Most college students struggle with the vocabulary of our disciplines. In their various electronic exchanges, they do not use a lot of multisyllabic, difficult-to-pronounce words. And virtually all college courses are vocabulary rich – unfamiliar words abound. Most students know that the new vocabulary in a course is important. They use flash cards and other methods to help them memorize the words and their meanings for their exams. Two days later, the words and their meanings are gone.

Word sort is a strategy that helps students learn and better remember new vocabulary. Students work in small groups, with each group given an envelope containing key terms on separate slips of paper. Students are instructed to discuss what they think the relationships among the words might be. The strategy was developed for use in science courses, where terms have more precise meanings and fit more readily into categories. Students do this initial sort before reading about the terms or hearing them defined and discussed in lecture. After exposure to the words in the text or lecture, students get back into their groups and re-sort the words, comparing their new arrangements with the ones they first constructed.

Lots of iterations of the basic strategy can be used. For example, individual students can be given the collection of terms and told to define and relate them after having done the reading as a homework assignment. Before turning their work in for some modest number of points, students might share with other students in a small group what they’ve done. Or the instructor might use a particularly good categorization in a final review of the material or position that chunk of content with what’s to be learned next.

As might be expected, some students (in this article it was a small group) object to the approach. These are the students who think that the instructor should just tell them the definitions and their relationships. Having to figure it out for themselves means that the students are doing the work the teacher should be doing. What these students fail to understand is that the process of discussing – saying the words aloud and using them in sentences – makes the words more familiar and therefore easier to remember. Exploring how the words relate to each other means that the students are building a framework that puts the words in context, also making the words easier to remember in both the short and long terms.

If students work with the terms and their relationships before being given their definitions and relationships, they are forced to draw on their prior knowledge and experience. Students discover that they often do know something about the terms and their relationships, and teachers need to include more activities in courses that challenge students to draw on their prior knowledge. Students do not arrive in college courses as blank slates – they have taken (in this case) science courses previously. That tasks like these challenge students is a good thing. Students benefit when they are put in situations where figuring out answers is up to them.

Reference:

Nixon, S. and Fishback, J. (2009). Enhancing comprehension and retention of vocabulary concepts through small-group discussion: Probing for connections among key terms. Journal of College Science Teaching, May/June, 18-21.

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The Obameter lists the latest updates to the campaign on its front page and has a 57-item category list of promises that range from agriculture and ethics to terrorism and trade.

To celebrate President’s Day and the new administration, it would be fun to use the 510 campaign promises list as a class project in either social studies or math – or both.

Here’s my game:

• Over the course of a week, ask students to visit http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/subjects/.
• Students should select five campaign promises with a No Action status. Each of the five should be from a different category; however, students can employ strategies to improve their chances of winning.
  Students record their campaign promise, its number, and its category on a scorecard. (Download the scorecard as a Word document here.)
• Each week, visit Politifact.com to track the success of the campaign promises. The first student to have all five campaign promises realized wins a fabulous prize of your choosing.
• Alternate ending: if no one has all five campaign promises with the status of Kept, tally up the points on May 20 (Obama’s fourth month in office) and award prizes to the students with the most points.

Other activities:

• As a whole class activity, track which of the 57 categories garner the most attention from the Obama White House.
• Discuss which campaign promises are stalled or broken and why.
• Track Obama’s (and other politician’s) truthfulness on Politi-fact’s Truth-o-Meter, too.

The game has fun, colorful graphics and sound effects. Each portion of the budget (Defense and Diplomacy, Schools and Kids, etc.) has cards that users can play. A card is a portion of the budget that a player can either add or subtract to the budget. Each card lists the pros and cons of funding the project as well as the likely impact of playing the card.

Players choose three badges, or issues, to support. I chose competitive advantage (education), economic stimulus, and energy. Players can choose badges for the environment, defense, and health, too. Also listed are John McCain and Barack Obama. Since the election results are in, students who choose these candidates to support are really choosing Republican or Democrat agendas.

