Government, Day 2 - Class Recap

School was canceled yesterday due to snow - nothing like this (in 2008, outside my house), though! 

Dear class,

It was so nice to see you all again today! It is hard to believe today was our first class together in 10 days. Again, I really enjoyed the discussion today.  Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 18: I can explain how and why world societies organize themselves and how power is established and maintained.
Communication LT 2:  I can use language and  style that is appropriate to the content area.

Soundtrack: "Let it Go" from the movie Frozen. Selected for today because of the ice (at least, at my house!) that canceled school on our scheduled meeting last week. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 11/17/14:
News Brief – Jose
DBQ Grades
Forced Choice
Reflection

Homework: Read the blog. Finish your Forced Choice reflection (see below for assignment). Catch up on any late/incomplete/missing work. Next news brief: Maria

News Brief: Jose had the news brief today and selected this story to talk about: CNN.com - Obama calls hostage's beheading by ISIS 'pure evil'.  We also checked out some of the hilarious responses to Beaverton Schools Superintendent Jeff Rose on twitter: KPTV.com -Beaverton students on superintendent who canceled class: 'Not all heroes wear capes'. I played the VICE "Beyond the Headlines" news clip for today, as well.

Maria was selected to do the next news brief.

DBQ Grades: The good news with the long time in seeing the class was that I was able to grade all of your DBQs from the culture unit, along with the collection of evidence. This was the first time doing an essay like this in high school, so it is understandable that there is room for improvement with almost everyone! I tried to go over some of the key points as to how I assessed the learning targets and how they could be improved. Specifically, make sure that your Collection of Evidence for the culture unit is completely done!

Forced Choice: We finished this today - it is one of my favorite activities of the year. I had the class answer the following questions and choose YES or NO to each of them. Then, we split up the class so that two sides were facing each other. With each question, students moved to the side they felt best represented their opinion on the matter. These are difficult ethical questions and I am glad that we have the type of classroom culture that students feel able to talk about them! The questions were:

1. Giving up some of our rights (like our phones being listened to without a warrant) is necessary for our own protection.
2. The Second Amendment means that everyone in the US has the right to have any weapons that they want.
3. Same-sex marriage should be legal everywhere.
4. Marijuana should be legalized everywhere for recreational use.
5. Organized prayer in public schools should be allowed.
6. The government of a country should be able to make decisions most of the people do not support.
7. Should the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from our currency?
8. There is only one true, correct, religion in the world.
9. A ban on all guns would reduce crime in the United States.
10. Democracy is always the best form of government for anywhere in the world.

We debated to questions 5, 6, and 9 today. I love these discussions and I hope that they are engaging and interesting for students, too. It's great to hear people in class say that they are talking about these questions with friends and at home, as well!

Reflection: With about 10 minutes left in class, we stopped the debate, so I could give the assignment, which is important, because we spent most of two days on this activity.

This is due next class: Write a one page reflection on the activity. What was the most difficult or controversial question for you? Why? How do these sorts of questions relate to the study of government?

If nothing was difficult for you to answer, maybe pick one that you felt most passionately about. We will do a short debrief on the activity next class, then move on to learning about the basics of government around the world.

Thanks! See you next class!