Hsinchu

American School
Civics
Lesson Plan # 4

Date: October 30, 2014
Time 80 Minutes

Content Standard: Understand, analyze, and evaluate purposes of and limitations on
the foundations, structures and functions of government.
Common Core Standard: R8.1 Read closely to determine what the text says
explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence
when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Objective: SWBAT identify the parts of a Bill that is introduced in the House of
Representatives by marking up and rewriting sample bills written by the teacher.
Prior knowledge: Students are aware of the structure of the House of Representatives
and the Senate; students created a graphic organizer that outlines the different
structures of the two houses, and has a list of standing committees for each one (Please
see House and Senate Structures PDF); students are able to read the bills in English, but
certain terms and concepts will need to be explained.
Syntax

Activity

Script

The teacher will quickly review
the material from the previous
class, and focus on two questions
from the reading guide given at
the last class that students
seemed to have questions about.






The teacher will write the answer

Good morning class! Please take
out your reading guides that are
due today. Rather than focus on
starter questions, I want to review
a few questions that Mr. Witte and
I got a lot of questions about.

Lets look at question number 7 on
your last reading guide. The
question was Who is the leader of
the House of Representatives? I
realize that this is not expressly
written in the Constitution. The

on the board as he says it.

The teacher will have three
students read the other questions
out loud. The teacher will ask
comprehension check questions
to see that students understand
the questions and the activity.
After students finish asking all
four questions, the teacher will
review the answers by having a
student from each group read
their answers, and then poll the
rest of the groups to see if there
were similar ideas, or different
ones.











The teacher will ask
comprehension check questions

answer is The leader of the House

of Representatives is the Speaker
of the House. We will hear a lot
more about the Speaker today.
The next question many of you
seemed to have trouble with was
the question number nine. Lets all
look at that question. Kyle, please
read question number nine on the
reading guide so I know you are
with us. (Kyle reads.) Thanks Kyle!
I think what got people confused
was the second part. The
Constitution specifically says that
once both the House and Senate
over-ride a veto Paul, which
branch vetoes bills? (Paul
answers) Excellent job! Thats
right its the executive branch! So
once The executive branch vetoes
the bill, once the President says, I
forbid this, if both the House and
Senate over-ride the veto with
66% or 2/3 of the votes, then the
Bill becomes law. The President
does not sign the Bill. What about
my second question, the one that
got so many people confused?
What if the bill gets 66% of the
votes the first time? What does the
Constitution say about that? And
the answer is what many of you
were scared to say because you
couldnt find it. Nothing. You
werent supposed to find the
answer. The answer is what we
call an inference. Thats when we
draw a conclusion, when we learn
something from information that
is not in the text. The framers, or
writers of the Constitution wanted
the President to have a say on
every bill. Congress could not just
force a law to be passed by getting
66% the first time. That would
undo the very important check, or
limit on Congress power.

So it is okay to write, The

and write a sample answer on the

board.

















The teacher will collect the
homework and introduce the
material for today.

The teacher will move to the first
slide. The teacher will ask the
following questions while picking
up the papers.















The teacher will move to the slide
with the handout on it.

Constitution says nothing about a

vote getting 66%. Which is what I
wanted you to think about. The
Framers of the Constitution
wanted every bill to be passed by
Congress and reviewed by the
President. Thats why there is no
mention of 66% the first time.
Very good! Lets put all of out
reading guides in the center of our
pods and I will collect them.
So this is a slide from last class.
Madeline, what is the picture on
the left? (She answers) Excellent!
That is the House of
Representatives! Johnny, what is
the picture on the right? (He
answers) Very good! Its the
Senate. There are two houses of
Congress. Taka, do you remember
what the name of a two house
legislature is? It its bi- what? (He
answers) Bicameral! Excellent job!
America has a bicameral, or two
bodied, I am going to use the word
body or house the same way. Each
house of Congress is also referred
to as a body, which in this case
means a group of people. So we
have a two-bodied, or two-house
legislature.
And lets remember that each
house has different responsibilities.
The House is where all bills
involving money must start, and
the Senate confirms judges. The
house charges impeachments, and
the Senate acts as a court and tries
impeachments. This means they
have a trial and the Senate is the
Jury.
Now, the next thing we need to
figure out is what does Congress
really do?
What does this slide say, Amy?
(She reads) excellent! Congress
makes laws. That is there major
function. Today we are going to
see how, or by what process

The teacher will quickly go

through the next slides to get to
the one with the handout the
students are about to get.
























