You will select a recent news story (within the past 5 years) that relates to the topic of federalism. For more information about how to choose sources, see the topic under “Selecting News Sources” on our Moodle homepage, in the “Getting Started” section.
Give your post a title that lets us know how the news story relates to Federalism.
Your post should begin by providing a citation to the news article, including the author, title, source, publication date, and a web link. After the citation, you should write a short essay (approximately 300-500 words). In that essay, you should briefly summarize the topic of the article and discuss how it relates to the topic of federalism. Posts should be free from grammatical and spelling errors and must use correct sentence structure.
You also are required to respond to posts made by two other students in the class. These should offer an analysis of the topic. Some questions to consider in your responses: Does this relate to the readings? How so?; What is your reaction to the story?; What is your reaction to the analysis offered in the post? In your response, it is important to go beyond simple praise (ex: “Your post was great! Loved your topic!! Good job!!!). Enthusiasm for the topic is fine, but you should go beyond that and offer analysis/criticism. Comment posts should be at a minimum of 150 words.
Be sure to ground your posts in the readings by relating the news article you selected to the week’s readings. Posts that do not tie into the concepts from the readings/video will receive either no or only partial credit.
Both the initial post and your responses should reflect your own, independent work. See the discussion board rubric for information on how posts are graded.
These posts do NOT require you to give an opinion on the topic at hand. Rather, you’re being asked to demonstrate that you understand how the concepts you’ve been reading about relate to actual cases of politics in the real world. In writing about these issues, you may choose to engage in political discussion, but the such discussion must be civil.
Initial posts that are late will receive a reduced grade of 2 points per day late, up to two days. After 2 days, no points will be earned for an initial post. Response posts that are late will receive a reduced grade of 1 point per day late, up to two days. After 2 days, no points will be earned for response posts.
You will not be able to see any other students’ posts until 30 minutes after you make your initial post. Be sure to “uncheck” the box marked “discussion subscription” unless you want to be emailed every time someone makes a post in the forum.
Ideas to help you get started:
Conflicts between states and the federal government (ex: health care, gun control, education reform, immigration, etc.)
Conflicts between states and cities (mayors or city councils opposing governors, sanctuary cities, fracking, bans on plastic bags, soda taxes, gambling, etc.) // This is Oklahoma state gov
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