Action Research Project

Last class I introduced the Action Research Project. Students will be working on this project over the new few weeks. Below is the description and component parts of the project.

Epic Issues - Action Research Project 

DUE:
Thursday 12/16 - Action Project - Research Question

Past Week's Agenda:

1. Students participated in a simulation of a Senate Committee meeting. Different advocacy groups made recommendations to the committee about different policies for fighting the war on terror.
2. Students worked on developing their own policy options and debated how well their policies would work in several scenarios of terrorist attack [see below]. Students then drafted a letter to a member of the Senate subcommittee on counterterrorism [see slides below].
3. Afterwards students worked in small groups on short persuasive presentations on one of the Multnomah County ballot measures. They used the League of Women Voters guide to plan. 

DUE: Letter to Senator recommending a policy for fighting terrorism.

Responding to Terrorism: Domestic Polices

Agenda 10/3-7:

1. Students finished watching Secrets, Torture, and Politics.
2. Students wrote a memo to the next president advising them on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs).
3. Students read about US domestic policies in the War on Terror. They answered questions from this worksheet (pgs 26-33).

DUE:

Memo to the President

Methods of Interrogation

Agenda 9/30:

1. Students completed sharing their study of different interrogation techniques and discussed whether they felt them to be acceptable in collecting information.
2. They began watching the first 10 minutes of the documentary, Secrets, Politics, and Torture.

Secrets, Politics, and Torture:

Clinton - Trump Debate

Last time, students watched and discussed the first debate. They looked at some of the fact checking resources and polls.

Methods of Interrogation

Agenda 9/26:

1. Students brainstormed different methods of interrogation.
2. Students evaluated a list of terms about torture [see below].
3. Students learned about and presented different methods of interrogation employed by the US in the War on Terror.

Methods of Interrogation:

The War on Terror: Methods

Students read about the United States involvement in the War on Terror. They debated legitimate and illegitimate methods employed by the US government including: Secret Prisons, Torture, Drones, Targeted Assassinations, and Guantanamo Bay.

Iraq

Students finished watching clips from the documentary, Bush's War about the Iraq war. After watching, they wrote a paragraph response to the prompt: Describe how the United States came to attack Iraq. What was the purpose of the Iraq invasion? What was the result?

The Beginning of the War on Terror

Agenda 9/14:

1. Students put themselves in the position of president Bush after 9/11. They worked on the following scenario. After, I played the role of president Bush and read excerpts from the 2003 state of the union speech, laying out the case for the invasion of Iraq. Students listened and acted as reporters in a follow-up mock press conference.

Consider this scenario and respond to the questions.

The United States was attacked by terrorists. The World Trade center towers have collapsed, the Pentagon has been damaged, and thousands are dead. Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda are responsible. You are the president. How do you respond?

What will you do to keep Americans safe at home?

What will you do to punish those responsible?

9/11 - Reactions

Agenda 9/12:

1. Students shared an discussed their 9/11 interviews.
2. Having learned about individual people, students began looking at the response of the government to 9/11. They watched a clip of President Bush at Ground Zero and a speech he gave on September 20.
3. Students then began looking at the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which granted President Bush the power to conduct the war on terror. They listened to the first 25 minutes of this podcast, providing background for the AUMF. 

9/11

Agenda 9/8:

1. Students finished watching the documentary, 9/11.
2. Students researched and wrote about victims of the 9/11 attacks using the New York Times feature, Portraits of Grief.
3. Students listened a series of audio stories and took notes on this sheet of paper.

DUE:
9/11 Interviews - Monday 9/12

9/11

Students brainstormed a list of words and terms that came to mind when thinking about September 11, 2001. They then began watching the Naudet documentary about the terrorist attacks, 9/11.

Perspective, Truth,and History

We started class by looking at the example of a lunchroom fight. Students played the role of a principal trying to figure out responsibility and consequences for the fight. This is an illustration of the jobs historians have in recording and interpreting history.

Welcome Epic Issues

Thanks for choosing to take this class. I hope you will enjoy it. Make sure to bookmark this blog. It will be very useful for accessing class materials and reviewing past lessons and agendas.