Government, Day 1 - Class Recap

On the roof of the Bundestag building in Berlin, Germany. This is where the government of Germany meets. Photo taken in 2013.

Hi everyone,

Welcome back from your long weekend! I really enjoyed the discussion today in class. I'm sure it was a nice change from all of the writing students have had to do in the last few days for the class! 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: "The War Was in Color" by Carbon Leaf. The reason I chose this song for today is because it is all about a veteran describing war to his grandson. We had Tuesday off of school because of Veteran's Day and it is important that we honor the service of those in our armed forces. Lyrics (which I read part of in class) here.

AGENDA 11/12/14:
News Brief – Jacki
Forced Choice
Debrief
Forms of Government

Homework: Read the blog. Catch up on any late/incomplete/missing work. Check the weather! :-) Next news brief: Zacary T.

News Brief: Jacki had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: CNN.com - India: 11 women die, 62 more hospitalized after being paid to be sterilized. I played the VICE "Beyond the Headlines" news clip for today, as well, which also had this news story featured.

I also showed the class this story from last week: OregonLive.com - ODOT signs $7 million deal for I-5 safety barrier where crossover crash killed Steve Fritz, Cary Fairchild. This is an example of our state government at work. Nobody should have to lose someone like my family lost my dad - we hope that the new barriers will be a big help in preventing crossover accidents in the future.

Zacary T. was selected to do the next news brief.

Forced Choice: 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 only made it to question 3 today, so I will pick and choose next class as to which questions we will discuss and debate, before writing a reflective piece about the experience. I love these discussions and I think we did a great job of following the Ground Rules that we established at the beginning of the year.

Thank you for your participation! Be ready to keep talking next time.

Culture, Day 10 - Class Recap

I am going to bet that many students wrote that one of the ways culture both reflects and shapes society is through religion. This is a church in Budapest, Hungary, in 2013. I just loved the lighting here! No special effects!

Dear class,

Hooray! You are finally done with the DBQ final essay for the culture unit! I really appreciated how focused everyone seemed to be today in class, and I am excited to start looking into how everyone did. Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.
Critical Thinking LT 1:  I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Communication LT 2:  I can use language and  style that is appropriate to the content area.

Soundtrack: "Get Ready for This" by 2 Unlimited. Intended as a pump up song to write the DBQ essay today in class! Here's a link to the version I played in class, from ESPN's "Jock Jams" CD.

AGENDA 11/6/14:
News Brief/Election Review – Kelsey
Culture DBQ Essay

Homework: Read the blog. If you did not turn in your culture unit work today (or missed class), you need to get all of this in to me as soon as possible:

1) Cornell Notes on Culture definitions/iceberg PowerPoint
2) Surface culture worksheet (National Geographic photos PowerPoint)
3) Nacirema writing (neatly written or typed, 200 words minimum)
4) Time for School Notes/Answers
5) USA Culturegram activity
6) Culture unit reflection and preparation worksheet.

Next news brief: Jacki

News Brief: Kelsey had the news brief today and chose this story to talk about: TheLocal.se -Stockholm palace to get 'warm pink' paint job. We found Sweden on our world map packet (in Europe), then moved on to election news.

Obviously, this was a big story here in Oregon on Tuesday night. We talked a lot about Measure 91 in class, including the next steps for when the law goes into effect and what it does. I showed this tweet that has a map of how counties in Oregon voted on Measure 91. We also went over the full election results for the rest of the ballot measures and candidates here in Oregon. I showed another tweet, with a map of county results for Measure 88 (which would have given undocumented immigrants access to get driver's cards).

Nationally, here's a map of how the U.S. Senate became Republican controlled due to a series of wins last night.

There was obviously a LOT to talk about - I'm glad everyone was so interested in what was going on with the election! :-)

Jacki was selected to do the next news brief.

Culture DBQ Essay: The rest of class was devoted to writing your essay for the culture unit final DBQ. If you missed class, you will need to make this up with me in a Study Hall or after school. It is a timed write, and unless it is a requirement that I give you extra time as a part of an agreement, it was due in class - this is a skill that you will help you in the future with DBQ tests and timed essays.

The DBQ was due at the end of class, along with all the other work from the culture unit (as listed above in the culture section). Particularly, I wanted to see this right after the DBQ:

Google Drive - Culture Unit Reflection and Preparation

The rest of your culture unit work was stapled underneath the essay and reflection. I will work on getting these graded over the long weekend. It might take a while, though! I want you to know that I do read and appreciate everything you write as an assessment of your learning!

Thanks again for all of your hard work today! See you next class.

Culture, Day 9 - Class Recap

A clock in a park in Hanoi, Vietnam. Next class will be a timed write for your DBQ essay final! Today, students took a look at the documents and began to think of possible responses for the essay. Photo taken in 2011.

Hi everyone,

I apologize that I was a few minutes late in arriving to class today! That has never happened to me in six years. A huge backup on my drive in today (over 30 minutes longer than it usually takes me) was the cause. As I said in class, a minor inconvenience for me and for you, but now I really know that an accident can be the worst day in someone's life, so I am just hopeful it was not too bad.

Today was your first chance to look at the DBQ unit final on Culture. Next class, you will be writing an essay on the prompt "How does culture both reflect and shape society?" Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake. Selected for today because students started on the DBQ today in class, and will be writing the actual essay for the final culture test next class. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 11/4/14:
News Brief – Alex D.
Dancing
DBQ Analysis
Work Day

Homework: Read the blog. Have a plan of action in mind for writing the DBQ essay in class. Bring ALL of your culture unit work (to be turned in next class as a collection of evidence for LT6):

 1) Cornell Notes on Culture definitions/iceberg PowerPoint
2) Surface culture worksheet (National Geographic photos PowerPoint)
3) Nacirema writing (neatly written or typed, 200 words minimum)
4) Time for School Notes/Answers
5) USA Culturegram activity
6) Culture unit reflection and preparation worksheet.

Next news brief: Kelsey

News Brief: Alex D. had the news brief today and chose this story to talk about: CBSNews.com - A "much wiser" Mark Owen speaks out. We found Afghanistan (where Owen was when he was fighting abroad) in the world map packet and also shared some stories from the weekend and other current events, like the upcoming election (on Tuesday). Here's a link that will probably have results at 8:00 PM on Tuesday. Kelsey was selected to do the next news brief.

Dancing: Since I knew today was going to be a lot of silent in class work on the DBQ, I wanted to at least have some fun in showing this video, which is one of my favorite ever:

I just love how dancing (part of surface culture) can be used to show the common humanity across the entire world. :-)

DBQ Analysis: Since this is your first DBQ in high school, I wanted to give as much preparation time as possible. So today was spent analyzing the actual documents on the test and writing out answers to five of the eight document questions. Next class, you will use three of the five documents you analyzed in order to construct your essay (due in class).

Again, I think this is going to be a really helpful resource for you in planning what to write (especially the graphic organizers on pages 8 and 9):

Google Drive - How to Write a Document Based Question 

Remember as well to have this work sheet completed (except for the last two questions, which are done after the DBQ is graded), as well:

Google Drive - Culture Unit Reflection and Preparation

Work Time: The rest of the class was devoted to work time on looking at the test (I am not posting it online, obviously) and analyzing your culture unit documents to try and answer the question of: How does culture both shape and reflect society? This is what you will be doing next class as the final!