If my last post was a book, here is it's sequel. Seriously, I spend way too much time on this unit. But, it's totally worth it. Totally.
Overnight, the kids read an article from The Atlantic about fixing campaign finance. While they are waiting on class to start, the continue on with this article from theDaily Beast, forecasting the projected impact of PACs on election 2016. I really like the SuperPAC scorecard, compiled from information collected by the Center for Responsive Politics. This is what we center on, analyzing the big donors and the effectiveness of their donations. It is interesting to note two things: Dems tend to donate less to candidates, and more to issues (according to the readings)... AND PACs are finding it difficult to catch eyeballs as millennials and other generations are gravitating away from traditional television viewing. I assume they will follow the eyeballs, which leads to more personalized advertising, no? I find that the next step is to explain what all the various vehicles in campaign finance are, and why we have so damn many. I hand out color copies of this graphic, taken from the Sunlight Foundation, to start our conversation.
2 Comments
This entry is going to be a book. Hold on to your hats, folks. I have a lot to say. Citizens United is quite possibly the one issue that really makes my blood boil as a teacher about democracy (or republican democracy, to be precise), governance, and leadership. So, I slow down here and... take. my. time. Period. To get the kids ready, I have them do a **BEAST** of a webquest (up for sale on my store soon, with answers.) Some of the things I like the best are the following: So, it's no secret among my students that I really dislike math. But, I do really like JellyBellys, and if I can find away to marry the two, maybe this talk on polls won't be all that bad. To start our time in the land of Poles, I mean polls, I have the kids do some background work. I ask the kids to check out the Roper Center for background on polling. There are two sections that cover polling called (coincedentally) Polling 101 and Polling 201. The students stroll through the overview, and then answer the following questions preceding our class discussion. 1. After reading the page on sampling, take a minute to consider the different types of sample sets. Does a randomly sampled poll have more legitimacy than a straw poll? In order to answer this question, read the following blog post about the Iowa (Ames) straw poll. 2. What does the margin of error tell us about a poll? 3. Give me an example of a question that is NOT GOOD. Why is it not good? Then, the magic begins. The students walk through the door and are greeted by 12 sweet little jelly bellys sitting on their desks. They are given ten minutes to sort them into piles by prevailing color, and then enter their information into a GoogleDocs form. |
Jen's bookshelf: nerdcation
I want to start by thanking Mr. Snowden and Mr. Greenwald for their uncompromising dedication to giving the NSA violations air time and transparency.
I wanted to share some of the most important things I have learned from this book bef...
tagged:
nerdcation
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
AuthorI lovgov. LOVE IT! I love teaching government, learning about it, debating, discussing, asking questions about government. And not the standard boiler plate questions, but the hard ones that are NOT in the books. Archives
August 2018
Categories
All
|