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Unit II: Ancient China

http://thecolorofsilk.weebly.com

Happy Election Day!

Election Day For Students:

 'Vote For Me Until I Can'

In a push to encourage voter turnout, Manhattan Country School's 5- and 6-year-olds are asking you to "Vote for Me Until I Can."

"I would like to bring about a change, but I'm too young to play the voting game. Won't somebody hear my plea and go to the polls and vote for me?" the students sing. "Mommy, daddy, take a stand. Vote for me until I can. Sister, brother, take my hand. Vote for me until I can. College students, woman or man, vote for me until I can."

The students' video comes as state officials are hoping voter turnout won't be negatively affected by relocated voting sites resulting from Superstorm Sandy. The New York school teaches its young students the importance of voting, student activism and participation in democracy, according to a school statement.

The video, filmed in the students' music class, was taken as part of the Odyssey Initiative, a project led by three educators that seek innovative educational practices across the country in anticipation of launching a school based on those effective models.

Loewen: Chapter 13

What is Social Stupidity?

March 29, 1985

Dear Mr. & Mrs. W.,

     First, I'd like to commend your daughter for her initiative in approaching me about an alternative exploratory class.

     After a thorough discussion with the Superintendent regarding your daughter's request to substitute industrial arts for study skills, we both feel that such a change is not advisable or possible at this time for a couple reasons.

     First, to allow your daughter the option of changing her exploratory assignment would undoubtedly encourage many others to seek the same privilege.  Second, the exploratory program is designed to provide information for each student in each session, which will enhance and provide for a well-rounded education. Not only do the sessions of art, music, study skills and home economics or industrial arts provide information, which is of immediate value, but each also provides a foundation for future development.

     After discussing the above thoughts with your daughter, I feel that she definitely understands why we cannot make such a change at this time.

          Sincerely,

         Mr. J. B.

         Principal

One of the few things I kept from my childhood was this letter explaining why I wouldn't be the first girl to take industrial arts in our junior high.  It was a ridiculous decision and so is Loewen's observation in this chapter:

 "Girls also dislike social studies and history even more than boys, probably because women's concerns and perceptions still go underrepresented in history classes."

He should heed his own advice - "education and position in society causes some people not to think." All educators, not just social studies teachers, need to provide students with an education that includes the perspectives of those who have been historically marginalized. It does not mean, however, that education should be broken down into categories based on race and gender as if the story of humankind was made up of anything less than our collective memory.

I shared in blog post Loewen: Chapter 11 my sentiments about the illogical intellectual process (social stupidity) that has frustrated me from time to time in the collegiate classroom.  I have also witnessed it first hand outside of the classroom, over the past ten years working as a community advocate in the region.  It does not dampen my idealism now and it never did.  I like a challenge.  After all these years, I am a social science teacher because there is a resounding necessity in our country for individuals like myself, to apply our enthusiasm, our intelligence, and our creativity towards being the best possible teachers we can be for our nation's children.

http://standwithmalala.org/
http://educationenvoy.org/petition

How well a society treats its women is one of the strongest indicators

 of the success and health of a society. 

The lives of girls and women have changed dramatically over the past quarter century. The pace of change has been astonishing in some areas, but in others, progress toward gender equality has been limited—even in developed countries.

This year's World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development argues that gender equality is a core development objective in its own right. It is also smart economics. Greater gender equality can enhance productivity, improve development outcomes for the next generation, and make institutions more representative.

The Report also focuses on four priority areas for policy going forward: (i) reducing excess female mortality and closing education gaps where they remain, (ii) improving access to economic opportunities for women (iii) increasing women's voice and agency in the household and in society and (iv) limiting the reproduction of gender inequality across generations.

Full-Text of the World Bank's World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development. 

http://10x10act.org/

Cantu: Chapters 12 & 13

"If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other?

 If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other?"

