Short Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Young Goodman Brown" link

"Rappaccini's Daughter" link

Voter Education Service Learning Project

Introduction

For this assignment, you will be serving the city in which you live by helping educate registered voters about upcoming general elections.  In order to educate others, you will first need to educate yourself.  This project will be completed in three steps: Research, Educate Others, Reflect.

The reflection paper for this project is due on Tuesday, October 25 (the day after we return from Fall Break).  Please submit your reflection paper by Googledocs.

Research

Research the following information.   Take notes to help you as you prepare to educate voters about the upcoming elections.

A.      Find your parent/guardian’s voting precinct, voting location, and voting times.

B.      What issues have been recently debated by the city council and/or by candidates? You should look for specific issues in the following areas:

a.       Taxes

b.      Zoning

c.       Services (waste, utilities, parks and recreation, snow removal, education, etc.)

d.      Safety & Law Enforcement

e.      Local ordinances (noise, loitering, etc.)

C.      Select a specific race and learn about both candidates.  Do two of the following to learn about the candidates:

a.       Conduct a brief phone interview of both candidates

b.      Talk to the candidates’ election committees

c.       Review brochures

d.      View the candidates’ websites

D.      Briefly compare and contrast the stances of both candidates on one of the major issues.

E.       Identify reasons people give for not voting

F.       Identify reasons people give for voting

Educate Others

You will first practice your presentation with your own parent(s)/guardian(s). With your parent, complete the steps below.  Then have your parent approve the list of adults you plan to visit/educate.

List Interviewees Below (Must be of voting age, live in the same voting precinct as you, and be from 5 different households)

Name                                                                              Phone Number                              Initials

__________________________________                     ________________________   _____
__________________________________                     ________________________   _____
__________________________________                     ________________________   _____
__________________________________                     ________________________   _____
__________________________________                     ________________________   _____

Parent Signature____________________________________________

During the Interview:

1.       Before sharing information with your interviewee, ask these survey questions.  Write down the answers to these questions.  Simple yes/no answers are acceptable.  If the interviewees wants to provide additional comments, write down a very brief summary of the comments.  After the interview, RECORD the responses to the survey questions in the class Googledoc spreadsheet.

1.       Do you know where to vote during the upcoming city election?

2.       Do you know what day to vote during the upcoming city election?

3.       Are you going to vote in the upcoming city election?

4.       Do you know the candidates for the upcoming city election?

2.       Educate your interviewee by doing several of the following:

1.       Share some statistics about how many people attend city elections.

2.       Share some statistics about the number of votes separating the winners from the losers in recent city elections.

3.       Discuss some of the ways city governments influence our day-to-day lives.

4.       Discuss the specific issues for your city that you researched.

5.       Share what you have learned about the candidates for the specific race you investigated.

6.       Give your interviewee a handout indicating where he/she can find more information about candidates and city issues.

Reflect

Write a reflection paper on your experience.  Your reflection should be 300-400 words and in MLA format.

1.       What was your first impression of the candidates? Which candidate would you vote for and why?

2.       Do you think the issues the candidates are dealing with are even important?

3.       What did you learn about people of voting age?

4.       How do you think this project will influence you when you turn 18 and can vote?

a.       Is voter apathy a problem?

b.      Does voting make a difference?

c.       Are there other reasons to vote besides changing the outcome of an election?

cosmogony

Gruff

by Bradley

    It all started with a person named Gruff. He saw that there was nothing so he decided to make something so he wouldn’t be bored.
    He didn’t know how to make water though. So he cried because he couldn’t make water and also because of his boredom. Then he stopped crying and saw that his tears had made water. He decided to call this water Ocean.

He was satisfied with the Ocean for a while then became weary of it. “How can I make this better?” he thought. So he decided to make creatures to inhabit the water. He named these creatures fish.

He was satisfied of his achievements for a short period of time, but quickly got bored. So he came to the conclusion that he should make creatures that lived out of the water. “How would they survive?” he asked himself. Then, he decided to give these creatures wings and he called them birds. “They have no place to rest,” decided Gruff. So he decided to make land.

These creatures couldn’t see, so he made a bright light, which was called day and lesser lights, which were the moon and her stars.

He was satisfied for awhile. Then he got lonely so he decided to create a woman to inhabit the land. After she was created he saw that she had no food for nourishment. So he created the trees that bear fruit and animals with their meat and every other thing that the women would need to survive.

He saw what he accomplished and was pleased. Then he saw that the women was lonely so he went down from the sky to join her and they became the mother and father of all children.