As the AP course syllabus requires the completion of unit personal progress checks, today Matthew worked on the PPC for Unit 3. This served as good basis for review and provided the opportunity to discuss the Second Amendment as interpreted by the US Supreme Court, to analyze how to answer an AP concept application question ,to analyze and answer a graph interpretation question. Further, we reviewed Matthew's AP homework essay response , and I provided suggestions on how to elaborate responses in order to score full credit on the exam.
Session Minutes
45
Minutes Student Attended
45
Lesson Comments
Abbreviated classes this week (30 minutes)as the scheduled recess cuts into 5th period .
As polling can impact public policy, we today analyzed patterns, sources, and reliability of polls. I defined the difference between tracking polls, exit polls, and benchmark polls, and we reviewed how these polls impact policy. Poll reliability is an ongoing source of contention . In this regard, I addressed the statistical concept of "margin of error" and we explored why a poll with a margin of error of more than 3% is deemed unreliable. Matthew commented on other factors that create unreliability such as a person's willingness to respond or tendency to answer in a way the poll taker might appear to approve.
We discussed the differing economic ideologies of the Democratic and Republican Party. In this regard, I first defined "fiscal policy" as tax and spending policy. We explored how the parties differ in their view of taxation and how tax dollars should be spent. Accordingly, we next examined both the income tax and the more progressive tax proposal of a "wealth tax." We then identified the spending priorities of the major parties. I described the budget and appropriation process and the current Congressional dispute over raising the 'debt ceiling." We explored the origin and purpose of the statutory debt ceiling and the ideological debate ongoing as to raising the debt ceiling.
I defined ideology and partisanship and explained the impact of demographic and historical factors on both. We then discussed the various types of polls and their functions and explored the extent to which polls can affect public policy. In that regard, we noted various factors that can cause a poll to be unreliable. As the AP exam often tests this area with data and graph analysis questions ,Matthew then completed two AP practice exercises that evaluated the student's ability to analyze data that compared the ideologies of the two major parties. Matthew did very well and we discussed test taking strategies for the AP data analysis questions.
After reviewing the definition of a scientific poll, and poll reliability, we delineated party affiliation and ideology as it applies to core values of individual rights, privacy, limited government,and economic policy. I identified certain issues such as :abortion, school choice, military spending,and entitlements and Matthew then commented on the liberal, conservative, and libertarian ideology for each issue. While we further discussed which ideology likely or generally matched the ideology of the two major parties , we emphasized that our descriptions were generalizations with many exceptions which we noted.For example, while Republicans generally favor military spending ,many Republican congress members today are questioning whether the US should continue its military support to the Ukraine.
I placed the focus of the day's lesson the board: How do ideology , partisanship , and political socialization affect the following core American values: individualism, free enterprise, rule of law, and limited government. We discussed each aspect of each core value and Matthew then identified which ideology ,liberal or conservative , matched each aspect. I then differentiated between ideology and political partisanship. Based on Matthew's test yesterday, I provided some additional instruction on what constitutes a "scientific poll" and how one can glean if a poll is valid based on some of the information in the data.