Jem Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird

I can't imagine studying racism in a sociology classroom without reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.  Nor would a discussion about class conflict be complete without examining F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.  Greenhaven Press, the publisher of the Opposing Viewpoints Series, has introduced a series for the behavioral sciences called, Social Issues in Literature.  Viewing significant social issues through the lens of great works of literature enriches student understanding and broadens the perspective from which they can assess the significance of that issue in society today.

Below is part of a lesson I created using literature to teach diversity:

People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who  haven't what they want that they really don't want it, And I wish I could afford to gather all such people into a gloomy castle  on the Danube and hire half a dozen capable Draculas to haunt it. I don’t mind their having a lot of money, and I don't care how they  employ it, But I do think that they damn well ought to admit they enjoy it. But no, they insist on being stealthy About the pleasures of being wealthy, And the possession of a handsome annuity Makes them think that to say how hard it is to make both ends meet is  their bounden duity. You cannot conceive of an occasion Which will find them without some suitable evasion. Yes indeed, with arguments they are very fecund; Their first point is that money isn't everything, and that they have no  money anyhow is their second. Some people's money is merited, And other people's is inherited, But wherever it comes from, They talk about it as if it were something you got pink gums from. Perhaps indeed the possession of wealth is constantly distressing, But I should be quite willing to assume every curse of wealth if I could  at the same time assume every blessing. The only incurable troubles of the rich are the troubles that money can't  cure, Which is a kind of trouble that is even more troublesome if you are poor. Certainly there are lots of things in life that money won't buy, but it's  very funny -- Have you ever tried to buy them without money?  Nash, Ogden.  “The Terrible People.”  I Wouldn’t Have Missed It: Selected Poems of Ogden Nash.  Toronto:  Little, Brown and Company, 1975.  25.  Print.  Five Questions for the Reader:

 (Class) Is the author a part of the social class he is describing? The author is able to be in conversations with the very wealthy.  This shows that he must have some common social bond to be invited to these occasions (as he calls them).  He uses words like: Danube, annuity, fecund, merited and inherited that demonstrates he has an understanding of how these terms relate to money.

 (Class) Is it the author’s view that money is a good thing or a bad thing? The author has nothing against money itself and is rather glad he has it.  What he does have a serious problem with are individuals that take it for granted and do not notice that others might be having financial, social, or physical troubles. 

 (Community Influence) Why is there a public expectation to hide wealth? There’s a prevailing thought that this goes back to Protestantism’s roots in developing capitalism (Calvinism).  It is considered rude to discuss money openly and should not be done with members of a lower social class.  Obviously, there are many trappings of the wealthy that set them apart visually.  Some of those differences (where they shop, eat, stay) may allow for them to spend openly without condemnation or be taken advantage of by those who could not afford to do the same.  It also keeps the wealthy from experiencing the realities of those outside their class.

 (Socio-economics) What are the “incurable troubles of the rich”? Scarcity (not having enough of what one wants) is something that is experienced by the rich and poor.  These wants and needs are dramatically difference between the classes, but all people experience relationships with others and loss of one kind or another.  If relationships are the most important thing for human beings to have, then money cannot solve for all the problems couples and families face.

 (Socio-economics) What does this poem say about happiness? A recent Princeton University study showed that happiness, as it relates to wealth, peaks at $75,000 a year.  It stated that beyond that amount, more material items could be obtained, but that the general feeling of well being on a daily basis did not improve.  However, life-satisfaction for people did increase as their income went up to this point.  If the median salary for Americans is $50,000 then not only is their desire for the majority of Americans to continue to be productive, but households that have either two incomes or professionally employed individuals are happier.  Education and marriage play a role in this figure.

