Past Trainings

Fall 2012

Deliberating in a Democracy
an approach to Common Core

Saturday, December 1
Location: LAUSD ESC North, 6621 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys

"Deliberating civic issues—weighing opposing views, deciding difficult questions, accepting majority decisions while honoring dissent—is not natural behavior." DID

Teachers received hands-on training using free materials from Deliberating in a Democracy and engaged in activities using other free online resources from CRF and CALIS:
► deliberation unit: Should voting be compulsory in our democracy?
► process: Structured Academic Controversy (including careful reading of text, presenting different positions, listening, identifying common ground, decision-making)
► content: the nature of democracy, political perspectives, historical and global context
► assessment options: performance tasks, writing prompts with rubrics, self-survey

Return to

• Four Worlds of History - 6th grade workshop
  Conquer ancient history!  Attack complexity with powerful tools!
  “Four Worlds of History” builds literacy skills by diving straight into critical thinking. Students improve reading and writing by owning an effective analytical tool! 
  --Karen West, Mulholland Middle School, LAUSD
  
  

• Four Worlds of History - 7th grade workshop
  We dare you to take students deeper into medieval history :)
  Set fire to students' critical thinking with this analytical tool. Watch them blaze through connections across politics, economics, culture and society - past, present, and personal!
  --Martha Infante, LA Academy Middle School, LAUSD
  
  

• Four Worlds of History - 8th grade workshop
  American History: Harness the Content to Unleash Critical Thinking
  We all need good tools and strategies to manage information.  What if your 8th grade students had great tools and you had amazing strategies… and it was all free online?
  --Nancy Ruvalcaba, Bud Carson Middle School, Hawthorne USD
  
  

• A Vocabulary of Virtues: Analyze This!
  History, literature, and current events overflow with provocative characters. Unleash students to better examine and extract life lessons.  Give them a frame to build the vocabulary they need and deserve!
  
  

• Policy Choices: An Ethics Framework for Society’s Moral Dilemmas
  Witness the change in dialog when students trace the moral reasoning behind critically important value decisions. As they distinguish ethical principles, they better understand the role of personal virtues.
  --Gloria Hernandez, RFK Los Angeles High School for the Arts, LAUSD
  --Estela Leon, Foshay Learning Center, LAUSD
  
  

• Economic Crisis 2008: What the *#@! happened?  What next?
  What is the role of government in the market?  A clear grasp of basic dynamics and rich details is critical to understanding classic disagreements and our policy options going forward.
  --Christina Goodman, Banning High School, LAUSD
  --Jennifer Osorio, Banning High School, LAUSD

Martha Infante, 7th grade History
Los Angeles Academy Middle School

Middle School Teacher of the Year,
CCSS 2009