Abortion

Today we began our discussion of the issue of abortion. After sharing first thoughts and questions, we began to read this PACKET that discusses the history and the law. Students should read, annotate and answer all questions from the start of the packet until the 3rd question to consider after "The Casey Case: Roe Revisited?" article.  Work is due at your next class period.

Taking a Stand Contd.

Today in class we worked on our "Gun Control Letters" (see previous post).  Your letters should be in the following format (obviously change based on whom you are responding to).  Your name and address in the upper right hand corner.
Then on the left should be the date, the name and address of the person you are writing to, then your letter. Your letter closes with your name and signature.

Your Name Deerfield High School 1959 Waukegan Rd. Deerfield, IL 60015 (the date) President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President: (your letter)Blah blah blah Blah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blahBlah blah blah Sincerely, (your signature) (your name)

Taking a Stand

Currently, as a result of the gun violence that continues to plague our country, newspapers, politicians and ordinary citizens continue to discuss potential solutions and reactions to the issue. To finish our exploration of the topic, it is now time for you to formally become part of that national discussion.
To do so, you must complete ONE of the following tasks:

1) Do some research to find a current editorial or op-ed piece (there were two in yesterday's Chicago Tribune alone.

•  Write a letter to the editor that comments on the piece that you read and offers your own solution that is based on the facts from the resources we added to our chart in class.

2) Do some research to find the plans to deal with gun violence from a current candidate for president.

• Write a letter to that candidate's campaign that agrees or disagrees with his/her plan. You should support your argument with facts from the resources we added to  our chart in class. If you disagree with the candidate's plan, make sure that you offer alternative solutions (again based on facts).

3) Do some research to find plans to deal with gun violence that are being offered by either President Obama or members of Congress.

• Write a letter to the President, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Mark Kirk, or Representative Bob Dold supporting or arguing against one of the plans that you read. You should support your argument with facts from the resources we added to  our chart in class. If you disagree with the plan, make sure that you offer alternative solutions (again based on facts).

All letters will not just be graded as the assessment to end this unit but also actually be sent. Thus, you need to be sure that you use proper formatting for a formal letter and that it is as polished and clear as it can be. All sources must be properly cited.

It will be your responsibility to find the snail mail or email address to use to send your letter. If you are using snail mail you must bring a hard copy of your letter and an addressed stamped envelope to class. If you are using email, you must show me a screen shot of your sent mail file. 

Your letter is due on Monday, 11/2.  You will have one work day in class next week.

Gun Control

Today, we'll begin class by discussing the OUTSIDE READING assignment. Then, we'll continue to examine issues related to gun violence in the United States.
As we began our discussions about the school shooting in Oregon and then watched the film Bowling for Columbine a number of questions about the overarching theme of gun control emerged.
These include:

• Are rules and guidelines created over 200 years ago still applicable today?
• When a greater number of people in our society own guns are we safer or more at risk?
• Should the federal government be able to dictate gun laws in individual states?
• How accurate is this statement, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”?
• Will increased gun control laws help to save lives? (consider trigger locks, background checks, etc.)
• Are stand your ground laws necessary in order to provide people a means for self-defense?
• Should people (including students) be allowed to carry guns on college campuses?
• Should teachers or other personnel be armed in schools?
• Should the assault weapons ban be reinstated?
• Do laws permitting concealed weapons ensure or decrease public safety?
• Should online sales of firearms be allowed?
• Should assault weapons be banned?
• Should there be a national waiting period for handgun purchases?
• Should there be increased penalties for providing guns to juveniles?

Your instructions are:
1) Read Gun Control Explained
2) Then, explore the other links below (some of them will require you to click on the links embedded in the articles) and use them to identify key facts or details that help provide responses to the questions posed.  Fill out this chart (Period One, Period Six) as you identify key facts.  You are collaborating on this document, NOT making a new one individually.  Add rows to the chart as needed (Any time you fill in a fact in response to a question, you should add a new row-only one student and one fact per row).  You may use information to answer more than one question.  You should look at all of the links and answer multiple questions using a significant number of facts.  In other words, everyone should add at least five rows to the document and use information from at least three of the sources below. 

Links:

How They Got Their Guns
Loaded: The Duel over Gun Laws

Gun Rhetoric v. Gun Facts

The Murder Map of the World

Mass Shootings in America

Concealed Guns (Pro v. Con)

Opposing Viewpoints I

Opposing Viewpoints II

9 Potential Massed Shootings that could have been stopped v. Do Armed Civilians Stop Mass Shootings

Gun Violence

In light of the recent school shootings in Oregon (as well as the continued gun violence in Chicago), we are going to begin to look at the issue of gun violence in our society. Yesterday we discussed what we knew about what happened in Oregon and then read A New Way to Tackle Gun Deaths by Nicholas Kristof. After responding to the article in writing, identifying points that we agreed or disagreed with and raising questions for the author, we continued our discussion.
Today in class we began to watch Bowling for Columbine which we will continue in class during your next class period.

Speech Codes on College Campuses

Per. 1-9/24, Per. 6-9/25
Over the last few days, we've explored issues of hate speech on college campuses.  Now that you have a general understanding of the laws, it's important to see how those might be applied in settings that you may experience as you head into your college years.  To do so, please follow the instructions belos.

1. Go to the FIRE website and read their mission statement and what they are about. 
2. Look at the "What are Speech Codes?" article so that you understand how FIRE is defining them.
3. Go to "Using FIRE's Spotlight" in order to understand how to use their database.
4. Go to the database and select a college or university that you have an interest in.
5. On your blog, write a post that responds to the following:
• Describe your chosen university's speech codes (or lack of them).  How do your university’s policies or restrictions on free speech impact you as a prospective student? Does it influence or change the way you view the school? Do you believe that your university’s speech codes are legal or do they infringe on your rights to free speech?  Make connections to the description of the law that you read for class today.
6. Next, watch this story about an incident at Penn State University.
   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/50100377#50100377
7. Then, recall the images that we began our discussions with  here and read these stories that provide some additional detail about them.
8. Then read these stories about controversy surrounding a "Tacos and Tequila" party at the University of Illinois.
• Now, in a continuation of your post that you began above, consider how the university you explored in #5 above might have reacted to these parties on their campuses?  Work to apply their speech codes to these incidents.  Would you agree or disagree with their reaction? 
9. Next, write a concluding thought.   Do you agree with FIRE's definitions of what constitutes a speech code? Are the “restrictions” and codes they point out necessarily harmful or do they protect students? If you went to a university with a speech code how would you feel; safe or restricted? 
10. Spend any remaining time looking at other class members' blogs.  Try to comment on at least two.

NOTE-This does NOT count for your weekly blog post although you may decide to continue to explore this issue in your blogs over the weekend.
NOTE 2-Please look at the Unit One Tab above for important information about the unit assessment.

Free Speech on College Campuses

Yesterday in class we began a discussion about hate speech on college campuses by looking at these images.  We then continued our discussion by "virtually attending" a law school seminar about the topic. As we watched the video we took notes by identifying the facts in the scenarios being discussed, responding with our opinions, and then writing what the experts on the panel said. If you missed class yesterday, you should be sure to get notes from a fellow class member.

During the next class period, we'll continue watching the seminar and then reading the article Hate Speech & Campus Speech Codes which must be finished by our the last period that we meet this week.

Note-part of our conversation in first period today discussed questions about how to identify hate speech which brought up the issue of anti-Semitic speech on college campuses. There has been a lot of discussion in the media about antisemitism on college campuses as a result of a few incidents that took place last spring. Here is a thoughtful commentary on the issue for your consideration.