Teacher Talk: Presidential Politics (July 2)

This morning in Presidential Politics students read over 3 Supreme Court cases from last week.  We also examined a court case from 1978 ‘Regents of the University of California v. Bakke’ and related that to the affirmative action court case from last week.  Students examined different liberal & conservative viewpoints from magazines, newspapers, & websites that were quoted in the Week magazine over each court case.  We also examined the presidency of Ronald Reagan by looking at how historians viewed his presidency.  Students then researched the different platforms of the Democrats & Republicans during the 1980 election.

After lunch we went to the library to research three different court cases during the Reagan presidency that dealt with student rights.  Students then voted on one of the three court cases they wanted to role-play in the afternoon that dealt with students’ first amendment rights in ‘Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 1988′.  We then got to evaluate four students’ performance in a mock debate of the 1984 election that involved Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale & their running mates.  Needless to say, the debate was quite entertaining!  We ended the class with students role-playing the case they had researched in the library as each student had a specific role of being one of the four attorneys, two witnesses & the Supreme Court.

Tuesday night in Study Hall, students drew a president to role-play during our individual Presidential Face-Off in which they have to defend why they were a better president than their opponent.  Students will spend the other half of study hall working with a teammate researching a President for our team tournament ‘Hall of Shame’ Presidential Face-Off in which their team has to prove that their opponent’s President had a more effective Presidency than their President.

Tomorrow morning our class will be treated to a guest speaker with the Chinese class on how President Nixon’s Trip to China was the week that changed the world!