cnn.com
nytimes.com
huffingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
wallstreetjournal.com
usatoday.com
Friday, December 14, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Today's class
Goals for Today's Class:
1. Each group identifies who is taking what role/order of debate (need to update the shared document)
2. Openers/Closers -- need to draft out opening/closing statement
3. Each member must build out their argument, making sure you are identifying specific evidence (statistics, facts, quotes) for both your position and to counter (oppose) what you know the other side is going to bring up.
1. Each group identifies who is taking what role/order of debate (need to update the shared document)
2. Openers/Closers -- need to draft out opening/closing statement
3. Each member must build out their argument, making sure you are identifying specific evidence (statistics, facts, quotes) for both your position and to counter (oppose) what you know the other side is going to bring up.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Period 5 Day 1 Debate Research
Core question: Should the Electoral College be abolished?
Jessica, Sam, Jordan, Max, Erik, Benny
Core background reading. These 3sites give both sides of the argument, and provide statistics, quotes, and other very valuable resources.You must focus on these three websites exclusively on Day 1 of research:
it’s not flashy, but a pretty basic and clear explanation of both sides of the issue.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/electoralcoll.htm
This is a website that shows a debate that unfolded about this very issue. It has a solid collection of points for both sides AND importantly, can point to specific evidence/proof of their position.
http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/politics/house-would-abolish-us-electoral-college
Core question: Should the death penalty be allowed?
Grace, Shahen, Jeffrey, Kaylie, Tommy, KyleCore background reading. These 2 sites give both sides of the argument, and provide statistics, quotes, and other very valuable resources.
You must focus on these two website exclusively on Day 1 of research:
ProCon.org. This website is intended to give both sides of the issue, provide facts and lots of evidence for why some people support and others oppose this issue.
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/
Pew Forum. This website does a nice job of showing both sides of the issue, with an emphasis on some of the recent Supreme Court cases that have involved the death penalty.
http://www.pewforum.org/topics/issues/Death-Penalty/
Core question: Should adults have the right to carry a concealed handgun?
Catherine, Toby, Jamie, Clay, Sabrina, Blake
Core background reading. This sites gives a voice to both sides of the argument, and provides statistics, quotes, and other very valuable resources.You must focus on these two website exclusively on Day 1 of research:
ProCon.org. This website is intended to give both sides of the issue, provide facts and lots of evidence for why some people support and others oppose this issue.
http://concealedguns.procon.org/
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Period 2: Debate Research!
Core question: Should the death penalty be allowed?
Core background reading. These 2 sites give both sides of the argument, and provide statistics, quotes, and other very valuable resources.
You must focus on these two website exclusively on Day 1 of research:
ProCon.org. This website is intended to give both sides of the issue, provide facts and lots of evidence for why some people support and others oppose this issue.
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/
Pew Forum. This website does a nice job of showing both sides of the issue, with an emphasis on some of the recent Supreme Court cases that have involved the death penalty.
http://www.pewforum.org/topics/issues/Death-Penalty/
Additional websites that you might look at later on in the research process:
Supports the death penalty:
This is a website that is organized by the lead prosecutor for Clark County, Indiana. This site is very well known and respected for containing a large amount of verifiable data related to the arguments in support of the death penalty. (there is also a link off of his site that has a list of many additional pro-death penalty sites)
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/death.htm
Opposes to the death penalty:
American Civil Liberties Union: Clealy opposes the death penalty and has a lot of information to support their point of view.
http://www.aclu.org/capital-punishment
Very cool website for both sides of the argument. This is how others have debated this topic, included the major reasons pro/con and the sources used to support their point of view:
http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/law-crime/house-supports-death-penalty
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Electoral College Madness
Please work quietly and stay on track today. I want to hear a great report of how well you all did!
Step #1: Let's do some background reading:
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/
This has an almost (ok it's too much!) overwhelming amount of information to think about and ponder as we consider the electoral college. Your job with this site? Read through at least 3 articles (they are written throughout the day!!), and play with some of the projected maps/polling data/etc to get a better sense as to what the analysts are thinking!
Step #2: Let's do some predicting! Now, let's look at some scenarios. All these scenarios play mostly with the 9 "swing states", those most in play in the upcoming election. You can use this map 2012 Presidential Election: Electoral Map: to 'turn' states blue (Obama) or Red (Romney). This will also set it up so that the 41 states that are considered either clearly for Obama or Romney are marked and the 9 swing states are in beige.
Your worksheet should be colored red and blue (red for Romney wins and blue for Obama) for each scenario. I have colored pencils on my desk.
