Friday US Government 5/27

A) Handed in test corrections
B) Handed in Supreme Court Justices assignment
C) Completed our work with the US Supreme Court questions from Judicial sheet.

Reminder
Landmark SC case quiz is Wednesday
Judicial Unit Quiz is Thursday
MC part of Final is Friday
and written component will be following Monday

Enjoy the long weekend,
Mr. Thompson

Thursday US Government 5/26

A) Passed back your written responses on most influential political figures in US History
B) Passed back Exec Test and went over options for test corrections. (Corrections due Friday)
C) Set date for Landmark Supreme Court Case quiz. It is next Wednesday 10 cases 20 points
D) Spent some time answering questions in small groups about the Supreme Court and its justices.
E) Handed out Supreme Court Justices assignment (Due Friday)
F) Below is the review for our final exam in US Government. Let me know if you have any questions.

US GOV’T FINAL

Your US Government final will make up 15% of your semester grade. The final will be made up of 60 multiple choice questions and one 20 point essay. Pay close attention to the number of questions that will be included from each unit that we have studied.

I.  Introduction    Government                            Events leading to independence

                        Types of Government (4)       Articles of Confederation
7 ques.           Types of Economies (3)         Declaration of Independence

                                 Democracy/Republic

II.  Constitution                         Preamble                           Limited Government

      and Amendments                 Articles                             Checks and Balances

                                                      Amendments                    Separation of Powers

12                                                  Supremacy Clause            Federalism

                                                      Popular Sovereignty         Necessary and Proper Clause

                                              How to add Amendments Judicial Review

III.  Federalism                          Concurrent

                                                      Enumerated/Expressed

                                                      Implied

5                                                    Reserved

IV.  Legislative Branch      Facts about members of Congress

                                         Powers of Congress
                                         How a Bill becomes law
                                         Study of the US Budget

12                                            Types of Committees, Committee system and the

                                                significance of committees in Congress today

V.  Executive Branch          Facts about President and Vice President

                                             Powers of the President (Roles of President)
12                                         Cabinet
                                       Bureaucracy-EOP, Regulatory commissions, govt.
                                           corporations and independent agencies

                                       How the President is elected (Electoral College)

VI.  Judicial Branch        Facts about Federal Judges

                                             US Supreme Court at Work
7                                           Types of Jurisdiction

                                             3 levels of Federal Courts

                                             Landmark Supreme Court Cases

VII.  Political Parties         Liberals/Moderates/Conservatives

      and ideology                 Demographics – Who we are

                                            Topics – What we think or believe

5

Lots done today. Ask questions if you have any as we don't have many days left,

Mr. Thompson

Wednesday US Government 5/25

A) Finished our activity on Famous American Political figures. After reading the article and writing about the significance of Washington, Lincoln and Marshall, students will pick the 4th most important figure in American political history and in 5 minutes explain why they chose that person. Hand in when completed

B) Went through the 3 levels of federal courts and explained their purpose, their jurisdiction, what type of cases they can hear and how decisions are reached. (all of this is described on sheet you received on the judicial branch)

C) Time to work on landmark SC cases and vocabulary.

Mr. Thompson

Tuesday US Government 5/24

A) Completed our intro to the US Judicial Branch from yesterday
B) Read an article on the significance of Justice John Marshall
    Wrote about the significance of three famous Americans: Geo Wash, Abe Lincoln and John      
    Marshall

C) Continue to work on Judicial terms and Landmark Supreme Court cases

Mr. Thompson

Monday US Government 5/23

A) Quick review of Exec Test results
B) Introduced the Judicial Branch
     Run down of the next 8 days of class including 2 quizzes
     Identified key parts of the Judicial Branch
     Identified the organization of the federal courts by looking at a map and a chart of the organization
     Answered key questions about federal judges including qualifications, length of term and how selected.

Mr. Thompson

Friday US Government 5/20

A) Test on Executive Branch
B) Handed out Judicial Branch information

Mr. Thompson

Thursday US Government 5/19

A) Discussion of the relationship between President, Congress and the Federal Courts. Students were asked to come up with examples of how the president can influence Congress and vice versa and how the president can influence the federal courts and vice versa.
B) Review for test tomorrow on Executive Branch.