Play this game to introduce the idea of federal spending or as a culmination for the federal budget unit. Playing it twice to get a better score is a worthwhile goal. The game introduces budgetary silos and fiscal spending issues, so students will have a hands-on learning experience.

The game admits that its scheme does not take into account the recent Wall Street bailout, but the makers write that they will adjust the game when new data becomes available.

The game has sound and interactive graphics; sound is important to this interactive game, so plan on asking students to bring headphones to the computer lab if you use this lesson.

Objective: Explain how federal budget choices impact the nation’s policies and national debt.

Materials:

• A computer with sound and the latest version of Flash for each student or each pair of students.
• Headphones for each student.

Procedure:

1. As a whole class, run the introduction and click Get Briefed for the introduction. Click on the Help tab above the game to help students understand the importance of the badges, policy cards, and budget bust points. Be sure to review the When am I done? section and the What do I do when I’m done with my budget? Section.
2. Assign students computers and allow them the rest of the class period to play the game.
3. On a separate sheet of paper, ask students to record their three badges, their top three budget cuts and their top three spending priorities. Students should come to class the following day prepared to defend their choices.
4. At the end of class, ask students to submit their budgets and record the debt in 2018, the budget bust year, and the size of the government in 2018 (in dollars). Students should circle the badges they achieved with their budgets. If time and resources permit, ask students to print their budget results.
5. Second day: List the possible badges on the board. As students enter the classroom, ask them to make a hash mark for each badge they selected.
6. Discussion: Which badges are the most popular? Do you agree with these priorities? Which parties lean toward these priorities? Did you have many opportunities to make budget cuts in these areas?
7. On an overhead transparency, list the budget areas: Defense and Diplomacy, Schools and Kids, Science and Nature, Housing and Living, Miscellaneous, Infra-structure, Health Care, Social Security, and Taxes. By a show of hands, write the number of students who had cuts in each of those areas. Again, by a show of hands, record the number of students who had budget increases in those areas.
8. Discussion: What did you find the easiest area to cut? Where is the easiest area to spend?
9. Line-up. Ask students to arrange themselves in the order of most debt to least debt. Re-arrange according to who delayed the budget bust the longest, and who shrank the government the most. Ask the crowd to raise hands if they achieved one badge, two badges, or all three.
10. Assignment:
• Create a poll. Using the data we recorded in class about our budgetary preferences, create a poll designed to discover the class’s ideas about personal fiscal responsibility. Is there a connection between the class’s personal fiscal responsibility and their federal choices? Prepare a visual and a brief speech (3 minutes) to explain your results.
• Support your cause. No one is for out-of-control government spending, but lots of us support ideas like universal health care and aid for the poor. Choose the badge that you support the most and justify your spending in three key areas. Write a letter to the editor supporting your cause and the extra spending for it in the budget.
• Gravy for all. This game doesn’t take into account the recent financial bail-outs for Wall Street and others. Were these bail-outs smart or are we racing toward the budget bust date? Find out and explain it to the rest of us.
• Town hall meeting. With a partner, pick a representative or senator from both sides of the aisle and an issue you and your politician feel strongly about. Prepare the debate and stun us with your persuasive skills. Be prepared to answer questions from the citizens in the audience.

National Geographic has captured Pearl Harbor’s events in a multi-media timeline and map that would work well as a history mini-unit, stretching over one or two class periods. http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/ax/map.html The site’s interactive timeline pulls up maps of the Hawaiian Islands with ship and aircraft movements. Clicking on Full Story reveals a paragraph about each event on the timeline, photos from the moment, and sometimes first-person testimonials about the event.

