Students finished their informational text reading on 6 modern governments. They are able to choose a thinking map format to write their notes, and these notes will be available to use during the test next week.
The test prompt will be “Identify the most likely form of government, using bubble maps to show your thinking”. Student received informational texts on Germany and Russia to practice with over the weekend. We will review on Monday and Tuesday.
Today we began our reading on modern governments. This will be our last summative unit before the quarter ends. Both periods finished reading and annotating monarchy. Period 1 needs to complete dictatorship, and Period 2 needs to complete theocracy. Be prepared to discuss the structure of that government (who is in charge, what kind of power do they have, how did they gain their power), and the advantages and disadvantages of this government.
Your sequence thinking map of the voting timeline must be completed by Friday. Remember, the top portion has the significant act (example could be only white men over 21 with land or a business can vote), and the box(es) below will have the reasons for this act (for example at that time white men with money had the most power, like George Washington who was the first president).
We will be considering the following question for the test on Tuesday.
Does the Voting Rights Act of 1965 still matter?
We will be reading this:
http://blogs.ksbe.edu/pekono/files/2017/11/Voting-restrictions-in-America.pdf
The Supreme Court in 2013 ruled that section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional, therefore, Section 5 is irrelevant, since it depends on Section 4.
Your answer will need to be supported by evidence from the sequence map, from the reading on voting restrictions, and what you learned from watching “Selma, Lord, Selma”.
I would recommend you practice writing out your thoughts on this subject prior to the test on Tuesday. We will begin practicing on Friday.
We are quickly approaching the end of the semester, and I will be evaluating your evidence of Aloha, Kuleana, and Ho’omau. When I conference with you, we will review first quarter’s formative grade, and discuss any goals that we may have set. Be prepared to give me your self assessment, supported by any evidence. For example, you might show me work from the beginning of the semester, and work that you have recently had assessed. Improvement in quality of work could support ho’omau, that you kept persisting. I will be meeting individually with students, beginning next week.
This test will require you to remember and apply what you have learned from the jobs of the President, and the system of checks and balances. Here are some sample questions that you can think about, and we will discuss in class on Monday.
Remember, you can use your thinking maps on Tuesday, so make sure your bubble maps, and your tree maps are accurate, and detailed. If you are really interested in doing your best work on Tuesday, then you will write out detailed responses to the questions, check your answers against all of the text, and then participate in the class discussion on Monday.
Tonight students are to complete their reading of the three branches of the government, and complete a tree map, as a graphic organizer of their learning. The selection of a political party was due today and was assigned on Friday. I have been reading their responses. Some have mistakes in thinking, in evidence, or in writing. I have given them feedback via email and it will be marked as incomplete in my grade book until I get the revised response.
Do not forget the human rights assignment that is due on December 4th. I will not be accepting late work for that. I will accept incomplete work if that is all that there is.
Students read the websites of the Democratic, Republican, Green, and Libertarian parties, then made bubble maps of the identifying characteristics of each party. The websites can be reached in links provided in the 11/16 blog. Using this information, students are to email [email protected] with their party choice. Answers that are thoughtful, and detailed can earn 3 points, answers that lack detail or have an error somewhere in their thinking or evidence can earn 2 points, and very poor answers will receive 1 point.
Students began this email in class today, and some sent their finished version to me. Other students chose to save a draft and work on it a little more. Please remember to send to me by Monday.
The I Can statement for this assignment is “I know one way to choose a political party affiliation.”
Today we had a Socratic discussion, using our text about the jobs of the President. The two questions we considered were 1) Which are the two most important jobs of the President, and explain your reasoning why, and 2) What kind of background experience would a presidential candidate need, if you were going to vote.
This was their second Socratic discussion, and there was more participation, more text based evidence, and students are bringing in other learning (such as different schools of thought, and universal human rights).
The test on Friday will be to identify the jobs of the President, as well as important characteristics of the jobs.
Students received the human rights template to put in their 30 human rights advocacy in their email today. All students in class opened it up, renamed it and saved it onto their desktop. They had time in class today to start putting in the advocacy scenarios they have been working on since the beginning of the semester.
Students should develop a plan so that they will complete this kuleana in time.
The final document is due on December 4th. We did a quick review of the rubric today, and I will continue to discuss with them.
http://blogs.ksbe.edu/pekono/files/2017/11/Human-Rights-Rubric-2017.docx
