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Natalie Shymka & McKenzie King

Task:

Through a legislative style debate, students will offer possible methods to alleviate the current Alberta economic crisis. To do this, students are assigned to one of four political parties (Green Party of Alberta, Alberta's New Democratic Party, The Wildrose and The PC Party), and will research what their platform policies are in relation to the current financial crisis in Alberta. Students will present a proposal to the class as if they were the Legislature. Each individual proposal should be 100-150 words long. The proposal will address one of the four solutions stated in our inquiry question. Then, as a political party, each member will attach their proposal into one document that will be submitted to the teacher to be graded. The teacher will also create a twitter account to extend the student’s thinking beyond the walls of the classroom. Students will also each have their own blog on google blogger where they will make three blog posts throughout this learning inquiry responding to guiding questions provided by the teacher. Traffic will be directed to their blogs through hashtags used on the twitter account.

 

Twitter:

The teacher will create a twitter account prior to the commencement of this learning activity. Only the teacher will have access to the twitter account’s username and password, however, the class can help come up with a name and profile picture for the twitter account. The teacher will facilitate the tweets being made, but tweet only about issues that have been taken up in class. Hashtags such as, #preteniceblamesalbertans #abpoli and #albertagood will be used as a way of drawing attention to this activity. The teacher can also tweet at individuals such as Mayor Nenshi in hopes of receiving a reply regarding his feelings on the issue and as another way to draw attention to the activity. When tweets that are made recieve a reply, the class as a whole will think of a response to tweet back.

Google Blogger:

The students will create blogs on google blogger. These blogs are not graded by the teacher, rather they will just be monitored for completion marks. Traffic will be directed to the blog through the hashtags used on the twitter account. Students will be asked to make three blog posts. The first blog post asks students to inquire about what it means to be an ideal citizen. They will pull ideas from Sear’s article (2004), as well as address the four party platform questions seen in learning activity three and how these policies relate to good citizenship. The second blog post will ask students to brainstorm possible questions to ask the special guest from the University of Calgary in learning activity four. The students will then go back after the special guest has come, and provide answers to their questions. The third blog post asks students to reflect on their experience of this inquiry. Were students persuaded to a certain political party’s way of thinking during the debate? Did student’s opinions change about the ways in which they view the oil crisis? Did researching a political party that does not resonate with political views cause them to re-think their opinions or make them more open-minded?

 

Inquiry Question:  

Through the lens of your assigned political party, outline four sustainable policies that will contribute to Alberta’s recovery from current economic crisis. The solutions should create a secure government budget, environmental awareness, meet the needs of Aboriginal peoples, and explore possible energy alternatives.

Suggested Learning Sequence:

 

Learning Activity One:

  • After the group presentation, get back into a class discussion, both factual and personal anecdotes should be discussed in order to give students a more well-rounded understanding of the issue.

 

  • Now that students understand the topic on a macro level, they will look at how the oil crisis affects Albertans on a micro level. Students will begin to ponder how the oil crisis affects them directly. Some guiding questions that can be used by the teacher to prompt personalized thinking about the oil crisis include:

    Has anyone personally felt the effects of the current economic downturn? Do you have a parent or family friend that has been laid off? How has this affected their life?

    Do you believe it will be challenging to get a job in Alberta in the future? Is oil no longer a secure field to be involved in?

    What would Alberta be like if it wasn’t so heavily focused on oil? Would it find other ways to become wealthy? How might this impact your life?

 

Suggested Learning Activity Two:

  • Introducing the Inquiry question:

  • Further introduce topic to students with a Question Period.

    Debate on the video:

    Tom Mulcair and James Moore spar on the economy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLA6fMrDnaA.

  • Ask students to point out unique traits of a Question Period Legislative style debate

  • Questions for class after viewing Legislative Debate video:

    How did the debate begin? How do opposing politiciansaddress each other?

    What is the difference between a Legislative style debate and a presidential election debate?

    Make note of the backbenchers - students will have to emulate this behaviour.

 

Suggested Learning Activity Three:

 

  • Students will use the four guiding questions below for research. Each political party will debate on their solutions for attaining a secure government budget, environmental awareness, meeting the needs of Aboriginal peoples, and exploring possible energy alternatives.

 

  • Four guiding categories for the debate are as follows:

    1.What is your political parties stance on taxation? What types of taxation would they introduce and how would this benefit Alberta? (Income, corporate, other).

    2.What is your political parties view on the environment?

    3.What is your political parties view on current energy sustainability? Are they looking toward new alternatives? Or wanting to better the current energy sources?

    4.How does your political party view Aboriginals and how do you predict they will be considered in your party’s future plan?

 

  • After this students will create their political party’s ideal citizen. Use Sear’s (2004) article as reference to the ideal citizen concept. Students will then create their first blog post in relation to this learning activity.

 

Suggested Learning Activity Four:

  • Invited Political Science professor, Dr. David Stewart is from the University of Calgary. He will come to discuss current political parties in Alberta and their policies in greater detail.

 

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*Although this is for K-3 consider these a guidelines so students understand strong question generating. Do not allow for simple questions and encourage dialogue between the expert and students.

 

  • Use a formative feedback loop during the process of powerful question generating, some powerful questions would be.

    What party would have the best interests for Aboriginals and what exactly does consulting them mean?

    How would the Green Party introduce a Nationalized Electricity Grid?

 

  • Students will create their second blog post before the professor comes with questions that they created to ask him. After he leaves, students will go back and answer their questions posed on their blogs. In preparation for the debate, students will take mental notes of how to be a captivating speaker by paying attention to Dr. Stewart and his voice, body language, and so forth. The teacher will invite Dr. Stewart to view the blog.

