Let’s Put on a Town Hall Meeting!
One of my assignments in my education courses this semester was to evaluate several WebQuests – basically, online lesson modules that have some kind of interactive research component for the students. One of my chosen subjects was this module, where students conduct research in order to be able to hold a town meeting debate for a presidential election. This module is set during the 2000 election, but I think the general idea might be useful to anyone who wants to incorporate some work from the current election cycle into a high schoo lcurriculum. (Watch, my teacher friends will be here in am inute to tell me what a bad idea this is.)
And for kicks, here’s what I had to say about the module for my evaluation:
The assignment encourages students to do research, look at problems from different ideological perspectives, take stances on issues, and express those stances in a democratic forum. Setting the assignment during the 2000 election was a good decision when the assignment was written, since it connects students to events outside the classroom in an immediate way. If I were to use this assignment with students today, though, I believe I would direct students to research the positions of the two major parties, rather than two candidates. This would allow the assignment to be used during non-presidential election years, and students would have more freedom to design the candidate they portray. A student who feels that, for example, George W. Bush was not enough of a financial conservative, or that Al Gore did not do enough to address the condition of the working poor, could create a presidential candidate that fits his or her vision of the party platform. This has the added benefit of being less exclusionary to female and minority students. I also wonder if the students asking the questions should be asked to do more to try and role-play the positions they take – perhaps the three questioners should have a small deliberative session where they discuss how well they feel the candidates responded to their issues.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.