Notes:  You might want to pass around 3x5 cards on the first day and ask for some background information; do ask them to note if they are incoming freshmen, have had some college courses, or have 30 credits or more of college PRIOR to this semester.  We have been astonished to find extraordinarily high levels of sophomores  in fall   courses--90% of the class.  

  It is easy to overlook the incoming freshmen and their need  to understand college work when over half of the class are continuing students.  You might want to monitor the progress of the freshmen, and offer special help. 

 It’s helpful to find out what kind of job they hold, or if they have small kids at home.  Ask things that would be helpful for you to know as you develop discussion topics. 

Background level of knowledge:  This course will have the widest array of interest and knowledge imaginable.  Some will be political junkies, plan on law school,  and/or will have had a senior high school course in American Govt.  Do not be fooled—they have never heard of a writ of certiorari, never been taught the Electoral College, nor have they had pluralism, elitism, or other models.  

 Most students will not have had anything since 7^th grade (and that only 6 weeks).  They even need checks and balances explained in detail, or they’re likely to say the course is “too advanced” for them and drop.  They can’t read Madison’s Federalist # 10 without help.  Some have difficulty figuring out on their own the important points from the text chapter.  Some of these are education majors (remember the state requires ALL such majors to take this course—even if they’re teaching art), who don’t want to take the course, have no interest in politics, and resent being there.  Others are there because it fit into their schedule.  They are afraid to speak out against the verbal political junkies.

On the one hand, this course is fun to teach.  On the other, It can take a heroic effort on your part to generate interest, enthusiasm, and comprehension among students.   Discussing what is meant by "dirty politics" may tap some of their negative attitudes. They are unlikely to respond to “duty,” “responsibility,” or “good citizen” arguments. 

  Personally, I’ve found explaining Anthony Downs’ argument in An Economic Theory of Democracy quite useful—he argues that it is irrational for many people to participate or  learn about politics.  Ask and I’ll give you the Powerpoint lecture with argument.  This is not what they expected in an American Government course, and they are amused, shocked and liberated.

 You may need to talk to them about  writing essay tests.  Several will give the proper English-taught introduction (this is what I’m going to talk about), then repeat the paragraph as the content , and conclude by saying this is what they talked about.    You’ll need to teach them to cite evidence—facts, figures, even examples—to illustrate their main points.   If you want them to show different sides of an issue, you need to tell them, because otherwise they’re just as likely to give you their opinion and quit.  Some seem to think opinion is evidence. 

 This is a key course to begin teaching (or honing) their analytic and synthesizing abilities (they may have more skill in the former than the latter).  This is where you teach them that models are not “facts,” but are of greater weight than “opinions.”  It is important to use contemporary problems and controversies to teach them HOW to think about political issues and make it exciting for them. 

 You need to teach them some time-management skills and get them to read the text as they go along.  They can’t read and digest 4-7 chapters the night before the test.  There are different ways to do this:  use D2Learn for short chapter quizzes, or give a 10 q quiz at the start or end of a chapter.  Or give “minute” writing assignments from an issue insert in the text.  If they know you may do this (and you don’t have to do it every day), they are more likely to at least skim the chapter before coming to class.  

 Attendance can sometimes be a problem because this is the first time they’ve had such freedom.  Margaret Hankenson has handled that adroitly:  she gives out short assignments in class that are due the next session or two.  No one can turn in an assignment unless they were in class when it was handed out, and that is a day she takes roll.  There is some value to circulating an attendance sheet, with the date on top.  Students won't know that you look at it only sporadically.)

If you give a term-paper assignment, guard against their downloading it from the web.  Ask them to turn in a bibliography they plan to use some weeks before the paper is due.  Or tell them you check the cheat-sites.   And do so (see Teaching Your courses: general information  for plagiarism sites). 

  This is the course that can generate excitement.  Note that  I teach policy issues near the beginning of the course  so that students can understand the news through the semester.  You may need to tell them to turn their dial to the state station (they won’t know where it is) and listen to that driving to and from campus.  As the semester progresses,  a number of them will comment that they ”understood”  what was reported. 

 Students don’t know much about bargaining—its stages, styles, types, etc.,--and that is rarely a topic in any text.  Since bargaining is being carried out through the media,  press conferences,  news reports, etc., it is important for students to put what they are hearing and seeing into context.  Many of them regard normal bargaining as “dirty.”   I distinguish between adversarial and consensual bargaining; 3 conditions for bargaining; 4 stages of bargaining; classification by pay-off (zero-sum, variable sum, mixed) and style (explicit, implicit, conjectural).    [Ask and thou shall receive.]