Hello partners!
My students are pouring over
the classroom surveys and printing out information for the bulletin
board. While they do that, I thought I would take a few minutes and
explain what we are planning for our project as I promised in our survey.
We have a Friday class meeting
on current issues and controversial topics. It is a special class that
I offer instead of free period for the seniors and juniors. We decide
on a topic one week ahead of time and establish two positions. The students
come prepared to take a position on the topic and we have a debate.
What I plan to do is to assign a few students to the computer to create
a pro and con essay based on our class debate. Then we will send this
summary to you each week and ask your students to indicate which side
they agree with. Then we can see how our opinions are similar and different.
We will tabulate the numbers and print them at the end of each of the
point-counterpoint essays.
We also invite your students
to add their ideas or edit the essays to reflect their opinions. Or,
if they want, they can add an essay with a different viewpoint. I hope
this will work. I think it will be great for my students to see which
issues show regional differences. For example, I suspect that there
might be differences on the network when we discuss gun control, given
my assumptions about some of your locations. What do you think? Will
this work?
I will be checking mail 2-3
times a week, but expect to see student work on Mondays or Tuesdays.
Looking forward to our interactions.
Sue Hennessy Mount Arlington
School, VA
