The Newark Public SchoolsDebate Addendum
NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS
DEBATE ADDENDUM
CURRICULUM GUIDE
2008
NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS
A D M I N I S T R A T I O N
2008-2009
State District Superintendent...... Dr. Clifford B. Janey
State District Deputy Superintendent......
Chief Financial Officer...... Mr.Ronald Lee
School Business Administrator
Chief of Staff...... Ms. Sadia White
Assistant Superintendent...... Ms. Joanne C. Bergamotto
School Leadership Team I
Assistant Superintendent...... Mr. Roger Leon
School Leadership Team II
Assistant Superintendent...... Dr. Glenda Johnson-Green
School Leadership Team III
Assistant Superintendent...... Ms. Lydia Silva
School Leadership Team IV
Assistant Superintendent...... Dr. Don Marinaro
School Leadership Team V
Assistant Superintendent...... Dr. Gayle W. Griffin
Department of Teaching and Learning
Assistant Superintendent...... Dr. Kevin West
Department of Special Programs
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page...... 1
Board Members...... 2
Administration...... 3
Table of Contents...... 4
District Mission Statement...... 5
District Goals and Guiding Principles...... 6
Curriculum Committee...... 8
Course Philosophy...... 9
Course Description...... 10
Recommended Textbooks...... 11
Course Proficiencies...... 12
Indexed Guide for Teachers……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..16
Standards, Goals, and Objectives...... 17
Course Pacing...... 23
Curriculum Units...... 33
Appendix...... 81
THE NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS DISTRICT
MISSION STATEMENT
The Newark Public Schools District’s mission is to develop a productive citizen who is distinguished in all aspects of academic endeavors and willing to challenge the status quo in our society. We are committed to ensuring that our policies and practices will prepare our students for a world that is increasingly diverse and knowledge driven. We expect our schools and classroom environments to be emotionally safe and intellectually challenging. We pledge to partner with parents, groups, and organizations that add support to the mission by changing hearts and minds to value education.
Dr. Clifford B. Janey
State District Superintendent
GOALS AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Reaching for the Brass Ring
GOALS
- Goal 1IMPROVE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Provide all students with equal access to opportunities that demonstrate high academic standards, high expectations, instructional rigor and alignment with the NJCCCS, and which embody a philosophy of critical and creative thinking.
- Goal 2DEVELOP STUDENT MORAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Equip students to be productive citizens by addressing needs, enhancing intellect, developing character, and instilling pride and hope.
- Goal 3STRUCTURE THE ORGANIZATION TO BE EFFICIENT,EFFECTIVE AND ALIGNED WITH THE DISTRICT MISSION
Allocate and align resources on the basis of student needs with high achievement as the ultimate goal.
--Schools and district offices will have effective and efficient programs, processes, operations and services to assure that all students and other customers will have access to certificated, highly trained professionals.
--Budget and fiscal systems will support the focus on student achievement through timely and accurate processing of documents.
- Goal 4ENFRANCHISE COMMUNITY / EMPOWER PARENTS
Engage community and family in meaningful decision-making and planning for Newark children.
GOALS AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Reaching for the Brass Ring
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
- FOCUS ON STUDENTS
Every Newark Public Schools employee must be committed to high achievement for all students and assume responsibility for that success. Everyone clearly communicates the vision, focus, and goals of the district. All district policies, procedures and activities are aligned in support of student achievement.
- HIGH EXPECTATIONS / STANDARDS DRIVEN
All district personnel are constantly analyzing data and feedback to ensure high standards and support to enable all students to be successful.
All school communities are constantly monitoring data and feedback to ensure that each student has the necessary personalized support and quality-learning environment to meet high standards and expectations for learning.
- CARING AND SAFE ENVIRONMENT
The district is committed to safe, clean, aesthetically pleasing educational work environments. Students’ and employees’ diverse backgrounds, abilities, interests, and needs are respected. Structures and practices that promote personalization and equity of access are provided.
- SHARED DECISION MAKING
The district participates openly and honestly in productive, collaborative and reflective communication and systemically solicits feedback from multiple stakeholders. Systemic feedback loops are established to ensure that all stakeholders (including district offices, administrators, teachers, parents and students) are engaged in dialogue for the purpose of shared decision-making.
CURRICULUM COMMITTEE
Javier Nazario – Social Studies Supervisor
Tariq Raheem – Social Studies Teacher/ Debate Coach
Randy Mitchell – Social Studies Teacher/ Debate Coach
Whitney Farrand – Middle School Teacher/ Debate Coach
Newark Public Schools
Debate Addendum
Course Philosophy
Reduce passive learning, increase active learning get your students debating. Engagement and peer teaching are the cornerstones of what makes debate an incredible tool for learning in the classroom. The Debate Addendum serves as an essential companion of all Social Studies teachers seeking to give students an opportunity to engage history. The course gives students a chance to grapple with important concepts like our nation’s founding fathers did as they drafted the US Constitution, or as political leaders heatedly discuss serious topics where their final decisions could impact millions of American citizens.
