CIVICS Summary – Fall 2006

Instructor: Ann Kopel

Objective: Government and Law – Citizenship Preparation

Crossroads Cafe video: #19 The People’s Choice

 

Civics Objectives and their related activities:

 

To understand the voting process the students were familiarized with the names and abbreviations of the states and the processes of government.

 

Activity: Learn the names of the states and their abbreviations

1.                  Match the states with their abbreviations

HO: Map of U.S. with abbreviations

HO: Map of U.S. with states

HO: page 142 of Stand Out  - complete the chart

Every student read an article covering the requirements for voting and they were given a comprehension quiz on those requirements.

Activity: Ask people how which states they have visited.

HO: Conversation grid

Activity: Pairwork: Tell me about one place in the U.S. you have been.

Activity: Write about Oregon

·         How long have you lived in Oregon?

·         Do you like the weather?

·         What places have you visited in Oregon?

·         What places have you visited in Portland?

·         Do you like living in Portland? Explain.

Activity: Read “Electing U.S. Lawmakers from Easy English News”

·         Read out loud as a class

·         Look at Map

·         Who are our Senators and Congress people?

·         Find the nouns and subject pronouns

Activity: Structure of the U.S. Government

Use lesson 4 of Stand Out Book 3 pp 148-149 about the Legislative, judicial, executive branches. Read lesson together, then have the students ask the questions of each other.

 

CAL Objective 8. Describe the steps a citizen must take in order to vote.

 

Activity: Interpret election advertising

·         Talk about campaign promises and advertising.

·         Give students a copy of an actual flyer (left on my door) for a judge in Portland. Discuss positive and negatives in simple present and meanings of the vocabulary words. Then write about why you would or wouldn’t vote for this man.

Activity:  Find your Congressional representatives

·         Have every student go to the website: Find Your Legislator @ http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/

·         Each student entered his or her home address, and printed out a list of their national and state of Oregon congressional representatives.

Activity: My neighborhood

Small Group Discussion by neighborhood groups and make a list of things you value in your neighborhood

Activity: Write on the topic “If you ran for office, what would you want to do?”

Activity: View online video of Oregon’s Vote by Mail process

http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dbcs/elections/index_info.shtml

 

CAL Objective 2. Interpret and complete a voter registration form.

 

Activity: Hand out Voters registration form

·         Have every person fill it out the form (turned in 3 forms for students who were unregistered citizens)

·         Look at the back of the form and read the requirements for registration

·         With a partner: answer the multiple choice questions about this info.

·         Quiz students on the qualifications for voting

 

CAL Objective 5. Communicate one’s opinion on a current issue.

 

Activity: Understand both sides of ballot measure 43 regarding parental notification required for teenage abortion by reading two opposing first-hand stories published in the Oregonian

·         Explain the history of abortion debate in the U.S.

·         Each person reads only one of the stories with a partner reading the same one.

·         Pair 2 partners reading one POV with 2 partners who read the other POV.

·         Each pair explains what they read to the other two who did not read the same story.

·         Summarize in class and discuss difficult vocabulary.

·         HOMEWORK: Write a paragraph that explains how you would vote.

 

Cross Roads Cafe – Video 19: The people’s choice

The video was shown serially over several class periods (see schedule below). Each student was given a transcript for the part that was shown along with vocabulary for that section and multiple choice comprehension questions.

 

Part	Script pages	topic	Approx show time in minutes
Show all	Episode 1	Show entire episode that introduces the characters and names the cafe	30
1	1-bottom of 6	Introduce characters / story and Jess thinks about running of councilman.	5
2	7- bottom of 10	Inside cafe – Jess tries to give a speech and Dan Miller character is introduced and idea of needing money for the campaign is introduced – Hassan gives Rosa flowers.	4
3	11-13 which includes CULTURE CLIP 23-24	We meet Andrew Comstock and then Jess meets Comstock – CC is about How city government works	5
4	14 -  18 (includes Word Play about “promise to”	We meet the new Jess and Jess is criticized by his wife. Then Jess gives speech but then drops Comstock and pulls off his toupee – wife is happier Also “Word Play” Promise to	6
5	19-21	Hassan asks Rosa to marry him, Election night – Good byes and wrap up	3.5