Legislative Branch, Day 5 - Class Recap

Today's town hall had various students running for office. Here's a very real candidate: my mom, running for Portland City Council in 2012!

Dear class,

Another interesting day, especially with the town hall meeting, which I really enjoyed! 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: "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. Selected for today because we are studying US government, and also, because it is Halloween this weekend. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/29/15:
News Brief – Gabe
Washington's Gridlock
Town Hall
Review for Test

Homework: Read the blog. Review for Legislative test, which is next class. Here are some resources to help you with this:

The second page of this handout, charting how a bill becomes a law, will be on the test. You will need to fill in the blanks with what happens on each side of Congress, then what happens when it gets to the President.

You will need to know: the political spectrum (from left to right: radical, liberal, moderate, conservative, reactionary). the number of representatives in each branch of Congress, and the eligibility requirements for them. The leaders in both the Senate (Vice President) and the House (Speaker of the House).

Next news brief: Istanbul.

News Brief: Gabe had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - Pentagon personnel on site to investigate loose blimp. This is especially interesting, because later in class, some students talked in the town hall simulation about the government spending too much on the military. This blimp program cost a lot of money, with perhaps not a lot of tangible benefits.

Also, at the start of class, I talked about gender and sexual identity being a spectrum, since last class, I think a lot of students had difficulty understanding Lindsay's proposal to reform government forms to be more inclusive. With that, I showed a visual of the "Genderbread Person" to help. Hopefully, this made a bit more sense, and helped continue to build our classroom and school community. :-)

Istanbul was randomly selected to do the next news brief.

Washington's Gridlock: I think this is an important story to learn about, with why many people are very frustrated with the United States government, in that not much of consequence seems to get done. Here is the reading we did in class:

Google Drive - New York Times Upfront: Washington's Gridlock

Here is the assignment that went with the reading:

Google Drive - Washington's Gridlock Assignment

As part of the article, I talked about redistricting and gerrymandering contributing to inaction in Congress. Here's an interesting article about the most gerrymandered congressional districts in America. Also, I showed part of this hilarious video of Patton Oswalt on Parks and Recreation, using the filibuster as a tactic to stop the local city council from voting on an issue:

Furthermore, I showed this real life example of Senator Paul Ryan (KY) using the filibuster tactic in the Senate:

Town Hall: I really liked this! We had three candidates (Lindsay, Amogh, and Hector) in front of the class, representing their own views. To gear up, we watched this clip of some of the Republican Presidential candidates last night answering the question: "what is your biggest weakness?" Everyone else in the class was responsible for writing questions for the candidates in class, representing different non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups for some important issues in the country - education, jobs and the economy, immigration, the environment, healthcare. This hits LT3: I can demonstrate an understanding of how individuals and non-governmental institutions interact with each other and the government in shaping politics.

The three candidates talked about their own views on the issues, and then tried to think on their feet to answer questions from the various groups around the class.

Here was the assessment I used for LT3, after the Town Hall:

Google Drive - Town Hall Review Questions

If you missed class today, please do your best to try and complete these questions using your own opinions and thoughts. Some students were not able to finish in class, so please get this in to me as soon as possible.

Review for Test: Please study for the legislative branch test (some multiple choice, some fill in the blank, some short answer) and let me know if you have any questions I can answer about it. Look above in the homework section for links that will help. Thanks! See you next class!

Legislative Branch, Day 4 - Class Recap

As part of the Legislative simulation today in class, I played the role of the President of the United States. Here I am in front of the White House, where the President lives in Washington, D.C. in 2010 (when I had a beard!).

Dear class,

I enjoyed the bill simulation today! As usual, there was also a lot of work in going through information about the Legislative Branch. Thank you for your focus and effort! Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets Addressed:
Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.
Knowledge LT 5: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.

Soundtrack: "Rhapsody in Blue" by Leonard Bernstein. Selected for today because the legislative process is long, like this song. No lyrics, but listen here.

AGENDA 10/27/15:
News Brief – Dru
Review Congress Work
Legislative Simulation
Washington's Gridlock

Homework: Read the blog. Finish the Washington's Gridlock article and related questions. Next news brief: Gabe.

News Brief: Dru had the news brief today and selected this story to talk about: CNN.com - U.S. warship sails close to Chinese artificial island in South China Sea. This is a super interesting article to me as a Global Studies teacher, as well. Check out the map in that article, which shows where China is building islands and claiming them as territory. A good example of how the Executive Branch (President Obama authorized this close pass) has power in international relations. Thanks, Dru!

