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Lesson 1

We will consider and discuss the unit’s Central Question: How do we balance the common good with individual rights and personal liberty? We will think about complex issues in society in which this balancing act is difficult and often leads to controversy or conflict. Through short animated videos, we will also explore philosophical theories that lean toward one side or the other of the balancing act and consider an ethical problem in light of those theories.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I formulate and use questions to deepen my understanding of topics and texts?

  • Can I make connections and comparisons among ethical perspectives and approaches?

  • Can I work in a collaborative reading team to examine an ethical information source more closely?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “Freedom vs. Security: Freedom at Any Cost?,” Harry Shearer and Nigel Warburton, British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4, 2014
    • “Freedom: The Harm Principle,” Harry Shearer and Nigel Warburton, British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4, 2014

Optional

  • Digital Access
    • “The Trolley Problem,” Harry Shearer and Nigel Warburton, British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4, 2014

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Write – Discuss

As an introduction to the unit and its topic, we will consider the Central Question: how do we balance the common good with individual rights and personal liberty? we will discuss what these two ideas entail, why they are sometimes in conflict, and the places in society in which those conflicts play out.

Step 1

Access the Section 1 Question Set.

Individually, read the unit’s Central Question, highlighting its key words.

How do we balance the common good with individual rights and personal liberty?

In your Learning Log, explain what you think the Central Question suggests in response to this question:

  1. How might public and individual decision-makers have to balance the common good and personal liberty?

Think back to other units, topics, and texts you have studied this year. List examples from your learning that relate to the Central Question.

Think about the realms of society or government in which the balance is often in question. List examples in your Learning Log.

Step 2

Through a class discussion, make a T-chart that lists the examples you have identified from society and your learning this year. For each example, identify in a short phrase the common good and personal liberty sides of the issue. List them in the corresponding columns on the chart.

Based on your reflection in your Learning Log and the class discussion and chart, determine where you currently stand in terms of valuing or balancing the common good and personal liberty.

  • If you think that the common good should be most important in decision-making, go to the left side of the classroom.

  • If you think that personal liberty and individual rights should be most important in decision-making, go to the right side of the classroom.

  • If you think that a balance between these two perspectives should be determined to guide decision-making, go to the center of the classroom.

Discuss the patterns you see about how class members are distributed.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We read and analyze the Culminating Task. We identify the specific knowledge and skills needed throughout the unit to succeed on the Culminating Task.

Individually, review the Culminating Task Checklist.

In a small group, discuss the following questions:

  1. Knowledge: What do I need to know to succeed on the Culminating Task?

  2. Skills: What skills do I need to succeed on the Culminating Task?

Create a checklist in your Learning Log, or use the Culminating Task Progress Tracker Checklist to note what you need to know and do to succeed on the Culminating Task. For each type of knowledge and skill identified, assess how prepared you are.

You will revisit the Culminating Task Progress Tracker and continue to build your understanding as we move through the unit.

Activity 3: Read

We will review the Unit Text List to familiarize ourselves with the texts we will analyze and discuss throughout the unit.

Step 1

Access and review the Unit Text List. Note the information that is included about each text. These texts are also listed in the activities in which they appear, under the Materials tab. You will notice that each text has an icon by it. These indicate where the text is located, which corresponds to the Location column in the Unit Text List.

Text locations:

  • Tradebook: These texts are full-length novels or nonfiction books you will most likely have copies of.

  • Digital Access: You can find these texts online. Use the information provided in the Unit Text List or on the Texts tab for the activity to conduct a web search for the resource. Digital Access resources include online articles, videos, podcasts, and other web sources.

  • PDF Texts: These are formatted PDFs of texts that are available for download on the Materials tab.

  • CD/DVD: These materials are available on CD or DVD and might also be available through online content providers.

Step 2

Review the Independent Reading Text Options. Here, you will find suggested options for independent reading related to the unit.

Activity 4: View – Discuss

We will view two short, animated videos that visually represent two philosophical approaches to understanding freedom in the context of society. We will discuss which side of the common good versus personal liberty dichotomy each video leans toward.

Step 1

View the two-minute animated video titled "Freedom vs. Security: Freedom at Any Cost?" which presents ideas from Thomas Hobbes about why a social contract is necessary for society. As you watch, consider the following questions:

  1. What potential problems with living in a state of nature does Hobbes think would be solved by having a social contract?

  2. What frightening end might result from sacrificing personal liberty in favor of security?

After watching the video, engage in a brief classroom discussion about what you noticed in the animated video, how the video seems to answer the two viewing questions, and on which side of the common good versus personal liberty debate it seems to fall.

Step 2

View the two-minute animated video titled "Freedom: The Harm Principle," which presents ideas from John Stuart Mill about why people should be able to live as they want as long as they do not harm anyone else. As you watch, consider the following questions:

  1. What does Mill think a person should be free to do, as long as no one else is damaged in the process?

  2. For Mill, individual freedom is the seedbed of what two important human characteristics?

After watching the video, have a brief classroom discussion about what you noticed in the animated video, how the video seems to answer the two viewing questions, and which side of the common good versus personal liberty debate it seems to fall on.

