Vote-By-Mail Structured Academic Controversy (SAC)

• Students will be able to assess the value of the Vote-by-mail system.
• Students will be able to communicate ideas, listen actively, and summarize one another’s thoughts.
• Students will analyze texts to draw conclusions.

• Vote-By-Mail Lesson Plan with Activity Sheet (form fillable pdf)
• Visual Analysis, Timeline & Testimonies Text Set
  • Visual Analysis: How To Vote, An introduction to vote by mail
  • Source 1A: Timeline (Washington’s Progression to Voting by Mail)
  • Source 1B: Jonathan Bechtle, director of the Voter Integrity Project at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Testimony Opposing Vote by Mail, pages 71-72
  • Source 2A: Timeline (Washington’s Progression to Voting by Mail)
  • Source 2B: Sam Reed,Washington Secretary of State, Statement on May 5, 2010
• Notes & Discussions Activity Sheet (form fillable pdf)
• Vote-By-Mail Lesson Plan with Activity Sheet (editable document)
• Notes & Discussions Activity Sheet (editable document)

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1.  Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

• D4.1.9-12.  Construct arguments using precise and knowledgeable claims, with evidence from multiple sources, while acknowledging counterclaims and evidentiary weaknesses.

Structured Academic Controversy (SAC)

• Have students make predictions about how this relates to the compelling question in the Staging the Question portion of the note sheet.

Teacher Notes

1. Pair/Team Assignments
   1. Pair students into teams.
2. Pairs Study and Prepare
   1. Pairs independently study their assigned viewpoint information.
   2. Students take notes, keeping track of arguments to use (see Discussion Worksheet).
   3. Each pair prepares and practices a presentation it will make to the other pair.
3. Teams “Debate” ~ without Arguing
   (Teacher uses timer to make sure teams stay on task. Teacher walks through the classroom listening and assessing participation levels and degree to which students stay on task.
1. First pair presents their position and supporting arguments to opposing pair (3minutes).
2. Second pair feeds back the first pair’s position and reasoning to the other’s satisfaction (proving that each pair has listened and understood the other pair’s presentation – 1 minute).
3. Second pair presents (3 minutes).
4. First pair feeds back the second pair’s position and reasoning (1 minute).
5. Teacher invites students to drop the position to which they were assigned and continue to discuss the issue in teams, now reaching for a consensus.
4. Whole Class
   1. Ask each team to report on its discussion. If teams didn’t come to consensus, have them report where their disagreements were.
   2. As class, discuss how the discussion went. What were the stronger/weaker arguments?
   3. Have the class fill out the rest of the Discussion Worksheet. Collect these to assess the impact of the discussion.

• Students design new infographic to support voters using the vote-by-mail system.