RESEARCHING THE QUESTIONS

This blog will now enter the final phase of its current effort.  That effort is to give the reader an inside view of an instructional planning process – at least one that this developer is using.  In real time, this writer has been reporting his development of a unit of study designed to be the final unit of a course of study.  The course is American government, a required senior level semester course.

          The topic of this unit is foreign trade and how that trade affects job availability in the US.  This posting will describe lesson eight of the unit.  To date, the unit has students become aware and research the role foreign trade has played in the American economy since World War II.  During that historical time, the American economy has experienced significant loss of jobs due to the shifting of manufacturing to other countries and, some would argue to a much more significant level, automation.

          The lesson this posting will describe is one that sets out to have students engage in more targeted research as they prepare their role in a debate.  As was indicated in the last posting, the class is to prepare to conduct two debates with each student having a role in one of them.  The class has been given two debate questions (proposals) which asks whether a foreign trade policy, at the state level, should be implemented or, if already in play, be augmented.

          The two policy proposals are:

·        The state government in which the students live should rely on a “right-to-work” status the state either currently has or should begin the process to attain (changing their laws to acquire the status) to lure manufacturing activity to the state.

·        The state government in which the students live should engage in an aggressive tax incentive strategy to lure business activity to their state.

          Here is the lesson.

LESSON ON PREPARING A DEBATE OVER STATE ACTION IN FOREIGN TRADE (part 2)

Objective:

Given a research role in a debate preparation project, the student will identify and apply appropriate information regarding his/her state’s policy in eliciting foreign investments and/or the transfer of manufacturing facilities.  This objective will be evaluated in terms of the product of that research and its implementation in the debate activity.

Lesson steps:

          Pre-lesson.  See previous posting, “Setting the Problem,” October 17, 2017, for this element’s description.  In this eighth lesson, the “newsletter” will be again provided by the newsletter group.  The factoids for this newsletter is provided by “Live Velshi and Ruhle,” MSNBC, November 8, 2017.  The factoids are as follows:

·        Currently, trade with China amounts to $648 billion a year.

·        Exports to China is $91 billion.

·        Imports from China is $365 billion (exports exceed imports by about 4 times over).

Also, the claim that was made on this MSNBC show is that China is not a currency manipulator – this can be researched by students.

          In addition, the teacher will prepare two handouts.  One, he/she hands out a listing of all the insights the teacher research discovered.  Two, he/she hands out student designations list for the upcoming debate activity.

(Same day steps)

1.     Teacher hands out the newsletter for the day, lists of insights, and role designation for the upcoming debate activity.  He/she explains to students what the information is.  Students are given time to read the material while attendance is taken and other administrative items are handled. (nine minutes)

2.     Teacher divides class into groups, the affirmative debaters, the negative debaters, and the interrogators. 

3.     Once in their groups, students begin discussing, strategizing, and researching their part of the upcoming debate.  (most of the rest of the period)

4.     Teacher circulates around the classroom to assist and monitors students being on task.

5.     As the period has about seven minutes left, the teacher calls on representative from the affirmative and from the negative to work out a point of stasis position.  That is the position or statement of the proposal that will be used to begin the debate.  The point of stasis identifies with what both sides agree.  Often that means the actual wordage of the proposal changes and becomes more nuanced.

6.     Teacher ends period encouraging students to continue their research and remind students that the next class period will conduct the “right-to-work” debate.

Assignment:  Student finishes preparing his/her role in the debate.

That ends lesson eight.

CHOOSING SIDES

Picking up the current effort of this blog – the development of a unit of study suitable for an American government course – this posting is the plan’s seventh lesson.  For those readers new to the effort, the unit has as its focus the policy area of foreign trade and how that trade affects the availability of jobs in the US.  This course is required for graduation and is offered at the senior level of a high school curriculum.

          This blog, as a lead-in to the actual lesson planning, shared the developer’s research into this topic.  As has been pointed out repeatedly, the development is in real time.  That research identified eighteen insights, mostly regarding the history foreign trade since World War II.  This seventh lesson incorporates one – possibly the last – of these insights.  It is:

In the US, while the federal government is mired in debating its proper role, state governments have become very aggressive in competing for jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector.  South Carolina is a good example of this.  Some strategies are aimed at luring such jobs from other states. 

This approach is particularly true in the south where they rely on being “right-to-work” states (a provision of the Taft-Hartley Act that diminishes the bargaining position of labor unions).  Of course, such moves – transferring jobs from one state to another – do not help the overall welfare of the American economy. 

Other strategies include tax incentives (mostly tax reduction plans); but best of all are investments in infrastructure (highways, bridges, communication facilities, schooling and training facilities, etc.).  Also in this pursuit of businesses and investment are larger cities. 

In the extreme, subsidies can prove to be hurtful by its diversion of public funds from needed public services and reliance on “right to work” provisions can hurt manufacturing workers as they lower wages and weaken legitimate union representation.[1]

This was originally the fifteenth insight.

