The Political Spectrum and Constitution - Class Recap

This is the room inside Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the Constitution of the United States was debated and signed. Picture taken in 2008.

Dear class,

Thank you so much for another great day of talking, listening, and debating! I hope that you found it as interesting and enlightening as I did. Here's what happened today:

Learning Targets Addressed:

SS.HS.KN.ALT.04: I can explain how different ideological movements and philosophies shape politics.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley. Selected for today because we were talking about the Bill of Rights! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/5/14:
News Brief
Political Spectrum
Finish Constitution Questions
The First Amendment

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: Eddy.

News Brief: Today's news brief was brought in by Emi. She chose this article to talk about: CNN.com - Court: School was within its rights to ban U.S. flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. This is interesting, especially considering our discussion about the Bill of Rights. Did the students have a right to free speech violated?

I also talked for a while about the ongoing situation in Ukraine, where the U.S. government is trying to help ensure that Russia does not take over.

Political Spectrum: I have kept referring to the different political parties and philosophies in the US government, so I thought it would be good to just go over what they are. Here is a link to the PowerPoint I went through during class:

Google Drive - Political Spectrum PowerPoint

The link to try and do your own political compass test to find where you are on the spectrum (like I did on the last slide of the PowerPoint) is here: Political Compass Test 

Finish Constitution Questions: Next, we went through the answers to the rest of the questions about the Constitution, in regards to how our government is set up. We talked about elements of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the US government.

The First Amendment: At the end of class, I passed out a handout which asked you to think about various aspects of how the First Amendment to the US Constitution applies to our lives. We will have a bit of a debate on this next class!