To view this site, it’s best to have sound and the ability to watch video on your computer. Before using this unit, make sure that you have a projector to show the site to your class and that the sound carries to all students. Allow one 90-minute block or two 45-minute classes for this lesson, plus additional time on a third day if students need to present work to the class

Objectives:

1. Students will view the events at Pearl Harbor from the perspective of U.S. citizens and Japanese military personnel.
2. Students will explain the role technology and communication played in both the U.S. and Japanese militaries.
3. Students will compare the events of Pearl Harbor to a pivotal event in their own lifetime.

Materials:

• Computer
• LCD projector
• Sound for the computer (optional)

Method:

Day one/first 45 minutes

1. Define a pivotal event. Write on the board the words “pivotal event.” Underneath these words, pose this question: what is a pivotal event and what are historical examples and personal examples? As students enter the room, encourage them to think about what’s on the board.
2. List pivotal events. Sort students in to small groups and give them five minutes to discuss and create a list of pivotal events, either historical or personal (personal pivotal events might be a divorce or a death). Record the definitions and events on the board for all to reference.
3. Discuss Pearl Harbor in brief. It was a surprise attack, it occurred December 7, 1941, and 2,403 people died. (For comparison, the number of deaths from the 9/11 attacks was 2,819.)
4. Assign readers. You’ll need 28 students to, read the blurbs when you click on Full Story. You’ll need 12 additional students to read first-hand accounts that have no accompanying recordings. Each student can expect to read a paragraph, maybe two. You can assign these reading roles by time, location, and duty.

   Narrators:
   0342 Minesweeper spots submarine periscope
   0610 Six carriers are north of Oahu
   0645 Destroyer spots submarine
   0653 U.S. Destroyer Ward reports attack on submarine
   0702 Radar operators spot unidentified aircraft
   0715 Report about U.S. attack on submarine delayed
   0720 Officer dismisses radar report
   0733 Warning from Washington arrives in Honolulu
   0740 Attack force heads for Pearl Harbor
   0749 Japanese aerial commander orders attack
   0755 Japanese planes strike
   0800 Bombers from the U.S. mainland fly to Oahu
   0810 Battleship Arizona explodes
   0817 U.S. destroyer fires at a Japanese submarine
   0839 Destroyer sinks Japanese sub in the harbor
   0850 U.S.S. Nevada makes a dash to the sea
   0854 Second wave of Japanese planes reach Oahu
   0930 U.S. destroyer Shaw explodes
   1000 Japanese planes head back to carriers
   1300 Casualties mount, filling hospitals
   1300 Japanese ships return home

   First-hand accounts, according to the timeline:
   0610 Six carriers are north of Oahu, Japanese pilot
   0645 Destroyer spots submarine, U.S. soldier
   0740 Attack force heads for Pearl Harbor, Japanese pilot, another Japanese pilot
   0749 Japanese aerial commander orders attack Japanese attack commander, Japanese pilot
   0755 Japanese planes strike
   U.S.S. Arizona, U.S. sailor
   Command Center, female citizen
   U.S.S. Oklahoma, U.S. sailor, another U.S. sailor
   0817 U.S. destroyer fires at Japanese submarine, Japanese sub commander
   1300 Casualties mount, filling hospitals, nurse

   Each reader is responsible for taking notes about his or her time spot on the timeline. Students should pay close attention to what qualities Pearl Harbor has that makes it a pivotal event, the role that technology and communication played, and parallels to pivotal events listed on the board.

5. Begin the timeline. Listen and watch as events unfold. Students should be prepared to read their assigned paragraph and take notes for their sections.
6. Homework/reflection question: what role did communication play in this tragedy? One paragraph answers to share in class.

