Module 10

WEEK TEN

 

It’s Election Day eve… by this time tomorrow we might already have some trends developing and people across the country will already be breathing sighs of relief, or staring at their news outlets in dismay, depending on how their candidate or their issue is doing in the early returns. Since it is political parties that drive much of the election-related activity we’ve been exposed to over the past several months, it seems like an appropriate week to read Chapter 7 on the topic of Political Parties. Beyond just watching the presidential race, also keep your eye on a couple of propositions that were on the ballot in your area, such as classification of app-based drivers or voting rights for felons. Did the propositions win? Were they supported heavily by a political party? Why? Write a paragraph in your blog on political parties.

 

 

It’s also time to start thinking about your Term Project. 

 

0) As a preliminary step, please identify 5 topic areas you have learned (or will learn) about American government this semester which you think other people might find interesting, or perhaps which you think they should know more about even if they don’t find it interesting. Post these to your blog this week as part of your Module 10 blog post.

 

1) Prepare a 1-2 page summary of key “talking points” for each of your 5 topic areas… these talking point summaries should be designed to use as resources you could refer to while having a conversation with someone about the topic area. Please send me your first one before doing all 5 so that I can give you feedback on it before you do the rest.

 

2) For each of your 5 topic areas, find opportunities to share what you’ve learned with at least two other people. You can share with friends, family, anyone. You can share with both other people at the same time or separately… that’s up to you. These sharings can be in person, they can be by phone, chat, email, whatever format works best. Just find opportunities to share what you’ve learned, using your talking points as a reference, with other people.

 

3) During or after each sharing, write some notes about how it went. Who was the person? What format did you use (in person, chat, etc.)? How did the person respond? Was he or she interested? Did they ask questions? Were you able to help them better understand an aspect of American government that they were already curious about? 

 

4) Put it all together. By the end of the semester, you’ll prepare a Term Project comprising: an Introduction, your Talking Point Summaries, a Narrative Description of all 10 conversations, and some Concluding Remarks of your own.

 

For this week, Module 10, you only need to brainstorm what 5 topic areas you want to focus on. If you’d like, you can think of 6 or 7 and I’ll help you hone them down to 5. Once I’ve reviewed your proposed topics, you’ll be ready to start developing your talking points.