On back to school night, Alec set up a World Cafe* where each table featured a different proposition set in the middle of a paper tablecloth, and parents were asked to write the questions they had about the proposition the tablecloth. The next day, the students also went from table to table looking at the same notes their parents had created, which generated lots of questions and opinions.

After this experience, all the students voted on what they thought were the most interesting propositions to work on, and they narrowed it down to four: Prop 57 (less prison time for nonviolent crimes), Prop 63 (restrictions on ammunition sales), Props 64 (legalizing marijuana) and Prop 62 and 66 (two competing propositions on the death penalty).

To model the process of doing background research on each issue, classes took an in-depth look at Prop 64 (marijuana legalization) together. Students read the proposition, and the official information provided by the state, as well as additional readings from California newspapers, then generated questions and arguments and discussed them in a Socratic seminar.

Students worked on their podcasts in groups of four. Three groups were assigned to each proposition, so that their podcasts could be combined into longer podcasts consisting of three “chapters,” in the style of the popular podcast This American Life. At first, many students just wanted to do “pro” vs. “anti” podcasts. After several days listening to podcasts, however, they realized that doing so would not make for a very interesting story. They needed to find interviewees who would make their issue come alive. Students found interviewees ranging from a formerly incarcerated activist, a police chief in Colorado (where marijuana was already legal), a couple whose son had been murdered – and whose remains were only found because his killer revealed their location in order to avoid the death penalty, and a doctor who ran a medical marijuana dispensary.