          Overall, this insight will be the foundation of the final phase of this unit.  This phase will last for four class periods and will take the unit to its conclusion.  It will have students prepare and conduct a debate (deliberation) over what a local jurisdiction and its citizen should do over this issue.  It will then have students perform whatever the deliberation decides to do – its action component. 

          Here, from the posting, “The Action Part of the Deal,” are the types of actions in which students can engage:

·        showing up for and taking part in political meetings;

·        scheduling and putting on political meetings which can be platforms to express political opinions or demands;

·        organizing and carrying out fund drives;

·        canvasing an area to gather signatures in support or against bills or other initiatives;

·        seeking to attain membership on political boards;

·        joining or starting a political club;

·        participating in debates or other deliberations over a social and/or political issue relevant to student lives; and

·        starting an educational plan that leads to an occupation that has public value.

This unit will encourage students to petition their state government to take on what they determine would be an appropriate policy concerning foreign trade.  This can include organizing their community members to take part.

          Here is the lesson.

LESSON ON PREPARING A DEBATE OVER STATE ACTION IN FOREIGN TRADE (part 1)

Objective:

Given a research role in a debate preparation project, the student will identify and apply appropriate information regarding his/her state’s policy in soliciting foreign investments and/or the transfer of manufacturing facilities.

Lesson steps:

          Pre-lesson.  See previous posting, “Setting the Problem,” October 17, 2017, for this element’s description.  In this seventh lesson, the “newsletter” will be again provided by the newsletter group.  The factoids for this newsletter is provided by an Atlantic Monthly article.  The factoids are as follows:

·        “Roughly half of respondents to a Federal Reserve survey conducted in 2015 said that they could not come up with $400 in an emergency, with a third saying they could not cover three months of expenses, even if they sold assets, dipped into retirement accounts, and asked friends and family for help.”[2]

·        “When it comes to monetary policy, there is far less space for the Federal Reserve to maneuver than last time [when the nation faced an economic downturn in 2008]. Interest rates remain near scratch [zero]. The Federal Reserve already has trillions of dollars of assets on its books, bought as part of its policy of “quantitative easing” to depress the value of the dollar and spur investors to make riskier bets. There is still a lot that the Fed could do during a downturn, including buying up more assets.”[3]

(Same day steps)

1.     Teacher hands out the newsletter for the day.  Students are given time to read the newsletter while attendance is taken and other administrative items are handled. (seven minutes)

2.     Teacher asks students if they have any clarifying questions regarding the newsletter.  (five minutes)

3.     Teacher asks students to take out their work from the previous night’s assignment.  They are to also to take out a sheet of paper.  With their work, students are given two questions to answer – this is a quiz.  The questions are:  Should a nation follow a “beggar thy neighbor” policy or a “nurturing” policy in their foreign trade?  And why?  They are to answer in a paragraph or two (no more than half a page effort).  Student answers are collected.  (fifteen minutes)

4.     Teacher projects on the overhead or board insight indicating the role states are assuming in trying to solicit foreign investments or manufacturing facilities from other countries or other states.  The teacher asks students:  what should their state do regarding getting companies to move their manufacturing and other facilities to their state or to get investors to fund their state’s economic environment?  Students engage in an initial exchange of ideas.  (seven minutes)

5.     Teacher tells students that the class is going to prepare two debates.  One will be over whether their state should or should not rely on a “right-to-work” status they either currently have or should begin the process to attain (changing their laws to acquire the status).  The other debate is whether the state should engage in an aggressive tax incentive strategy – yes or no. Each debate will entail three groups.  One group will argue the affirmative position; a second group will argue the negative position; and a third group will be a panel of interrogators.  Teacher asks students to indicate which group they will individually like to be assigned.  Students indicate their choice by raising their hands when the group is mentioned.  Teacher asks students to indicate their choice – they, individually, can only be in one group – on a sheet of paper coming around the room (perhaps one sheet for each row to expedite this step).  (seven minutes)

6.     Teacher tells students that starting with the next class period, they are going to prepare a communication effort – the result of the debates – to a selected public official(s) – the governor, members of the legislature, a cabinet member, or some other official who deals with economic development.  This will be the action element of this unit.  Since the topic is international in scope, realistically, this area of concern offers little effective action outlets.  Yet, citizens can make their positions known to governmental decision-makers.  On the ninth and tenth days of this unit, students will prepare a letter to such an official indicating their position given the results of their debates assignment.  Students should review their notes overnight and be prepared to engage in research during the next class period. (rest of class period)

Assignment:

Given their likely role in the debate preparation effort, students begin doing initial research.  Such research should consider the standard debate format they have been exposed to during the instruction of this course.  At this point, the students, it is assumed, have been instructed on what the various elements of a debate are.  They are point of stasis, initial argument, rebuttal, and follow-ups.  These debates will also an interrogation element.

          That is the end of the seventh lesson.

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[1] Ibid.

[2] Annie Lowry, “The U. S. Isn’t Prepared for the Next Recession,” The Atlantic Monthly, October 31, 2017, accessed November 2, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/10/next-recession-prepared/544391/ .

[3] Ibid.