Lesson Name The Basics of the Legislative Branch Web Quest Date Taught 2/19/2015 Time Allotted for

Lesson 45 min.

Goals HS.27 Students will examine functions and processes of the U.S. government.

Literacy Goals Objectives Objective 1.3

After completing a web quest, students will be able to explain the basic functions of Congress and the difference between the House of Representatives and Senate, as measured by a worksheet.

Pre-Requisite Knowledge and Skills

Basic computer skills

Materials, Equipment, Supplies, Technology, Preparation

Materials/Supplies: Basics of the Legislative Branch guided notes Equipment/Technology: Computer Lab The Legislative Branch Web Quest Preparation: Create web quest

Multiple Intelligences and Entry Points Intelligence Entry Point(s) Intelligence Entry Point(s) X Visual Web Quest Interpersonal Verbal X Intrapersonal Individual

activity X Logical Scavenger

hunt/Web Quest Naturalistic

Kinesthetic Musical Accommodations Given the low content knowledge and varied language skills

of the class, this assignment was designed to provide students with sentence “frames” to take some of the pressure off students to utilize a great deal of new vocabulary. It is important that they begin to work with the content, but their chances of experiencing success will increase if they have experienced some positive achievements. This assignment is also designed as a whole to allow students to pace themselves through.

Modifications This assignment could be read aloud for a student who needed modifications. If necessary, simplified questions could be provided to facilitate interpretation by students.

Procedure Anticipatory Set, Motivation, or Hook

Brief discussion of yesterday’s lesson, problems and solutions.

Teaching The teacher will begin the lesson with a brief discussion of the previous day and popcorn some questions related to the content students did get yesterday. Then, the teacher will explain the basics of the assignment, including where to find the website address.

Lead the class down to the computer lab. As students log into their accounts, distribute the worksheets. (I simply piled the two versions, one on top of another, and pulled from either the top or the bottom depending on which version I wanted students to do, to make the differentiation less obvious.) Monitor student progress, answer questions, coach them through exercise. Collect papers as students finish or at the end of the period. If students have extra time, they can complete the student introductory survey by following the link on the website.

Independent Application Students will fill in the answers to the worksheet on their own. Group Application This is an individual activity to assess the students’ individual

knowledge and abilities. Closure The teacher will review some of the key answers with the

students. Assessment

Formative Assessment The web quest guided notes serve as the formative assessment for this activity.

Summative Assessment There is no summative assessment for this lesson. Reflection

Due to the lack of success I experienced with the previous day’s lesson, I decided that I needed to try something completely different today. This group seems to enjoy individual work, and while I believe strongly in stretching them, they will be interacting with others on several occasions during the course of this unit, so I decided to cater to their strengths in the hope of allowing them to experience some success with this lesson. I also noticed the day before that they seemed lost in regards to how one might go about creating useful notes. Additionally, I discovered that there had been an opening in the computer lab, which the students rarely get to use. Taking all of this into consideration, I booked the lab and created a website for class. We had attempted a web quest with this class once before, however the students initially struggled with the objective of the lesson. Once they understood what they were supposed to be doing, they seemed to enjoy it though. With that in mind, I created two versions of a web quest that focused on the legislative branch. I also created a worksheet to go along with the website that would require them to fill in blanks, form definitions, and answer interpretive questions. By requiring them to perform a variety of tasks, I hoped to eliminate some of the copying and pasting that had plagued our earlier attempt. My goal was to have them end the lesson with a page of notes that we could then glue into their notebooks. I created two versions in order to differentiate the lesson for some of the students. Although their background knowledge was all fairly low, the class does have a small group of students who work at a much faster pace than the rest of the students and are capable of going beyond some of the goals for the rest of the class. In order to keep them engaged and learning about the content, I designed their web quest with the same material to start out with (so all the students have the same notes for reference) but then had them apply the information in a more complex way. They are still working with the same ideas, just performing more complex tasks. The students really seemed to enjoy this lesson, so much so that I was surprised when

most of them asked if they could take it home as homework when they did not finish on time. They have only had homework once before, and not many completed it, so for them to voluntarily take this assignment home makes me think it must have been a good experience for them. The differentiation seemed to work well also, keeping students who would normally finish early and become restless occupied. Because I had designed the website myself, I also found that I was better able to gauge their progress and judge why some of them experienced difficulty with some elements (mostly vocabulary). In fact, this lesson was such a success that if I were to continue to teach this class I think I would make this a regular format for notes, challenging them further as the class went on but keeping the same core ideas. I think this really allowed people to work at their own pace, which is a regular struggle for this class. Also, they did not need to be self-conscious about where they were at because everyone was largely on-task and not looking at their peers, which is also something this group struggles with.

