TO THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND

Syllabus

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Week 1: What is Government? Why is it important?

• What is Government/Politics? (Week 1)

• What’s the point of government/politics and why is it necessary or important?

• How does government affect society in the United States?

• What are laws?

  • How do laws affect how society functions?

  • How does government influence laws?

• How does society affect government in the United States?

  • Voting/elections

  • How much influence do the American people have?

Week 2-4: Civil Liberties and American Values

• What are key American values? (Week 2)

• What documents in history exhibit these American values?

  • Declaration of Independence (1776)

    • Who wrote this? What did it say? What did it do?

    • Why is this document important?

    • Brief founding history - UK & US (Week 3)

  • Constitution of the United States of America (1787) (Week 3)

    • Who helped construct this? What did it say? What did it do?

  • Bill of Rights (1791)

    • Who helped construct what did it say? What did it do?

    • What are civil liberties?

• What is freedom? What is democracy? Are these basic American values?

• Who are the founding fathers?

Week 5-9: Structure

• What are the three main branches of government?

  • Legislative (Week 5)

    • What does it consist of?

      • House + Senate = Congress

        • How are representatives distributed and why?

• Terms

• • • What does this do? What are its powers?

  • Executive (Week 6)

    • What does it consist of?

      • President, Vice President?

        • How is it determined who is Pres/VP?

      • Terms

  • Judicial (Week 7)

    • What does this do? What are its powers?

      • Marbury v. Madison

    • What does it consist of?

      • Supreme Court

      • How is it determined who is SCOTUS?

      • Terms

• Legislation process (Week 8)

  • Bills, amendments, voting

• State vs. population representation (Week 9)

  • What is the Virginia Plan (1787)?

    • Representation by population

  • What is the New Jersey Plan (1787)?

    • Representation by state

  • What is the Great Compromise/Connecticut Compromise (1787)?

    • Construction of Congress

      • Two senators by state

      • House representatives by population

  • Which is more democratic? State representation or population representation?

Week 10-11: Political Parties

• What are political parties? (Week 10)

  • What are the United States’ two main political parties?

    • Democrats

    • Republicans

• What are minor parties?

  • Why would someone vote for a minor party?

  • What are the main minor political parties in the United States?

  • What barriers are there for minor parties in the United States

• What are the differences between political parties?

  • Difference in values

    • Look at party platform

• What are the three ways parties is defined? (Week 11)

  • Party in organization

  • Party in the electorate

  • Party in government

Week 12-14  Elections

- Primary Elections (Week 12)

• • What is an election? What is a campaign?

  • What is voting and who can vote?

  • What is a primary election? What is a general election?

    • Republican primary process (Week 13)

    • Democratic primary process

• Which of the three ways that define parties does the primary election determine?

  • Party in organization

• Are these processes democratic?

• Elections - General Elections (Week 14)

  • What is a general election?

  • What role do parties play in the general election?

  • General election process

    • What is the electoral college? What is the popular vote?

      • What are the pros and cons of each?

    • Which system is more democratic?

Week 15: Bill of Rights

• All ten of the bill of rights (Week 15)

• Why is it important to know these?

Week 16-17: Civil Rights

• What are civil rights? What is the difference between civil liberties and civil rights?

• Other important milestone legislation (https://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?flash=false&page=vote)

  • Slavery (Week 16)

    • Emancipation Proclamation (1863), 13th Amendment (1865), 14th Amendment (1868)

      • What is slavery? Who wrote this? Why was it important?

      • What was the 13th Amendment? What did it do?

        • What part of government established this?

      • What was the 14th Amendment? What did it do?

        • What part of government established this?

  • Segregation/Discrimination (Week 17)

    • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

      • What is segregation? Why was this important?

      • Which part of government established this?

    • Civil Rights Act & (1964)

      • What is discrimination?

      • What part of government established this?

Week 18: Local Government

• What is local government? (Week 18)

• What is federal government?

• What positions are involved in state & local government?

• What responsibilities does the mayor have?

• How does school government function?

• What role can local government have on society?

• What can be done to make a change on a local level?

• What can be done to make a change on a federal level?

 

Extra Week of material: CIVIL RIGHTS

- Prominent figures (After Week 16, Before Week 17)

• • Abraham Lincoln

  • Rosa Parks

  • Martin Luther King Jr.

    • I Have a Dream speech

  • Barack Obama

  • John F. Kennedy