  Summary:  Poem by American satirical poet Ogden Nash.  Written in the first person, the poem is highly critical of wealthy individuals who are condescending to the poor.  He uses irregular poetic meter made up of rhyming couplets that fall until the very end, in which a rising rhyme is employed to ask the reader a question.  Nash takes liberty with his spelling of some words in order to have a pattern of similar sounds, or assonance.  He uses humor to get across his point of view in an entertaining manner allowing him to discuss what would otherwise be a touchy subject.  The New Yorker magazine for which this was first written, is a publication targeted at high-income individuals mainly living within New York City.  It is known for its witty commentary of popular culture and Ogden Nash was a regular contributor.  The poem was first published in 1933, following the worst year of the Great Depression and I believe that Nash’s purpose was to admonish those who still had opportunity and wealth into considering their responsibilities to the poor (very Calvinist idea - see below).

Reflection:  I chose this poem because I was familiar with the author and enjoy using satire and humor to teach political and economic concepts.  As a future high school social studies instructor, I am aware that students find these topics irrelevant to their current lives and outside their sphere of influence.  This poem would be effective in teaching a lesson on the history of capitalism and the current debate over income inequality.  We could discuss Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations and I could explain the negatives he warned against: informal markets and avarice.  A sociological discussion about what is free will and meritocracy allows for debate and discussion on equity and social class.  Drawing from the poem’s Depression Era roots, the concept of scarcity could be covered and how that affects prices.  As a major part of this discussion, I would teach basic macroeconomic concepts and vocabulary such as: maximizers versus satisfiers, opportunity cost, and normative economics versus positive economics, as it is important for students to understand the difference between feelings and facts.  We could discuss the current state of the national economy and how globalization and technology have hurt unskilled workers, particularly minority teenagers.  I would not go into a discussion about Calvinism and Protestantism with the themes mentioned above, rather I could go back to this poem and its ideas at another time when the impact of the Protestant Reformation on current society was discussed. 

Loewen: Chapter 12

What Do We Know of the World First-Hand?

I was born and raised in central Illinois.  I was lucky to be the third generation of women to have graduated from college, but for all of us it had been a financial struggle.  I married, moved across the country, and worked to put my spouse through graduate school so that we would have an income and medical insurance.  As an equal partner, I chose to raise children as a stay-at-home parent and to move back to Illinois to take care of aging parents on both sides of our family.  

Within days of moving into my husband's childhood home, I experienced first-hand harassment and discrimination as the general contractor on the major remodel of our historic home. Battling bigots who questioned our right to purchase a long-empty home as "out-of-towners" to city employees who didn't want to accept work orders from a woman.  It was a disheartening and frightening time with a small child at home and daily threats to our safety and to our workers.

As Loewen says, "power elite theories seem to explain everything but may explain nothing," and I agree with him that by giving into such theories one can easily absolve ourselves from the responsibility of changing what we see as wrong.

So when I was asked in a coffee house conversation, what I thought about a letter a mother had written to the local paper asking for help - it struck me that my experiences (especially in the coffee house) should be used to advocate for others.  I had spent a lifetime straddling two worlds - one in which (Loewen) "members of the elite came to think that their privilege was historically justified and earned" to another marked by less-than-equal opportunities and social inequality.  Below is the opinion-editorial piece I wrote for the local paper.  Thus, began my last ten years of public service.

I think it is particularly important for social studies educators to be involved in serving their community through public service* and/or to have their students participate in projects that shape their standards of reality, their self-identity, and their political belongingness.  As C. Wright Mill's wrote in his 1956 book The Power Elite:

The knowledgeable man in the genuine public is able to turn his personal troubles into social issues, to see their relevance for his community and his community's relevance for them. He understands that what he thinks and feels as personal troubles are very often not only that but problems shared by others and indeed not subject to solution by any one individual but only by modifications of the structure of the groups in which he lives and sometimes the structure of the entire society.

*Stay informed on the political issues facing education:

 http://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/25/teachers-running-for-office-in-ohio/ 

Cantu: Chapter 11

Click to Link to Good Magazine Infographic

Why is there a major disparity in levels of human development between nations?

