Remote Learning-Day 1

Greetings Issues Scholars,
Welcome Back (sort of)!! This has been a weird few weeks to say the least. I'm sure many of you are tired of hearing about Covid-19 while others might be looking forward to getting back to Issues to discuss it. Over the next few days, we'll try to balance both points of view. Going forward, this won't be the all Covid all the time class but we won't ignore what is in many ways the defining issue of our time. We will also, however, continue to learn about and discuss other important issues, trying to cover those things that will continue to impact our society even after this current crisis is over. How we do that will be changing and evolving as we go. We'll continue to use our blogs but also Flipgrid (see below), Zoom, and others. This is a new experience for everyone and I'm honored and excited to share it with you.

For class on 3/31:

1. To start today, please fill out this short survey: E-Learning Survey
2. Next, I thought it would be fun and beneficial to get a sense of those things that have been keeping us occupied (and provide a forum to give people suggestions during this period of social distancing). Thus, please add to this chart as you see fit and star or highlight suggestions that you agree with. Consider it a living document that can be added to at any time. Isolation Activities
3. Finally, we'll return to something that I tried to do when we started to "learn from home": Flipgrid. This will be our first opportunity to start a discussion about our current experience:

• First, go to this link: https://flipgrid.com/kramersissues
• You’ll see the new topic for today, titled "Covid-19: What should we remember?
• Record and post a short video (more than 30 seconds, less than 90) with your responses to either of the prompts that are posted under the topic.
• Check back later and watch a bunch of videos from your classmates - you can respond either with a short video or just audio. Please respond to at least 3.

Other Notes:

• You were excused from doing the blog post for 3/16. If you did it, you received extra credit. For now, I'd like you to continue to do weekly blog posts, as this would be a great place to keep track of your experiences during this outbreak. Work to post responses to interesting or important articles that you read or news stories that you've seen in regard to Covid-19. Be sure to include links to the article.
• Your outside reading book is still a required part of this course. If you do not finish it and complete all of the components of the assignment (more info to come on the "book talk"), you will receive an incomplete for the class until it's finished.
• Similarly, if you haven't yet finished your civic engagement assignment, this too is still a required part of the course. Requirements and options obviously will change based on our current social distancing practices. More info to come.

Just checking in

Hey Issues Scholars,
Haven't heard from anyone in any previous methods. If you want to check in and say hello to me or each other, here is a zoom link for 2:30 this afternoon: https://zoom.us/j/699287457
Hope to see a few of you there. We'll try again next week too.
Mr. Kramer

Best Editorial I've Seen

Greetings Issues Scholars,
Here is an editorial from the NY Times that makes some important historical parallels and provides some stark solutions:
Stop Saying Everything is Under Control...
If you read it and have a response, please post it to either the comments below, Flipgrid (Suggested), or your own blog.
Stay safe and healthy,
Mr. Kramer

So, this is new...

Greetings Issues Students,
Hope you're all doing well I know you're all disappointed about a lot of things (as are we all) but this might be the most challenging "issue" of our time. While we don't have any official e-learning assignments to do for a while, I thought that it might be important to check in with each other just to provide a forum for people to gather and discuss anything (from the serious to the stupid). Once e-learning starts, we'll continue to use our blogs as a means for communication but we'll also try a number of other different outlets. The first, informal way is a Flipgrid. If you haven't used it before, it's really easy. It will be a good way to stay in touch, share videos and/or other commentary, arguments, rants, jokes, etc.
You just need to log in with your student email. Here is the link: https://flipgrid.com/kramersissues
Stay safe and healthy and wash your hands!
Mr. Kramer

Parental Consent

After reviewing our work from yesterday, today we'll focus on parental consent laws. Here are your instructions:

1. Make a copy of this document for yourself: Informed Consent
2. Fill out your responses to these questions individually. 
3. Discuss your responses with your group. 
4. Read about parental consent laws here and here (make note of Illinois law). 
5. Discuss: Are these laws reasonable? Do they place an undue burden on a woman's access to an abortion?
6. Have half your group read this article: ACLU: Laws Restricting Teenagers' Access to Abortion and the other half read this article: Parental Consent Laws Protect Teens
7. Share and Discuss: Which are the most important points from your article?  Which arguments are the most compelling? Which arguments are the most persuasive and why? 
8. Last year, Illinois House Democrats introduced a bill to repeal the State's parental notification law. Discuss: Would you support the bill?

Roe v. Wade

Today, we'll take a closer look at the Roe v. Wade decision. To do so, you'll work to have small group discussions about the case and the issues that surround it.
Each of you will receive a packet of information about the case.
As you read through the packet, you'll pause and have discussions about each section. Here are your instructions for those discussions:

• For each section, in addition to participating in the discussion with your group members, you'll need to choose a different member of your group to be: 1)the discussion leader; 2) the note taker; and 3) the vocabularian (in charge of looking up words). 
• While you work, you'll have two chrome books open, one for the vocabularian to look up words and one for the note taker to take notes that keep track of your discussions. 
• You should choose new roles for every section of the packet with everyone having a chance to be the discussion leader. 
• Chromebooks will be shared when the other roles change.  
• Here is a template to keep track of your notes and definitions. The first notetaker should make a copy and share it with the other members of your group. 
• Here are your groups for today:

Group #1 Marissa Hannah Ty Laith Alexa W.

Group #2 Bailey Adam Scott Alexa A. Cassandra

Group #3 Carly Billy Alana Stephen Ally

Group #4 Vittoria Zach Nickko Sophia Brooke

Group #5 Leah Charlie Savanna Emma

Abortion

We'll start today with a brainstorm about the topic of abortion: what we know and what we'd like to know.
Then we'll take a look at where and why this issue remains in the news by reading the following article:
Last Clinic Standing

What to do about white supremacy?

Today we'll start by writing a response to the article that we read last night for homework considering details, opinions and questions. Next, we'll watch this video: PBS News Hour: How These Oregon Teachers are Fighting Back Against White Nationalism.
Then, after a short google search of current events we'll have a discussion about white supremacy in schools and how to combat it.

History Unfolded

Today we'll work on the History Unfolded project.
After hearing some of our findings, we'll read the following article and watch the following video to frame a further discussion.
How Teachers are Fighting the White Nationalists Brainwashing Their Students
PBS News Hour: How These Oregon Teachers are Fighting Back Against White Nationalism

Documenting Hate and History Unfolded

Today you'll first finish watching Documenting Hate:New American Nazis. You'll watch this individually (use headphones) and continue taking notes as you do. You should start where we left off (the 17:00 mark).
If there is time left, you can begin the History Unfolded project that I described on Friday. If you don't have time to start or don't finish, we will finish it in class on Wednesday.