Try
to transition closely between the first activity that reviews
grouping and your discussion of the Issue Analysis.
Review guidelines for
the Issue Analysis
Have students revisit
the guidelines for the Issue Analysis. This is the last
level of analysis we are asking them to do in this unit although
they will have done all the process work as they create their
groupings in the Annotated Bibliography. The Issue Analysis,
then, asks to students to explain in writing why they
have grouped the sources in the way they did and to foreground
the thread or theme that holds the approach together. These
points should also tie to the issue (why does NRA view gun control
the way it does?) and how each approach shapes the way the issue
is seen by the public eye (the NRA's appeals to our "right
to bear arms" highlights the "constitutional" aspect
of the issue).
Show students a sample
(see the Appendix) and/or have them practice in class with a class
example before writing their own explanations
Design an activity that
incorporates the sample Issue Analysis from the Appendix and/or
an activity that has students create an explanation in small groups
or as a class. For the latter, you might find a series of
brief articles from the NYT (or use ones we have used
before) that you believe create an approach to an issue.
Have students read through the articles and then identify the
thread/theme that holds them together in a approach. On
an overhead, have students write out their explanation of the
approach to present to the rest of the class.
You can also allot class
time to students creating their own approaches. Have students
bring in their sources and their Annotated Bibliographies.
If you haven't had them group their sources yet, allow them time
to create approaches and label them with short title (e.g. The
Children's Safety Approach). Then have them freewrite (with
or without looping) an explanation of why the sources belong in
each approach.
The main elements of
each explanation should include (but need not be limited to) the
following:
What is the approach
called?
What common values or
beliefs (individual or cultural/social) do the sources hold?
What common concerns
do the sources represent?
What is the purpose(s)
shared by the sources?
Is there a vested interest
that holds the sources together?
Is there a common need
represented by the sources?
Beyond Pro/Con
It is important to remind
students, too, that we are not looking for pro/con approaches
and ideally we'd like them to avoid pro/con and "something
in between" as well. This means an approach could look
like the following:
Issue: Is the Death
Penalty the most effective way to deal with murder in our society?
Approach #1: Crime
Deterrence
Approach #2: Religious
Approach #3: Law
and Justice
Approach #1 is comprised
of sources that all center on crime deterrence.
But some of the sources feel that the death penalty deters crime
while others feel it does not. The same goes for
Approach #2; some people that associate themselves with religion
feel that it is not humans' right to kill because, for example,
the Christian Bible advises not to kill, while others align themselves
with the "eye for an eye" mentality. Finally,
many people involved in the Approach #3 feel that the death penalty
is not the only way to deliver justice to victims and others feel
that the death penalty alleviates full prisons and reduces taxpayers'
burdens.
While this example is
not perfect, it does illustrate how students can go beyond pro/con
in their Issue Analysis. |
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