How old is too old? Writing and Resources on Term Limits

Today’s headlines touted that Senator Lautenberg, 89, the oldest member of the US Senate has decided not to run for reelection.  Really, at 89?  The Pope stepped down last week, at age 85, because he thought he might not have the stamina to do the job.   Suffice it to say that neither Congress nor the Vatican have term limits.  Should they?  I remember the minute I stepped into my classroom at the Middle School at the ripe old age of 23, the kids look at me as if I was old!  Now, the staff does.  I know that when budget time calls for RIF’s, some of our younger teachers would love to see term limits!  I have to say that the latter half of your career is prime time for learning and implementing new ideas.  There is something to be said for knowing the nuts and bolts of the job so you can spend your time finessing your skills and learning new ones.  But I digress….

The Term Limit Debate

When our Constitution was first written, there was no mention of term limits.  The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, restricted Presidential terms to a maximum of two terms.   Only one President, Roosevelt, served more than two terms.  

History, Civics, Language Arts and the Common Core

President’s Day is a great time to look at the debate on term limits.  The Common Core standards call for students to examine multiple perspectives and analyze points of view.  Why not have students analyze evidence (pros and cons) from multiple texts and synthesize their own thoughts on term limits?  Seems like a great way to integrate social studies and language arts while developing key critical thinking skills.

Start your students with this recent Gallop Poll  or article from USA Today that states that most Americans would like see term limits.  Have your students read about the pros and cons of term limits from various sources, write an argumentative essay, blog or speech and then finish by having them take a poll using one of several simple polling tools available online.  

Resources:

Your students can look at some of these resources for different perspectives:

Pros and Cons of term limits by debate.org

 Do you believe in Term Limits? Political Debates and Polls

Debate:  Term Limits for Elected Representatives  from Debatepedia

The Term Limit Debate from About.com

Give them a strategy

Just like a graphic organizer helps your students organize their writing, critical thinking strategies can help them organize their thinking.  Looking at term limits from different perspectives gives students the opportunity to practice SCAN:

See the issues:  What are the important issues, both pro and con from your perspective?

Clarify the issues:  What do you mean by…..?

Ask what’s most important:  Which issues are most important in terms of seriousness or urgency?

Now, what should be done? :  What do you think is the best solution to resolve the issues?  Remind students that solutions do not always have to be pro or con, they can be hybrids of the best ideas suggested.  The SCAN tool and resources at TregoED.org can help you get them started.

Extensions

As we celebrate President’s Day having students practice good citizenship by participating in civil discourse around an authentic issue is a great way to get integrate civics and argumentative writing.  Check out Teachers’ Hub to find more Presidential Writing Prompts and Top 12 President Day Activities

Do Kids Deserve a Second Chance?

Well the term “superbowl” took on a whole new meaning for me, as I got hit with a stomach virus in the second half, but it did give me the opportunity to watch some daytime television yesterday.  I ended up watching for NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s funeral.   I have to say, I ended up smiling and crying.  He was truly a character, a beloved family man, consummate politician and visionary.  There is no doubt that he has had an impact on the city that he loved. 

As President Clinton read from some of the letters that Koch had sent him during his presidency, one in particular, struck a chord.  Ed Koch believed that all children deserved a second chance.  A real second chance.  He wanted young people who had gotten in trouble to have the chance to start fresh.  Clinton quoted “…they should be given a chance to serve in AmeriCorps, or do something else, and then, if they got their GED and they stayed off drugs, their records should be sealed and their convictions should be purged. So that if ever they were asked again in life did they have a criminal conviction, they honestly could say no.”  His proposal was simple, but included programs, training, treatment and educational opportunities.  After five years with no further trouble, they would receive executive pardons and have their records expunged.

Get Kids Thinking

Of course this simple proposal seems to have many complex issues.  And of course, it would make a great SCAN session, writing prompt, or critical thinking exercise.  What do your students think?   Should young people be given a second chance?  On a large scale – should young people who have been arrested for nonviolent crimes be given a second chance?  What about on a small scale:  do we give them a second chance in school?  Is there a way to help students start over?  Do children’s reputations follow them from grade to grade, teacher to teacher?  How do we let students redeem themselves?  Should students be given the chance to redeem themselves academically?  Can they start over?  

