A bellringer for teaching about campaigns, elections and the media

Posted on October 22, 2015 by stevemasy

It’s always exciting when we can share ideas for teaching about important stuff, and today’s suggestion was inspired by Cherie Arnette, the social studies supervisor for Escambia County (check out their civics review site!). She emailed us asking if we could come up with a bellringer activity to help teacher Florida Civics benchmarks SS.7.C.2.9, 2.10, or 2.11. For those unfamiliar with these benchmarks, 2.9 asks students ti evaluate a candidate for political office. 2.10 asks students to examine the impact of media, individuals, and interests on monitoring and influencing government. 2.11 has students analyzing media and political communications. You can get a good overview of each benchmark and their associated clarifications by visiting the Test Item Specifications book.
Cherie also asked us to start with this wonderfully evocative ‘Draft Biden’ ad below that aired during the Democratic debate (obviously before his announcement that he wouldn’t run).

For me, tears for sure. In any case, our own Valerie McVey suggested that the following might be perfect benchmark-aligned bellringer options for this ad. Note that ‘BC’ refers to ‘Benchmark Clarifications’. Review the test item specifications to explore those more.

C.2.9: Evaluate candidates for political office by analyzing their qualifications, experience, issue-based platforms, debates, and political ads.
BC 3 – Students will be able to analyze and/or evaluate the qualifications of candidates for public office based on their experience, platforms, debates, and political advertisements.

– What does this advertisement tell you about Joe Biden’s experience? Personal and professional? What evidence from the video helped you determine your answer?
– What does “Run, Joe” at the end of the advertisement mean?
– Is he a candidate for president?

C.2.10: Examine the impact of media, individuals, and interest groups on monitoring and influencing government.
BC 1 – Students will identify the methods used by the media to monitor and/or influence the government.

– The Draft Biden SuperPAC created this advertisement. (You might include a point about the difference between PACs and SuperPACs, but encourage teachers not to get caught up in this and forget the other questions. :)
– What is a political action committee? (content focus term)
– What is Draft Biden’s goal in creating this advertisement? How do you know?

C.2.11: Analyze media and political communications (bias, symbolism, propaganda).
BC 1 – Students will use scenarios to identify bias, symbolism, and propaganda.

– Remind students of the definition of bias.
– What is the bias of this advertisement? What evidence from the video helped you determine your answer?

BC 2 – Students will evaluate how bias, symbolism, and propaganda can impact public opinion.

– Remind students of the definition of public opinion.
– How might this advertisement impact or influence the public opinion of Joe Biden? What evidence from the video helped you determine your answer?

My own suggestion was to compare this ad to the language and elements of ‘The Man from Abilene’ (1952 Eisenhower) or ‘The Man from Libertyville’ (1956 Stevenson), which take a completely different tone concerning the qualifications of a presidential candidate and what matters. Both of those ads are available on the fantastic ‘Living Room Candidate’ website!

We are always looking for new ideas and ways to approach content. If you have anything, please share!

A bellringer for teaching about campaigns, elections and the media

Posted on October 22, 2015 by stevemasy

C.2.11: Analyze media and political communications (bias, symbolism, propaganda).
BC 1 – Students will use scenarios to identify bias, symbolism, and propaganda.

– Remind students of the definition of bias.
– What is the bias of this advertisement? What evidence from the video helped you determine your answer?

BC 2 – Students will evaluate how bias, symbolism, and propaganda can impact public opinion.

We are always looking for new ideas and ways to approach content. If you have anything, please share!

Restoring Opportunity: The Role of Education

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Public Agenda Newsfeed

The Odd Policy of Even

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Sarah Shugars

After much debate, the City of Somerville announced a change in policy earlier this week: snow emergency parking will now alternate sides of the street.

For those of you who don’t live in snow-laden cities, there is a general principal of winter snow removal that it is particularly hard to do when there are parked cars in the way. For that reason, municipalities typically restrict parking during winter storms.

Different communities have different strategies, but in Somerville, it has always been the rule that during a snow emergency you can only park on the odd side of the street.

The result of this, from an even-side resident’s perspective, is that snow plows favor the even side of the street and push more snow onto even-side sidewalks.