The readings, discussions, and written assignments are designed to acquaint students with the major historical works in selected topical and chronological sub-fields. Students broadening their historical knowledge while sharpening their ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. Upon completion of this course, the learner will develop the ability to assess and think critically about historical issues and varied interpretations of these issues. Moreover, the Debate Addendum encourages civic engagement where students can learn how to improve their analysis of a topic from their peers. Debating will make it easier for students to accept constructive criticism and to immediately craft future speeches that are more concise and convincing arguments at any venue where making convincing arguments are necessary.
A teacher that engages students in several debates over the span of the course makes learning participatory and fosters some of the highest levels of critical thinking for all students in the class whether they are debating or judging. Students that debate have to craft arguments and questions that demonstrate mastery of the content material. Debaters are forced to reach the deepest meaning of the readings, and to convince judges debaters must also reach for the highest and best meaning/ interpretation of the arguments. Finally, there are no passive learners in a debate because students that are not debating are judging in this role they must listen to note/ flow arguments presented and generate an unbiased decision that meets the needs of the greater good and they must be able to justify their decision, surely no easy feat. We believe every teacher could easily integrate at least three debate events in their instruction throughout the year with the Debate Addendum.
Newark Public Schools
Debate Addendum
Course Description
The Debate Addendum Curriculum Guide is designed for use by any Social Studies teachers who want to integrate debate with regular course instruction, particularly all levels of US History instruction, but World Culture and Economics teachers could use it too. The purpose and spirit of this Debate Addendum Curriculum Guide is so that any teacher could easily introduce debate in their classrooms without having prior debate training. The topics selected and the support resources behind the topics were selected with the aim of getting students excited about historical and contemporary topics and to help students to have a forum to teach other students varying aspects about a topic in the class. Research has proven that, students who communicate ideas on debate platforms are more likely to “get it”, “remember it”, and share the knowledge with others, which helps those same students, and their audiences, in later endeavors when they have to present ideas or perform on timed standardized assessments, because participating students are required to research and cross-apply background knowledge or rubrics in a cohesive and concise fashion. Because this may be the first time teachers and students are communicating in this method of learning the Debate Addendum Curriculum Guide provides links to the research and can be infused gradually or rapidly by the instructor just by selecting a topic. Best of all, there are proven student-driven and teacher-driven alternative assessments methods that are easy, exciting and that promote efficacy in learning to encourage the “Changing of Hearts and Minds to Value Education”.
Recommended Textbooks/Resources
The core of the Debate Addendum is reliant on the two textbooks that should be in every Newark high school for US History classes, the Americas and We The People, and may be readily available in middle school classes. If you have a different version of the textbook teachers may have the same content but have to double check page alignment.
Danzer, Klor de Alva, Krieger, Wilson, Woloch. (2007),The Americans. Evanston, Il: McDougal Littell. ISBN# -13 978-0-618-88854-2
Duane E. Smith et al., (1995)We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution. Calabasas: Center for Civic Education. ISBN# 10 0-89818232-8
Teacher Reference Texts
Teachers using the Debate Addendum Curriculum Guide will find everything they need to get started and to stay engaged in the pages that follow. The additional sources needed for student research are linked to reliable online sources. A teacher looking to use a resource for debate should download and print materials prior to actual instruction, unless the class is taught in a computer lab where students can view the files to gather the information they need.
Course Proficiencies
3.3:D. Oral Presentation & 6.1:A. Social Studies Skills
Standard 3.3All students will speak in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.
Standard 6.1 All students will utilize historical thinking, problem solving, and research skills to maximize their understanding of civics, history, geography, and economics.
Primary Cumulative Progress Indicators:
3.3:D.1 Speak for a variety of purposes (e.g., persuasion, information, entertainment, literary interpretation, dramatization, personal expression).
6.1:A.7Analyze social, political, and cultural change and evaluate the impact of each on local, state, national, and international issues and events.
Free Speech v. Social OrderSupporting Cumulative Progress Indicators:
6.2:C.2 Analyze, through current and historical examples and Supreme Court cases, the scope of governmental power and how the constitutional distribution of responsibilities seeks to prevent the abuse of that power.
6.2:D.4 Recommend ways that citizens can use knowledge of state or federal government policies and decision-making processes to influence the formation, development, or implementation of current public policy issues (e.g., First Amendment right to petition for redress of grievances).
Industrialism v. Environmentalism Supporting Cumulative Progress Indicator:
6.6:E.8 Delineate and evaluate the environmental impact of technological change in human history (e.g., printing press, electricity and electronics, automobiles, computer, and medical technology).
6.4:H.1Analyze and evaluate key events, people, and groups associated with industrialization and its impact on urbanization, immigration, farmers, the labor movement, social reform, and government regulation.
National Security v. Privacy DebateSupporting Cumulative Progress Indicators:
6.4:L.5Compare and contrast key events and people associated with foreign policy, including the fall of communism and the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, United States involvement in Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Kosovo, the Iran Hostage Crisis, and the war on terrorism.
