Lesson Name

Date Taught
Goals
Literacy Goals
Objectives

Pre-Requisite
Knowledge and Skills
Materials, Equipment,
Supplies, Technology,
Preparation

The Basics of the Legislative Branch Web Quest

2/19/2015
Time Allotted for
45 min.
Lesson
HS.27 Students will examine functions and processes of the
U.S. government.
Objective 1.3
After completing a web quest, students will be able to explain
the basic functions of Congress and the difference between
the House of Representatives and Senate, as measured by a
worksheet.
Basic computer skills
Materials/Supplies:
Basics of the Legislative Branch guided notes
Equipment/Technology:
Computer Lab
The Legislative Branch Web Quest
Preparation:
Create web quest

Intelligence
X Visual
Verbal

Multiple Intelligences and Entry Points

Entry Point(s)
Intelligence
Web Quest
Interpersonal
X Intrapersonal

Entry Point(s)
Individual
activity

X Logical

Scavenger
hunt/Web Quest

Kinesthetic
Accommodations

Musical
Given the low content knowledge and varied language skills
of the class, this assignment was designed to provide
students with sentence frames to take some of the pressure
off students to utilize a great deal of new vocabulary. It is
important that they begin to work with the content, but their
chances of experiencing success will increase if they have
experienced some positive achievements. This assignment is
also designed as a whole to allow students to pace
themselves through.
This assignment could be read aloud for a student who
needed modifications. If necessary, simplified questions
could be provided to facilitate interpretation by students.
Procedure
Brief discussion of yesterdays lesson, problems and
solutions.
The teacher will begin the lesson with a brief discussion of
the previous day and popcorn some questions related to the
content students did get yesterday. Then, the teacher will
explain the basics of the assignment, including where to find
the website address.

Modifications

Anticipatory Set,
Motivation, or Hook
Teaching

Naturalistic

Lead the class down to the computer lab. As students log

into their accounts, distribute the worksheets. (I simply piled
the two versions, one on top of another, and pulled from
either the top or the bottom depending on which version I
wanted students to do, to make the differentiation less
obvious.)
Monitor student progress, answer questions, coach them
through exercise. Collect papers as students finish or at the
end of the period. If students have extra time, they can
complete the student introductory survey by following the link
on the website.
Independent Application
Group Application

Students will fill in the answers to the worksheet on their own.

This is an individual activity to assess the students individual
knowledge and abilities.
Closure
The teacher will review some of the key answers with the
students.
Assessment
The web quest guided notes serve as the formative
Formative Assessment
assessment for this activity.
Summative Assessment There is no summative assessment for this lesson.
Reflection
Due to the lack of success I experienced with the previous days lesson, I decided that
I needed to try something completely different today. This group seems to enjoy
individual work, and while I believe strongly in stretching them, they will be interacting
with others on several occasions during the course of this unit, so I decided to cater to
their strengths in the hope of allowing them to experience some success with this lesson.
I also noticed the day before that they seemed lost in regards to how one might go about
creating useful notes. Additionally, I discovered that there had been an opening in the
computer lab, which the students rarely get to use. Taking all of this into consideration, I
booked the lab and created a website for class.
We had attempted a web quest with this class once before, however the students
initially struggled with the objective of the lesson. Once they understood what they were
supposed to be doing, they seemed to enjoy it though. With that in mind, I created two
versions of a web quest that focused on the legislative branch. I also created a
worksheet to go along with the website that would require them to fill in blanks, form
definitions, and answer interpretive questions. By requiring them to perform a variety of
tasks, I hoped to eliminate some of the copying and pasting that had plagued our earlier
attempt. My goal was to have them end the lesson with a page of notes that we could
then glue into their notebooks.
I created two versions in order to differentiate the lesson for some of the students.
Although their background knowledge was all fairly low, the class does have a small
group of students who work at a much faster pace than the rest of the students and are
capable of going beyond some of the goals for the rest of the class. In order to keep
them engaged and learning about the content, I designed their web quest with the same
material to start out with (so all the students have the same notes for reference) but then
had them apply the information in a more complex way. They are still working with the
same ideas, just performing more complex tasks.
The students really seemed to enjoy this lesson, so much so that I was surprised when

most of them asked if they could take it home as homework when they did not finish on
time. They have only had homework once before, and not many completed it, so for
them to voluntarily take this assignment home makes me think it must have been a good
experience for them. The differentiation seemed to work well also, keeping students who
would normally finish early and become restless occupied. Because I had designed the
website myself, I also found that I was better able to gauge their progress and judge why
some of them experienced difficulty with some elements (mostly vocabulary).
In fact, this lesson was such a success that if I were to continue to teach this class I
think I would make this a regular format for notes, challenging them further as the class
went on but keeping the same core ideas. I think this really allowed people to work at
their own pace, which is a regular struggle for this class. Also, they did not need to be
self-conscious about where they were at because everyone was largely on-task and not
looking at their peers, which is also something this group struggles with.

