Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Government, Day 3 - Class Recap


The Parliament of Barbados, in the Caribbean. Photo taken in 2011.

Hi everyone,

We went into more detail as to what government is and looks like in various systems around the world. Lots of content to check out! 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: "Princess of China" by Coldplay and Rihanna. Selected for today because a monarchy is a type of government, and a princess is a type of royalty in a monarch's family. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 11/18/14:
News Brief – Nick
Debrief Forced Choice
Forms of Government
Group Activity

Homework: Read the blog. Study for possible forms of government quiz next class (see below for PowerPoint). Next news brief: Sierra

News Brief: Nick had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: TheGuardian.com - Four killed in attack on Jerusalem synagogue. We are going to go in depth into the roots of this story next semester, but I talked a little about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and the importance of Jerusalem to three different major religions. I played the VICE "Beyond the Headlines" news clip for today, as well.

Sierra was selected to do the next news brief.

Debrief Forced Choice: This was when we talked about how the activity went and the answers to these questions (a one page written reflection was due in class today): What was the most difficult or controversial question for you? Why? How do these sorts of questions relate to the study of government?

I really like the debate format in forced choice (obviously, or I wouldn't spend the majority of two days on it), so thank you for your participation and reflection!

Forms of Government: This was a PowerPoint presentation that went over various basic forms of government. Students took Cornell Notes on the lecture. Here's the file for review (again, there will be an upcoming quiz on forms of government):


As with most presentations I create (this one is from 2008), the pictures are almost entirely mine! :-)

Group Activity: After the content instruction, I split up the class into seven groups. The rest of class was devoted to going over one of the following forms of government with the group (if you missed class, just pick one to do and bring next class) - both reading the front side and completing the back, along with thinking of a short skit idea for how to demonstrate the form of government to the class next time.


Just look at the readings from A-G, because you do not need to know the economic structures that are later in the packet, yet.

Next class, we will do the skits, then talk about each form of government. See you then!

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