Gabe was randomly selected for the next news brief. We also checked in about the weekend and anything interesting happening (I am still sore from my half marathon on Sunday!) before moving on.

Here's Wildcat News for the day:

Review Congress Work: The past two classes, we have been working on these handouts. First, Oregon reps in Congress:

Google Drive - Oregon Representatives in Congress Assignment

We also looked at the demographics of the current representatives in congress:

Google Drive - 114th Congress Profile Assignment

Here is a link to the website/pdf document that has the answers:

FAS.org - Membership of the 114th Congress: A Profile

We went through most of the answers as a class, then I told students to keep them to prepare for the upcoming Legislative Branch test.

Legislative Simulation: Again, I really liked this. I split up the class into the House of Representatives and Senate (which had less students in it, because that's how it really works), then again into different committees. I then passed out all the ideas for bills that students gave me at the end of last class, to debate. The committees debated the ideas for bills, then chose what they thought was the best one to propose to their chamber of Congress, by answering these questions:

What are you proposing?
Who will it impact?
When will it begin or end?
Where (which states) will be impacted?
Why should this bill pass?
How much will it cost?

After the full House and full Senate debated the two bills that were put forward by the committees, they chose one bill each to vote on and send over to the other part of Congress. This ended up being a bill on raising the minimum wage and one lowering the amount of time that someone with a new driver's license cannot have a friend in the car.

Both sections of Congress debated the bills, changed them, then voted on them, sending them back to the other side (this would now be the conference committee). Eventually, only one bill passed Congress, due to an impassioned plea to reform our immigration system from Hector. So good!

Acting as President of the simulation, I signed the bill into law, with the pen that Governor Kate Brown used to sign the highway safety legislation that was enacted after my dad was killed last year.

Washington's Gridlock: I think this is an important story to learn about, with why many people are very frustrated with the United States government, in that not much of consequence seems to get done. Here is the reading we did in class:

Google Drive - New York Times Upfront: Washington's Gridlock 

Here are the questions that go along with the article:

Google Drive - Washington's Gridlock Questions

As part of the article, we will talk about redistricting and gerrymandering contributing to inaction in Congress. Here's an interesting article about the most gerrymandered congressional districts in America.

Please finish answering the questions for next class. Thank you very much!

Legislative Branch, Day 3 - Class Recap

The office of Speaker of the House, which is currently controlled by Republicans, and John Boehner, but will likely go to Representative Paul Ryan soon. Photo taken in 2010.

Hi everyone,

It was a sort of sleepy day in class today, as many students were tired from the very early morning pep rally here at Westview, or just that it was the end of a long week. In any case, it was basically another work/prep day for our legislative branch unit. Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets Addressed:
Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.
Knowledge LT 5: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.

Soundtrack: "Represent" by Weezer. Selected for today because we were continuing to look at Oregon's Representatives in Congress. Get it? Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/23/15:
News Brief – David
Create Bills
114th Congress
Computer Lab N210

Homework: Read the blog. Create a bill if you did not in class. Finish the Oregon representatives handout and the 114th Congress profile. Next news brief: Dru.

News Brief: David had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: CNN.com - 1 dead in shooting at Tennessee State University in Nashville. This was a breaking news story as of last night, so we tried to determine what happened. I asked the class about what implications this might have in regard to gun control and the Second Amendment. There were some good perspectives here. Thanks, David!

Dru was randomly selected for the next news brief.

Here's Wildcat News for the day:

Create a Bill: This was in preparation for next class, when we will be doing a simulation of Congress. Here were the questions I wanted you to answer in your bill proposals:

1. What are you proposing?
2. Who will it impact?
3. When will it begin or end?
4. Where (which states) will be impacted?
5. Why should this bill pass?
6. How much will it cost?

Bring these in next class, please!

114th Congress: The last new piece from today was this handout, looking at the demographics of the current representatives in congress:

Google Drive - 114th Congress Profile Assignment

Here is a link to the website/pdf document that has the answers:

FAS.org - Membership of the 114th Congress: A Profile

I hope this helps!

Computer Lab N210: For the rest of the class, we were in the computer lab, working on the Oregon representatives handout, as well as the 114th Congress paper and creating bills. Here is the handout that I passed out last class:

Google Drive - Oregon Representatives in Congress Handout

The main point here is to know who our representatives are and what they believe. It is important that we know who represents us in Congress, and what their ideas are!

Thanks for your work on this! See you next class, when we will be creating legislation of our own!