Latest / Inside the OSD / S3 E10 - OSD Legislature in Session! Ft. Chris Wiegman, Evan Bonsall, and Student Leaders

Transcript

S3 E10 - OSD Legislature in Session! Ft. Chris Wiegman, Evan Bonsall, and Student Leaders · Inside the OSD

• 0:00
  SPEAKER1: One of the five values of the Oregon School District is "empowering and relevant learning experiences." Today,
• 0:06
  we are going to see this value in action right here in our OHS Political Science classes.
• 0:12
  Hello and welcome to Inside the OSD.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER2: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids.
• 0:21
  Here is your host, lifelong educator, and our superintendent, Doctor Leslie Bergstrom.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER1: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us about your background here in the OSD?
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  SPEAKER3: I'm Chris Wiegman. I'm a social studies teacher, t he department chair for the social studies.
• 0:40
  This is my sixth year in Oregon School District and 12th year overall.
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  Um. Teaching the political science class for the first time this school year.
• 0:50
  Yeah, and I'm Evan Bonsall.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER4: I'm also a social studies teacher here at OHS.
• 0:54
  This is just my second year at OHS. Um, but it's also my second year teaching political science.
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  And this--this year I've had the pleasure of teaching it alongside Chris.
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  We have two sections this year, whereas last year we just had one.
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  SPEAKER1: Now you were the pioneer on this, but I bet it's awfully nice to have somebody along on the journey with you.
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  Somebody to talk to about it, to collaborate with.
• 1:17
  Yeah. I bet that's been big.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER4: Absolutely. And I-and I want to be clear, I mean, I certainly didn't create the class.
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  This is--we use the legislative semester curriculum, which has been used for decades at high schools all over the Midwest.
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  And there are quite a few schools in Dane County that use the same curriculum and have done for years.
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  Um, I know McFarland High School also just adopted this curriculum.
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  So, um, I think we can talk about this more later.
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  But what's really powerful about the legislative semester curriculum that we use for political science is that it's just--it's incredibly engaging.
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  Um, it's authentic. And I think it teaches students not only how our government actually works right,
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  but also teaches them really important citizenship skills that they'll hopefully be able to use for the rest of their life.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER3: Yeah, and I could jump in and just say that collaboration has been a big part of the process.
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  Um, we're currently writing an article for our in-house professional journal, um,
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  that's going to document the journey that we've kind of been on for four years.
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  And it's been collaboration at the center from the very beginning, from collaboration within the department with,
• 2:25
  uh, with Evan and the legislative semester.
• 2:27
  So lots of partners that have helped make this happen.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER1: Oh that's fantastic. Can you both give us an overview of the political--political science class approach overall?
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  Because you're talking about it, but our listeners probably have no idea how this works,
• 2:42
  how this goes.
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah, it's a really unique class. Um, students who have taken the class say that it's different from just about any other course that they've taken in high
• 2:50
  school. Um, the political science class we teach here, um, again, using the legislative semester curriculum is designed to be an
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  authentic, realistic --or as realistic as possible--simulation of how real legislature works,
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  how US Congress works, or how our state legislature works, or how our county board works.
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  Students come in each day, and instead of calling them by their first name, we call them by their last name,
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  Representative Bonsall, right? Representative Bergstrom, etc.
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  um, and uh, from day one, we use uh, the rules of parliamentary procedure.
• 3:30
  W e expect students to address each other not by their first name, but as representative so-and-so.
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  Um, and we debate real live issues that are being discussed in the world and in our country,
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  uh, from day one. Starting with, you know, relatively low stakes issues, we will introduce a resolution,
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  um, about whether students should be able to have cell phones in school or not.
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  Um, or about, uh, regulation of teen social media use.
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  Um, but eventually we work our way up to more complex or more contested issues.
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  Um, you know, we've, uh--and ultimately, students write a bill with a couple of their classmates,
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  um, that's modeled on the same format and the same, uh, you know, style that is used to write real bills,
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  real legislation, um, by actual legislators.
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  And they write these bills, they try to sell their classmates on them.
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  Um, ultimately, they need to get them approved with a small--by a small group of their classmates in a committee hearing,
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  a simulated committee hearing. And then the culminating event of the semester is a full legislative session where students in every section of the class.
