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Please help me design this course!


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Because of some unexpected changes in our plan, I am now trying to put together a course on short notice so my senior will have a typical number of credits for the year.  I'd like it to cover major issues currently facing our nation and/or world.  Please help me come up with some good, non-fiction reads!  If you have a topic and/or a book to recommend, I'll be very grateful!  So far I have this:
 
Immigration of unaccompanied youth from central America - Enrique's Journey.

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You could also have him read/listen to the news and pick a topic of choice. He can either research more on it and write a paper arguing a point or he can first collect news articles over a period of time to use as his main source for his research. I did something like that 1st yr in college.

 

There are sooo many hot topics in the news these days that this could be very interesting n informative for him.

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Oh. My guy enjoys reading the articles from the Impremis from Hillsdale College. http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/current they also have their past issues online. It all free. We signed up and get the paper versions in the mail and my ds (14) reads them right away! Very informative. ...on the line of modern essays with longer sentences, good vocabulary, and grammar.

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Note to self and all of you - when taking a long time to type up a post, especially when it is your plan for a course, be sure to copy it before you submit it, so that if the system decides not to accept it you won't lose the whole thing. :banghead:

 

So, without all of the details now, here's the current plan.

 

Ds will read news daily, collecting articles on these topics from newspaper, online news, The Economist, etc.:

 

world conflicts - Israel/Gaza, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine/Russia, Iraq, etc.

terrorism - Boston bomber trial, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, etc.

human rights violations - slavery, forced marriage/prostitution, child soldiers, religious persecution, etc.

governmental spying - NSA, GCHQ

other governmental abuse of power

epidemics - Ebola, HIV/AIDS

poverty

racism

financial crisis

environmental issues - climate change debate, fracking, wind farms, Monsanto, endangered species

hunger

gangs/drug cartels

health

US immigration policy

 

 

The list was longer before I lost it. What important topics have I left off of this list?

 

So, ds reads current articles on these topics, does additional research for historical background or more info, discusses with me, and then produces some kind of gradable output - essays, oral presentations with power point, quizzes, tests. What other kinds of output do you suggest? I'd particularly like to use this course as an opportunity to practice anything he might need to do in college.

 

Also, I want this class to be a full-year course. Do you think this is enough? If not, what would you add to make it worth a full credit?

 

Thanks for any suggestions!

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is starting to sound a lot like the American Government and Comparative Givernment class we did last year. Maybe more on the current playing out of issues than the question of how they were designed to work.

 

If you haven't done government or Econ, maybe adding a light book on principles to the current events readings.

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The homepage of world-affairs.org has a weekly current events round up -- very globally focused rather than the America-focused.

 

choices.edu has some fabulous materials.  Definitely check out the Scholar's Online videos even if you don't buy the books.  They are free, short, and incredibly informative for their short length.  One of my favorite resources on the Arab Spring.

 

 

 

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The homepage of world-affairs.org has a weekly current events round up -- very globally focused rather than the America-focused.

 

choices.edu has some fabulous materials.  Definitely check out the Scholar's Online videos even if you don't buy the books.  They are free, short, and incredibly informative for their short length.  One of my favorite resources on the Arab Spring.

THANK YOU!!!!!! These will be very helpful to us!

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