At some point, most every student will ask themselves this question (in their own words). For those a little older, the National Geographic special: Guns, Germs, & Steel (2005) is a wonderful resource for the geography classroom.  Below is a snapshot of a lesson I wrote called The Haves & Have-Nots, after attending a local ICSS workshop discussing this very issue.  Along with articles, Good Magazine offers dozens of infographics for use in the social studies classroom.  This lesson addresses geographic factors that affect cooperation and conflict among societies.

Loewen: Chapter 11

Are we losing our critical capacity to distinguish what is from what ought to be?

Dr. Timothy Glander

Loewen's talk of environmental responsibility, zero economic growth, and the corollary of the archetype of progress: the notion that America's cause is the cause of all humankind; reminded me of arguments I recently put forth on engineer Samuel Florman's tragic view of technology. * Florman, who has long debated the anti-technological movement on college campuses, would fall into that "progress is our most important product" camp.  Whereas, I would agree with Loewen on most of his points in this chapter - I disagree that social science instructors foster a notion that the United States is the only present-day progressive society.  Here, Loewen falls into his characteristic apologist mode. Florman states, "Technology is revolutionary.  Therefore, hostility towards technology is antirevolutionary, which is to say it is reactionary."  These are important debates to have with our students and issues which I believe they are aware of and want to discuss.

Build an Online Debate Community for Your Classroom!

Host debates and assign effective homework. Students evaluate, analyze, and synthesize topics on a deeper level through intellectual interaction with their peers.

* Samuel Florman defines his pro-technological viewpoint as the “tragic view.” Thus characterizing the mature, responsible technocrat as one who neither places blame nor shirks from the responsibility technology has placed upon him. This anthropomorphic description of technology is a somewhat apologetic resignation that technology is inevitable and unstoppable. Florman’s oversimplification of critics such as Jacques Ellul or Neil Postman comes from his misunderstanding their opinions and his inability to recognize his own biases. Florman has become blinded by technological refinery, akin to author and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s description of the wonderment man experiences when finding a pebble smoothed by the sea. Hence, subtle improvements only manifest into solutions for human problems. Florman’s willingness to live in a world full of ambiguity comes from the belief that human beings are incapable of being satisfied, so individuals must fall into only one of two categories: those who agree with the tragic realities of life or those who would seek to find scapegoats. Florman believes man no longer has the natural curiosity nor desire to control the technological agenda.

The most important technological and scientific developments of the last century to which Florman’s tragic view may best be applied are related to the growth of the military-industrial complex of which President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of in his farewell address to the nation. The desire to subjugate others through violent means is woven throughout the entire history of mankind, but the methods by which to wage infinite war crystalized with the Manhattan Project and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Upon the success of the Trinity implosion, Robert Oppenheimer is said to have thought of the Hindu Bhagavad Gita verse: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” The world had indeed become a tragic reality from which the utmost responsibility of Technology (emphasis added) would lay in the hands of an ambiguous few. The long path from America’s isolationism at the beginning of the twentieth century through two World Wars, the “containment” of communism, and finally the “Shock and Awe” start of the 2003 war in Iraq were built on the expansion of commercial markets more than moral outrage. Wars no longer require shared sacrifice of an entire society (go shop!), industry need not change production to supply the machinery of war, and countries can be drawn into conflict without debate.

So passive is the public to the militarization of every aspect of our lives that we fail to see that hostility from any point of view is categorized as reactionary in order to purchase technological solutions resulting in further reductions to our civil liberties. Mandatory drug sentencing, border defense systems, Occupy Wall Street protestors require police forces that need to be armed with military weaponry and budget strapped States need to turn prisons over to private companies. Currently, the number of border crossings may be at a forty-year low, but a permanent wall between the United States and Mexico was still being called for in the 2012 Republican presidential primary debates. The Supreme Court’s Global Positioning Case is considering how much privacy we can expect with new surveillance technology. The sobering fact is that as warrantless surveillance has increased as a result of the “war on terror”, expectations forbidding such surveillance have fallen. The rise of social media and cloud computing have eroded privacy and as we expect less, we are entitled to less.