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  So this year, dozens, next year, maybe 150 or more students all come together in the same space.
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  Um, and debate all of the bills that have been passed out of committee that have been written by their classmates,
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  and they are able to vote on those bills based on their real, authentically held opinions.
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  At no point are students assigned roles.
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  They get to choose which political party they want to caucus or team up with.
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  Um, they get to choose how they vote, you know, "yes or no" on each bill and resolution we debate throughout the whole year.
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  Um, and all of the leaders--all of the student leaders that are--that help make it happen are volunteers.
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  They've all stepped up and been elected or appointed by their classmates, not by us.
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  Yeah.
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  SPEAKER3: And I could just add on that a real shining part of the course and the curriculum is,
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  um, students getting to explore their political identity, um, and understand their perspective more fully and learn to understand the
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  perspective of others. Um, so that's a real big part of the class, um, along with those collaborative elements,
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  um, that Evan was talking about with working on bill teams, uh, Lobbying your peers,
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  trying to convince them to come onto your side and discuss those issues in an open format.
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  SPEAKER4: Yeah. And I think that, you know, one other thing I would add, I mentioned, you know,
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  skills that we teach earlier. And, you know, Chris is talking about collaboration and learning how to talk with people across
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  lines of difference. One thing that we emphasize from day one and throughout the whole semester is the idea of civil discourse.
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  You know, how do we talk across lines of disagreement with each other in a civil and productive way?
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  The goals of our conversations are not, you know, for one side to win from day one.
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  It's to find common ground and solve problems, answer questions.
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  Um, and students do a really good job with this.
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  I think we see this not only in students, you know, really being eager to try to amend the bills and resolutions that are
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  put before them, trying to find solutions, find common ground to get as close to a unanimous support or unanimous vote as
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  they can, but they also are able to talk about really controversial issues that in other settings-without those rules of civil
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  discourse being enforced and being followed by everyone and being understood-might be really challenging.
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  You know, last year we had students write bills about abortion and the death penalty.
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  This year we had students write a bill about sexual assault, right?
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  So really serious, uh, heavy issues. Right.
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  But students are able to talk about them productively.
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  And I think that's one of the coolest things about the class to me is like, these are,
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  of course, you know, teenagers. But at the end of the day, they're young adults and we're teaching them how to,
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  after high school, go be responsible citizens.
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  SPEAKER1: Well, they're one step away, in some cases one year away or one semester away from being eligible voters.
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  And so understanding the way government works. But as you said, it's so much more important than that.
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  The civil discourse piece, I'm hoping that that's the biggest thing they take away is that it is possible,
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  right? To talk in a civil manner with people that you don't necessarily agree with,
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  and try to find common ground.
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  SPEAKER3: Yeah, yeah. One thing in that vein of thinking, one thing I think a lot about is,
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  um, the role schools play in a democratic society.
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  Um, and so I really feel like this course is really second to none in creating citizens that are ready to go out and participate in a democracy.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER4: Absolutely. We even simulate the process of registering to vote and really showing up to vote.
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  Um, we have a election that all students taking the class can participate in.
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  Uh, were--the speaker of the House. The speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives is elected by her classmates.
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  Um, the leaders of each party. So the Democratic leader and the Republican leader are elected by members of their party.
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  Um, and in order to vote, students have to register to vote using a form that's similar to the real voter registration form they fill out.
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  Once they turn 18, they have to show their voter identification card when they go to the polls to vote.
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  In order to run for those leadership positions, students have to get a petition form and collect signatures from their
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  classmates. And we also combined a real voter registration drive with that, where we made it possible for students to register to vote online
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  in real life if they were 18 and they were going to be eligible to do so.
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  SPEAKER1: Now, knowing that this year students elected to take the course, and starting next year,
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  this is a requirement for students, right?
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  Do you see that influencing anything related to how you're designing the course for next year?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER3: Yeah. So next year we'll go to scale for the junior class next year.
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  And so each semester we'll have around 150 students approximately taking the class.
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  And so one um, sort of, um, change that's going to take place is just more logistical management.
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  Uh, for example, when we do committee hearing day, uh, this year with around 30 students,
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  we had, uh, two committees. We will probably have around ten committees next year.