Day two/second 45 minutes

1. Role of communication. Students meet in small groups to discuss how communication played a part in Pearl Harbor. After five minutes, record the groups’ findings on the board.
2. Revisit the definition of pivotal moment. Discuss: how is this a pivotal moment?
3. Small group discussion: parallels between Pearl Harbor and current pivotal moments. List similarities on the board.
4. Small group discussion: was Pearl Harbor a matter of superior technology or communication? What role has technology and communication played in the class’s current pivotal event?
5. Project possibilities. Students can choose from one of the following projects:

   a. Real world. Collect artifacts (photos, news clippings, and statistics) that reveal the personal element in both Pearl Harbor and the class’s current pivotal event. Projects should be in poster format. Posters should explain why people remember pivotal moments in history and how these moments shape our culture.
   b. Radar Technology. Outline the use of radar in both the Japanese and American militaries in WWII. Create a visual or write a two-page essay about whether radar technology was important in the battle of Pearl Harbor.
   c. Communications Technology. Find out how telegraphs work and explain the lag time between sending messages and receiving messages. Identify the areas where communication went awry in the Pearl Harbor event and compare it to the class’s current pivotal event. This can be either a written paper or a visual product.
   d. Parallel events. Re-enact the events from an area of the Pearl Harbor timeline. Write a script, cast characters, and make the scene come alive. Either write the same scene from the opposite side’s point of view or write the same type of script for the class’s current pivotal event. In a brief introduction, explain to the audience what the two scenes will be. For your conclusion, explain the parallels between the two scenes.

You might not remember, but that was the election when the democrats won back a majority of seats in the House of Representatives.

The Newseum, located in Washington D.C. and on the Internet at www.newseum.org, collects and displays the front pages from newspapers around the world. For historical events, like the day after an election, the Newseum stores the front pages in an archive.

During this election, you might want to visit the Newseum’s site and click on Today’s Front Pages. You and your students will see the day’s headlines and photos from around the country and around the globe.

In Today’s Front Pages Archives, you’ll find the important dates from this year’s presidential election as well as events in recent history like Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, and September 11, 2001.

As a class, look at the headlines for the major events. What’s the class’s favorite headline and why? Which newspaper snagged the best photo and why is it the best? Which newspaper would you buy? Which one is best for history? Is there a newspaper that just doesn’t seem to be on the same page as all the others? Why is the news in that town so different that day?

The Newseum offers a great deal of content online – it’s like a virtual field trip. However, if you’re in the Washington, D.C. area, including some counties in Virginia and Maryland, a trip to the Newseum might be free. Check the website to be sure.

Oh, and if you go? Buy me one of those cute Newshound beanie toys.

Maybe voters are afraid of the small booths, the machines, or the hanging chad. Perhaps young voters just don’t know what to expect.

Whatever their fear, a 2003 study from Representative Democracy in America: Voices of the People found that only 66 percent of 15- 26-year-olds thought voting was part of being a good citizen.

Knowing how to vote, what to expect as voters, and becoming informed voters will help teens overcome their psephophobia and go to the polls when they’re adults. Mock student elections can give teens the experience and confidence they need to cast their ballots when they’re old enough for the next election.

Inside the School has reviewed student online voting sites based on the following criteria: supplemental materials, lesson plans, online voting, and ease of use. Here are our top picks:

Youth Leadership Initiative. ****

Voting date: October 20 – October 30

Will students vote if World Wrestling Entertainment’s wrestler Rey Mysterio tells them to? University of Virginia’s Center for Politics and its Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) are thinking that the wrestlers have influence on youth that stretches beyond the ring and costumes.

The YLI, a service of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, has an easy-to-use student voting site and will overwhelm you with the amount and quality of its teaching materials.

Supplemental materials. YLI sends participating teachers a big packet in the mail that includes a countdown to the election poster. Each day before the election, you can open up a little door to reveal a trivia question and answer. (That’s where I picked up that neat psephophobia word.) I also received a voter issues booklet with questions that candidates should answer. The WWE Smackdown Your Vote! sponsors the voter issues booklet as well as a big issues poster with diva and superstar wrestlers. All of the YLI materials are attractive, informative and eye-catching.

