Government and Civics Class: Portfolio and Announcements

Work that should be in your portfolio:

1. Start a KWL chart on President Obama, democratic nominee for President. After you do assignment 2, 3, and 4, complete this chart. 
2. Watch the Obama full 2012 DNC Speech and take detailed, organized notes.
3. Watch the Clinton DNC speech and take detailed, organized notes; Make sure you follow rubric for notetaking that I gave you
4. Do research on who Barack Obama is and fill out a Candidate Research Team Handout for Obama. You can visit his website www.barackobama.com to learn about him and complete chart.
5. Start a KWL chart on Mitt Romney, Republican nominee for President. Complete it after you do assignment 6 and 7. 
6. Watch the Mitt Romney full 2012 RNC Speech and take detailed, organized notes. Make sure you follow rubric for note-taking that I gave you.
7. Do research on who Romeny by visiting www.mittromney.com/ and complete filling out the Candidate Research Team Handout for Romney. 
8. Use your sample notes ditto I gave you, the notetaking rubric I gave you, and your notes on the Obama and Clinton DNC speeches to write a reflection entitled "Current Beliefs and Practices--Note Taking".  Write your reflection (paragraph form).
   Title: Reflection on my Current Beliefs and Practices--Note Taking
   Your reflection should answer the following questions:
   1. What is my purpose of taking notes in class? Be honest!!!!
   2. What is my personal style of note-taking?
   3. What do I do with my notes after I take them?
   4. How can one of the styles of note-taking Mrs. Home presented to me help me improve my notes?
   5. Compare your notes on Obama and Clinton. Explain how they are different. Did they improve or not? Why or why not?
9. With your group, design a graphic organizer that presents the categories of the content of Bill Clinton 2012 DNC Speech. Below is link to the transcript of the full speech so you read it, instead of listening to it; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/us/politics/transcript-of-bill-clintons-speech-to-the-democratic-national-convention.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www. After you present your chart as a group, take notes of how you can make it better when Mrs. Home gives you constructive criticism. Each group should hand in a copy of the blank chart to Mrs. Home. Each individual member however should take make a copy of the chart with the suggestions Mrs. Home gave you and fill it in with information from Bill Clinton DNC speech. This will count as an individual assignment. 
10. Familiarize yourself with the CNN Analysis of Obama DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Obama hit the marks he needed and  the CNN Analysis of Clinton DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Clinton speech hits Obama's marks by reading them, circling words you don't know and words you think are key, highlighting or underlining main ideas, as well as and making comments on the margins as you read about what you are reading. To do this you must read it a couple of times follow the reading strategies I gave above. The key to using your reading time effectively is to be an active reader. Your readings should show evidence of your active reading strategies. I should see underlined sentences, circled words, comments in the margins of your articles. 
11. Fill out a chart "Understanding the words you read" for each CNN article you read; one for  Analysis: Obama hit the marks he needed and  the CNN Analysis of Clinton DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Clinton speech hits Obama's marks. 
12. Read article on "How to Study and Critique a Speech" and pay attention to the subtitles (categories). Then using the subtitles as your guide to create a checklist of all the categories and subcategories that should be included in the analysis of a speech analysis. To separate categories from subcategories just indent. Note: the title of your check list will be " Checklist: Speech Analysis:". You can make your checklist by hand or you can use MS Word: Guide tomake checklist using MS Word. You should make two copies of your check list.  Here is an example of a checklist: 

13. Use one copy of your check list you created to check off the aspects of a speech analysis are included in the CNN Analysis of Clinton DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Clinton speech hits Obama's marks . Then use the other copy your check list to do the same for CNN Analysis of Obama DNC 2012 Speech: Analysis: Obama hit the marks he needed. Note:  Since they are very short analysis, they will not have all of the aspects your check list has. Only check off the aspects that the articles have. You can use this check list to analyze one of the speeches of the presidential candiates.
14. Watch video of PBL and fill out table: http://profehome.blogspot.com/2012/09/aim-how-is-project-based-learning.html
15. Read and define keywords in Entry Document: Work for Obama/Romeny Campaigns:
16. As a group create a list of Knows and need to knows using the entry document. Everyone in group should have a copy. 
17. In class, we created a problem statement and a driving question for our Work for Obama/Romney Campaign project. You should rewrite them and put them in your portfolio.
18. Watch the first presidential debate of the 2012 Presidential Campaign on the channel of your choice. Univision will televise it live a  partir de las 8:30PM. Fill out the following chart as proof that you watched the debate. Take any additional notes using your checklist for a speech that you may want. Be prepared to discuss and write a reflection on you observed. 
19. Head a blank piece of paper with title:  CNN ANALYSIS FIRST 2012 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE. Create a T chart:

T-Chart

One column titled Obama, the other Romney. Watch the CNN analysis of the first 2012 presidential debate: 5 things we learned from the presidential debate. While you watch it, take detailed notes in your T-Chart on what is said about the performance of each candidate. Head a blank piece of paper with title: ANALYSIS FIRST 2012 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE. 
19.  Watch or read a political analysis of last night’s presidential debate the write a reflection. The reflection should answer the following question: Was the presidential debate a game changer? Support your claim in your reflec. (Note: a gamechanger is something that changes the course of things. So if Obama was leading before debate, is that still the case or have things changed. If yes or no, explain.) Make sure you identify the title of the analysis you watched or read. Identify the source of the analysis (CNN.com, CNN en espanol, Noticiero Univision, etc.) and the type of source (news article, news show, etc.) 
20. Notes on Thrid Presidential Debate. Watch third presidential debate, write the questions asked to the candidates and summarize their response to each question.
21. Research Democratic National Platfrom: Each group needs to research  the Democratic National Platform and find out what the ideas/goals are the democrats in regards to the following important issues listed in document I shared with you: Democratic National Platform. Divide these issues amongst group members. Research these issues using the  official 2012 Democratic National Platform . Each group should be able to explain what the Democratic Party thinks in regard to each issue, what it has done under Obama presidency, and what it plans to do. The group should record their findings in a google spreadsheet. Each group can design and create their own online document/spreadsheet/presentation that records your groups findings or the group liaison can:1.  Make a copy the following document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ah50854O6eeBdG1xeWY1c254UkxTUTBMVlA0MFEwMkE#gid=0  2. Rename document: GroupName_Pd#_DemocraticNational Platform  3. Share document with group members so each member  can use it to record your findings in this document. 4. Share document with me please!

22. October surprises: Instruction: Watch the video clip of the Rachel Maddow Show entitled: “Election takes unpredictable turn with natural disaster”: Take notes on the following document: Lesson_October Surprises.

23. Battleground State Victories. On Tuesday, Nov. 6th. starting at 6pm, watch the presidential elections on the channel of your choice starting at 7pm. Record which candidate won in the battle ground (or swing) states. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

9/24: Today you should of turned in your Cliton chart filled in. Tomorrow you should have assignment 10 and 11. 

9/25: Today I gave you folders to put all your work in. If you didn’t take it home with you, make sure you bring all your assignments to class, in order (1-14) with titles on Thurs. You will not get time to organize your work in class. Do that at home. You will get 4 min to get your folder and place your in your folder and turn it in. If not in order I will not check it. 

9/26: Today you were supposed to put all your work in your folder and hand it in at end of class. Remember that you each assignment counts individually and counts as 10% of your grade. Then, your portfolio counts as 40%; to get the full 40 points of your portfolio you should have all your work in it (including all homework, even if you didn't get credit for it as an individual assignment) and it should be your best quality.  You always should be improving the quality of your work. Make sure you all always working to make your portfolio the best it can be. For homework, you are to work on your portfolio.

9/27: Watch the videos on PBL  (Project Based Learning) and fill out graphic organizer. 

9/30: Today we analyzed the entry document for our project. For homework you are to define key words and come up with a list of knows and need to knows.

10/1: Today you were to work in groups to come up with a list of knows and need to knows as a group. Your homework is to finish that list (call each other) and to find resources that will help you achieve the things you need to know.

10/3. Today we created a problem statement and a driving question for our Work for Obama/Romney Campaign project. You should rewrite them and put them in your portfolio. Also you should review the Knows/Needs to Know list you made and compare to mine (see link in item 15). For homework you have to watch the first 2012 presidential debate, tonight at 9PM and take notes using this chart. 

10/4. Today we reviewed the collaboration rubric that will used to evaluate your performance in your group. We also signed our group contracts. We watched the CNN analysis of the debate: 5 things we learned from the presidential debate and took notes in a T chart. Since you decided to put things away at end class, I collected it as I quiz. I will start doing that with HW as well if people don't start doing their work.

10/10. You received article "Politics and American Democracy". You need to show evidence that you read this article with notes, highlighs and comments in every page. Also you and your group members should divide up the key terms and make word map for each one on google docs. 

Future Work to attain goal

1. Read transcript of Mitt Romney full 2012 RNC Speech and update your detailed notes on this speech. Then use your checklist of a speech analysis to make an outline for writing your own analysis this speech.
2. Write your own analysis of Mitt Romney full 2012 RNC Speech

EXTRA CREDIT

View any of the speeches  presented at the RNC in support of Romney and take detailed, organized notes from that speech