Mr. Thompson

Wednesday US Government 5/18

A) Quick review of Cabinet and Executive Office of the President
B) Completed the bureaucracy with Regulatory Agencies, Gov't Corporations, and Independent Agencies

Reminder of Unit Test on Friday

Mr. Thompson

Tuesday US Government 5/17

A) Took a short tour of some of the sites of Wash. DC
B) Met some of the key people and offices within the Executive Office of the President
C) Preview of tomorrow's content

Mr. Thompson

Monday US Government 5/16

A) Passed back
     Claim/Support/ Questions from discussion of the Electoral College last week.
     Congress test written questions on Mandatory v Discretionary and why debt is bad
     Exec Vocab quiz we took last week
B) Handed out review sheet for Test on the Executive Branch this Friday. Provided some insight into some of the questions/content and the written component of the test.
C) Discussion of the Cabinet including the 6 questions about the Cabinet and the mission or goal of each of the 15 Cabinet departments.
D) Went over the outline for class each of the days this week as we study the Bureaucracy.
     Monday - Cabinet
     Tuesday - Executive Office of the President
     Wednesday - Regulatory Commissions, Independent Agencies, and Government Corporations
     Thursday - Wrap up Executive Branch and review for test
     Friday - Test on Executive Branch

Last big test before finals so be ready for it,
Mr. Thompson

Friday US Government 5/13

A) Wrap up of yesterday's claim/support activity
B) In small group and then large group, we tried to answer the questions generated by students from previous day on Electoral College.
C) Briefly discussed where we are headed next week with the bureaucracy.

Mr. Thompson

Thursday US Government 5/12

A) Collected Electoral College papers from students gone on Friday of last week
B) Passed back Congress tests and we went over opportunities for makeup
C) Did a claim, support, question activity on the Electoral College
D) Continued to work on Cabinet 6 questions and mission statements on the 15 departments

Mr. Thompson

Wednesday US Government 5/11

A) Took Executive Vocab quiz
B) Introduced Cabinet
   Time to work on intro questions about Cabinet and to identify purpose of each Cabinet department

Mr. Thompson

Assignment from Last Friday

If you were gone last Friday you missed writing a response to the following prompt on the Electoral College. You should have read your text on this section and hopefully written some notes and talked with some classmates. You may use any or all of those resources and then using the 9 key words or phrases below, answer the prompt. I will need this by class time on Thursday as I will be passing the rest of the class' papers back on that day in preparation for what we will be doing on Friday

How do we choose our President and Vice President?

  Number of Electoral Votes-Total
  Number of Electoral Votes-per State
   Popular votes
  Electoral Votes
  Majority
  Plurality
  All
  President
  Vice-President

Tuesday US Government 5/10

A) Answered questions about the vocabulary from Executive Branch. Quiz tomorrow on vocab.
B) Reviewed the President's hats/roles. Defined them and shared examples of President Obama's actions while president.

Mr. Thompson

Friday US Government 5/6

A) Quick discussion of Electoral College and questions from students
B) Partner discussion of key concepts.
C) Write on the Electoral College...how we chose our president and vice president?
D) Reminder: Have your "hats of the president" done for Tuesday
                       Vocab quiz (open notes) on Wednesday.

Mr. Thompson

Thursday US Government 5/5

Oops sorry I forgot to post Thursday.

A) Looked at some graphics of our past presidents and how we have approved of them
B) Assignment on the "Hats of the President"
    Define the 8 roles and provide 2 contemporary examples for each of the 8 roles
C) Continue to work on prep for the Electoral College
D) Continue to work on vocabulary for Executive Unit

Mr. Thompson

Wednesday US Government 5/4

A) Shared the president's website with you @ whitehouse.gov We looked at the president's daily schedule (which you have access to), the executive orders he has issued along with all of the bills he has either signed into law or has vetoed. These people are our public elected officials and we should have access to the information about the decisions they are making that may impact our daily lives.

B) Shared the Plum Book with you. This is a listing of about 8000 mainly presidential-appointed positions that, as president, I have to make sure a good qualified person is fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of the position.

C) Read Chapter 8 Section 2 on Electing our President for Friday. You may write down any notes you may want for class that day and/or any questions you may have as well. Friday we will write in class "How are the US President and Vice President chosen?"

D) Read the first sentence of Article 2 and discussed the significance of it.

E) Skimmed the entire Article 2 and compiled a list of all Formal/Expressed/ Enumerated powers of the President.

Thanks,
Mr. Thompson

Tuesday US Government 5/3

A) Shared some data from Congress Test
B) Introduced Executive Branch
       4 parts of the Executive and Chart of facts from President and VP

Mr. Thompson

Monday US Government 5/2

A) Take test on Congress
B) Complete the following for tomorrow:
    1.  Executive Branch- Identify the 4 components of the Executive Branch.

  Eg. Legislative = Congress = House and Senate

     2.  Make a chart and answer the following for both.

President   /       Vice President

A. Formal Qualifications (3)

B. Length of term

C. Term limits

D. Succession (who takes over if they leave office

      before end of term)

E. How are they chosen?

F. Area each represents?

    3.   Bonus…next presidential election (month, day, and year)

C) Pick up list of vocabulary for the unit. We will have a vocab quiz next week some time. Date to be determined later this week.

Mr. Thompson