DC Government
August 31 - Sept 4, 2015
Journal Article
At the end of last week and this week your students read a scholarly journal article about the philosophical basis of the Constitution. While a college class typically does not give guided reading questions, the students have probably not been exposed to reading at this difficulty level and I wanted them to have a framework from which to read. The reading was difficult and we are working through the questions this week. I do believe that they are finding it is more interesting than they previously believed.
Political Surveys
The students also took two political quizzes. One quiz shows them which Presidential candidate most closely aligns with their beliefs. The second quiz showed them which party they are most closely aligned with. The students had many questions about the different topics and they learned some new vocabulary. We will be discussing the results in class and what they think of the findings.
Statistical Significance
We also talked about political surveys and how they can be skewed to give the results the candidate might want. We did this through a mini-activity called "Can We Believe This?" This introduced my language for PBLs (Project Based Learning) that we will do this semester.
Project Launch
We will be launching our first project next week - "A Government for Xlandia". Your child will be creating a democracy for a country. My students have always enjoyed this project and I cannot wait to see what they produce.
Tanya Snook
Email: tsnook@westisd.net
Website: thesnooknook.com
Location: West Middle School, West Shook Street, West, TX, United States
Phone: 254-981-2020
Twitter: @tanyapsnook