Tom Snyder Productions

www.teachtsp.com 1-800-342-0236

Grade Levels: 5-10

Subject Area: Social Studies

Reviewed by: Laura Cirillo-Boilard

This interactive CD-ROM brings students face to face with the dilemmas, compromises, and struggles of writing the American Constitution. Decisions, Decisions: The Constitution provides students with the opportunity to role-play as delegates at the constitutional convention, use critical thinking skills, work in cooperative learning teams and engage in group discussion to bring the U.S. Constitutional Convention to life. There are three modes of use for the software: 1) single team - recommended for computer lab or a classroom cluster, 2) multi-team - recommended for the one-computer classroom, and 3) whole class - recommended for the one-computer classroom. In addition, the software offers 5 valuable steps to reinforce the critical thinking process; these steps are

1. Analyzing the situation. Students uncover a real-world dilemma through an on-screen presentation and reading their student reference books.
2. Determine and prioritize their goals as a group.
3. Consider their options. Advisors offer students multiple perspectives.
4. Make a Decision. Opposing viewpoints and examples from the past spark lively classroom discussions as students come to a consensus on what action to take.
5. Examine the Consequences. The software presents the consequences, and the advisors offer students help in dealing with them.

The program accurately depicts the challenges and struggles our founding fathers faced when writing the Constitution. Most importantly, the student handbooks, which supplement the software, offer detailed and factual viewpoints from advisors that truly represent the debates that occurred as a result of conflicting ideas and opinions. I found one minor unrealistic feature in software: 2 women were chosen as advisors. In the 1780’s, women rarely voiced their opinions. After all, the founding fathers were men. However, I do appreciate that that the writers of the software were cognizant of the gender bias issue.

The technical quality of this software is superb. It is very easy to navigate through the screens, and the software is effortless to install. The software is a point and click package, allowing for limited operator errors. The graphics are pleasing to look at and I am particularly fond of the sound option button which is available throughout the program to increase or decrease the sound, eliminating the need to manually adjust your volume control on your PC. This further supports the software’s user friendliness capabilities. However, I would recommend that an additional feature be incorporated in the next release of the software. When students reach the Make a Decision portion of the software, they are prompted to select one of four choices. Once the students click on that choice, they are not given an option to change the selection. It is possible that students might choose the wrong choice in error. Perhaps, once the choice is selected, the software could display the choice and prompt users with a message such as, "You have selected option B, is this correct (Y/N)?" Users could then confirm his/her choice.

The software utilizes the available technology to its full potential. The software allows the class to take advantage of computer networks and Internet capabilities if desired. It also includes a built in ‘Random Student Picker’ feature that I would highly recommend. Once all the students' names are inputted, the software randomly will choose a student to share opinions with the class. This feature keeps all students on their toes and prevents one student from monopolizing the conversations. In addition, the software also offers words from the editors, which includes their photographs along with video sound of their actual voices. This feature personalizes the software, giving students a sense of the people who developed the software.

This interactive software empowers students by encouraging them to take a stance. Students are actively engaged throughout the program and are encouraged to debate conflicting opinions. The role of the students is to apply their critical thinking skills, team building skills, and decision-making strategies. In the end, they will examine their decisions and evaluate whether they had reached the goals they identified at the beginning of the software.

The teacher's role is to play devil's advocate when orchestrating a class discussion. He or she should correct misconceptions and guide students in separating facts from opinions. The teacher should encourage students to express themselves and stress that there are no right or wrong answers. The software package does include an excellent teacher's guide to supplement the software. I highly recommend that some of these activities in this guide be incorporated into the unit plan. The briefing books for students to use are absolutely necessary and should not be omitted from the lesson.

The simulation software is intended for use in a group setting, encouraging cooperative learning. I would recommend the multi-team mode as opposed to the whole class or single team method. This would better serve the students critical thinking skills by actively involving a greater number of students. However, groups should be kept to a small size; the larger the group, the less chance all students will have the opportunity to voice their opinions. I would further recommend that outside readings and activities are integrated into the unit.

Overall, I would highly recommend this software for use at the middle school level. It provides students with valuable cooperative learning skills, reading comprehension skills, oral communication skills, problem-solving skills and decision-making skills. Most importantly, students actively apply the content they are studying into real world dilemmas.

The program provides all of the necessary ingredients that result in a superior software product. It is extremely user-friendly, shows creativity, and the graphics are flawless. Additionally, it is interesting, straightforward to use, and can be successfully implemented into the classroom with ease. Students will enjoy the software and benefit from participating in the debates and discussions.

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