Get them thinking, researching and writing.  What are the perspectives?  Issues?  Solutions?

What's your perspective?

5 Great Resources that ask: Should Students Give Up their (Video) guns?

5 Great Resources that ask:  Should students give up their (video) guns? 

In response to the violence in his hometown, twelve year old Max Goldstein, urged his classmates to toss out their violent video games.  He started a movement called “played out” and urged his peers to “put down their guns” or turn the games in for store credit, similar to the real gun buyback programs that were going on in his town.  This brings the debate right to our students’ level. 

If, in fact, as Annie Murphy Paul states “arguing is the best way to learn,” this debate is sure to get kids thinking and engaged in a relevant topic that directly affects them.

Do you think that violent video games have influenced teens to become more violent?  What should be done about violent video games?

Common Core Standards come alive

There are some great resources that point out the pros and cons of this debate and will enable your students to “make a claim and support it with evidence, as well as evaluate the arguments of others” hitting right on Core Content Standards.  Give them the opportunity to read these informational texts to develop arguments of their own.

You can start with this youtube news video of Max Goldstein and his campaign to get his friends to throw out their games. 

Researching the Pros and Cons

Video games ProCon gives students great statistics and facts that can support arguments for and against on whether video games promote teen violence. 

The International Debate Education Association also provides arguments on whether video games should be outlawed or controlled. 

At readwrite.com you will find five basic facts that can be used to support arguments on whether violent video games really cause violent behavior.

A more scholarly approach can be found in the article by the American Psychological Association “Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions”.

All of these resources can be used to help your students think critically about a topic and develop their own arguments.  To help students see other perspectives to develop and deepen their argument, you can assign them one of the built in perspectives- student, parent, game maker or lawmaker- in the free SCAN lesson “Video Games and Youth Violence.”  The SCAN tool will help them develop their arguments by listing issues, clarifying, assessing, and collaborating to come up with a plan of what should be done. 

Gun control is a hot topic that many teachers will avoid.  Focusing on the guns that most students have held in their hands via video games gives them a change to think critically and write argumentatively.

10 Resolutions to Feed Your Enthusiasm

Although I think that many teachers write their New Year’s resolutions in July, for many winter break gives the opportunity to take a few deep breaths and dream!  I got an email from a friend just as break was starting; she had great hopes for reading some books, writing some curriculum, grading some papers, meeting for lunch, etc.  Just 5 short days later she was suffering from a cold and lacking all motivation.  She was dreading the end of vacation and pleading for “one more day.”  The New Year is a great time for a mind makeover.  

10 Resolutions to Feed your Enthusiasm

1.        Crank it up:  Take that one assignment and/or project and crank it up a notch by integrating technology.  Give your students a list of great web 2.0 tools and let them decide which ones will help them show what they have learned.  Ask your media specialist for help or check out this great livebinder “Web Tools for Teachers by Type” to get you started.

2.       Let go of some control.  Give your students a choice:  Let them pick the topic, assessment, tool they are going to use, or even their seat! 

3.       Give kids more responsibility:  for some odd reason my students were quite capable of believing they knew more than me about some things.  Let them be the expert in the room.  Do 5 minutes of “you teach me” at the end of each class.

4.       Try something new:  Figure out something new about a piece of technology that you own – your camera, tv, car, phone…..or try out twitter or Facebook, be cool in your own head.

5.       Tune into their feelings:  It is easy to jump on a kid sleeping in class, not hear the tone of others, not see the baggage they are carrying.  Tune into your students with an empathetic eye.

6.       Ask for help from a colleague. Go across the hall or go across the world.  Ask your colleagues for some ideas for the topic you are teaching next week and tweak them to your needs.  (and don’t forget to share back….just like those that use online recipes are always saying I LOVED that recipe but I substituted chocolate for bacon, nuts for peas and potato chips for lettuce). 

7.       Make it real:  tie in current events, look for youtube videos, make connections to your student’s daily lives. Ask:   Can you give us an example from the classroom?  Example from the real world?  Example from your life?

8.        Be ungoogleable!  Encourage thinking by asking the right questions.    Ask your students to:

Elaborate and clarify:  What do you mean by…?  Can you tell me more about…?  I wonder if…? 

Build on or challenge a person’s ideas:  What might be other points of view?  Do you agree?