Activity 5: View – Discuss – Write

In groups, we will use the video Note-Taking Tool to analyze one of the two philosophical videos in-depth.

In a small expert group, rewatch one of the two videos, using a copy of the Video Note-Taking Tool to write down specific details that are communicated as the whiteboard is filled with images and ideas in the video. List as many visual details as you can, connecting each to something that is said or written in the video. Note: Your team might need to rewatch the video in short segments, or watch it several times.

The Video Note-Taking Tool helps you identify, write down, organize, and analyze the details introduced in a video. As you use the tool, you will become aware of various types of details, including the following:

  • visual detail (VD): image, graphic, or video clip

  • detail (D): specific ideas or positions articulated

  • textual detail (TD): title, quotation, or other text that appears on the screen

  • narrative detail (ND): comment, explanation, quotation, or other detail presented by the narrator

  • interviewee detail (ID): comment, explanation, quotation, or other detail presented by someone interviewed in the video

  • aural detail (AD): music, sound, or other aural detail presented in the video

As you write down details, think about how to categorize them using this coding system, then briefly analyze their meaning. Note that not all of these details might be present in this particular video.

As a team, prepare your list of details so it can be shared with students who have watched the other video closely.

Activity 6: Discuss – Write

We will learn what a claim is and how to form evidence-based claims in order to discuss and compare what we have learned about the two philosophies.

Step 1

Read through page 1 of the Claims Reference Guide to review how to create a claim.

Read through page 7 and compare the various types of claims and their purposes. For this specific unit, we will be focused on creating summary and analytical claims.

  1. How does a summary claim differ from the other types of claims?

  2. Why might a summary claim be helpful in comparing texts that discuss the same topic or issue?

  3. What other types of claims might be useful in writing an argument?

Step 2

The Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool supports and guides a process for developing a claim from textual evidence; it can also help you explain how an existing claim is derived from, and supported by, evidence. Using the tool begins with a guiding question that calls for you to reach a conclusion and communicate a claim, which might be factual, analytical, comparative, or evaluative in nature. It helps you select the key details related to the question, explain how the details connect to your question and to other details, and through that analysis, move to a conclusion. The conclusion that you draw is the basis for your claim, which you try to communicate as clearly and directly as you can.

Use the tool in the following way:

  1. Write down the guiding question in the space provided at the top. You might be assigned the guiding question by your teacher, it might come from a question set, or you might think of your own question. This question can help you focus your reading, or it might give your reading a specific purpose. It is likely to be a question that asks you to draw a conclusion that is factual, analytical, comparative, or evaluative in nature.

  2. As you read the text, pay attention to details that relate to the guiding question. Depending on how long the section of text is, you might find several examples. You can use the Attend to Details row to write down the details that most strongly relate to the guiding question. This helps you narrow down the most supportable or most relevant details that connect to the question. Do not forget to include page numbers. You might have to come back later to get exact quotes or more clarity.

  3. In the Analyze the Details row, show your thinking. Doing so can help you ensure there is a clear connection among the details you identified, your analysis, and the guiding question.

  4. In the third row, Explain Connections, show your thinking about how the details connect to each other. Do the facts and information, taken together, lead to a conclusion? Are they details from a narrative that help you analyze a character? Are they indicators of an author’s perspective that you intend to support or refute?

  5. In the final row, form and express a claim. Look back over the tool and consider the guiding question, the details, and how they connect to each other. The conclusion you have drawn based on your analysis of the details in the previous rows should become your claim. Communicate that claim in a clear, direct sentence.

Step 3

Using the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool, form a summary claim that responds to the following questions. Make sure to write both questions in the Guiding Question section of the tool. Be sure to use details from the video to support your claim.

  1. What central ideas from Hobbes or Mill are presented in the animated videos?

  2. How are graphic images and animation used to communicate this central idea?

Step 4

Reorganize into four-person discussion groups that have two members who watched the Hobbes video and two members who watched the Mill video.

Share the summary claim you each developed about the video’s central ideas and use of animated images. Then, point out some of the key images and ideas your original group wrote down as you studied the video closely.

Have a short discussion about the distinctions in ideas between the two videos, and how each aligns with the common good versus personal liberty debate. Share your observations and conclusions with the class.

Activity 7: Discuss – View

We will watch another short video that presents a famous ethical problem known as “The Trolley Problem.” After watching the video, we will discuss what we would do in response to the problem, then consider the problem through the ethical approaches we previously studied.

Watch the short animated video titled "The Trolley Problem." At the end of the video, decide what you would do if you faced the problem:

  • do nothing and let the five men die

  • switch the train track to save four lives, but not push the man off the bridge

  • push the man off the bridge to save four lives

Depending on which option you would choose, move to a section of the room where others who chose the same option are sitting. Discuss why you would choose that option.

Find a person from another part of the room who chose a different option. Compare your reasoning with the other person’s.

As a class, connect your responses to the problem to various ethical approaches you have learned about in this and other units. How might the responses differ depending on which ethical view you applied?