The Political Spectrum - Class Recap

The African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. The soldiers are carrying guns, which relates to the Second Amendment! Photo taken in 2010.

Hi everyone,

We had another good day in class today about the Second Amendment to the Constitution and looked at the political spectrum. Here's what happened:

Learning Targets Addressed:

Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.
Knowledge LT 4: I can explain how different ideological movements and philosophies shape politics.
Knowledge LT 5: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different branches of U.S. government.

Soundtrack: "Paradise" by Lighter Shade of Grey. Selected for today by Hector, who made the case that it related to class by governments hoping to help create paradise, and his "Creation of a Nation" activity. Listen to the song here.

AGENDA 10/6/15:
News Brief - Madelin
Constitution Test
Political Spectrum
Second Amendment

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: Ellimay.
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News Brief: Madelin had the news brief today and selected this story to talk about with the class: NYTimes.com - California Legislature Approves Assisted Suicide. We had a discussion in class about how Oregon was the first state to approve assisted suicide for terminally ill patients who did not want to continue living with excruciating pain. We talked a little about this - a very interesting debate question. As Madelin noted, California is the fifth state to have authorized assisted suicide.

We also talked a bit about the weekend, before moving on.

Ellimay was selected for the next news brief.

Here's Wildcat News for the day, which we watched in class:

Constitution Test: As promised! I hope that this went well for everyone. I will try to have them graded and entered later today. The first 10 questions were about the philosophy of U.S. Government, the second 10 questions were about the branches of government/checks of power, and the last 10 questions were about the Bill of Rights.

Political Spectrum: I went over the political spectrum in class, which was most of this PowerPoint:

Google Drive - Political Spectrum PowerPoint

Please be familiar with the various different philosophies on the political spectrum, and where they are on the line from left to right, in relation to each other!

Here's the link to the Political Compass test I showed at the end of the PowerPoint. Try it yourself!

Second Amendment: To continue our look at the Bill of Rights, we started watching the "Gun Nation" episode of the "30 Days" documentary series. I asked students to note Pro and Con arguments for gun rights. We will finish watching this next class, and move on to looking in depth at some of the other amendments.