From Town Hall to Brand New Law (Or Not)

 Are you ready to engage in debate in your classroom? Check out this presentation from the 2016 Georgia Council of the Social Studies Conference.

Active Citizen: Make It So!

This lesson is about how to engage students by modeling a town hall debate using current controversial topics and character roles. Debates can be used to facilitate topic learning in the classroom. Students both debate and plan strategy to bring a successful initiative to the ballot. The conclusion of the debate will require students to reflect and vote via secret ballot as to the best argument presented.

Engagement: Researching Government & the People

As part of the research process, students will evaluate sources and use evidence to craft arguments that reflect democratic principles.  Students will develop questions and plan inquiries for their debate opponents. Students will evaluate public policies in terms of outcomes and consequences to prepare position statements. To craft adequate statements, students will analyze the impact of civic virtues, democratic principles, and rights. The debate will require students to examine historical, contemporary, and emerging views of changing societies, promoting the common good, and protecting rights. At the finish of debates, students will communicate their conclusions and encourage informed action.

Debate Questions:

• What is the historical process or foundation used for/against this topic?
• What rights or responsibilities does this topic address in today’s society or evolution of the American democracy?
• How does this topic engage citizens into a larger understanding of society and/or history?
• How do citizens decide to accept or change their position on this topic?
• How can this topic allow individuals to make choices to amend or change their position?

The Great Debate

•  Each side gets a 2 minute opening statement
• One person speaks for 3 minutes and then is questioned by BOTH people from the opposing side for a total of 4 minutes.  During this time the one person who spoke is “on their own” to defend what they said while being questioned by the two who oppose them.
• Then one person from the other side speaks for 3 minutes and is questioned for 4 minutes.  This continues with the 2nd person from the first team speaking for 3 minutes and then being questioned for 4 minutes and finally the 2nd person from the final team speaking for 3 minutes and being questioned for 4 minutes.
• After each side gives their closing statement a vote is taken from the class.
• Vote via secret ballot on which side presented the best argument & answered the arguments of the opposing side.

Engagement Examples: Government and the People

• Twitter Town Hall @ THE WHITE HOUSE  Petition the White House
• Big Block of Cheese Day

A photo posted by Histocrats (@histocrats) on Jan 7, 2016 at 11:09am PST

Resources for Current Information

• The Leading Source For Pros & Cons Of Controversial Issues   
• Pew Research Center: Fact Tank, News in Numbers   
• Federal Reserve Economic Data   
• You Are Why We're Here    
• United States Census Bureau    

Electronic Debate in Class -Media Options for the Classroom

• Google Classroom (comments enabled)   
• Padlet
  Edmodo (comments enabled)    
• TodaysMeet
• Poll Everywhere    

Citizenship and Beyond: Using Historical Case Studies

Teaching citizenship can be a real challenge. We value the ideals of citizenship and want it to be practiced. However evoking the application of such ideals is hard to accomplish.   How do teach it? Has it become a list of rights and responsibilities or is it something more? Do you model it?  How do you monitor student understanding of citizenship?

One way to address the issue is to use the theme of citizenship in the classroom. Themes can be important tools for defining a path of study. The use of themes helps to draw attention to a broader interpretation and understanding of history.  Using citizenship as a theme sets the stage for a study of both action and perspective by individuals as citizens in history. Events become more than dates as students use themes and case studies as a basis for analysis. A case study is an in-depth investigation of a single person over a period of time. By choosing biographical sketches as case studies for citizenship students can use the actions of citizens to developing an understanding of citizenship and the impact of citizens on society. Students will be able to observe how the understanding of citizen has evolved over time. It will also give students an opportunity to extrapolate about how they can use similar actions as citizens in their own lives.

To support the use of historical case studies to study citizenship, we developed a student strategy.  The strategy focuses on answering several questions. Our questions include:

• What can we learn from the past?

• How can people change their community? 

• How can individuals be agents of change?

The goal was to encourage students to use the lives of historical figures and these questions to better understand how citizens exercise their rights to impact their community. What kind of path did they PAVE? Did they create change? Did they ensure continuity? Students used the questions below to consider the lives and impact of citizenship in the past.

 

To support this strategy, we organized case studies around a few historical figures. We organized materials spotlighting the lives of George Washington, A. Philip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and William Cody.

We used two methods for incorporating case studies into the history classroom. One is to embed the case study in the unit of study. Students can study the actions of the individual as they study the period. Students can track the figure or follow them just as they might follow a celebrity via social media today. This provides students an opportunity to use the words and actions of the individual to illustrate the developments of the time period. The lives of these individuals become the examples of citizenship in action and the teacher directs how they are analyzed. The other option is to investigate the life of the individual as a small project as some point during the unit or year. Students they dedicate sustained time to the study of the person having previously acquired background knowledge. Each study can provide opportunity for extrapolating modern behavior equivalents to adopt.

We have successfully used this approach with both high school and elementary school students. It has been a great way to have student think about citizenship in greater depth and apply the attributes of citizenship. It is a challenge for students but the guiding questions supported reflection when they needed to revise the projects.  We encourage you to check out the site. The case studies and teacher support materials are on the site. Let us know how it works for you.