Florman’s “Keep Calm and Carry On” attitude skews our national priorities. It shifts money and resources from what the nation and the world need to the desires of the “1%” or in the case of the military-industrial elite: the top 0.01%. War profiteering isn’t new, however Congressional Supercommittee members and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s warning that sequestration cuts would “decimate” the Pentagon budget by lowering it to 2007 levels are brazen statements during the largest income inequality distribution in the history of the United States. Lobbying groups spend billions of dollars a year in Washington shaping laws and regulations in their interests. The newly formed tech industry has recognized its role and profit potential in shaping national security. Increasingly wired Americans receive their information from an Internet tailored to past search histories, personal information shared with the government to prevent supposed cyber attacks, and network neutrality is in jeopardy. Eisenhower recognized this growing misalignment when he tied interstate highway system improvements to wartime emergency routes, as did Kennedy with the race to moon after Soviet unmanned lunar probes followed Sputnik.

In 2009, 70% of high school graduates went onto to attend college or university, a historic high. Yet, as National and State government(s) decrease higher education funding the importance of building campus amenities, improving college rankings, and expanding sports teams to attract students increase. Bodies of students are born out in suburban sprawl and artificially amalgamated by financially savvy admissions officers in order to associate with those who think as they do and reinforce mass delusions. Theodore Roosevelt warned of the educated man who shrinks from contact with the “rough people who do the world’s work.” Florman’s essay written at a time following “youthful enthusiasm” on college campuses didn’t foresee the role technology would have in creating sizable numbers of students technologically socializing while simultaneously “participating” in their studies. Technology, of course, doesn’t place blame. Students don’t place blame. Parents don’t place blame. It’s not the anti-technological that fail to consider the consequences, but the technocrat by not taking any action. Florman and Saint-Exupery shared the belief that “the machine does not isolate the man from the great problems of nature, but plunges him more deeply into them.” What human adventure or transcendent victories can be made when opportunity is wasted? Perhaps it is as Saint-Exupery states of the locomotive, “time had to pass before men forgot what it was made of”. In the current socioeconomic shift from a manufacturing to service economy, we still stare at the Technology in our hand as the smoothed pebble found on the beach.

Cantu: Chapter 10

CLICK TO LINK ON SMITHSONIAN QUEST ON WATER MATTERS

How can we help students recognize

that they are part of a global economy?

I am currently coaching my third First Lego League (FLL) team as they prepare for regional competition.  For those of you not familiar with FLL other than the Lego robotics portion of the competition, there is an equally important project component.  Several years ago, the topic focused on climate connections - specifically, working with students to gain a greater understanding of the Earth's complex climate systems and developing innovative solutions that would improve the world in which we live.  My student team went to school in a community that was undergoing an important economic debate on how to best treat storm water drainage.  Estimates had placed unfunded mandated facility upgrades at millions of dollars during the height of the economic recession.  Fortunately for our team, our local mayor had been a robot builder himself, during high school.  He took an interest in a proposal the team had to use a super-absorbent cornstarch polymer called, "Super Slurper" to retain rainwater in local lawns and offered to facilitate a test site to test their hypothesis after the competition season.

The day before the competition (during a class demonstration of their robot), the students learned that Mayor Tebben had died of a sudden heart attack.  During the competition students proudly wore the city lapel pins he had given them and shared with the judges and the audience how having the mayor of their town and a working scientist believe in their ideas, had made them realize that even kids can solve big problems.

The climate connections project was a wonderful example of how one can teach students to think globally and act locally.  Students started out by investigating ways to reduce humidity in the atmosphere. One of the climate connection suggestions was talking to people working in jobs locally that are affected by the weather.  Because we live in an agricultural area, students researched the Peoria Agricultural Research Lab in Peoria to find out what they did. The first idea, after learning about Super Slurper, was to hypothetically create a car that could take humidity out of the air with Super Slurper filters and then convert the water into hydrogen to power the car.  But after visiting the local weather station to meet with the meteorologist, students learned that humidity was caused by global factors that they could not solve locally, so the students began to look at the flooding that was taking place along the Illinois River and in our town.

