3/7/14

I told the kids that I would make it so there would be a day of group work for every topic we go over, and I am making sure to keep my promise.

Even if that means I have to stay up until almost 2am the night before. But, that’s all my fault because I put it off to the last minute. Why do I never learn my lesson? (No pun intended. I’m getting pretty good at those, though.)

Anyway, I mentioned Communism at the end of last week, but I don’t think it really sunk in. They don’t understand what Communism is, so how can I expect them to understand why people would be afraid of it/afraid of it spreading?

Not only that, but I was also thinking that this kids don’t know anything about politics or political ideology. Not only is it important to understand Communism, but also Fascism, and some other ones. And how about our good old Republicans and Democrats?

My goal was to get excerpts from a bunch of primary sources, such as the Communist Manifesto and the Republican Party Platform. It was not as easy as I was expecting. I was able to get a bunch of quotes, but, even then, they weren’t easy to find. I tried to assemble a bunch of primary sources, but as time went on, I was becoming more and more impatient and started focusing on finding information that would straight-up explain these ideologies.

I put together a Word Document each for Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Anarchism, Republicans, and Democrats, that contained information and quotes about them. Then I created question sheets for all of those groups. They all have the same questions, just tweaked slightly for that ideology. I also hand-drew a graph/chart/whatever for the students to fill out.

I gave them the directions, including the papers they were to receive, and what they were responsible for I numbered them off 1-6 They got into groups, and moved desks around I gave them the Primary papers (some groups got one, some got two), the question sheet for their group, and the chart I added that they were allowed to use Google if they wanted, but “if I see you texting, or on Facebook, we’re going to have a problem.” I wandered around, answering questions, and monitoring phone usage (like the NSA, buuuurn!) Once all groups were done with their questions and their column of the chart, then I would ask each group’s spokesperson to come up to the front of the classroom, one by one, to explain their ideology/column on the chart While they were explaining their ideology, the other students would fill in their worksheet After everyone was done, I gave a general explanation of all of the groups, kind of boiling it down #10 on the worksheet was left to be done as a Whole Group at the end. I drew a line on the board, and placed all of their ideologies on the graph, explaining it as I went along.

This all took the whole class period (about 80 minutes). As with any other thing, the amount of time it took varied from class to class, but it was all about the same. I told them I’d give them 20 minutes, to try to make sure they were working diligently. Some kids complained, but they were the ones who always complain, so it wasn’t surprising.

At the end of first period, I asked if they had learned more about themselves and where they are on the spectrum. There were a few resounding “yes”s.

I opened up the activity for all classes, saying that you need to understand Communism in order to understand the rest of the century. I explained that the 1919 Russian Revolution spread fear of Communism and made it more real, and then it just escalated for the rest of the century. You have Mao, for example, and the Cold War, which lasted almost 50 (official) years. I told them that the sooner they can understand these concepts, the less stress it will be on them, because it will be easier to understand the other concepts and problems. I also explained that we were learning all of these different ideologies because, yes, you can learn about Communism by itself, but it’s easier to understand when you put it into perspective.

But, not only will this activity help with all that official stuff, but it also helps with personal development. I explained that this activity could help them figure out where they lie on the political spectrum.

I asked the kids to keep the graph, after I hand it back to them.

“This graph will help you next year in Government, then on to college, and in your personal, life, too. And, believe me, I looked online for something like this, or at least something to compare all of these. And guess what? Nothing like this existed. At the very least, throw it under your bed. Then, when it comes time that you need this information again, you can find it! I know you guys think I’m being sarcastic, but I’m not!”

I will be sure to remind them of this when I hand it back.

The AES student that I always talk about tried challenging me on this, when I said that you need to understand these ideologies in order to understand the rest of the century. I explained, yeah, you do need to know because you can’t truly understand why people did what they did without knowing what their ideology is. He called Hitler a dictator, as well as Stalin. Yes, that is true, but, more specifically, they were Communist. He kept doing his trademark wince-y face thing, saying, “not really,” but I was able to eloquently say, “yeah, really.” He ended up not giving me trouble for the rest of the period, and he actually did his work.

One of my students in my last period saw one of the sheets and asked, “why are there Republicans and Democrats, instead of Capitalism?” I like him. He’s a smarty. I should ask why he’s not in AES. Anyway, I told him that he’s right, there should be capitalism, but I put Democrats and Republicans on there to help people figure out where they are on the spectrum, and to also see how close they are to each other, when compared to radical ideas.

It went very, very well. There wasn’t much struggle against it (in the form of groans), and they were asking really good questions. I am going to do this in every class I ever teach. Understanding political ideology is extremely important!

On a semi-related note, the kids (especially in 7th/8th) have been trying to get me to tell them my political affiliation. They all seem to be convinced that I am a Democrat, but considering some think that Romney is a Democrat and that their logo is the elephant, I keep using that to my advantage. On the chart, as you can see above, it asks for a famous person from that ideology. One of the kids asked, “are you a famous Republican?” I said, “no, I’m not famous” in a funny way, but he was like, “Ha! We got you, Miss!” I was like, “dude, it’s pretty clear that I am an anarchist, that’s why I’m teaching this class.” I finally convinced them to get back to work, telling them that I would tell them on the last day what my party is.

On a completely different note, I posted a couple of posts ago that the Student Aide and I put up the new bulletin board. It’s titled “Women In History: Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”.

Communism

Fascism

Socialism

Anarchism

Republicans and Democrats (Got online, then adapted)

Political Ideologies Handout