Urban Geography, American Government.

CONNECTIONS TO MANDATE/MISSION:

An investigation of human behavior encouraging tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic society and protection of democratic values and institutions.

CORE CONCEPTS

• Change: interrelationships of groups in a democratic and pluralistic society.
• Conflict: religion, social, and economic conflicts in democratic societies.
• Culture: resistance to, and lack of, exchange of cultural ideas and values.
• Interdependence: how indifferences in societal groups can affect people's lives.
• Perspective: how people accept and reject political rights of others.
• Responsibility: how roles of individuals and analysis of events that threaten mankind have affected the quality of life and democracy.
• Scarcity: the impact of limited resources on political and social decisions.

During this unit, lesson, or activity, students, individually or in groups:

• Analyze the political privileges of the United States.
• Compare and contrast different types of political systems.
• Communicate in oral, written, and visual formats to explain the political principals of the United States Constitution.
• Work in cooperative/collaborative groups to discuss the system of checks and balances of the American Political System.
• Demonstrate the ability to interact with other students in an open minded and accepting manner of opinions and personalities.
• Read primary sources, discuss and reach consensus on the intent of the sources, including the Bill of Rights.
• Assess the political values of the founding fathers through documents and readings.
• Compare the political values of the United States with those of other systems.
• Compare and contrast the political values in the United States.
• Evaluate the ideals of democratic societies.
• Explain why minorities in a democratic society need to have access to legal protection.
• Examine the universal Declaration of Human Rights and explore its implications for today.

Classroom walls contain newspaper articles and photographs discussing immigration.  Several students are discussing W.H. Auden's poem "Refugee Blues."  The students are working on a variety of projects in conjunction with the study of civil liberties and rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.  One of the projects deals with Gordon Allport's thesis on the "Nature of Prejudice and the Protection of Minority rights in Pluralistic Society."  Other students are working at a learning center that has materials, including primary sources, on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  There is a bulletin board with General Dwight D. Eisenhower's letter to Chief of Staff George Marshall after his visit to the Ohrdruf slave labor camp; this letter gives information pertaining to the students' study of propaganda.  Several appropriate pieces of literature are also displayed in the classroom. 

LEARNING ASSESSMENTS:

At the conclusion of units, lessons, or activities students might

• research reports or essays that identify criteria needed to compare and contrast political systems and the historical roots of these systems.
• debate
• analyze the Bill of Rights to access historical roots of Americans. 
• complete an expository writing that explains the system of checks and balances of the American Political System.
• complete Community Service Projects.