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  So the logistics of the course, um, and finding the spaces, um, around the school and,
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  you know, managing students around the school during committee time is one of those adjustments that we're going to be brainstorming around and working on in
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  preparation for the fall.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER4: Yeah. And I think there may be some other small adjustments we make as well.
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  Um, you know, for example, maybe we'll end up doing our full session at the end instead of being one full day where students are excused from their classes.
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  Maybe it will be two, uh, half days, right?
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  A morning and an afternoon session just to make logistics a little bit easier.
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  Um, and also encourage, you know, continued engagement, um, from students and, um,
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  maybe also giving students a students a break to help them think about, "oh well, what do we want to do differently or do better tomorrow?" Um,
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  I think that especially with a larger number of students, you know, some adjustments like that may need to be made. But the really nice
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  thing is we do have support from teachers who have taught the legislative semester for many years at other schools that we're talking with.
• 11:06
  Yeah. And of course, we don't need to reinvent the wheel.
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  Every school is a little bit different, but there are schools, uh, similar to Oregon.
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  There are schools that are very different from us.
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  Um, who have all taught this same legislative semester curriculum successfully as a required course that all students are required to take,
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  you know, for many years.
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  SPEAKER1: Wonderful. That's a great example of collaboration, right?
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  You're right. You don't have to go back to square one.
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  You can lean on the experience of others.
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  That's really fantastic. And I'm sure in the future others will be leaning on your experience because,
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  um, I have a feeling that when this begins to be as successful as it seems like it will be.
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  I think other schools would be knocking on the door asking for your input on what they should do also.
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  SPEAKER3: Absolutely. And that was actually our experience.
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  Um, so the the network, um, that the legislative semester has is just remarkable.
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  So a group of us actually, when we hired Evan a few years ago, um, he was doing a long term sub job in another district,
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  but we were able to bring him along to a site visit in West Chicago, Illinois.
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  Right. Uh, to watch this in process and really, um, learn by by observing.
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  Um, so, yeah, I think definitely in our future, we want to be that model school for other districts.
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  SPEAKER1: Thank you. Could you please introduce yourselves?
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  SPEAKER5: I'm Will Mayo, a senior.
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  SPEAKER6: I'm Gadise , a junior.
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  SPEAKER7: Uh, I'm Gage, I'm a senior.
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  SPEAKER8: I'm Kody Friend. I'm a junior. I'm
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  SPEAKER9: Seedy, I'm a junior.
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  SPEAKER1: All right. Thank you. Um, how did you prepare for this activity?
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  And what tasks or tasks did you have to do to get ready for it?
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  SPEAKER5: Um, originally when I came in, I am the chairperson for my our class.
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  So that's kind of how that all went. And then before, in FFA, we would do some party stuff.
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  And I was in that last year. So then it was like, oh, so
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  SPEAKER1: you kind of understood parliamentary procedure?
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  SPEAKER5: Yeah. It was.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh that's great.
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  SPEAKER5: A lot more in depth than we did it in FFA.
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  But so I understood basically what was being said and being done.
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  SPEAKER1: Okay. Thanks.
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  SPEAKER6: For me it was just kind of understanding the basics.
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  Um, just knowing the procedures, what to say.
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  Um, kind of like making scheduling for things and.
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  Yeah. What was your role? So I'm majority leader, so I kind of just had to, like,
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  get our caucuses. Um, just like our ideas in line, our possible positions and, um,
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  orders for speeches. Wow. Okay.
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  SPEAKER1: Gage?
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  SPEAKER7: Uh, along with that, I was the--my, uh, minority leader.
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  So the same kind of thing as what Gadise said.
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  I organized kind of my, uh, party and helped coordinate, like, everybody's ideas and thoughts and assigned,
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  uh, who would give speeches during our full session.
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  SPEAKER1: You know, you both made that sound like it was just a list of things to do, but actually, it sounds really difficult.
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  And we can get back to that later. But coordinating all of those people and everybody's positions on issues must have been really interesting.
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  How about you?
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  SPEAKER8: We spent most of, if not the entirety of the semester preparing for this exact moment.
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  So yeah, we constructed our own bills to begin with, and then we sort of passed it through the first house of wherever we were doing
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  it from. And then we finally had our full House session, and that's where we brought everything we learned together.
