I will admit, the break got to me on this one. I am not the proudest of this unit... I have some ideas that I will share in terms of where I want to take this in the next year. My first day in Congress is meant to be a crash course in Congress, with odds and ends of Congressional je ne sais quoi. I started with an activity from iCivics that discusses the philosophies that drive members to vote the way they do. Much of it is for younger students, but a good and amusing discussion about how members vote. And hey, it's fun to figure out which of your students don't know the difference between USPS and UPS. Once we finished this lovely activity, we strolled through Article 1. Again, I am working on a mother Constitution that goes into great detail clause by clause and gives historical legislative, executive, and judicial interpretation... but I am not done yet. But I do talk about the interesting points of Article 1: what's there (formal) and what's not (informal)... I make great distinctions between the two houses; their shared powers (Art. 1 Sec. 8) and their separate powers (House: origin of revenue bills, impeachment votes; Senate: conviction of Impeachments, ratification of treaties, approval of appointees... and so, yeah... we do skip over to Article II Section 2) To review this once we are done, HipHughes has a great Youtube video going over the same stuff... I like his analogy of the MadDog HoR... Additionally, I take care to go over the three functions of Congress:
And while we are talking about differences between the Houses (formal and informal), let's talk filibuster. Some fun facts: a.) it is not in the Constitution, so it is controlled by the rules passed by the HoR @ term start, and by the Senate... b.) it used to be in used in the HOUSE, until there were too damn many of them. c.) umm. Hmm. I'm forgetting something here. Oh, yeah. The Senate decided to amend the Silent filibuster to complete said Plum List. We do this in class. (I really wish it was narrated, but oh well.) And because it is a classic... we have to go check out Jimmy Stewart's famous filibuster... if only for about a minute... Moving on, we flip to Congressional Leadership. (I found this pretty sweet flyer that presents pictures of the leaders in the House and the Senate) Kids always ask me what these dudes do, and there are two ways to tackle that. I have this resource that gives a brief overview... or spend one minute going over this... and a bit more about the composition of Congress... Now, I will freely admit that are better ways to tackle this section of Congress. Some colleagues of mine due a Fantasy Congress, where kids pull ten or so names and track them throughout the unit, getting points for things like introduced bills, giving speeches on the floor, and pressers. I would love to do this. I haven't made a decision as to whether or not I have time. And if I did, I would use the Congressional Record's awesome app for details.
Other folks do Congressmen report cards, and I have in the past... but I am not sure if I wanna roll it out again. Maybe I could have the kids create a diagram of the world's best member of Congress, replete with tools of the trade... I've done E-Congress on YLI.. and did not have close to that much time... I even remember doing a Mock Congress when I was in 11th grade government. And, because I was a self-described, "political beast," it was the coolest thing ever. We did Welfare Reform; block grants; and I was the Whip for the Majority. And on multiple Committees. But my gov teacher spent a MONTH on that. I guess what I am trying to say is that this is one of my lessons to upgrade. It's just not... my favorite. What do you do? Do you have any in and out simulations, etc that are student favs?
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Jen's bookshelf: nerdcation
I want to start by thanking Mr. Snowden and Mr. Greenwald for their uncompromising dedication to giving the NSA violations air time and transparency.
I wanted to share some of the most important things I have learned from this book bef...
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nerdcation
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nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
AuthorI lovgov. LOVE IT! I love teaching government, learning about it, debating, discussing, asking questions about government. And not the standard boiler plate questions, but the hard ones that are NOT in the books. Archives
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