Today we started out the lesson by talking about the Monroe Doctrine as an early statement of American Foreign Policy. It is important to think about where this fits in American history.  Before it was written, America had a very hands-off policy when it came to Europe. The Monroe Doctrine was the first expression of the Foreign Policy that explained why America made later decisions, such as entering Cuba.

,Debate Option Speech, due Monday. In our options groups, we looked at the full options packet (speech, beliefs and assumptions, and historical record). Working in our groups, we tried to understand the stance of our option by putting the belief and assumption statements from the packet in our own words, and tying evidence from the "historical record" section to those statements. We used this chart to organize that material. 

A few important things to note as you prepare your Debate Option Speech: 

1. Please bring THREE copies to class, even though the handout says two. 
2. Remember that your sources of information are: the Historical Record in the Options packet, the Choices readings (Parts I and II), and any past information that we have studied.
3. Also Mr. Kramer and I will be grading these short speeches in class, so please have fun with them, and make sure to practice reading them aloud!