel comes second to the job you have to defend. if the other side does their job fully, this is a difficult case to argue. honestly, different sides in win in every class... it all comes down to the argument you present and how convincing it is (HINT: IF YOU DON'T EFFECTIVELY USE PRIMARY EVIDENCE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CONVINCE THIS HISTORY TEACHER OF ANYTHING).
sure feel free to dress the part. one word of caution... dress doesn't win you this case, it has to be substantial. the sloppiest dressed dude that looks like he just crawled out of best is better off than the well dressed person if he walks in with primary document evidence in hand ready to use substance to win the case.
ok thnx ill reflect on that a moment nd get back 2 u l8r nd ya i watch enough shows nd tlkd 2 my sis 2much 2 know dat i need all the facts to make a great argument and a true impact in the case at hand so trust me ill familurize myself with my notes the blog the documents nd ill make sure to address all the point in the directions and im gonna highlight nd remake new notes just for my client no matter how i feel about the issue!!! Better??
so we can use our notes!!?!?!?
of course.
ahhw mr p thats not right im not sayen what your saying isnt fact but i didnt know that counted... aghhhh im so angry
thanks for clearing that up goodnight
how much does this court case count on our grade?
quiz grade
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