Lesson plans. The lesson plans are extensive and available online. Many are available in both English and Spanish and some can be accessed in audio forma. Lessons are tagged according to level (high, middle, or elementary school). Large topics include the Foundations of American Government, the Constitution, Congress and the Legislative Process, and the Political Process. Each topic has six – 20 individual lesson plans with materials to download.

Online voting. Teachers who register with the site will receive a code to identify their class or school and they can set their voting preferences (online or paper ballots). YLI offers printable teacher instructions and step-by-step printable student instructions as well as online demonstrations of the voting process. Ballots are generated according to congressional district and will reflect the choices of on the ballots in your school’s voting district. National results will be posted online on Friday, October 31.

Ease of use. The demonstration and printable materials make the YLI site very easy to use. You can download a press release to give to your local media as well as printable decorations for voting day. My only criticism is that YLI gives teachers a lot of information and options. Some teachers might feel overwhelmed with the extensive nature of the site.

National Student/Parent Mock Election. ***

Voting Date: October 30

The National Student/Parent Mock Election recommends having a community tea with Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln. You can invite other White House historical figures to come and bring the media along with them. (Tell John Wilkes Booth to stay at home.)

A White House Tea with guests in historical costume and character is one of the ideas that the National Student/Parent Mock Election recommends to generate interest in its nationwide student mock election. Election organizers can also hold a political rally, a town hall debate, or stage an imitation political convention.

Supplemental materials. The National Student/Parent Mock Election hosts an interactive online campaign game that quizzes players about our basic freedoms. The set-up is good: Congressional candidate Roberta Glass wants to censor kids and pre-approve all music, games, and books for children. The town’s kids are upset, but the child rights theme isn’t worked into any of the campaign quiz stops. The kids’ rights frame appeals to elementary and middle school level students, but the quizzes at the campaign stops are geared toward high school kids. The questions are tough and include matching quotes from former Presidents and Supreme Court Justices with freedom concepts. The graphics are great and the campaign stops are clever, but the mismatch between the young kid frame and the older kid questions might disturb some students. The game provides links to resources for students to study before taking the quizzes. Instead of offering position papers, the resources are links to sites like Wikipedia. A search in an Internet search engine would probably yield the same study materials.

Lesson Plans. Teachers can print out issues guides that are written for the current year’s election. The guides are well done with an overview of the topic (economy, energy, health care, war, and education), where the presidential candidates stand on each issue, and a variety of activities students can perform to learn more about each issue. The activities are heavy on essays, but also include conducting a survey, role-playing, and Socratic Seminars.

Online voting. Once you register with the site, the National Student/Parent Mock Election offers three options for voting: individual online votes, kiosk (shared computer) votes, or paper ballots. Individual students or kiosks will receive a registration number to ensure that students cast only one vote. For paper ballots, teachers need to collect, tabulate, and record vote totals on the computer.

The National Student/Parent Mock Election does not offer an online demonstration of its voting procedures, but it does have practice voting from October 1 – October 17.

Ease of use. The National Student/Parent Mock Election claims that it is the largest voter education program, serving over one million students in 2006. The materials are good, and the site offers both a teacher and student voting guide.

Channel One News’s OneVote. *

Voting date: October 20 – 24

Give Channel One News your e-mail address and they’ll get back to you about their voting program. Teachers and students who visit the site, at least at this posting date, are going to be disappointed in the depth of the materials at the OneVote site. The site has great visuals and links to Channel One and NBC online news footage, but little else.

Supplemental materials. According to a press release, teachers who visit ChannelOneNetwork.com can download tools like banners, posters, and lesson plans. However, at the end of September, none of this was available on the site.

Under the heading Fun and Games, students can take quizzes to test their knowledge of the political process. Each quiz comes with a teen-centered advertisement. The quizzes are tough; the only one that might be fun is the quiz that helps teens figure out which political party fits them best.

Lesson plans. Nonexistent at the end of September.