The teacher will go through the
entire worksheet with the class
by having a student read,
discussing quickly and asking
comprehension check questions.








The teacher will hold up a copy of
the graphic organizer for the
class to see. The teacher will wait
until all of the students have
them out to continue.


The teacher will write each

Congress and the President make

a bill into law. I am handing out a
worksheet that we will be using
for the next several classes. Make
sure your name is on it, and make
sure it winds up in a safe place. By
the way, the middle of your
textbook is NOT a safe place. Mr.
Witte and I find papers in the
classroom all the time. This should
go in a folder. Kyle, where should
you put this worksheet when we
are finished? Yes! In your folder.
Not in the textbook
Kathy, could you please read the
first box? (She reads) Very nice! So
class, where can the idea for a bill
come from? (The class will
probably mumble (anybody)
Thats right! Anybody. Anybody
can have an idea for a bill. But who
are the only people who can
introduce a bill to Congress?
Congresspersons. Very good.
Debbie, could you please read the
next box? (She reads)




Now we have a guide that will tell
us how a bill is passed. What we
are going to do over the next
several classes is walk a bill
through Congress. So today, I am
going to give each table a bill that
has been introduced to the senate.
Now I need for everyone to take
out the worksheet we did last
class
Today each group will be a
committee. If you look at the
bottom of the side with the House
of Representatives, you will see all
of the committees listed. Your first
job will be to read the bill. Once
you have read the bill, you will
decide what committee you are. If

direction on the White board as

he gives it.

The teacher will hold up the
worksheet.









The teacher will ask several
comprehension check questions,
and hand out the bills. Each bill is
different. There are obvious
errors in each bill that students
will need to correct. Once they
are into the activity, each group
will be given a blank copy of a bill
sheet to record the changes. That
will be used as a formative
assessment, but not graded. Each
student must fix his or her copy,
so it has all of the changes on the
blank sheet, which has each
group members name on it.

The students will present each
bill to the class who will be the
rules committee. They are only
given two tasks for this activity:
One is to vote on whether to send
to the floor for a full vote, and
then how much debate there will
be. The students are only given
two choices for this exercise:
Three minutes or ten minutes.
The teacher will give the students
the reasons why the debate is the
way it is.

you have questions, I will come

around and help you. Third, you
will need to mark up the bill.
See in the worksheet where it says
the bills are marked-up in
committee? Thats what we are
doing today. Then after we have
checked for mistakes, and added
any changes, we will present the
bills to each other and vote on
whether the bill should go to the
floor, and if it goes to the floor,
how much debate there will.


.
























So once you have agreed to pass
the bill, you need to decide how
much debate there will be. That is
a major difference between the
House and the Senate. The House
limits the debate on every bill. The
Senate as you will find out, does
not. Because we are in a class and










Students will mark up the bills,
and then choose which parts of
the bill they will red before the
class. All members must read.
The teacher will walk around and
guide each group as needed. The
class will then vote on whether to
send the Bill to the floor, and then
decide on the debate.

At the very end of class, the
teacher will hand out the reading
guide for the next class, which is
based on the handout they
received earlier, as well as this
activity.

we have limited time, you can only

choose a short debate of three
minutes or a long debate of ten
minutes. This is not how the
House really works. This is just for
this class. But please remember,
that the House does limit the
debate on Bills.


References

Bill Text111th Congress (2009-2010)H.R.17.IH. (2009, June 1). Retrieved

October 29, 2014 from http://thomas.loc.gov/cgibin/query/z?c111:H.R.17:
Passing a Bill Through Congress. (2014, January 1). Retrieved October 27, 2014
from http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/obamasdeal/1.pdf.
Researching and Writing a Bill. (2006, January 1). Retrieved October 29, 2014
from
http://www.tislonline.org/General%20Assembly/howtodraftabill.html.