The Basics of the Legislative Branch Notes

Name:____________________________

Go to www.mrsarmstrongmck.wix.com/amgovquest
Click on Version A at the top of the webpage. Follow the links to help you answer the questions and
fill in the blanks below. For questions that ask you to interpret information, please use complete
sentences.
1. Congress
A. Congress is part of the ________________ branch of the U.S. government. This branch is
responsible for making ____________.
B. The ____________________ and the ________________ are the two houses that form Congress.
Both are formed by people who were _______________ by people in the United States.
2. The House of Representatives
A. There are currently ____________ members of the House of Representatives. The number of
representatives is determined by ___________________________.
- Proportional Representation is: _________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________.
B. Only the House can introduce _____________ bills.
C. The Representative for our district is __________________________.
- Read their profile. Do you think that their views line up with Salems? Why or why not?

3. The Senate
A. There are ___________ members of the Senate. There are ________ senators for every state.
- If every state has the same number of senators, then how is the role of senators different than
the role of representatives? What is their role for the state as a whole? ____________________
___________________________________________________________________________.
B. Oregons senators are ____________________ and _______________________.
4. Congressional Leadership
A. The Speaker of the House acts as _____________________________. They are the
________________ officer (they are responsible for managing sessions) and are _______________ in
line to succeed the President if necessary, after the Vice President.
- Our current Speaker of the House is _____________________.
B. The position of President of the Senate is held by the _____________________________. They
have no vote in the Senate unless ______________________.
- Our current President of the Senate is ____________________________.
5. Powers Given to Congress
A. List 4 powers given to Congress
_____________________
_________________________
_____________________
_________________________
- Which power given to Congress do you think is the most important? Why?

6. Limits of Power
A. List 3 powers not granted to Congress.
____________________

__________________________

____________________
- Why do you think these powers were denied to Congress?

7. Congressional Moments
Choose one of the topics addressing the history of Congress. Watch the video, then answer these questions.
A. Which topic did you choose?

B. Summarize the conflict and Congress response in at least 3 sentences.

C. Given what you now know about Congress, in what ways do you think Congress influences your
life? Do you think (from your observations of the news, conversations weve had in class, etc.) that
Congress is doing its job well? Why or why not?

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The Basics of the Legislative Branch Notes

Name:____________________________

Go to www.mrsarmstrongmck.wix.com/amgovquest
Click on Version B at the top of the webpage. Follow the links to help you answer the questions and
fill in the blanks below. For questions that ask you to interpret information, please use complete
sentences.
1. Congress
A. Congress is part of the ________________ branch of the U.S. government. This branch is
responsible for making ____________.
B. The ____________________ and the ________________ are the two houses that form Congress.
Both are formed by people who were _______________ by people in the United States.
2. The House of Representatives
A. There are currently ____________ members of the House of Representatives. The number of
representatives is determined by ___________________________.
- Proportional Representation is: _________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________.
B. Only the House can introduce _____________ bills.
C. The Representative for our district is __________________________.
- Read their profile. Do you think that their views line up with Salems? Would you have voted
for them? Why or why not?

3. The Senate
A. There are ___________ members of the Senate. There are ________ senators for every state.
- If every state has the same number of senators, then how is the role of senators different than
the role of representatives? What is their role for the state as a whole? ____________________
___________________________________________________________________________.
B. Oregons senators are ____________________ and _______________________.
4. Congressional Leadership
A. The Speaker of the House acts as _____________________________. They are the
________________ officer (they are responsible for managing sessions) and are _______________ in
line to succeed the President if necessary, after the Vice President.
- Our current Speaker of the House is _____________________.
B. The position of President of the Senate is held by the _____________________________. They
have no vote in the Senate unless ______________________.
- Our current President of the Senate is ____________________________.
5. Congress in Action
A. Which committee did you pick? What about it interests you? Does this topic have any influence in
your life, or were you just curious? (Either answer is completely acceptable!)

B. Look at some of the bills that have been introduced to your committee recently. Pick one to examine
a little more. Browse the page, look over the text of the bill (look at introductory material, headings,
practice your skimming!) Which bill did you examine? What about it caught your attention?

C. How much of a chance does it look like your bill has of being passed? Why might that be?

6. Reflection
A. Considering what weve learned in the past few days and your own experiences, what role do you
think Congress has in the lives of young people today?

B. When, if ever, does the activity of the legislative branch catch your attention? Is this a good thing or
a bad thing, and what would you do to change it? If you would like, you could bring in some examples
from the news to support your opinion.

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