Online voting. Online voting takes place October 20 – 24 and results will be posted online on October 29. OneVote has not provided any teacher or student guides for the voting process.

Ease of use. Entering in an e-mail address for a future update is pretty simple; however, teachers won’t know the voting procedure until sometime in October. Teachers who like to plan ahead will want to avoid OneVote.

The best thing about all of these online student voting options is that they’re all free and you can pick and choose among the three for the best combination of materials to suit your class.

There are just as many voters aged 18-30 as there are 65 and older. Making use of these election year student voting opportunities will help give your students a voice in the 2012 election and beyond.

Electoral College Road Map. The best bit on Sabato’s Crystal Ball is the Electoral College Road Map. You’ll find it when you click on President ’08 on the homepage. The Road Map goes beyond the traditional red and blue states and shows each state’s support of the candidates in pinks and baby blues, too. A state that is solid for Obama will appear dark blue. A state that will likely throw its electoral votes for McCain is pink. Striped states (white and pink or white and baby blue) are those that just lean toward one candidate or the other. True undecided states are yellow.

Below the map, Sabato analyzes each kind of state: the solid and likely supporters, the leaning states, and the undecided states. It’s in-depth, wonky stuff, but the map would make for a great classroom discussion about electoral college math and the possible scenarios that will take one of the candidates to the White House.

Classroom Activities. Sabato has a link to classroom activities that includes some materials from the University of Virginia’s Youth Leadership Initiative (these are the folks that run the YLI Mock Election (check back on September 29 for an article about their service).

If I were to pick just one of the lesson plans, I’d go with the lesson about the Electoral College: Capturing the White House in ‘08: The Battle for the Swing States. You’ll have a hard time finding the cartoon the lesson refers to, but do a search for “The Battle Begins” editorial cartoon and you’ll find cartoonist David Horsey’s work listed near the top. The rest of the lesson’s materials are listed at the end of the lesson plan.

The plan includes a discussion of what makes a swing state and a hands-on computer activity where students interact with Sabato’s Electoral College Road Map to answer questions about swing states, political strategy, and possible election outcomes.

To cap off the unit, students can view political advertisements in the optional resources section and create parody TV ads for candidates.

Other Crystal Ball Resources. In addition to the ’08 presidential race the Crystal Ball also looks at current Senate, House, and gubernatorial races. Each of these sections includes a U.S. map and information about races in each state as well as the implications of the outcomes.

Cinematic maps. The cinematic maps play like a movie and show how the states have changed in population and politics from the 19th through the 21st centuries. When you select a map series, you can pause, rewind, or fast forward the player. Clicking on the year opens up the Wikipedia entry for that year’s election in a new window.

Elections 1840 – 2004 is a series of cinematic maps that illustrate the changes in voting trends over time. It’s fascinating to watch the changing politics in the South, especially in 1864, when those states disappear. Most of them reappear in the 1868 presidential election, but the colors after Reconstruction are interesting to watch, too. The maps tie in both the presidential candidates and the major news event of the time like the Stock Market Crash, Reconstruction, or World War II.

Voting America also has cinematic population maps that show how the white and black populations have stretched across America to the West and have gathered around cities.

Interactive maps. The interactive map shows voting and population trends across the country and county by county. Voting America tells you up front that the interactive map is processor- and memory-intensive. In other words, it takes a long time to load and it might not show up well on your classroom computer. It’s wise to test the feature first and give your computer person a heads-up that you’re thinking of using the site in class.

The interactive map allows users to overlay demographic information, total votes, voter turn out, margins of victory, and political parties.

Video experts. The last feature of the site is probably the most useful. Experts analyze maps and provide insight into America’s changing population and voting trends. You’ll find professors who use the maps to illustrate the coming of the Civil War, the role of third parties in presidential elections, political party realignment, and close elections. Again, this is a resource-intensive feature that might not play well on all computers. It’s a good idea to test it and to have a word with your computer person before you plan a lesson around the features.