2012 Presidential Campaign Attack Ad
The artifact was used show students to relevance of studying politics, understanding how to analyze issues larger than themselves and their community, and the importance of becoming a well informed citizen. The artifacts are two presidential attack ads found on http://pcl.stanford.edu/campaigns/2012/. One half of the class would watch “Mandatory”, a Barack Obama attack ad, and the other half of the class would watch “New Normal, a Mitt Romney attack ad on their iPads. After watching the video, the students are to watch it again to try to answer the questions on their campaign ad analysis sheet and to discuss with their partner what they found, saw, heard, and felt about the ad. Then the pairs would find a pair from the other half of the class and share their ads and ideas with each other. The technology helps enhance student learning by allowing them to have the research tools to check the information presented, allow students to replay, rewind, and pause the video to gain a better understanding of the information presented. The activity scaffolds students to go beyond what they noticed about the visuals and narration in the ads to critically thinking about the visible and hidden messages and information being conveyed in the ads and leads students to think about what affect the ads have on those viewing the ad not only from their community, but in other communities across the nation. The activity would help students analyze the ad and share their analysis with other students. Students are able to develop the skills to analyze the media that they come into contact with daily while examining the relevance of studying politics, social studies, and history.
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Current U.S. Foreign Relations Linked to ContentThe artifact, “U.S. flies B-52’s over South Korea”, is a CNN news article from March 19, 2013 and the artifact, "North Korea Plans Nuclear Tests Aimed at U.S.", is a Discovery news article from January 24, 2013 . I had students read this article from their iPads and utilized the article to help connect students not only to global events, but also show the relevance of President Washington’s Farewell Address. Washington’s Farewell Address warned that the U.S. should remain neutral and the nation should not enter permanent alliances with foreign nations since it could work against U.S. interests. In order to help bring the “big idea” of foreign policy and one of the main points of Washington’s Farewell Address to life and help students think critically about U.S. foreign policy, I had students examine the U.S. alliance with South Korea and the tensions these nations have with North Korea. Students immediately understood the relevance of Washington’s wisdom and advice when compared to current events that affected the time they lived in. Many students generated conclusions that Washington might have been right and that they U.S. was no longer following Washington’s advice, which might be the cause to the global conflicts that the U.S. is involved in today. Students made connections to the advice through their discussion about the article and asked many questions about the tensions about the Koreas and the U.S. This allowed me to help students further connect with the content and current events by guiding them to use iPads as research tools to help them gain more information about the causes to the U.S. conflict with North Korea and its alliance with South Korea.
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The Raid on Osama Bin LadenI utilized the 60 minutes interview of “Mark Owen”, a member of SEAL team 6, on the raid on Osama Bin Laden at his Pakistan hideout as a way to help students learn about current events, but also think about the raid from a global perspective. I used this artifact early in the year to assess students’ critical thinking skills and to assess student writing skills. In addition to showing the video, At the end of the video answer one of two writing prompts. One prompt corresponded to how the student would feel if they were Pakistan and the United States had invaded their territory without telling them to carry out a raid. The other prompt corresponded to whether or not the student felt it was fair or accurate for “Mark Owen” to describe the women living in Osama Bin Laden’s hideout as “hostile and aggressive” towards the American soldiers during the raid. The purpose of the activity was to scaffold students to think outside their own perspective and outside of the U.S. perspective. Many students thought that Pakistan would be enraged about the U.S. secret actions and the invasion of their country and many students found that the women might have had the right to be hostile against the American soldiers since it was the American soldiers who were bombarding their home. Other students still felt that the U.S. had the right to take revenge on the one responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The activity was successful with the student conclusions since they were able to empathize with another who seems different and critically think about a situation through different perspective.
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