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Best Practices Videos
Standing Committee Markup ExerciseMatt Gerber Matthew Gerber, assistant instructor of history at the Culver Academies in Culver, Indiana, was a 2002 winner of the Center on Congress Outstanding Teacher Award. Mr. Gerber's students role-play the work of a House Standing Committee as it investigates a piece of legislation, debates it, and then chooses whether to set aside (i.e., kill), amend, or report it to Congress for consideration without change. His students not only learn about how a member of Congress makes a decision, but they also learn about the issues surrounding the decision. |
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Mock Senate DebatesCarol Conrad, a Government and U.S. History teacher at Twin Lakes High School in Monticello, Indiana, offers three Best Practice activities. First, Ms. Conrad's students follow the legislative process from the birth of an idea through the vote on the Senate floor. Next, she offers a lively competition designed to give students drill and practice in government-related vocabulary terms, court cases, U.S. history dates, and famous Americans. And finally, Ms. Conrad provides a service for eighteen-year-old students who will be voting for the first time — an opportunity to meet candidates for local, regional, and state offices in a forum designed just for them. Lesson Plans (PDF) |
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Rover the Citizenship DogNadine Roush, a fifth-grade teacher at Amelia Earhart Elementary School in Lafayette, Indiana, demonstrates how to make government and civic responsibility vital to elementary students. Mrs. Roush's students share their room with a unique classmate — a stuffed dog named Rover who travels the world as class ambassador in search of the meaning of citizenship. Rover brings back video, photographs, letters, and souvenirs to his "classmates," and they discuss what he has learned about the meaning of citizenship. | |
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