Welcome to Freshmen Seminar!  This is a credited course in which each assignment is designed to instill the practices of highly successful students in preparation for the challenging curriculum of the Early College High School. In Freshman Seminar you will learn more about your personality and learning style and how you will use that to help you study and learn. We’ll use groups to develop our strengths, because many heads are better than one when we’re problem solving!

 Links:

 Personal Inventories:

Multiple Intelligences

Learning Styles (VARK)

Personality

True Colors

Brain Dominance

Direction

TriMind

Work Values

NSEW

Learning Styles Profile Form

After watching the video above, answer the questions below in a word document, print it off and put it behind the 4th tab in your notebook.

Reflection on feedback: shield and speech

Do you think the feedback you gave on the speech and shield was as good as the feedback Austin’s classmates gave him on his butterfly?

Would you like to receive the kind of feedback Austin received? What would encourage you to give the kind of feedback he received?

After watching the video how would you alter your feedback on the shield and speech to help your classmate more?

Would you be willing to accept feedback (constructive criticism) from your classmates? What kind of feedback do you feel you needed, after seeing your classmates work, on your shield and speech to make it better?

If you could do your shield and speech over how would you improve them? (must include a minimum of 3 ideas)

What do you feel you did extremely well on your shield and speech and think you should repeat in the future?  (must include a minimum of 3 ideas)

Understanding:

   There are things worth fighting for.

   A democratic society relies heavily upon active citizenship on the part of all individuals.

   In a society where the majority rules, it is important for people to join together to fight for the common good.  

Essential questions:

   What is worth fighting for?

      What is going on? 

      Why is it happening? 

      Why is this problem/issue worth fighting for? (What information exists to prove it's worth fighting for?)

      What can and should be done about this problem/issue?

  By what standards does society evaluate the effectiveness of its laws?

      What can and should be done?

      What type of action is needed? 

      How can we convince legislators that action is needed?

      Who, in government, should address the issue? 

      How do we know that this group has the jurisdiction to help?

      Are there others in different jurisdictions that should be included? 

      What are the consequences or benefits to changing existing laws or politics? 

   Why must you depend on others in order for democracy to survive?

   How can one person or one group make a difference?

      Who are the stakeholders in your problem/issue? 

      How do citizens lobby for change? 

Create an action plan to solve a current problem or address a long standing issue: 

Create an annotated timeline to show the history of the issue. (What events have taken you to the current position?)

Create a visual (charts, graphs, pie charts, other visuals) to illustrate the extent of the issue.

Gather case studies, case law, primary sources, artifacts, editorials, etc as evidence of causation and perspectives on the issue.

Link the issue with a democratic principle, or principles, for example: rule of law, rights of citizens, justice, equality, property rights, right to privacy, etc.

Evaluate persuasive techniques used by special interest groups and lobbyist.

You will use this information to make an oral presentation to a mock legislative committee who will determine if the action plan has merit sufficient to generate a legislative bill.  Appropriate dress, proper use of language and decorum are expected. 

Task Roles:

Lead investigator: What is going on? Why is this a problem/concern? Why is this happening?

Lead strategist: What can be done? What should be done? Who is/are the stakeholder(s)? Why do they care? What will be the consequences if this action plan becomes law? What will be the benefits? Who will will? Who will lose?

Lead lobbyist: Who should take action? How do we make them care? What have other special interest groups and/or lobbyists done to reach this group of legislators? 

Lead citizen: who should be informed and brought into the action plan? How do we inform the public and encourage them to contact appropriate legislators? What are the consequences and or benefits of the action plan for others? How do we reach them? What type of message would work best? Who should we encourage citizens to send concerns to?

Team roles:

Task manager: assign required tasks, check on progress of others, assist others as needed, serve as lead presenter to mock panel, keep a daily report of progress, and questions of the group.

Team clerical assistant: collects the work of the team, organize it, assure all elements are present, feed work to team researcher

Team researcher: establish criteria that research findings and data need to reflect in order to make convincing arguments; evaluates the plan for quality.

Team designer/artist: use word skills to polish written action plan; create charts, graphs, etc int eh action plan and for the oral presentation.