Saturday, November 3, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
2nd Quarter Project
Government Passion Project
What is it that you are passionate about in government? For some of you, it is almost everything. Criticizing your own government comes naturally, expressing your opinion is second nature, and you cannot wait to vote. For others, you would readily give your life for your own country! For others still, you are passionate about Darfur or other civil rights issues. And there are still some who might simply be passionate about having the freedom to run your own business without undue interference from the government. Any issue that relates to the government may be addressed. Please get your topic and your form of presenting it to me and/or the class pre-approved in writing from me.
You can even present your findings according to your passion. You can create something-a short story, a play, a poem, a song/rap, give an oral presentation, or write out your findings in report form.
God has given you gifts that you can use to pursue the passions he has put inside of you and hopefully make a difference for God’s glory. You may not be a politician someday, but many of the people who have made the biggest difference in this world have not been politicians by profession. They have been ministers, doctors, missionaries, journalists, lawyers (yes, lawyers can do some good) even teachers that are have been used by God to bring about tremendous positive change. Pursuing your passion is often tantamount to pursuing the dreams God has for you so take some time to think about the project that you would like to pursue.
I am not going to give you a specific length requirement. You must decide whether you have covered the topic thoroughly. If you have not, you have simply cheated yourself (and others who could benefit) of an important step in pursuing the passion that God has given you. If you decide to write a paper, it should be about five to seven pages long. So, if you chose to present in another way besides a paper, the work involved in your project should represent a roughly equal amount of work that would be required of a high quality, five to seven page report.
I will try to get a rubric out to you soon. If in the form of a written report, the paper should be submitted on December 4th. If you want to present something to the class, you should be prepared to do a 10 minute (maximum) presentation sometime during the previous week (the 26th-30th). I may need to limit the number of presentations for the sake of class time.
What is it that you are passionate about in government? For some of you, it is almost everything. Criticizing your own government comes naturally, expressing your opinion is second nature, and you cannot wait to vote. For others, you would readily give your life for your own country! For others still, you are passionate about Darfur or other civil rights issues. And there are still some who might simply be passionate about having the freedom to run your own business without undue interference from the government. Any issue that relates to the government may be addressed. Please get your topic and your form of presenting it to me and/or the class pre-approved in writing from me.
You can even present your findings according to your passion. You can create something-a short story, a play, a poem, a song/rap, give an oral presentation, or write out your findings in report form.
God has given you gifts that you can use to pursue the passions he has put inside of you and hopefully make a difference for God’s glory. You may not be a politician someday, but many of the people who have made the biggest difference in this world have not been politicians by profession. They have been ministers, doctors, missionaries, journalists, lawyers (yes, lawyers can do some good) even teachers that are have been used by God to bring about tremendous positive change. Pursuing your passion is often tantamount to pursuing the dreams God has for you so take some time to think about the project that you would like to pursue.
I am not going to give you a specific length requirement. You must decide whether you have covered the topic thoroughly. If you have not, you have simply cheated yourself (and others who could benefit) of an important step in pursuing the passion that God has given you. If you decide to write a paper, it should be about five to seven pages long. So, if you chose to present in another way besides a paper, the work involved in your project should represent a roughly equal amount of work that would be required of a high quality, five to seven page report.
I will try to get a rubric out to you soon. If in the form of a written report, the paper should be submitted on December 4th. If you want to present something to the class, you should be prepared to do a 10 minute (maximum) presentation sometime during the previous week (the 26th-30th). I may need to limit the number of presentations for the sake of class time.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Week 12, Syllabus
Mr. Ditzenberger, American Government
Time: 5 Periods, 3:30 hours
Unit 2, Civics
Week: 12 Dates: October 29-November 2
Objectives:
1. Students will analyze their personal political identity in terms of the left/right and authoritarian/libertarian axis.
2. Students will summarize and evaluate a current event relating to influencing the government.
3. Students will categorize the different interest groups and rank the ways in which they influence government.
4. Students will analyze the results of their survey.
5. Students will analyze the role of the media in the United States and learn the strengths and weaknesses of media sources.
6. Students will recite the general order in which the president of the U.S. is elected to office.
Materials: Textbook, http://ditzenberger.blogspot.com/index.html; textbook, lectures, game materials.
Monday
Discuss results of political surveys (individual results from last week). Work on Surveys.
Report on citizenship findings from passport countries.
Watch citizen videos from Denver Post.
Current Event-find an article relating to influencing politics-protest, vote, letter writing campaign, interest group, a lobbyist, etc. Due Wednesday.
Tuesday.
1. Opener: Plessy vs. Ferguson
2. Citizenship Test
3. Interest Groups
Wednesday
1. Opener: Should a person’s religious views influence their political views? Also, to what degree should Christians try to influence public policy?
2. Turn in homework-current event.
3. Analyze results of survey
4. Prepare for activity tomorrow. Bring in three articles, one from a local newspaper (Denver Post or Houston Chronicle, and a national paper (NYT, Wall Street Journal, USA today), do the same for Fox News and CNN, and the same for a magaizine, Time/Insight Magazine www.insightmag.com , Economist, or National Review. Analysis will be done in class.
5. Handout test review sheet.
Thursday
1. Analyze media sources.
Friday-
1. Discussion of election process (primary, general elections, local elections, referendum, etc.) and electoral college process.
Time: 5 Periods, 3:30 hours
Unit 2, Civics
Week: 12 Dates: October 29-November 2
Objectives:
1. Students will analyze their personal political identity in terms of the left/right and authoritarian/libertarian axis.
2. Students will summarize and evaluate a current event relating to influencing the government.
3. Students will categorize the different interest groups and rank the ways in which they influence government.
4. Students will analyze the results of their survey.
5. Students will analyze the role of the media in the United States and learn the strengths and weaknesses of media sources.
6. Students will recite the general order in which the president of the U.S. is elected to office.
Materials: Textbook, http://ditzenberger.blogspot.com/index.html; textbook, lectures, game materials.
Monday
Discuss results of political surveys (individual results from last week). Work on Surveys.
Report on citizenship findings from passport countries.
Watch citizen videos from Denver Post.
Current Event-find an article relating to influencing politics-protest, vote, letter writing campaign, interest group, a lobbyist, etc. Due Wednesday.
Tuesday.
1. Opener: Plessy vs. Ferguson
2. Citizenship Test
3. Interest Groups
Wednesday
1. Opener: Should a person’s religious views influence their political views? Also, to what degree should Christians try to influence public policy?
2. Turn in homework-current event.
3. Analyze results of survey
4. Prepare for activity tomorrow. Bring in three articles, one from a local newspaper (Denver Post or Houston Chronicle, and a national paper (NYT, Wall Street Journal, USA today), do the same for Fox News and CNN, and the same for a magaizine, Time/Insight Magazine www.insightmag.com , Economist, or National Review. Analysis will be done in class.
5. Handout test review sheet.
Thursday
1. Analyze media sources.
Friday-
1. Discussion of election process (primary, general elections, local elections, referendum, etc.) and electoral college process.
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