 

 

 

Suggested Learning Activity Five:

  • Students begin preparing for the debate. In relation to using Dr. Stewart’s talk as evidence, students will research viable evidence through various sources (newspapers, party websites, magazine articles) to begin forming an argument for the essential question of: .

 

  • Teachers should form a verbal/written feedback loop with students and each political party as a whole. Students will need assistance in understanding how Legislative style debates work and how to properly participate in one. Written work should be submitted before the debate with feedback for a strong argument and performance in the debate.

 

  • The written debate proposal should be 100-150 words and students need to be ready to engage a rebuttal with other parties (this part is not written or planned). The debate proposals will be written on a Google Doc for easy access for feedback throughout the entire inquiry.

 

 

 

Suggested Learning Activity Six:

 

  • The debate. Students will be split in half when they are being assigned to political parties. On the first day of debating, the first half of students will debate while the other half has essentially a “free work period”. They can go to the library and polish their proposal, or take the period to catch up on other homework.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • The debate will be set up like a legislative style debate. The teacher should have students arrange the desks beforehand to mock a legislative debate (see picture). Students will address the teacher as, “Ms. Speaker”. Each political party will have one leader, who will have the opening statement to introduce their political party. Each student will have 2 minutes to speak. This will be timed by the teacher who will let the students know when they are at 1 minute, and when they have 30 seconds remaining, followed by putting their hand up when their time is finished. Open discussion is not timed.

 

  • Students will debate in order of issues beginning with taxation and ending with energy alternatives.

 

  • Students will be marked individually during the debate using the rubric provided at the beginning of the inquiry.

 

  • Students who are not proficient in English can have the option of privately delivering their proposal to the teacher. This can be done during a lunch hour, or before or after school starts. This way, these students can avoid any embarrassment or self-consciousness if they are uncomfortable with speaking English.

 

Suggested Learning Activity Seven:

  • After the debate takes place, each group will hand in a final copy of their proposal to the teacher. Each student will have already individually wrote 100-150 words about the perspective they they spoke about during the debate and why that perspective is held by members of their assigned political party.

 

  • Then, as a group, the students will combine their individual proposals, already written and utilizing the feedback, into one google document.This should flow and have coherent transitions between each individual statement.

 

  • The proposal needs to identify a secure government budget, environmental awareness, meet the needs of Aboriginal peoples, and explore possible energy alternatives.

 

  • The proposal should be formal, but should have clear indications of persuasive statements and evidence that will be outlined in the debate. Use rubric as a guide for expectations.

 

  • Students proposals will be posted on the classroom blog (already existing). Traffic will be directed to the blog by the teacher as a facilitator, the teacher will use hashtags such as #preteniceblamesalbertans #abpoli and #alberta.

 

  • After the completion of the written proposal students will again take the Vote Compass: Alberta Provincial Election 2012 Explore the Political Landscape quiz.

    Vote Compass Quiz: http://www.cbc.ca/news2/canada/albertavotes2012/features/votecompass.html

  • Their posts should be a personal reflection on how their stance remained the same, or changed during this inquiry. Some guiding questions that will help students include:

  • Did you find that your initial political views were challenged at all?

  • Did researching political party platforms change your view in regards to that particular political party?

  • Did the proposals delivered during the debate persuade you in agreeing with what they speaker was saying? Did the way they gave the speech influence how credible their evidence sounded?

 

Outcomes Addressed by This Learning Inquiry:

 

Big picture:

How does the current oil crisis and current political party effect how Alberta's money is being spent? Also how does this affects individuals on a provincial level, but also a global level? How can the government make Alberta more economically and environmentally stable in the future? How should the government spend its money? (Pull from the “hook” video watched in learning activity one). How do legislative debates contribute to the decisions made the Alberta government? How do energy sources and taxation in Alberta differ from other places around the world? (Compare Alberta to Norway).

 

 

Related to Key Issue 3 in Alberta Programs of Study: To what extent does globalization contribute to sustainable prosperity for all people? 

 

 

 

Outcomes of program of study Social Studies 10-1:

 

  • recognize and appreciate multiple perspectives that exist with respect to the relationships among politics, economics, the environment and globalization

  • explore multiple perspectives regarding the relationship among people, the land and globalization (spirituality, stewardship, sustainability, resource development)

  • evaluate actions and policies associated with globalization that impact the environment (land and resource use, resource development agreements, environmental legislation)

  • analyze multiple perspectives on sustainability and prosperity in a globalizing world

  • explore understandings of contemporary economic globalization

  • use skills of formal and informal discussion and/or debate to persuasively express informed viewpoints on an issue

  • ask respectful and relevant questions of others to clarify viewpoints

  • listen respectfully to others

  • use a variety of oral, written and visual sources to present informed positions on issues

  • collaborate in groups to solve problems

  • on evidence derived from research

  • demonstrate proficiency in the use of research tools and strategies to investigate issues

  • generate new understandings of issues by using some form of technology to facilitate the process

  • demonstrate leadership during discussions and group work

  • respect the points of view and perspectives of others

  • demonstrate an understanding of how changes in technology can benefit or harm society— in the context of the present, the future and various historical time periods

  • analyze current affairs from a variety of perspectives

  • evaluate ideas and information from multiple sources

  • determine relationships among multiple and varied sources of information

  • assess the validity of information based on context, bias, sources, objectivity, evidence or reliability

  • predict likely outcomes based on factual information

  • draw pertinent conclusions based on evidence derived from research

  • demonstrate proficiency in the use of research tools and strategies to investigate issues

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