Learning target:
The first half of class today will review and extend what we discussed on Friday. The second half will move us into the Solutions or Strategies section of the course.
Our starter today is to fill out the Google Survey that I shared with you on Friday. I’ll put this review of last week up on the screen so you can see what we did and give me appropriate feedback.
After this, I’m going to pass out this worksheet so we can review how a bill becomes a law. You’ll draw arrows connecting the boxes and tracing the path from start to finish. The lines connecting the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader to the other boxes indicate that they control membership on the various committees and what bills receive consideration on the floors of Congress. The Minority Leader in each house controls which members of their party are on various committees. The majority party gets to run the committees and decide on the agendas and which bills come up for votes. This is one of the main reasons why who controls Congress is important.
Finally, I’ll pass out this handout listing the failed and pending amendments that people have offered to the U.S. Constitution. In four small groups you’ll decide whether you want to offer one of these amendments to the class for ratification. Alternatively, you can make up your own. We’ll take a vote and apply the supermajority standards in the Constitution to see if our class would ratify.
After break, we’ll get started sorting out what we’re going to actually do about the river. We’ll start with a modified Four Corners activity. I’ll pass out this map and you’ll go to the part of the room that represents your quadrant relative to creating a healthy river. We’ll hear from folks about why they are standing where they are standing. This map is divided up into “approaches” and “tactics.” There are no easy answers here. I want you to understand what the options are and why you think something will or won’t work.
You’ll then fill out this survey and reflect on your approach to change making. This will get you ready for the homework, which is to choose one of the eight basic project options for us and explain how you’d make it better and why you think it will work. You will work in groups to develop project proposals over the next few days that will class with discuss and vote on. By the end of the week, we want to have chosen an option and divided into teams to get stuff done.
Tomorrow, we’re going to divide into groups and run a World Café on the project options that you select so we gets lots of ideas, literally on the table.
Homework due Tuesday, October 13th
Read the project options. Choose one and write why you think it will be the most effective, what you’d add to or change from the basic description. Write a full paragraph in complete sentences in your Writing Conference Prep Google Doc. We’ll use this next week for some writing practice and instruction
- We can name the power that comes with controlling Congress
- We can name the threshold of support needed to amend the Constitution
- We can articulate what change making strategies are most appealing to each of us
The first half of class today will review and extend what we discussed on Friday. The second half will move us into the Solutions or Strategies section of the course.
Our starter today is to fill out the Google Survey that I shared with you on Friday. I’ll put this review of last week up on the screen so you can see what we did and give me appropriate feedback.
After this, I’m going to pass out this worksheet so we can review how a bill becomes a law. You’ll draw arrows connecting the boxes and tracing the path from start to finish. The lines connecting the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader to the other boxes indicate that they control membership on the various committees and what bills receive consideration on the floors of Congress. The Minority Leader in each house controls which members of their party are on various committees. The majority party gets to run the committees and decide on the agendas and which bills come up for votes. This is one of the main reasons why who controls Congress is important.
Finally, I’ll pass out this handout listing the failed and pending amendments that people have offered to the U.S. Constitution. In four small groups you’ll decide whether you want to offer one of these amendments to the class for ratification. Alternatively, you can make up your own. We’ll take a vote and apply the supermajority standards in the Constitution to see if our class would ratify.
After break, we’ll get started sorting out what we’re going to actually do about the river. We’ll start with a modified Four Corners activity. I’ll pass out this map and you’ll go to the part of the room that represents your quadrant relative to creating a healthy river. We’ll hear from folks about why they are standing where they are standing. This map is divided up into “approaches” and “tactics.” There are no easy answers here. I want you to understand what the options are and why you think something will or won’t work.
You’ll then fill out this survey and reflect on your approach to change making. This will get you ready for the homework, which is to choose one of the eight basic project options for us and explain how you’d make it better and why you think it will work. You will work in groups to develop project proposals over the next few days that will class with discuss and vote on. By the end of the week, we want to have chosen an option and divided into teams to get stuff done.
Tomorrow, we’re going to divide into groups and run a World Café on the project options that you select so we gets lots of ideas, literally on the table.
Homework due Tuesday, October 13th
Read the project options. Choose one and write why you think it will be the most effective, what you’d add to or change from the basic description. Write a full paragraph in complete sentences in your Writing Conference Prep Google Doc. We’ll use this next week for some writing practice and instruction