Overview of Course and Students:

American Government is a required course at Sauk Prairie High School. The course is available to students in their junior year. At this point, the students have already completed a year of U.S. and World History. There is no tracking or ability grouping in the course. Students need to successfully complete this course to be eligible for graduation. I divide the course into five units:

Unit 1—Citizenship. This is a short unit (2 weeks) in which students explore the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen or noncitizen in the United States. The culminating discussion was a debate on President Bush’s immigration plan. I used a discussion strategy I call “debate light” that worked great for this topic.

Unit 2—Origins of Government and the Constitution. The focus question of this unit is: Can the common people be counted on to govern? The unit looks at some political philosophy and then addresses the creation of the Constitution and concepts such as federalism, sovereignty, etc..

Unit 3—The Bill of Rights and the Judicial Branch. The focus question is: How have individual rights evolved over time? This is by far my longest unit of the semester. It culminates with a traditional written test and a moot court.

Unit 4—Congress. This unit’s focus question is: Who has the power in Congress?

Unit 5—The Presidency and Presidential Elections. Focus question: How should we decide on who should be the President of the United States? This summer I would like to work on changing my units. I feel I need to be relatively traditional, but I do have some latitude. I would like to address topics pertaining to the media, foreign policy, and state and local government that I did not address this year.

The 950 students at Sauk Prairie High School are primarily white but represent most of the categories on the socio-economic spectrum. In the past five years, the Hispanic population has risen at the school to nearly 5 percent of the student body. For some unexplainable reason this year's junior class and next year's junior class have significantly more male than female students.

Discussion-Related Outcomes for Students:

As I have worked on the discussion thread, I have had several discussion-related outcomes for students in mind:
• Gain confidence speaking in front of peers and teacher.
• Challenge statements/ideas that student does not agree with appropriate evidence.
• Listen attentively to other students’ ideas and comments.
• Follow the discussion by being able to process information in "real" time.
• Seek out clarification on confusing statements by asking peers questions.
• Develop discussion etiquette (inviting others into conversation, speaking to each other not through the teacher, and learning discussion vocabulary).
• Analyze how effective civil discourse enhances society and a democracy.
• Reflect on their own abilities as discussants and self-assess improvement and growth.
• Deepen knowledge about controversial issues through discussion.
• Back up a statement/position with evidence and logic.
• Critically evaluate information through both analysis and synthesis

Outcomes for Teacher:

• Create a more student-centered classroom with greater collaboration in learning.
• Build a classroom climate conducive to the open discussion of issues.
• Create models and scaffolding of both procedural and substantive discussion skills.
• Improve facilitation skills.

Rationale for Including More Discussion in Curriculum:

I would like to incorporate more opportunities for students to discuss issues and ideas in all the social studies courses I teach. In particular, I would like to begin by infusing my American Government classes with more discussion. I will accomplish this task by employing a variety of different discussion models addressing the government content I teach. I will also incorporate activities or “mini" discussions to explicitly teach students skills that are valued in good discussants. In this way, I will be teaching for and with discussion.

Discussion is a concept that has many different and varied definitions. I view discussion in the classroom as a dialogue in which students talk and challenge each other and the teacher facilitates by expanding upon the ideas and moving the discussion forward. Discussion is a method for students to learn new material and gain new understandings about the content by collaboratively working with their peers and the teacher. Discussion is effective when students are active participants in the sharing of ideas and the challenging of assumptions.

I believe American Government is an appropriate place to begin incorporating democratic ideals of discussion in the classroom setting. For students to actively participate and be engaged citizens in the world it is necessary to build on their skills as discussants. In whatever career path students venture down discussion skills will only enhance their ability to be successful in that career. I want my future farmers to be as confident in their ability to communicate verbally as my future lawyers.

I would also value students viewing discussion as a skill that can be improved. Discussion, like playing an instrument or a sport, will only get better with practice. Discussion is not something that some students can do and other cannot. All students have the capability to be effective, competent discussants. I would hope to impart a realization that discussion skills will be a valuable asset to students as they move beyond high school. This realization would improve student engagement in the content and provide a greater intrinsic motivation to learn.

Ultimately, I would like students to uncover the power and strength of being able to advocate for themselves and realize the power of ideas. Also, I want students to view civic discourse as a way to improve the quality of their lives and the world around them. By this I mean students will be engaged in the issues of the day and will actively vote and discuss ways to make their communities a better place to live and work.

I am hoping to incorporate more formal discussions into my American Government courses, making it a seamless part of my curriculum with informal, formal, and self-assessments. Currently my students are cognizant of the fact that I value discussion but it is employed in a rather disjointed and haphazard fashion. My students set a general discussion goal at the beginning of the semester and self-assess their own progress at mid-quarter and quarter. At the end of each nine weeks students receive a more general participation grade that is jointly evaluated by the student and myself. Therefore, students can currently earn a high participation grade without having to expend much verbal discussion energy. I value the many ways students can be positive participants in my class but I would like to employ a more measurable demonstration of their improvement of discussion.

In my short time teaching, I have observed through students’ journals and informal observations that students are engaged by the discussion of issues and values. Students want to be taught about the controversies and facts surrounding an issue before taking a stand. In fact, in a journal entry after a discussion on the case of Mary Beth Tinker v. Des Moines School District, (regarding students wearing black arm bands as a form or protest), the majority of students responded that controversy should be a mandatory part of the school curriculum. High school students do not want to be shielded from what is going on in the world around them. I think it is important for an educator to teach the students how to process all information they receive from the media and other sources in a meaningful and productive way. I believe by increasing the level of discussion in the class it has the potential to also increase a students' level of civic engagement as they enter the adult world.

How I Incorporate Discussion:

At the beginning of the semester, I have a variety of different types of discussions--partners, small group, large group, structured debate. Before each discussion I have students work on a skill whether it be listening and paraphrasing or agreeing or disagreeing with a quote from a reading. After about two weeks we brainstorm as a class what makes a good discussion based on the discussions we have had. As we brainstorm I add items I think are missing.

Before each discussion, I or the class chooses one item to think about or work on. An example would be that students talk to each other and not through the teacher. Also, the students fill out a self-assessment of their discussion skills and make an individual discussion goal for themselves. This happens about 2-3 weeks into the course. This helps the students on their self assessment of their participation grade at the end of each quarter.

In each unit I have a structured large group discussion activity like a socratic seminar or a discussion based on a number of political philosophies we studied. I also like to incorporate a structured a small group discussion as well. A good example would be Structured Academic Controversy. Or could be small group discussions on reading that is then opened up to whole class. I end the semester with a mock Congress which I think incorporates many of the thinking and speaking skills worked on over the semester. The students know they will not receive an "A" in participation if they do not participate in the mock Congress.

I provide readings and information for the students to read and process before the discussions. For the mock Congress at the end the discussion based on the students own research. They teach each other about their issue in mock committee meetings. The material the students read are generally selected by me and come from a variety of sources--newspapers, new magazines, Internet, textbooks, and other informational books. I do not use the text very often--although the resource book I have with the text I use a lot.

The debate I did about Bush's immigration plan--we read together as a class a newspaper article about the basics of the plan. Then I distributed 5 different articles from different perspectives--the students became experts on their articles and then shared their information with others. (Jigsaw) I usually have a breakdown when students are asked to teach one another so as a whole class we came up with a comprehensive list of pro's and con's about the plan which was the basis for the debate.