6.2:C.1Debate current issues and controversies involving the central ideas of the American constitutional system, including representative government (e.g., Electoral College and the popular vote), civic virtue (e.g., increasing voter turnout through registrations and campaigns), checks and balances, and limits on governmental power.
Eminent Domain v. Property RightsSupporting Cumulative Progress Indicators:
6.5:B.9Describe how clearly defined and enforced property rights (e.g., copyright laws, patents) are essential to a market economy.
6.5:B.4 Discuss the value and role of free and fair competition versus the social need for cooperation and how business, industry, and government try to reconcile these goals.
6.4:E.6 Compare and contrast the major philosophical and historical influences on the development of the Constitution (e.g., Washington's Farewell Address (1796), Locke's Second Treatise, the ideas of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and William Paterson).
Immigration v. CitizenshipSupporting Cumulative Progress Indicators:
6.4:L.6Compare and contrast population trends and immigration and migration patterns in the United States (e.g., growth of Hispanic population, demographic and residential mobility).
6.4:K.7 Describe how changes in federal policy impacted immigration to New Jersey and America, including the shift in places of origin from Western Europe to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia.
6.2:B.2 Analyze the successes of American society and disparities between American ideals and reality in American political, social, and economic life and suggest ways to address them (e.g., rights of minorities, women, physically and mentally challenged individuals, foreign born individuals).
State Government’s Rights v. Federal Government’s RightsSupporting Cumulative Progress Indicators:
6.2:A.4Evaluate competing ideas about the purpose of the national and state governments and how they have changed over time (e.g., the American version of federalism, the powers of the federal government and the states, differing interpretations of Article I, Sections 8-10).
6.2:B.2Propose and justify new local, state, or federal governmental policies on a variety of contemporary issues (e.g., definition of marriage, voting systems and procedures, censorship, religion in public places).
6.4:L.7 Discuss major contemporary social issues, such as the evolution of governmental rights for individuals with disabilities, multiculturalism, bilingual education, gay rights, free expression in the media, and the modern feminist movement.
Globalization v. IsolationismSupporting Cumulative Progress Indicators:
6.3:H.2Assess the growth of a worldwide economy of interdependent regions and the development of a dynamic new world order of increasingly interdependent regions, including NATO, the World Bank, the United Nations, the World Court, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the European Economic Union, IMF and OPEC.
6.5:B.3Analyze labor and environmental issues affecting American citizens raised by economic globalization and free trade pacts.
Curriculum Units
DEBATABLE TOPICS (these links go to the curriculum alignment pages, there you can hyperlink to the activities and resources for that debate topic)
Page 33……. Free Speech v. Social Order
Page 34 …….Industrialism v. Environmentalism
Page 35……..National Security v. Privacy Debate
Page 36……..Eminent Domain v. Property Rights
Page 37……..Immigration v. Citizenship
Page 38……..State Government’s Rights v. Federal Government’s Rights
Page 39……..Globalization v. Isolationism
Suggested Course Pacing
Debate comes in many forms with debates lasting well over forty minutes but topics can also be adapted to as short as seven minutes using the SPAR Debate format listed below. Instructors should review the styles of debate below so that they could fully understand options for teaching debate.
ALTERNATIVE FORMS of Debate and Assessments
Page 23…… Lincoln Douglass Debate Format
Page 24……SPAR Debate Format (Have a round in less than seven minutes!)
Page 25……. Karl Popper debate (European-style team debate)
Page 26…….American Parliamentary Debate Format (team debate)
Page 27…….Role Playing Debate Format
Page 28…….Class Closure Activities (Exercises used to end a debate round involving all students)
Page 29……. Assessing Debate (How can the teacher assess the success of the students?)
Page 30……. Debate Rubrics (So that students can self assess)
Instructors should use the Table of Contents on the next page to navigate quickly through: rationale for debate, debate styles, rubrics, curriculum and activities.
(back to top)
Handout on Introducing Debate - Purpose of Activity
(as per NPS Debate Curriculum)
WHY DEBATE?
Debate is about change. We are constantly engaged in a struggle to make our lives, our community, our country, our world, our future, and a better one. We should never be satisfied with the way things are now - surely there is something in our lives that could be improved.
Debate is that process which determines how change should come about. Debate attempts to justify changing the way we think and live. In the real world, debate occurs everyday on the floor of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. Debate occurs at the United Nations, the faculty meetings at your school, and at your dinner table. The procedures for these debates may differ, but the process is the same - discussion that resolves an issue, which will determine whether change is good or bad. The United Nations debated whether or not the Iraq invasion of Kuwait was good or bad; the faculty meetings debate school policies; you may recently have debated with your parents after dinner about the size of your allowance or when you can begin to drive your own car. Millions of students have, through the years, found that it is more than worth it.
Debating is fun. Students debate with a partner and against other students. This team at school becomes a debate squad, a community, where they work for and with each other to win. Students will make friends and meet many new and interesting people, while engaging in thrilling contests and traveling outside of their school.