Current Event Reflection

Current Event Reflection- Brittani's View

1.      Presentation: I believe that my partner and I had a solid amount of information for our presentation but we didn’t utilize our information in the best way possible. The information regarding voting rights is endless and ultimately, the amount of information became extremely overwhelming when we thought about how we would teach this material and how we would teach it using primary documents. Although I definitely wasn’t in the best state of mind because I was sick, I felt that we could have done a much better job of engaging us. I think this may have happened because I still don’t feel completely confident teaching that material because as I said in our presentation, I had just found the information on section 4 and there are still many holes in the information I have. It was also extremely frustrating because one of our videos wasn’t working which had amazing information about section 4 which I believe would have been extremely helpful and engaging for the students. I did feel that we did a good job of using primary documents in order to teach but I agree with you when you said that some other teaching strategy other than a PowerPoint would have been more beneficial. I think that we would have done better if we had asked for advice on what you felt would have been an effective teaching strategy because we didn’t know how we could teach background on voting rights, what prompted change, changes with section 4, and also talk about the different bills in a cohesive and organized way. I felt that if we used centers that the students who began with learning about section 4 may have been extremely confused if they didn’t understand the background of voting rights history which would be at a different center. So ultimately, I don’t think that finding appropriate primary documents for this subject was the issue; it was figuring out how to teach voting rights, using the primary documents, and how to do it so that we don’t confuse anyone or ourselves was the main issue. I do think that the other students in the class have a better idea about voting rights but I don’t think that we gave them enough clear information.

2.      Current Events: I think that whole current event project went relatively well. I do feel that I have a much better idea of many different current events that are happening which is definitely a good thing. From this project, I think I have a better understanding of not just my own point of view on different events by other people who I may not typically come in contact with or communicate with. Sometimes it’s hard to see how changes in voting rights would affect other people and not just myself because when I see how they are implementing the need for I.D’s to vote, I don’t see this as a big deal because I have an I.D but now I see how this actually affects so many people in so many different ways. I do feel that I am more willing to read about these topics in the news because I feel that I now have a basic understanding of this information and will be able to follow along with it. Before, I had no interest in reading the information because I knew I didn’t understand what they were talking about. Now, I feel that I can read the current events, discuss these events, and even take a stand on these events if I felt that strongly about it. I definitely feel more like an active citizen because I understand what is happening beyond just my own life and the people around me.