In a normal year, this is annoying. When you get a record breaking 110.6 inches of snow, it is a problem.

The real problem, you see, with snow plows, is that they have a remarkable ability to destroy hours worth of labor in mere minutes. I myself live on a corner – so I’m on the even side of one street and the odd side of another.

On the even side it is a constant battle – you go out and shovel, the plow snows you back in. You go out and shovel, the plow snows you back in. While the struggle itself might be enough to fill a man’s heart, it’s also incredibly frustrating.

And, it makes me feel like I should leave a note for passing pedestrians: sorry, I’m trying to do my civic duty, but the snow plow keeps ruining it. Apologies in advance if you come through at an un-shoveled time.

Last year, there was great tumult around the odd-only snow policy. Every time the City of Somerville posted an announcement about a new winter storm, there was a flurry of Facebook comments: Why can’t we alternate the ban?

This is, I believe, a fairly common practice among municipalities. If the winter starts in an odd year, snow parking is odd only. If the winter starts in an even year, snow parking is even only.

This is, arguably, more fair. A point that was raised many times by many citizens over many years, but perhaps most vociferously last year.

So it was exciting too see Mayor Joe Curtatone announce:

After careful review, and with significant community feedback, we have determined that the best and most logical next step in our ongoing efforts to provide excellent snow removal operations in Somerville is to alleviate some of the traditional hardships for residents living on the even side of the street where snow and ice buildup from plowing operations.

Nice work, City of Somerville.

Education as a New Frontier of Democracy

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Harry Boyte

Organizing is transformational. It takes time. It involves investing in people's growth, connections with others, intellectual capacities, ability to act effectively in public -- their civic agency. At the heart of organizing is building productive relationships.

Education as a New Frontier of Democracy

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Harry Boyte

Education as a New Frontier of Democracy

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Harry Boyte

I've had the pleasure of beginning a biweekly dialogue ("Bridging Differences") at Education Week on democracy and education with Deborah Meier. Deb is a mentor and old friend, and one of the great educators of our time. She founded the famed Central Park East Schools in East Harlem (subject of several films including "Music from the Heart" with Meryl Streep), as well as the Mission Hill School in Boston. These helped to launch the national movement for small schools.

Meier argues that relationships which support student growth and agency -- not information delivery or testing -- need to be at the center of democratic education. Young people need space to experiment and try things out, make mistakes, and learn through experience. And this requires adults -- teachers and staff and parents -- who encourage and support such learning based on agency. Students' most important learning is "habits," like learning to think "what is the evidence?", "why does this matter?" and "what would someone with another perspective say?", not acquisition of knowledge.

Her arguments remind me of what is called "relational organizing." This idea comes originally from the civil rights movement. Ella Baker and Bob Moses, among others, distinguished between "mobilizing" and "organizing." The distinction has been developed in broad-based community organizing and spread to environmental groups and elsewhere.

Mobilizing is transactional, focused on outcomes like getting large numbers of people to vote, sign a petition, contact a legislator, go to a demonstration, etc. It bears resemblance to education which "teaches to the test."

Organizing is transformational. It takes time. It involves investing in people's growth, connections with others, intellectual capacities, ability to act effectively in public -- their civic agency. At the heart of organizing is building productive relationships.

Hahrie Han's book, How Organizations Develop Activists, compares "low-engagement" local chapters of two national organizations (a health group and an environmental group) with "high engagement" local chapters. Low-engagement chapters mobilize. High engagement chapters do some mobilizing, but they emphasize organizing, relationship-building and developing members' capacities. They are also far more effective in building power, sustaining members' engagement, and achieving results over the long term.

A distinction from the organizing world, between "public" and "private" relationships, is also extremely helpful in developing agency. Public relationships are those in schools, colleges, or workplaces. Private relationships are in families and among close friends. It's always a matter of more or less not either-or. But recognizing that in public settings the goals shouldn't be intimacy, being liked, and loyalty, but rather mutual accountability, respect, and getting things done makes a large difference.