CO, FL, IA, NV, NH, NC, OH, VA, WI
Scenario #1: Obama wins CO, NV, NH, VA, IA, OH, WI Romney wins NC, FL
Who wins? What's the electoral college #s?
Scenario #2: Obama wins CO, NV, NH, VA Romney wins FL, IA, NC, OH, WI
Who wins? What's the electoral college #s?
Scenario #3: Obama wins IA, NV Romney wins NH, FL, VA, OH, CO, WI, NC
Who wins? What's the electoral college #s?
Scenario #4: What do YOU think? Be realistic, be thoughtful, and have reasoning to back it up.
What is the electoral college verdict? Turn in your complete worksheet and you may just get a prize if your prediction is the closest!!
Step #1: Let's do some background reading:
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/
This has an almost (ok it's too much!) overwhelming amount of information to think about and ponder as we consider the electoral college. Your job with this site? Read through at least 3 articles (they are written throughout the day!!), and play with some of the projected maps/polling data/etc to get a better sense as to what the analysts are thinking!
Step #2: Let's do some predicting! Now, let's look at some scenarios. All these scenarios play mostly with the 9 "swing states", those most in play in the upcoming election. You can use this map 2012 Presidential Election: Electoral Map: to 'turn' states blue (Obama) or Red (Romney). This will also set it up so that the 41 states that are considered either clearly for Obama or Romney are marked and the 9 swing states are in beige.
Your worksheet should be colored red and blue (red for Romney wins and blue for Obama) for each scenario. I have colored pencils on my desk.
CO, FL, IA, NV, NH, NC, OH, VA, WI
Scenario #1: Obama wins CO, NV, NH, VA, IA, OH, WI Romney wins NC, FL
Who wins? What's the electoral college #s?
Scenario #2: Obama wins CO, NV, NH, VA Romney wins FL, IA, NC, OH, WI
Who wins? What's the electoral college #s?
Scenario #3: Obama wins IA, NV Romney wins NH, FL, VA, OH, CO, WI, NC
Who wins? What's the electoral college #s?
Scenario #4: What do YOU think? Be realistic, be thoughtful, and have reasoning to back it up.
What is the electoral college verdict? Turn in your complete worksheet and you may just get a prize if your prediction is the closest!!
This is kind of a random simulation, but this website goes through 10,000 possible scenarios each night to predict the likelihood of what will happen next Tues, Nov 6. If you refresh it will give you another possible (not necessarily probable) scenario. Scroll down to see the electoral college numbers.
http://www.270towin.com/simulation/
If you have extra time you can read through some additional commentary on the election via these sites:
If you have extra time you can read through some additional commentary on the election via these sites:
CNN : CNN has a reputation of being more favorable to Democratic candidates. Look for that perspective as you examine what they focus on and how they do it. This gets you to the home page, click on the politics tab for more coverage.
Fox News: Fox News has a reputation of being more favorable to Republican candidates. Look for that perspective as you examine what they focus on and how they do it. his gets you to the home page, click on the politics tab for more coverage.
Politico: This website has daily coverage of a lot of political stories. For good and for bad, the sight covers politics like a "sport"- the good part is that it is exciting, but the bad part is many of the articles focus more on the strategy and consequences of things going on rather than going in depth on the issues themselves.
CSPAN: Lots of video andtext coverage here from the cable channel that covers political news. It can be fairly in depth--look at the categories at the bottom of the main page.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
2012 Campaign Ads: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Campaign Analysis:
Pulling
it all together. The goal of this class is to watch 6 ads, 3 from Romney and 3
from Obama (or alternatively, 3 from Brown and 3 from Warren). You must select
the 4 to score. You must select the strongest ad for each candidate and the
weakest ad for each candidate to grade according to the rubric we have been
using in class.
Presidential Election Ads:
Massachusetts Senate Election Ads:
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Today's Class
Period 2
Goal of today's class. By the end of class have the following accomplished:
1) Complete Part 1 -- Identify all the major arguments that support your POV.
2) Review the WMS dress code and answer the question about it in your group's GoogleDoc.
3) Split up the arguments so that everyone has 2-3 that they are focusing on while reading additional texts. You may choose to overlap a few key arguments that you think would benefit from multiple eyes.
4) Each individual needs to read at least 2 articles from the list below and take notes. Your options for taking notes: 1) on pieces of lined paper or 2) writing down your notes in the GoogleDoc that your group has started (please put your name in front of your notes so that you, I, and other know who is writing what. I just ask that you respect what others have written/are writing and that you only edit your own work and leave others alone.