9.       Get to the point!  What are you REALLY trying to teach?   What is the true essential learning? 

10.   Get your mojo back.  Reboot!  Clean your slate and theirs, have the students reintroduce themselves.  Reintroduce yourself and your 2014 expectations.  Dwell on things that “make your day.”

11.   Count your blessings:  for every one thing you NEED, give thanks for something you HAVE.

Okay, so I went one over!  What are your resolutions for this bright and shiny new year?

Writing to Change People's Minds

Twas 2 days before Winter Break and all through the class……

Usually this time of year there are so many distractions that it is hard to believe that there is any meaningful teaching/learning going on.  This year it seems especially true, we have students who are wound up for the holidays, terrified that it is the end of the world and still reeling from the effects of the Newtown tragedy and Super Storm Sandy (no relation).

Is it any wonder that teachers would just love to plug in a movie or phone in a lesson?  In fact the opposite is true, now is the time that teachers reach into their bags of tricks and work to provide the most engaging lessons of the year.  I happened to be invited to just such a lesson yesterday in Joe Pizzo’s ILA class in the Black River Middle School in Chester, NJ were students were actively engaged and excited to learn.

Joe’s students were starting a new unit on persuasion (Imagine that!  Before a vacation!).  He invited advertising and media producer Mr. Rea, a parent, to come and show students how ads were created and how they are written to “change people’s minds.”  What a great lesson!  The students were all fascinated and had so many great insights regarding each of the commercials he showed.  We were all riveted as Mr. Rea explained the production of commercials for Volvo (seen in the Superbowl!) and Coppertone (filmed in Costa Rico!) and dissected the components used to appeal to their intended audience.   The students were highly engaged in the activity, peppering Mr. Rea with questions and observations.  He demonstrated how company’s ad campaigns range on the “rational” to “emotional” spectrum  and how the components of the commercial – images, music, script, etc all contribute.  Of course, Mr. Pizzo expertly tied in all of these aspects with the components necessary to write a good persuasive essay.  Students will begin their practice of these principles as they create their own 60 second commercial for their newly assigned free choice reading.  I could tell that they were inspired and their minds were reeling over the possibilities.  This “book report” was now building persuasive writing skills, integrating technology, connecting career opportunities and had captured student’s imaginations.  I cannot think of a more powerful, relevant and authentic way to teach students how to develop the “power of persuasion” than to tie in the everyday media whose job it is to “change people’s minds.”  Using a member of the community to teach it?  Priceless.

Teaching for Life-Readiness

Last Wednesday, I sat in an elementary classroom and thought, “it doesn’t get any better than this.”  I was sitting down to share my experience in this blog on Friday, when I heard “the news” – and I thought it couldn’t get any worse.  I did not have the heart to write about the joy, the smiles and the pride that the teachers and students demonstrated at PS 154 in NYC, when I knew that same joy, smiles and pride were obliterated for some 26 people.  I have participated in many a drill, sitting with kids in complete darkness and silence, trying to console some and make others realize the seriousness.  Even the drills were scary.  I cannot imagine the horror and fear those students and educators all must have experienced, and now the sorrow.   I know my colleagues are struggling with their emotions as they return to their classrooms with an acute awareness of the respect, responsibility, and compassion they feel for their colleagues, students and their families both here and in Newtown, CT.  

 

The kids at PS 154 were celebrating their learning with videos and action plans.  Given a framework, technology, and teacher guidance, they were given the ability to see other perspectives and problem solve.  Imagine 4^th graders researching the issue of child labor and discovering that the children affected were their age and that child labor exists even in their own country.  They developed an action plan that included writing poetry, short stories and filming public service announcements.   They sang Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World – Make it a Better Place” with the passion of true believers.  Their presentations were touching, powerful and could not help but make you smile. 

These children demonstrated what is best about our children and the importance of school in their lives.  They were developing the capacity to think outside the box, demonstrate empathy for those less fortunate, and develop actions.  Through this simple activity, the teachers had given those students hope and confidence that they have the power to create change and overcome adversity.  This is truly what education is all about, “life-readiness.”

In the face of all this sorrow and despair, these children have given me a reason to smile.  What went on in PS 154 is happening all over this country.  Our children are our hope and it is an honor and a privilege to help prepare them to take on the world.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those families that have been shattered by a senseless act of violence.  Peace be with you all.