Structured Academic Controversy: Gun Control

SAC:  The Basics

1. Team Arguments!

2. I assign you the positions.

3. Use your research to prepare the arguments. 

4. The point is to find the best arguments for each side and to debate yourselves into the middle ground. 

Check here for your assigned position and teams.

Starter 10.13

What do you think is the strongest piece of evidence you have for your assigned position right now?  Explain why you think that piece of evidence will be convincing.
Does your assigned position match your real position?  Why/why not?

Evidence Organization with your Positional Teammate (40 minutes)

1.  Fill out the worksheet to prepare yourselves.  Each person should have at least 4 different pieces of evidence to bring into the debate.

2.  Prepare an opening statement of about 3 minutes.  This can be delivered by one or both of you.

The SAC (after break, sit with your partner and your "opponents")

The structure we will follow is below.  I will be providing exact times.  Please do not move on to the next step until I have called time!

1.      Yes: Opening argument (3 min)

2.      No: Repeat back main points of argument (2 min)

3.      No: Opening argument (3 min)

4.      Yes: Repeat back main points of argument (2)

5.      Open Debate (10 min)

6.      Consensus Building:  During this phase, it's okay to (15 min)

7.      Debrief (10 min)

• How did this process go for your group?
• Did your group reach consensus?  Why or why not?  
• Did you notice yourself or your group using appeals at any point?  Which ones?  Were they effective?
• How did this activity help you understand the rhetorical exchange about gun control going on in your society?  What new understandings do you have now?

EXIT TICKET:  Individually, on a blank piece of paper, answer the following (10 minutes):

1.  Write a concessive thesis statement about the gun control issue.

2.  Answer the final debrief question in writing:  How did this activity help you understand the rhetorical exchange about gun control going on in your society?  What new understandings do you have now?

Monday, October 12

Dear students:
Today marks the 523rd anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus (and a whole new set of ideological perspectives) in the Americas, paving the way for a series of events--some wonderful, others disturbing and tragic--that have come to be known as "American History."    SO...Happy Indigenous People's Day and/or Columbus Day, depending on your perspective.

Please use your class time to do beautiful work today.  Below is a list of the assignments you should be working on.  It is quite robust, so hopefully those of you who used their class time effectively last week will be able to reap the rewards.  The new reading assignment (Zinn, Chapter 1, "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress") is not small, so I would definitely recommend getting a big chunk of it done.  You won't have time in class tomorrow to read it and answer the questions.

I appreciate all of you!


Your To-Do List for Today...
Due at midnight:  Rhetorical Discourse Case Study on Gun Control/Gun Rights

Due at midnight:  Project Reflection and DP update
*When you submit, please self-assess on the rubric!

Due Wednesday:  Read Chapter 1 of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: "Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress"
Answer the following questions in your digital comp books.

1.  How does Zinn challenge your previous notions about the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus?  How does this version complicate the dominant ideological tradition of Columbus as our forefather?

2.  What is Zinn’s perspective about the writing of history?

3.  Zinn argues that most history texts pretend that there is such a thing as “The United States”—a community of people with common interests.  What are the “communities” that Zinn identifies?  What “interests” do they share?  What “interests” of one group might be in opposition to an “interest” of another group?  

4.  If communities share common interests, did Columbus and Las Casas belong to the same community?  If so, what are their common interests?  (What was Columbus in the Caribbean for?  Las Casas?)  If not, what interests separate them into different communities?  Did Las Casas have more in common ideologically with the Arawaks than he did with Columbus?

5.  From what you have read so far, how would you characterize Howard Zinn’s ideological bias?

Let's take a minute to critique together...
What can we do to improve this archive?
As an "audience member," what impression does the archive make?
Is there anything we can do right now?

MY THOUGHT:  Change the order of the names in the title, so that your interviewee is listed first.  Give them a title when appropriate.  Make who you are interviewing obvious to the audience.

EX:  Voices of the Animas:  County Commissioner Julie Westendorff and AHS student Garrett Hagen

Schedule for tonight

Look below for work time assignments.

Hashtags!!  #VoicesfromtheAnimas #AnimasRiverSpill  BOTH, not just one! 

Please take a look at your interview....is it beautiful work?  Ask for my feedback!  I am happy to help you improve it and make it richer!

