Position Paper Drafting + Roundtable Rehearsal · Earth & Env Science

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The Stakeholder Voice The Hydrologist The Source Evaluator

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Story

What today is about

Last protected drafting day. Plus the rehearsal for a defense format the year hasn't used yet.

First move: the last protected drafting time. The Position Paper needs to land next class with all four parts working: Background (the hydrology + the dispute frame, in your stakeholder's terms), Position (what your stakeholder claims and why), Acknowledge Competing Concerns (the strongest opposing position, stated fairly), and Recommendation (what your stakeholder would propose, with one explicit concession). Ms. Jayanthi/Mr. Ignash is conferencing through the first 45 minutes; come find him if a section isn't working. The four rubric gates to check one more time: voice-match T/T (does this sound like your stakeholder, not you?), stakeholder specificity K/U (specific person, place, evidence, not generic categories?), AI Doc K/U (substantive log, not "I used AI for help"?), and the negotiation-move C signal (an explicit concession or proposed compromise inside the Recommendation?).

Second move: Roundtable rehearsal. The Block 9 Roundtable isn't a defense (one student answering a panel's questions); it's a negotiation. Six stakeholders at a table, all with competing claims, speaking to each other. Each opens with a statement. Then the table tries to negotiate, looking for legitimate compromise without abandoning core stances. That's a different speaking move than U1's NASA Committee, U2's planning-audience share-out, or U4's Policy Panel Q&A. You can't predict every challenge, but you can predict the shape of them, and you can rehearse responding without strawmanning.

The trial-arm split surfaces one more time today: Section A rehearses against their own Boodle (or a peer's Boodle if cross-testing); Section B against the Flint Stakeholder Voice tutor; Section C against a peer reading aloud from the paper Stakeholder Profile Pack. All three sections are doing the same rehearsal move: different scaffolds, same skill.

Concepts

Before you start the work

Start with the Interact: the rehearsal seed for the Roundtable. Today is a workflow day, so the Watch and the Read are light.

Placeholder

Watch (~5 min)

TBD: short clip of a real multi-stakeholder negotiation: a Cauvery Water Management Authority meeting, a Murray-Darling basin negotiation session, or a tribunal proceeding. The visual anchor: stakeholders speak to each other, not to a moderator-audience. That's the move to rehearse.

Whole-class, projected at the start.

Read (~5 min)

Defending Your Work: the 5 question types + 5 response moves. Re-read with the negotiation-not-Q&A distinction in mind: in a Roundtable, the "questions" come from other stakeholders making competing arguments, not from a neutral panel asking probes. Your responses include concessions, refusals, and counter-proposals, not just answers.

Real link · Foundations.

Placeholder

Interact (~5 min)

TBD: whole-class sticky-note brainstorm: "predict 3 stakeholder challenges you expect at your Roundtable next class." Sticky-notes posted by case-cluster so everyone leaves with at least 3 anticipated challenges logged (their own + others nearby). Ms. Jayanthi/Mr. Ignash flags the highest-leverage ones for class.

Whole-class. Seeds the rehearsal.

Today's work: choose one path

All four paths end with a submitted-ready draft + an opening statement + 3 anticipated challenges with responses.

Learning Intention: I have predicted at least 3 competing stakeholder positions, prepared responses to at least 4 likely challenges, and identified one concession I'm willing to make + one I'm not.

Drafting block + Stakeholder Voice rehearsal (default)

45 min finishing the Position Paper → 30 min rehearsing your opening statement + 3-4 challenge responses with your section's Stakeholder Voice scaffold (your own Boodle, the Flint tutor, or a peer reading from the paper Profile Pack). Push for the strongest challenge in rehearsal; that's what makes Block 9 feel manageable.

Solo + paired · Default

Roundtable readiness: 4 challenges + concession map (stretch)

For students whose draft is already clean. Spend the block deepening Roundtable prep: prepare responses to 4 likely challenges (not 3), and explicitly map your concession floor: what compromises your stakeholder could accept without abandoning core stance, and what they categorically refuse. The concession map is the C-rubric edge most students miss.

Solo · Stretch

Hydrologist or Source Evaluator on a specific evidence question (choice)

If one piece of evidence in your Background or Position section feels weak, open the Hydrologist (for hydrology / case-mechanics questions) or the Source Evaluator (for source-credibility / OPVL questions). Document the exchange; this is your final AI Doc entry for the Position Paper.

Solo · Choice

Peer-help: concession vs. capitulation (practice)

This is the C-rubric edge most students miss. A real concession concedes a specific point on substance ("you're right that the 2018 verdict didn't account for the failed 2017 monsoon; I'd support reopening the timing question"). A capitulation abandons your stakeholder's core stance ("okay, you're right, my farmers should just take less water"). If the line is fuzzy, come to the peer-help table with one anticipated challenge; Ms. Jayanthi/Mr. Ignash + a peer will walk through what a real concession would sound like.

Pairs · Practice

Open your Class Notebook and type today's entry header as Heading 2:

A: Mar 23 | U5 B8 | Position Paper Drafting + Roundtable RehearsalB: Mar 24 | U5 B8 | Position Paper Drafting + Roundtable Rehearsal

Show

What you're submitting today

Three things: submitted-ready draft + opening statement + 3 challenge responses. The Paper itself submits next class.

Rehearsal artifacts (Paper submits next class)

Three things in your dossier folder by end of class: (1) your Position Paper draft submitted-ready (all four parts written, all four rubric gates checked, AI Doc current) · (2) a 60-second opening statement scripted in your stakeholder's voice (this is what you'll deliver first at the Roundtable next class) · (3) three anticipated challenges + a one-sentence response for each, in your stakeholder's voice, without strawmanning the challenger's position.

Submit via Google Classroom →

Rubric link: Today's rehearsal addresses the negotiation-move C signal on the Position Paper rubric: "proposes a substantive concession or compromise without abandoning the stakeholder's core stance." C 7-8 requires that move; capitulation or refusal-to-engage sits C in the middle bands. The concession map (Path B/D) is the rehearsal for that gate. See the rubric.

Reflect

One question before you leave

Three to five minutes. Your answer is saved to your reflection journal, where you can read back everything you have written this year.

Use this to surface which challenge you'd most like to dodge, and rehearse it before next class.

Today's reflection is in Google Classroom, under Reflection Journal.

Link posted in August