Students had read that Super Slurper was already used in sand bags and in potting soil. Golf courses used it when putting down new grass.  In October 21, 2008 the students met with Mayor Dave Tebben at Pekin City Hall.  On October 28, they met with Dr. Victoria Finkenstadt, a research chemist at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (nickname: Peoria Ag Lab) who showed them the real Super Slurper and allowed them to conduct experiments with it!  She also volunteered to help the Mayor after the competition was over.

The students wrote a play called Agent S. and the "Rain of Terror" where a disguised Dr. Finkenstadt (armed with her new discovery called Super Slurper) becomes Agent S. and saves Watertown from Dr. H20.  They didn't win the competition that year, nor were they able to get the their test plot off the ground after losing Mayor Tebben, but they did return to win the project AND the teamwork portion of the regional competition the next year. *

Looking at economic concepts through a quest not only gave students the power to make informed and responsible choices throughout their lives as consumers, savers, investors, workers, citizens, and participants in our global economy, but it also provided them with new concepts of professions they could be a part of in the future.

*  Team Electric Surge won with a transportation project using falcons to reduce bird strikes on airport runways.  

Loewen: Chapter 10

Is The United States A Nation Without Sin?

Benjamin Franklin in his 1736 Poor Richard's Almanack wrote, "Don't throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass."  Loewen concurs arguing in this chapter that presenting a nation without sin to students leaves them ignorant and unable to understand why others in the world are upset with the United States of America or its people.  I've never believed that social studies teachers intentionally avoided the last chapters of history books because they believed students were aware of the issues or that the issues were too recent to be accurately discussed.  Rather, it was always obvious that there was never enough hours in the day to cover everything that was available in the textbook.  Perhaps, because I was one of those students who secretly read the last chapters of the book during class that I became a history teacher.

Broadcaster Paul Harvey used to do a piece called The Rest of the Story on public radio.  I grew up believing that one never had the whole story when it came to history.  The mysteries, controversies, and big questions were what made history the best subject in school, as far as I was concerned.  I teach history through stories and inquiry-based methods, because I hope that it will create in students a lifelong desire to know more - no matter what the topic.

This past weekend, the Wall Street Journal wrote a front page piece on high school social studies teacher Tom Clark, who for 27 years has had his students track down the families of Indiana's war dead and create an archive of their mementos, their letters, the stories of loved ones lost in combat and lives lived in grief.  It is an incredible project that is not only intergenerational, but also a powerful reminder that a smaller share of Americans currently serve in the Armed Forces than at any other time since the era between World Wars I and II, a new low that has led to a growing gap between people in uniform and the civilian population.

As historian James Anthony Froude once said, "That which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low order of man, that which constitutes human goodness, human nobleness, is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which men pursue their own advantage; but it is self-forgetfulness; it is self-sacrifice; it is the disregard of personal pleasure, personal indulgence, personal advantage, remote or present, because some other line of conduct is more right."

Cantu: Chapter 9

When Are The Freedoms Of The First Amendment Not Absolute?

The ideals, values, and principles that form the goals of civic education require secondary social studies teachers to utilize a variety of instructional and curricular approaches.  One approach can be a learning center where students use instructional materials to explore a topic alone or in groups.  Above, is a photograph of a civics learning center I created this year over the limits of free speech.  I used the Angry Birds © theme to generate student interest, as it is currently a part of the American cultural zeitgeist.