Who can interview after school? I have some people coming:)

I finally found an article that exemplifies my own bias on this issue.  Thought I would share.  Please read this.


WORK TIME
1. Storycorps!!!

• Instructions for producing and uploading
• Attention to detail...beautiful work is an ethic.
• Listen to some of the interviews.  This is, in fact, the point of this project.  
• Music is optional, but if you use it, it MUST be "public domain" or "royalty-free" music. (Google these terms to look for databases of music.  Here is one that Keiran found: http://incompetech.com/music/.) If you have doubts about whether it is copyrighted, err on the side of caution. 
• Be sure to hashtag #VoicesfromtheAnimas and #AnimasRiverSpill or your work won't show up in the archive.

2.  A Case Study in Rhetorical Discourse:  Gun Control and Gun Rights.  Download the assignment from Google classroom or make a copy of this one.

3.  Voices from the Animas Project Reflection and Rubric*

Self-Assess on the rubric when you submit!

(*You won't be able to fully finish this until after exhibition, but you can certainly start.)

Starter:  Review the reading.  Prep for #spiritread.

Spirit Read: "Willing to be Disturbed"

WORK TIME
1. Storycorps!!!

• Instructions for producing and uploading
• Attention to detail...beautiful work is an ethic.
• Listen to some of the interviews.  This is, in fact, the point of this project.  
• Music is optional, but if you use it, it MUST be "public domain" or "royalty-free" music. (Google these terms to look for databases of music.  Here is one that Keiran found: http://incompetech.com/music/.) If you have doubts about whether it is copyrighted, err on the side of caution. 
• Be sure to hashtag #VoicesfromtheAnimas and #AnimasRiverSpill or your work won't show up in the archive.

2.  A Case Study in Rhetorical Discourse:  Gun Control and Gun Rights.  Download the assignment from Google classroom or make a copy of this one.

3.  Voices from the Animas Project Reflection and Rubric*

Self-Assess on the rubric when you submit!

(*You won't be able to fully finish this until after exhibition, but you can certainly start.)

EXIT TICKET

Starter 10.5:  

1. What do you remember about the American Revolution?  What have you learned about it in your education? 

2. Why was the Declaration of Independence written?  Upon what ideologies was the Revolution based?

Key Questions: 

How does ideology impact the telling of history?

What are the ideologies upon which the Declaration of Independence was based?

To what degree is the United States living up to the ideals set forth in the Declaration?

The American Revolution:  Crash Course US History

DISCUSS in Groups (one person scribe conversation and turn in with everyone's name):  

1. What ideology is reflected in the way the story of the Revolution is usually told?

2. What was the role of rhetoric in the American Revolution?

3. What was the exigency of writing the Declaration of Independence?

4. What bias did you see in each of the historian excerpts?

5. Why was the "significant omission" cut?  Why is this an example of audience adaptation?  

Four corners:

America is living up to the ideals set forth is the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. 

PROJECT OVERVIEW

AM class:  Go back and watch the sample projects on Friday's post if you were not here (Tatum and Chris).  Read the project description and develop any questions you may have.

PM class:  Project launch


READ AND ANNOTATE for tomorrow's Spirit Read:  
Willing to Be Disturbed

Interviews due Wednesday!
Storycorps Interview Instructions
If you want to use intro/outro music, search for "public domain" or "royalty-free" music.  Don't have it playing in the background of your interview the whole time, as it may be distracting.
Link to existing archive

Announcements

• I appreciate you.
• NAC on Monday at 5:  Who is going?
• Interviews: due Wednesday

Starter 10.2:
Relate Obama's speech yesterday to something you have learned about rhetoric and/or ideology.




Rhetoric is a Response and Invites a Response:  Bill O'Reilly




Four Corners 
Gun control should be politicized.



Project Overview
Tatum 
Chris

Q&A?



WORK TIME
1. Storycorps Interview editing and uploading.
2. Continue on with Google Doc "silent seminar."  Read each other's.  Comment.  Comment on the comments.  Exchange rhetoric.
3. Finish Declaration assignment if you have not done so already.  We will work through this on Monday.  Ask me questions about it if you are confused.
4. Listen to interviews on the Storycorps archive.
5. Research more about the Oregon shooting and the gun control issue at large.  Try to make rhetorical and ideological observations.  What do you wonder about the issue?