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  And that was chaotic in itself. But honestly, I think everybody enjoyed it for the most part.
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  SPEAKER1: Did it take the whole day?
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  SPEAKER8: It did. It did take the whole day. I mean, we had maybe an hour left at the end,
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  but okay, most of it. We were definitely discussing.
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  A lot of people put their heart and souls into their bills and really try to, as much as they could,
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  to make this the best possible moment that we could make out of it.
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  SPEAKER1: I love the fact that you said this is what you've been preparing for all semester.
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  How about you?
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  SPEAKER9: I was a clerk, so I had to, like, write people's name down to school attendance.
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  And then I had to read the bills before, like other people got to, like, talking.
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  And I have to vote out. I had to choose who voted yes or nay for their bills.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, you have to write down who did each, who said yay or nay?
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  Yeah.
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  SPEAKER9: Okay. If the bill passes or not. Okay.
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  SPEAKER1: Now, are these the roles that all of you had in your classes the entire semester?
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  Did you start with these roles or were you assigned these roles later?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER9: Almost every semester we had them.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER1: Okay. All right. So you were really preparing.
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  How has the activity helped you with your learning?
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  How did all of this help you in ways other than the class?
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  And then what will you take away from it?
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  SPEAKER5: I think that, um, the way like, you'll always hear like, "oh, they're making a law or this or they're making a bill for this." I think
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  this gave more in depth to actually how it goes, because you've heard that "I'm just a bill" song with them when we're actually
• 15:59
  doing it. It's just more like, "oh, this is actually what it's like" and what it looks like to die in committee and then become an official law when presidents
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  veto bills and how that gets worked around and worked with.
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  SPEAKER1: I am so glad you brought up that song, because that was my elementary school education.
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  On how a bill becomes a law. So I'm glad you have that experience, too.
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  How about you?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER6: Yeah, I kind of learned the day to day for like a legislator. So like kind of like the long day with the full session and just kind of learning about how
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  different elections not only like presidential but even like smaller, like town elections,
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  kind of how they work. And how
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  SPEAKER1: they impact
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  SPEAKER6: us. Right. And how like concise everything needs to be in order for things to actually get done.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER1: Yeah. And the precision of language. Yeah.
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  That's big. How about you, Gage?
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  SPEAKER7: Um, to add on to what Gadise is saying, it helps me understand, um, like how and why sometimes it seems like legislation
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  takes so long to get through a process is because in committees where everything is really decided on and finalized.
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  Um, so that's where all of like people's differences of wording and things are worked out.
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  Right. And then the full session is really just to bring that together and just,
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  uh, like, publicly state what it's supposed to do.
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  SPEAKER1: Thank you.
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  SPEAKER8: Mine was--my opinion on this whole thing was basically what everybody said combined,
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  because we definitely learned a lot about the justice system, a lot about how it all goes down,
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  the process, everything. And that's what I feel like I'm going to take away from this class,
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  especially though, is the bills. A lot of the bills that we learned about were also like topics that I had no prior knowledge to.
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  Sure. But then when looking into it or discussing the bills, I got really invested in topics that originally you would just hear about,
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  like this is a political issue. But then when you hear more, more and more detail,
• 17:47
  you realize there's a lot more that needs to be discussed to pass these bills or deny these bills or whatever action is going to be taken later.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER1: Oh, sure. That's a that's a big realization.
• 17:58
  It's there's a lot of complexities in each of these things that need to be worked out.
• 18:03
  Yeah. And you.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER9: Uh, well, one thing I learned was, like listening to what other people have to say because it was like a bunch of different bills that other people had
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  different topics --l ike different. I don't know how to say it like different opinions.
• 18:17
  Sure. Yeah. So, like, they had different opinions of what you thought before.
• 18:21
  So like, I just had to listen to what other people were thinking and stuff like that.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER1: Did it change your mind when you heard other people talk things through?
• 18:27
  Did it flip you on some issues?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER9: Yeah, sometimes because yeah, it's important to know what other people are thinking too, and like how it affects them personally. So like. Right. It it did
• 18:36
  change my mind. Like, yeah, yeah.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER1: I appreciate that. People had to be open and listen to other people's thoughts on all of these subjects.
• 18:46
  So does it make you want to dig in more when you hear things in the news?
