The Legislative Branch, Day 6 - Class recap

The United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. This is where the House of Representatives and Senate meets to debate legislation. Photo taken in 2011.

Hi everyone,

Test day today in class! I hope that everyone studied and did well. Judging by the amount of "when is the retake?" questions that were asked, this was possibly not the case. Here's what happened today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed:
Knowledge LT 1: I can demonstrate an understanding of the interplay between citizens and their governments.
Knowledge LT 3: I can demonstrate an understanding of how individuals and non-governmental institutions interact with each other and the government in shaping politics.

Knowledge LT 5: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.

Soundtrack: "Good Friday" by The Black Crowes. Selected because it was Friday, it was good, and it actually is Good Friday. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/3/15:
News Brief – Ethan
Filibusters/Gerrymandering
Legislative Branch Test
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Homework: Read the blog. Have a great, safe weekend. Next news brief: Elijah.

News Brief: Ethan had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: NYTimes.com - California Imposes First Mandatory Water Restrictions to Deal With Drought. A very important story for our region of the world, especially as California tries to deal with an extremely long drought. We talked about the Governor of California taking these executive actions to try and help, and that while most water usage in the state is agricultural/farming, this will ask everyone to reduce by 25%.

Gerrymandering/Filibusters: These are two of the more quirky vocab words we talked about last class with the Washington's Gridlock article, and so I wanted to go into more depth on them. I talked about redistricting and gerrymandering contributing to inaction in Congress. Here's an interesting article about the most gerrymandered congressional districts in America.

We also talked about the filibuster as a tactic to stall debate. Most of the times now, people don't have to stand and talk - as long as they have enough support (40+ votes, which is almost guaranteed for both sides in the Senate), they can just threaten it and possible legislation won't be voted on. Here's an example of a funny filibuster that I showed part of in class (from Parks and Recreation):

I hope you enjoyed this!

Legislative Branch Test: Pretty much exactly as I described it on the blog for last class, right? I will have these graded and back to you as soon as I can. It will probably be this weekend! We will go over the results next class.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington: To end the class, we started watching the classic film Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939), which is all about the legislative process. We just watched the last 30 minutes or so (we ended with about 8 minutes left), which, to be fair, is the best part to the movie. We will try to finish it next class. :-)