5) If you finish reading your 2 articles and still have time, you have 2 options: 1) read another article from the list I have created or 2) research specific questions/info that you have identified as important.
You must have already read and taken specific notes on the 2 articles explained above before going off on your own...
For Dress Code
Against Dress Code
Links to articles for both Pro/Con
Goal of today's class. By the end of class have the following accomplished:
1) Complete Part 1 -- Identify all the major arguments that support your POV.
2) Review the WMS dress code and answer the question about it in your group's GoogleDoc.
3) Split up the arguments so that everyone has 2-3 that they are focusing on while reading additional texts. You may choose to overlap a few key arguments that you think would benefit from multiple eyes.
4) Each individual needs to read at least 2 articles from the list below and take notes. Your options for taking notes: 1) on pieces of lined paper or 2) writing down your notes in the GoogleDoc that your group has started (please put your name in front of your notes so that you, I, and other know who is writing what. I just ask that you respect what others have written/are writing and that you only edit your own work and leave others alone.
5) If you finish reading your 2 articles and still have time, you have 2 options: 1) read another article from the list I have created or 2) research specific questions/info that you have identified as important.
You must have already read and taken specific notes on the 2 articles explained above before going off on your own...
For Dress Code
Against Dress Code
Links to articles for both Pro/Con
Friday, October 5, 2012
Period 5
Goal of today's class. By the end of class have the following accomplished:
1) Complete Part 1 -- Identify all the major arguments that support your POV.
2) Review the WMS dress code and answer the question about it in your group's GoogleDoc.
3) Split up the arguments so that everyone has 2-3 that they are focusing on while reading additional texts. You may choose to overlap a few key arguments that you think would benefit from multiple eyes.
4) Each individual needs to read at least 2 articles from the list below and take notes. Your options for taking notes: 1) on pieces of lined paper or 2) writing down your notes in the GoogleDoc that your group has started (please put your name in front of your notes so that you, I, and other know who is writing what. I just ask that you respect what others have written/are writing and that you only edit your own work and leave others alone.
5) If you finish reading your 2 articles and still have time, you have 2 options: 1) read another article from the list I have created or 2) research specific questions/info that you have identified as important.
You must have already read and taken specific notes on the 2 articles explained above before going off on your own...
Per 5 Against school uniforms
Per 5 Pro school uniforms
Links to additional background knowledge/developing a strong POV
1) Complete Part 1 -- Identify all the major arguments that support your POV.
2) Review the WMS dress code and answer the question about it in your group's GoogleDoc.
3) Split up the arguments so that everyone has 2-3 that they are focusing on while reading additional texts. You may choose to overlap a few key arguments that you think would benefit from multiple eyes.
4) Each individual needs to read at least 2 articles from the list below and take notes. Your options for taking notes: 1) on pieces of lined paper or 2) writing down your notes in the GoogleDoc that your group has started (please put your name in front of your notes so that you, I, and other know who is writing what. I just ask that you respect what others have written/are writing and that you only edit your own work and leave others alone.
5) If you finish reading your 2 articles and still have time, you have 2 options: 1) read another article from the list I have created or 2) research specific questions/info that you have identified as important.
You must have already read and taken specific notes on the 2 articles explained above before going off on your own...
Per 5 Against school uniforms
Per 5 Pro school uniforms
Links to additional background knowledge/developing a strong POV
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Let's look at the reaction to Presidential Debate!
Fact Checking the facts:
- http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/10/03/fact-checking-the-debate/1612241/
- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/us/politics/a-closer-look-at-what-the-presidential-candidates-said-in-the-debate.html?hp
- http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/debates/presidential/2012-10-03#fact-checks
Analysis:
Monday, September 10, 2012
Period 2, Let's look at 1 issue: The Economy!
The Economy 101
Background on the issue.
Additional background
Take a look on the ProCon.org site for opinions on the Economy and Taxes.
Select 1-2 questions and try to make sense of what the candidates' positions are.
When you are ready to add to your team's doc, you can start writing:
Background on the issue.
Additional background
Take a look on the ProCon.org site for opinions on the Economy and Taxes.
Select 1-2 questions and try to make sense of what the candidates' positions are.
When you are ready to add to your team's doc, you can start writing:
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Per 5, 1st Project!
Goal: To better understand the 2012 candidates for president. We will be working on creating a major presentation for the display case outside of the WMS Library. Ultimately, you will be creating final pieces to hang up for entire school to learn about the candidates.
