The beach at Puerto Vallarta, on Christmas Eve, 2015.
Dear class,
Today, I introduced the last major assignment of the year, with the State/Local government project. Here's what happened in class today:
Learning Targets Addressed:
Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.
Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.
Research LT 5: I can effectively conduct and apply research.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning LT 3: I can apply understanding of ideas and concepts to a new context or problem.
Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.
Research LT 5: I can effectively conduct and apply research.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning LT 3: I can apply understanding of ideas and concepts to a new context or problem.
Soundtrack: "Happy" by Pharrell. Selected for today because I am happy about the upcoming weekend and about the general positive feedback from students about how class is going. Lyrics here.
AGENDA 1/6/17:
News Brief – Marco
Feedback Review
State/Local Government
Project Work
Homework: Read the blog. Turn in any missing/incomplete work - especially the Citizenship Paper from last class if you did not finish. Next news brief: Suong.
News Brief: Marco had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - Fort Lauderdale airport shooting: 5 dead, suspect in custody. This was a breaking news story as of a few minutes before class, so we only had a few ideas about what happened, but it clearly was related to government in the reaction.
Suong was selected to do the next news brief.
Feedback Review: Last class, I asked students to anonymously provide me feedback about how things were going. Here are the results from those questions:
Overall, it appears we like the community feel of the class, we know we need to work on our work ethic, you like me as a teacher, and I could work on a few things as well. Thanks, everyone!
Unit Overview: Today, we started our work with State and Local government unit (our last main one before the end of the semester). To begin, I had students do a simple fill-in-the-blank overview of the main concepts. The completed form is here:
State/Local Project: The final assignment for the unit is this project, which is a two page paper, with at least three MLA citations, about a local issue that you care about. It will be due in a few days (we have at least the next two days in class to be working on it), and you will probably be asked to give a short (like a minute or two) presentation. Here's the handout:
I went through the assignment in depth in class, and talked about possible issues for students to research. Basically, go with something you are interested in! It's really up to you - just run it by me, first! The rest of the class was spent working on the Chromebooks, researching for the State and Local assignment, I think most students are set with knowing what their problem is and how to research it. We will continue doing this next class. Thanks!
Suong was selected to do the next news brief.
Feedback Review: Last class, I asked students to anonymously provide me feedback about how things were going. Here are the results from those questions:
Overall, it appears we like the community feel of the class, we know we need to work on our work ethic, you like me as a teacher, and I could work on a few things as well. Thanks, everyone!
Unit Overview: Today, we started our work with State and Local government unit (our last main one before the end of the semester). To begin, I had students do a simple fill-in-the-blank overview of the main concepts. The completed form is here:
This was meant as a general overview. We will get into some specifics in the coming days.
State/Local Project: The final assignment for the unit is this project, which is a two page paper, with at least three MLA citations, about a local issue that you care about. It will be due in a few days (we have at least the next two days in class to be working on it), and you will probably be asked to give a short (like a minute or two) presentation. Here's the handout:
I went through the assignment in depth in class, and talked about possible issues for students to research. Basically, go with something you are interested in! It's really up to you - just run it by me, first! The rest of the class was spent working on the Chromebooks, researching for the State and Local assignment, I think most students are set with knowing what their problem is and how to research it. We will continue doing this next class. Thanks!
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