Unit 4: Congress, Presidency, & Bureaucracy

Unit 4: Congress, Presidency, & Bureaucracy

Essential Questions:

1. What are the structures of the government’s three main branches?

2. What forces have impacted and continue to influence these branchesorganization and power?

3. How do these branches challenge and check each other’s power?

Instructional Objectives:

1. Examine the powers assigned (and taken) by the three branches

2. Illustrate and analyze all the branches’ bureaucratic structure

3. Critique the importance and functions of congressional committees

4. Examine how parties and congressional leadership structures control andimpact the legislative process

5. Analyze the changing role of the vice-president

6. Trace the process by which the president and vice-president are elected

7. Determine how parties and congressional leadership structures control andimpact the legislative process

8. Analyze the balance of power between the bureaucracy, Congress, theExecutive and the Courts.

Day 1

To prepare: (1) print Congressional Webquest; (2) read the following over the next few days: ABC-CLIO, all 8 articles about Congress under Legislative Branch.

Topic: Congress

Format: Students will complete a webquest comprised of a series of tasks involving the House of Representatives, Senate, Congressional committees and members of Congress.

Day 2

Topic: Congress

Format: Class discussion of Congressional Webquest

Day 3

To prepare: read ABC-CLIO, “What is the Executive Branch,” “Electing the President,” “Cabinet,” and “Powers of the Presidency.”

Topic: Presidency

Format: Video – The Presidents, Carter to George W. Bush (45 minutes). Also video timeline.

Day 4

To prepare: (1) read Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (the steel seizure case); (2) print American Presidency worksheet

Topic: Presidency

Format: - Interactive worksheet involving powers of the presidency and impeachment

- Video: The Presidents (Andrew Johnson & Richard Nixon)

Day 5

To prepare: readThe President and Congress: An Historic Perspective, and review guiding questions

Topic: Presidency

Format: - PowerPoint presentation

- Analysis of Binkley essay.

Days 67

To prepare: (1) read ABC-CLIO, “The Federal Budget”; (2) print Budget simulation materials

Topic: Politics of Taxing & Spending

Format: - PowerPoint Presentation

- Simulation, You Fix the Budget. In groups, students will engage in a simulation involving budgetary prioritiesand politically-charged decisions.

Day8

To prepare: (1) complete The Federal Bureaucracy worksheet

Topic: The Federal Bureaucracy

Format: PowerPoint presentation; class discussion

Day 9

Unit test