Learning target:
· We have a greater understanding of the relationship between power and political action
· We understand the power dynamics that facilitated the American revolution
· We appreciation for the role of written words to creating change
Welcome back everyone! We’re going to be moving this week into a parallel study of the American Revolutionary period and our own group project issues. We’ll be bouncing back and forth between the two, and my hope is this will deepen our knowledge about both. You’ll be recording reflections both on your DP and your DS Journal as we go.
Most of today is about the basic currency of politics: power.
What is power? This is your entrance ticket. Post a definition on your DP. Label it: “Preliminary Definition of Power.”
Before we move on, I’m going to flash this explanation of how assessment and grading of your College Essay assignment will work. As we review this, I’ll collect hard copies of your essays and answer your questions.
You’ll be working in your issue groups today. In those groups, I’m going to give you this power problem to solve. Political scientists and philosophers have identified four types or “four faces” of power. Can you identify them within this simple problem. This is hard and not obvious. But we’ll give it a try to warm you up. We’ll then do some experiments involving chocolate to demonstrate.
After this, you’ll work in your groups to do a power analysis of your issue. Look this sample of a power map. And this one. And this one. Your job as a group is to illustrate the power dynamics operating around your issue. You can come up with your own diagram or use one of the samples as a model.
Once you’re done. We’ll post these for a gallery walk and you’ll go on break. To get to break, you have to post on your DP a refined definition of power along with any thoughts or reflections from the exercise.
After break, we’ll do a gallery walk and folks will add ideas to the power maps. The ability to effect change and leverage power will be one of the criteria for us in choosing the one issue to focus on for our group project. This will roll us into a discussion of other criteria you want to base our decision on. I have some ideas as well. We’ll build this list together and post it under Student Resources.
We’ll then apply our new understanding of power to the American Revolution. I’ll pass out this timeline of events leading to the American Revolution. What types of power were involved in the relationship between the British government and the American colonies?
The group will then divide in half for the homework. Half of you will receive The Declaration of Independence to read. Half will receive excerpts from the revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Everyone will get reading questions. The goal here is both for you to gain experience with a Revolutionary era text and to work on the kind of reading strategies that will be important for your term paper and senior project.
Homework due Tuesday, September 9th
Read either the Declaration of Independence or Common Sense and answer the corresponding Reading Questions
.
· We have a greater understanding of the relationship between power and political action
· We understand the power dynamics that facilitated the American revolution
· We appreciation for the role of written words to creating change
Welcome back everyone! We’re going to be moving this week into a parallel study of the American Revolutionary period and our own group project issues. We’ll be bouncing back and forth between the two, and my hope is this will deepen our knowledge about both. You’ll be recording reflections both on your DP and your DS Journal as we go.
Most of today is about the basic currency of politics: power.
What is power? This is your entrance ticket. Post a definition on your DP. Label it: “Preliminary Definition of Power.”
Before we move on, I’m going to flash this explanation of how assessment and grading of your College Essay assignment will work. As we review this, I’ll collect hard copies of your essays and answer your questions.
You’ll be working in your issue groups today. In those groups, I’m going to give you this power problem to solve. Political scientists and philosophers have identified four types or “four faces” of power. Can you identify them within this simple problem. This is hard and not obvious. But we’ll give it a try to warm you up. We’ll then do some experiments involving chocolate to demonstrate.
After this, you’ll work in your groups to do a power analysis of your issue. Look this sample of a power map. And this one. And this one. Your job as a group is to illustrate the power dynamics operating around your issue. You can come up with your own diagram or use one of the samples as a model.
Once you’re done. We’ll post these for a gallery walk and you’ll go on break. To get to break, you have to post on your DP a refined definition of power along with any thoughts or reflections from the exercise.
After break, we’ll do a gallery walk and folks will add ideas to the power maps. The ability to effect change and leverage power will be one of the criteria for us in choosing the one issue to focus on for our group project. This will roll us into a discussion of other criteria you want to base our decision on. I have some ideas as well. We’ll build this list together and post it under Student Resources.
We’ll then apply our new understanding of power to the American Revolution. I’ll pass out this timeline of events leading to the American Revolution. What types of power were involved in the relationship between the British government and the American colonies?
The group will then divide in half for the homework. Half of you will receive The Declaration of Independence to read. Half will receive excerpts from the revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Everyone will get reading questions. The goal here is both for you to gain experience with a Revolutionary era text and to work on the kind of reading strategies that will be important for your term paper and senior project.
Homework due Tuesday, September 9th
Read either the Declaration of Independence or Common Sense and answer the corresponding Reading Questions
.