In our own work, growing from the Center for Democracy and Citizenship for many years at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (now merged with Sabo Center at Augsburg), we have found it possible to integrate organizing skills and concepts into educational settings.

Dennis Donovan, national organizer for the youth empowerment initiative Public Achievement, has worked with faculty and students in translating organizing skills like public narratives and one on one relational meetings into school cultures, as well as the departments of nursing and education.

The one on one meeting, for instance, involves learning the "citizen professional" practice of meeting with another person to discover their self-interests -- passions and motivations. It is key to building public relationships.

Through such work, young people learn to think about their own life stories, or "public narratives," as well as others' motivations. It's worth noting that they often express huge relief when they learn to build "public" relationships since the cultural messages they've received collapse any distinction between public and private.

Alyssa Blood, who has studied special education students in Fridley Middle School (described in this Youtube video) who do Public Achievement, found that development of what she calls their "public persona" -- learning that acting "in public" shouldn't be the same as behavior "in private" among their buddies -- is transformational. It greatly increases their confidence and agency.

Other corners of Augsburg College are picking up civic skills and concepts like citizen professional. In the elected faculty senate last year at Augsburg, Bill Green, Michael Lansing, and Bob Cowgill decided to do one on one relational meetings with the other senators. "It made a huge difference to hear people's interests, their views of what the senate should be, and their thoughts on making the senate work better," said Michael Lansing, chair of the history department. "The senate became much more productive and strategic. It is meeting regularly with the administration now, helping to set the agenda of the college."

The dialogue with Meier combines with our experiences with schools and Augsburg. Such relational experiences in education hold potential to shift how people see and experience such settings from abstractions like "institutions," to living democratic communities.

They also reinforce my conviction that educational settings are a new frontier of democracy.

Register for Oct. 28th Confab on Nevins Democracy Leaders Program

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Sandy Heierbacher

NCDD member organizations, be sure to join us next Wednesday, October 28th from 2-3pm Eastern/11am-12pm Pacific for a special NCDD Confab Call that can help your organization build capacity and contribute to the field!

This call will feature a discussion with long-time NCDD member Dr. John Gastil, who will be sharing about the amazing opportunity for organizations in the D&D field to host a bright Penn State fellow next summer through the McCourtney Institute‘s Nevins Democracy Leaders Program! Stipends and living expenses are provided to the students through the program.

This is a rare opportunity for our field, and the Confab will be one of the best ways to find out more about how your organization can benefit, so make sure to register today to secure your spot on the call!

The Nevins Democracy Leaders Program – recently founded after a gift from NCDD Sustaining Member David Nevins – provides education and training in transpartisan leadership skills by exposing participants to a variety of viewpoints and philosophies and teaches the tools of dialogue and deliberation as well as critical thinking. But perhaps most uniquely, the Nevins Program works to grow the next generation of democracy leaders by placing students in unique fellowship position in organizations focused on D&D, transpartisan dialogue, and civic renewal – that means organizations like yours!

NCDD is partnering with the McCourtney Institute to help identify FABULOUS organizations that can host Nevins fellows (among other roles we’ll be playing).

On this Confab, John Gastil will provide an overview of the Nevins program and its aims, discuss the training that the future fellows are going through, and share more about how your organization can take advantage of this great chance to help cultivate the next generation of D&D leaders while getting more support for your work – all for FREE! You really don’t want to miss this call!

Our confabs (interactive conference calls) are free and open to all NCDD members and potential members. Register today if you’d like to join us!

Joint Center for Citizenship Webinar Interest Survey!

Posted on October 21, 2015 by stevemasy

Friends, we need your help so that we may in turn provide YOU with what you desire. One of the goals here at the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship is to provide teachers and the community with the professional development and resources they desire. In pursuit of this goal, we would like to begin a new and ongoing webinar series around topics of interest to the social studies and civics educator. In order to determine what sorts of webinars we will offer, we have created a quick survey that asks you to rank order topics and select days and times that work for you. Each webinar will range from 30 to 90 minutes, and all webinars will be permanently archived and available following the session. If none of the potential topics listed in the survey interest or are needed by you, PLEASE tell us what you would like!

You can help us out by completing the survey here!