Conceptual Foundations of Civic and Political Life Constructing an E Textbook for High School Civics Classrooms Craig J McMichael Wayne State University Terminal Masters Seminar Project Social Studies Winter 2008 ED 7999 CRN 22612 Dr Bob Pettapiece 2008 C J McMichael Conceptual Foundations Table of Contents Segment 1 Research and Rationale Segment 2 Civics Workbook Student Edition Cover Page Conceptual Foundations of Civic and Political Life Section 1 The Conceptual Foundations of Power On Political Life Hard Copies of Articles Exhibit 1 Origins of Power Exhibit 2 Hesiod Exhibit 3 Machiavelli Origins of Power Assessment Civics Blog Questions Rubric 1 Civics Blog Questions Section 2 Democracy Hard Copies of Articles Exhibit 4 Pericles and the Birth Of Democracy Exhibit 5 Democracy Is Not Best for All Countries Exhibit 6 Democracy Is Best for All Countries Democracy Assessment Rubric 2 Democracy Assessment Section 3 The Six Pillars of Government Structure This Isms of Government Hard Copies of Articles Exhibit 7 Capitalism Exhibit 8 Socialism Exhibit 9 Communism Exhibit 10 Socialism Isms of Government Assessments Rubric 3 Isms of Government Assessment 5 Paragraph Essay Rubric 4 Isms of Government Assessment Homepage Rubric 5 Isms of Government Assessment Comparative Table Section 4 Media s Effect On Gathering Political Information Hard Copies of Articles Exhibit 11 The Internet Has Not Changed Politics Exhibit 12 The Internet Fosters More Divisiveness in Politics Exhibit 13 Alternative Media Encourage Voter Participation Exhibit 14 The Media Have Too Much Influence on Elections Politics Assessment Activity Rubric 6 Politics Assessment Activity Segment 3 Civics Workbook Teacher Edition teacher s notes with each page Segment 4 Michigan High School Social Studies Standards Civics C1 Conceptual Foundations of Civic and Political Life Segment 5 Reflection 2 2 Conceptual Foundations Important Note The various Exhibits Lessons are not included here due to copyright issues 3 3 Conceptual Foundations I 4 Introduction My graduate project deals with the development of a chapter for an e textbook to be used in a high school Civics classroom We live in an age where technology is all around us a fact that is sometimes missing in our classrooms The e textbook provides classrooms with repackaged and more technological based learning styles and strategies all of which assimilate students to learning in surroundings equipped with everyday global communication devices This project made use of electronic information collections within Detroit Catholic Central High School s Library Media Center Catholic Central has the largest digitized high school library in the State of Michigan with more than 120 million pages of digitized information including over 300 etextbooks 11 000 periodical subscriptions and 125 national and international newspapers Annual subscription databases provide further up to date information in a variety of different subject areas In my efforts to encourage traditional learning based classrooms to break away from the familiar notion that textbooks are valuable only for their subject content the idea of an etextbook arose a powerful resource directly connecting students to primary and secondary digitized sources and providing a host of both academic and societal benefits Since technologies are an everyday part of 21st century learners e textbooks deliver the content in a format that is familiar to students Wells 2006 summed up the importance of implementing technologies in the classroom We can no longer teach as we learned We must combine the best of the old with the best of the new and plunge forward to meet the increasing demands of an ever changing technological environment p 40 E textbooks offer a variety of tools and resources that allow students to engage in their learning material in ways that are not possible with traditional textbooks 4 Conceptual Foundations 5 Travel friendly An e textbook offers greater accessibility than traditional textbooks A student needs only a computer to access his or her course documents No longer will there be students walking down hallways with backpacks loaded with textbooks and notebooks instead they will carry only their laptop cases The resource is also convenient for those students going on vacation as they will still be able to keep up with their class assignments PDF capability Most of the articles have the capability of being printed in a PDF format This capability allows traditional learners to print the material and mark it up as they see fit a notable change from traditional textbooks where students are reprimanded for writing in their books The PDF capability also allows schools or students who may not have the technological means to implement this resource the opportunity to print and reproduce it in a traditional paper based format Included in this project are hard copies of all the material for the e chapter E mail Each article a student is assigned to read can be e mailed to his or her personal e mail account No longer will students have to worry about forgetting their books at home but instead can open their e mail accounts and have their articles or sources readily available to them Download Those students not wishing to e mail their assignments or articles may instead download them onto a disk CD or a USB key This capability allows students easy access to the information Translation key key This is one of the greatest advantages of using the e textbook Our classrooms today are faced with a diverse set of learners who come from multicultural backgrounds Most of the articles in the chapter can be translated into eight languages 5 Conceptual Foundations 6 Spanish French German Italian Japanese Portuguese Chinese and Korean There is not another textbook manufacturer that allows for instantaneous translations of their print based textbooks Technology The e textbook makes for a paperless green classroom All of the resources needed for the class are part of the e textbook and all of the assignments can be e mailed to the teacher in the form of an attachment The assignments use a variety of assessments that make use of some of the same technologies that students use in their everyday communications Curriculum Organization The variety of information in the Catholic Central Library collection proved to be an outstanding resource when creating and aligning the etextbook with state and national curriculum standards The chapter is