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  How does it impact you when you hear other things that are going before any branch of government?
• 18:59
  Do you think more about it?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER5: Um, I would say now I would understand more and just see where it was going instead of just like hearing about like,
• 19:08
  "oh, how far are they into the law process?
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  Are they going through committee hearings? Are they going to be voted on?
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  Is it going to the president?" And then like seeing the different times and how long that would take.
• 19:20
  Yeah. Actually just understanding understanding more than just what I'm just hearing.
• 19:25
  Well, it's a
• 19:25
  SPEAKER1: whole new level of understanding, right?
• 19:28
  Before this, it probably--you didn't understand all of the steps that a bill had to go through.
• 19:34
  Exactly. Yeah. So knowing that this is going to be a required class starting next year,
• 19:40
  what advice do you have for the students who are stepping into this in '25-'26?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER8: I'd say take it seriously because you can really, really learn a lot about things that really matter in our country.
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  Yeah, because our country is way different from other countries and how they operate. And understanding our justice system is,
• 20:04
  I feel like should definitely be essential because it's a big part of why we live the way we live today.
• 20:10
  So yeah.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER1: Thank you.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER9: Yeah, I agree with what he said. Before I took this class, I didn't really care about like the news and stuff like that, but now I feel
• 20:18
  like I actually tuned in and know what's going on.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER1: Really? Yeah. Wow.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER7: Uh, I would say to add on to that, um, taking it seriously is also is important,
• 20:26
  but to have, um, fun with it. If--if you're too absorbed in the seriousness of the class,
• 20:33
  you can kind of kind of get lost, and then it seems more like work than it is a process to work through and collaborate with others.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER1: That's good advice. So find find a way to have fun with the whole thing.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER6: Yeah. And for me, I was kind of thinking like just to kind of put yourself out there. I mean, like, it's very student led class. You have to, like, actually,
• 20:53
  like, try your best to be engaged, because without that, it's kind of hard because the people that are running the class are the
• 20:58
  students. It's not like a teacher just talking to you. So if you're not engaged, it's not going to be any fun at all.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER1: That's a great one. That's a great advice.
• 21:05
  Yeah. You're right.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER5: Yeah. I was gonna say like be creative. And as you can make builds on anything, like we had a bill against making gambling more legal for people who are
• 21:15
  younger, like they. I was in that class and they definitely had fun doing that.
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  So, like, if you're more creative with it and you're, you know, you're having more fun with your bills and just be okay with speaking
• 21:25
  out your mind. Because we had good bill debates before we actually started making bills like we like,
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  we were going back and forth just like understanding.
• 21:34
  And then we came to an agreement sometimes.
• 21:36
  Sometimes we didn't. But that's just how that goes.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER1: Did that bill become a law?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER5: No, it did not. It almost--it almost passed in committee.
• 21:43
  It was so close. I wanted it to pass because that would have been amazing to go through during the full session.
• 21:49
  But no, it didn't.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER1: Okay, okay.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER8: It's also a very, very social class. I feel like that's also important to mention.
• 21:56
  What does that mean? You spend a lot of your time conversating and discussing and debating,
• 22:01
  and I didn't realize that originally. I didn't realize that most of the time that we spend in this class would be talking,
• 22:08
  conversating, debating whatever it may be.
• 22:10
  But yeah, it's definitely one of the more social classes that I've ever taken in my life.
• 22:14
  Wow. That's also. And I feel like it could also really help with social skills in general, because all of us can agree here that we've been pressured to talk a
• 22:23
  lot in this class. Definitely. I know.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER1: Okay, good, good. I think it also, um, Probably allows you to learn to have conversations with people who think differently from
• 22:37
  you do that than you do, and to be able to have those conversations respectfully.
• 22:42
  I mean, that's a really important thing for all of us to learn.
• 22:45
  So is that a takeaway, too?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER5: Yeah, definitely. Okay.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER1: That's awesome. Thank you, you guys.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER10: Remember that you can find links to all episodes of Inside the OSD and submit topic ideas on our website at Oregon
• 23:02
  SD.org/Podcast. You can find this podcast anywhere you can find podcasts.
• 23:09
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• 23:15
  We'll see you next time on Inside the OSD, where it's all about the kids.