Voicethread

My students are using Voicethread to comment on political cartoons. The cartoons were designed by students for this assignment. All of the cartoons deal with issues in the American Revolution. As students make there way through the cartoons they are analyzing the purpose of the cartoon and sharing their insight as to what the cartoon might mean. The kids seem to be enjoying their work. With 100 students commenting on 12 cartoons there is some great discussion building. These discussions will be finished tomorrow with one more day in the lab. Hopefully this final wrap up assignment will help the kids to better understand the idea of a political cartoon and the debated ideas of the American Revolution.

Civics Games

Students in my class participated in a great FREE online game. Thanks to the help of our Librarian/Tech Specialist they were able to learn about the Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court through an interactive game. The website is http://www.icivics.org/games/argument-wars. Students are able to choose a court case and then become the Lawyer for whichever side is of most interest. The cases all explore constitutional issues. I have played my self a few times and the game is academically demanding and fun. While the students go through the game they have a log sheet where they record the arguments and the constitutional issue at hand. At the end of the lesson students will have a chance to reflect on the issue or issues they learned about and how those issues apply to their everyday life.