The Basics of the Legislative Branch – Notes Name:____________________________ Go to www.mrsarmstrongmck.wix.com/amgovquest Click on “Version A” at the top of the webpage. Follow the links to help you answer the questions and fill in the blanks below. For questions that ask you to interpret information, please use complete sentences. 1. Congress

A. Congress is part of the ________________ branch of the U.S. government. This branch is responsible for making ____________. B. The ____________________ and the ________________ are the two houses that form Congress. Both are formed by people who were _______________ by people in the United States.

2. The House of Representatives

A. There are currently ____________ members of the House of Representatives. The number of representatives is determined by ___________________________. - Proportional Representation is: _________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________. B. Only the House can introduce _____________ bills. C. The Representative for our district is __________________________. - Read their profile. Do you think that their views line up with Salem’s? Why or why not?

3. The Senate

A. There are ___________ members of the Senate. There are ________ senators for every state. - If every state has the same number of senators, then how is the role of senators different than the role of representatives? What is their role for the state as a whole? ____________________ ___________________________________________________________________________.

B. Oregon’s senators are ____________________ and _______________________. 4. Congressional Leadership

A. The Speaker of the House acts as _____________________________. They are the ________________ officer (they are responsible for managing sessions) and are _______________ in line to succeed the President if necessary, after the Vice President. - Our current Speaker of the House is _____________________. B. The position of President of the Senate is held by the _____________________________. They have no vote in the Senate unless ______________________. - Our current President of the Senate is ____________________________.

5. Powers Given to Congress A. List 4 powers given to Congress _____________________ _________________________ _____________________ _________________________ - Which power given to Congress do you think is the most important? Why? 6. Limits of Power A. List 3 powers not granted to Congress. ____________________ __________________________

____________________

- Why do you think these powers were denied to Congress? 7. Congressional Moments Choose one of the topics addressing the history of Congress. Watch the video, then answer these questions. A. Which topic did you choose? B. Summarize the conflict and Congress’ response in at least 3 sentences.

C. Given what you now know about Congress, in what ways do you think Congress influences your life? Do you think (from your observations of the news, conversations we’ve had in class, etc.) that Congress is doing its job well? Why or why not? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Basics of the Legislative Branch – Notes Name:____________________________ Go to www.mrsarmstrongmck.wix.com/amgovquest Click on “Version B” at the top of the webpage. Follow the links to help you answer the questions and fill in the blanks below. For questions that ask you to interpret information, please use complete sentences. 1. Congress

A. Congress is part of the ________________ branch of the U.S. government. This branch is responsible for making ____________. B. The ____________________ and the ________________ are the two houses that form Congress. Both are formed by people who were _______________ by people in the United States.

2. The House of Representatives

A. There are currently ____________ members of the House of Representatives. The number of representatives is determined by ___________________________. - Proportional Representation is: _________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________. B. Only the House can introduce _____________ bills. C. The Representative for our district is __________________________.

- Read their profile. Do you think that their views line up with Salem’s? Would you have voted for them? Why or why not?

3. The Senate

A. There are ___________ members of the Senate. There are ________ senators for every state. - If every state has the same number of senators, then how is the role of senators different than the role of representatives? What is their role for the state as a whole? ____________________ ___________________________________________________________________________.

B. Oregon’s senators are ____________________ and _______________________. 4. Congressional Leadership

A. The Speaker of the House acts as _____________________________. They are the ________________ officer (they are responsible for managing sessions) and are _______________ in line to succeed the President if necessary, after the Vice President. - Our current Speaker of the House is _____________________. B. The position of President of the Senate is held by the _____________________________. They have no vote in the Senate unless ______________________. - Our current President of the Senate is ____________________________.

5. Congress in Action

A. Which committee did you pick? What about it interests you? Does this topic have any influence in your life, or were you just curious? (Either answer is completely acceptable!)

B. Look at some of the bills that have been introduced to your committee recently. Pick one to examine a little more. Browse the page, look over the text of the bill (look at introductory material, headings, practice your skimming!) Which bill did you examine? What about it caught your attention?

C. How much of a chance does it look like your bill has of being passed? Why might that be?

6. Reflection A. Considering what we’ve learned in the past few days and your own experiences, what role do you think Congress has in the lives of young people today?

B. When, if ever, does the activity of the legislative branch catch your attention? Is this a good thing or a bad thing, and what would you do to change it? If you would like, you could bring in some examples from the news to support your opinion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------