Timeframe: 2-3 classes
Today's class we are just going to do some background research on the candidates. Since we are going to eventually publish this and post this up in the school we will need to make sure we cite, give credit, to where we find the information we use. You need to make sure you put everything into your own words!! Don't simply copy and paste. Today is all about reading the background articles and getting informed about your candidate.
Bio information on the candidates: Age, education, background on childhood, previous jobs, family life, highlights of his life, some personal stories that helped shape their lives
Group 1: Create a bio sheet on Barack Obama
Group 3: Create a bio sheet on Paul Ryan
Group 4 Create a bio sheet on Joe Biden
Group 5 Jill Stein - Green Party
Timeframe: 2-3 classes
Today's class we are just going to do some background research on the candidates. Since we are going to eventually publish this and post this up in the school we will need to make sure we cite, give credit, to where we find the information we use. You need to make sure you put everything into your own words!! Don't simply copy and paste. Today is all about reading the background articles and getting informed about your candidate.
Bio information on the candidates: Age, education, background on childhood, previous jobs, family life, highlights of his life, some personal stories that helped shape their lives
Group 1: Create a bio sheet on Barack Obama
- http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama
- http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/9490
- http://www.biography.com/people/mitt-romney-241055
- http://www.mittromney.com/learn/mitt
- http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/21942/mitt-romney
Group 3: Create a bio sheet on Paul Ryan
- http://www.biography.com/people/paul-ryan-20828085
- http://paulryan.house.gov/biography/
- http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/26344/paul-ryan
Group 4 Create a bio sheet on Joe Biden
- http://www.biography.com/people/joe-biden-39995
- http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/vice-president-biden
- http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/53279
Group 5 Jill Stein - Green Party
- http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/35775/jill-stein
- http://www.jillstein.org/bio
- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/us/politics/jill-stein-green-party-candidate-and-the-chances-of-making-a-difference.html?pagewanted=all
- http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/22377/gary-johnson
- http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/about
- http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/12532-the-“other”-candidates-for-president
- http://www.goodeforpresident2012.com/biography.html
- http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/527
- http://2012election.procon.org/view.source.election.php?sourceID=11612
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Period 2: Let's get started!
So excited to get started on this project!
Goal: Create a Candidate Comparison between President Barack Obama and Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for the Wellesley Middle School Current Events Case outside the library!
Democratic National Convention continues tonight...Last night First Lady Michelle Obama spoke. Tonight the big names include Massachusetts Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren and Former President Bill Clinton
The Democratic National Convention is convening for their second day of business today in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can watch gavel-to-gavel coverage online here: http://www.demconvention.com/live/. Do note that this is hosted by the Democratic National Convention Committee so you will not see neutral analysis here. However, you will see what is happening live.
The big non-cable channels, ABC-NBC-CBS will only be showing 1 hour of primetime coverage from 10-11, but most cable news channels and PBS will be showing most speeches with their own analysis thrown into the mix.
The Democratic National Convention is convening for their second day of business today in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can watch gavel-to-gavel coverage online here: http://www.demconvention.com/live/. Do note that this is hosted by the Democratic National Convention Committee so you will not see neutral analysis here. However, you will see what is happening live.
The big non-cable channels, ABC-NBC-CBS will only be showing 1 hour of primetime coverage from 10-11, but most cable news channels and PBS will be showing most speeches with their own analysis thrown into the mix.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Welcome to the class website!
The Democratic National Convention is convening for their first day of business today in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can watch gavel-to-gavel coverage online here: http://www.demconvention.com/live/. Do note that this is hosted by the Democratic National Convention Committee so you will not see neutral analysis here. However, you will see what is happening live.
Big Name Tonight: First Lady Michelle Obama
ABC, NBC, and CBS will cover only 1 hour of coverage a night, from 10pm-11pm on their television channels, although they are streaming more of it on their websites. This will be when the biggest names will speak (Former President Bill Clinton, Vice-President Joe Biden, President Barack Obama, etc)
CNN, FOX, and MSNBC will offer more extensive coverage but will probably tune in and out of speeches depending on the speaker, the time in the night, whether they need to take a commercial break!, and what their analysts want to talk about! The analysis tends to be more biased on these channels, with people who clearly seem to be more/less supportive of a particular candidate.
However you tune in, watch out and see if you can figure out whether the analysts speaking seem to side with one side of the aisle. Note what the speakers are focused on...what are the hot topics? Any topics seem to be a common theme among the speakers?
Thought I'd end with this political cartoon, from the previous 2008 presidential election, but sort of taking on a timeless theme! Thoughts?
http://www.theweekdaily.com/article/index/88367/3/3/Conventions_too_scripted
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