This lesson presumes that students are familiar with free speech issues and have some familiarity with Supreme Court cases.*  Students are often surprised to learn that there are limits to the freedom of speech and connecting this topic to their life experiences is a critical step in creating an engaging learning experience that will aid students in retaining knowledge.  This learning center asks students to become actively involved in the learning process and take responsibility for their own understanding.   By examining the boundaries of the First Amendment and the facts that there are disagreements about what constitutes our most fundamental and our most contested right, students will generate an original comic strip showing the outcome of their insight.

*  iCivics is a great online resource offering innovative educational materials. Founded by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor it offers the nation's most comprehensive, standards-aligned civics curriculum that is available for free on the Web.

Learning Standards:
National Standards for Civics and Government
Grades 9 - 12 Content Standards
V.B.5. Scope and limits of rights.  Students should be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions on issues regarding the proper scope and limits of rights.

Understandings Reinforced by the lesson: the scope and limit of rights related to the freedom of speech are defined by principles established through Supreme Court decisions and case law.  http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=912toc

Illinois Learning Standards for Social Science
STATE GOAL 14: Understand political systems, with an emphasis on the United States.Understanding the development of United States political ideas and traditions.
14.F.5. Interpret how changing geographic, economic, technological and social forces affect United States political ideas and traditions (e.g., freedom, equality and justice, individual rights).

Student Objective(s):
Students will…

• State the constitutional basis for freedom of speech.

• Explain the importance of free speech in a democratic society.

• Explain events that prompted courts to define principles for deciding free speech issues.

• Develop an appreciation for the complexities involved in finding the limits to free speech.

• Use sound reasoning to defend a position.

List & Description/Directions for Activity/Activities:

Reading Activity: Read in order to make inferences and gain meaning.  Discern the facts.

Writing Activity: Synthesize information.  Explain ideas or concepts.  Write to contribute ideas, information, and express own point of view.

Listening Activity:  Listen for understanding.  Discern the facts.  Listen to both sides of an issue.

Speaking Activity: Speak clearly to contribute ideas, information, and express own point of view.

Viewing Activity:  View information in order to make inferences and gain meaning. 

Visually Representing:  Synthesize information.  Explain ideas or concepts. Collaborate with others to deepen meaning.  Support decisions with the facts.  Show initiative and self-direction. 

1. Students will read the materials posted on the trifold board from left to right.  An overview of the basic ways the Supreme Court has interpreted the guarantee of freedom of speech to provide no protection or only limited protection for some types of speech will be displayed.
2. Students will work together in small groups to review a collection of U.S. Supreme Court cases related to free speech in order to identify and classify principles established by the Court that help define the limits for us today.  
3. Students will choose one free speech scenario to analyze what matters in light of the principles studied. 
4. Students will have an opportunity to express their own point of view as they contribute ideas and information to the construction of the final product.  
5. Students will work together to create a comic strip that clearly states both sides of the issue for one of the scenarios presented.  Students will use characters from Angry Birds ©  (a popular video game) to construct their comic strip.  Students will clearly demonstrate through the use of word balloons or speech bubbles what free speech principle is being debated between the birds and pigs.  No additional points will be given for any literal translation of the video game in regards to specific multi-colored birds, levels, or pigs.  In general, if students place the pigs on one side of an issue and birds on the other - the artistic requirements have been met.

Scoring Rubric for Free Speech Comic Logic & Argumentation

All ideas flow logically; the argument is identifiable. Students successfully offer counter-argument; makes creative connections to free speech principles.	Argument clear and makes sense.  Some evidence that offers the counter-argument. Some connection to free speech principle is made.	The argument may be unclear.  May not address counter-arguments or make any connections with the free speech principle.  May also contain logical contradictions.	Ideas do not flow at all, usually because there is no argument to support.  There is no effort to grasp possible alternative views.  Very weak attempt to demonstrate free speech principle.	Too incoherent to determine.
10-9	8	7	6	5>0

No additional points will be given for any literal translation of the video game in regards to specific multi-colored birds, levels, or pigs.  In general, if students place the pigs on one side of an issue and birds on the other - the artistic requirements have been met.