e-Congress

Lesson Overview for YLI e-Congress

The YLI e-Congress is designed to provide teachers with the flexibility to complete the necessary activities during eight class meetings over a four-week period. The following descriptions briefly explain what your class will do during each of the eight lessons. Along with the daily descriptions, you will also find references to YLI- e-Congress lesson plans and resources posted on the YLI web site. These are designed to assist teachers as they guide students through the project.

Day 0: (optional) Using YLI Lesson 1 – Political Ideology Survey, students will determine where they fall personally on the political spectrum by analyzing their opinions of current political issues. Advanced students may also want to complete YLI Lesson 2 – Formation of an Ideological Spectrum that provides a more sophisticated understanding of the distinctions in political ideology.

Lessons Referenced:

• YLI Lesson 1 – Political Ideology Survey (optional)
• YLI Lesson 2 – Formation of an Ideological Spectrum (optional)

Day 1: Students will be divided into groups based on their political ideology and interests. The size of the groups may vary depending on the abilities of students in the class. Advanced students may work individually or in small groups whereas students needing more support may work as an entire class. Using YLI e-Congress Lesson 1 – Drafting a Bill, each group will brainstorm topics for legislation and choose one that surfaces as timely and relevant to their peers/ constituents. The teacher may choose to introduce the lesson using the YLI video, Mission ImpossiBill? Students are also encouraged to use the polling feature on the YLI web site to survey their peers about issues they feel need to be addressed during this administration and/or to contact congressional leaders using the YLI Town Square portion of the web site.

Lesson Referenced:

• e-Congress Lesson 1 – Drafting a Bill (required)
• e-Congress Lesson 2 – Corresponding with Legislative Leaders (optional)
• e-Congress Lesson 3 – Biases in Polling Questions (optional)
• e-Congress Lesson 4 – Student-Conducted Poll (optional)

Resources Referenced:

• e-Congress Video – Mission ImpossiBill! (optional)

Day 2: Students will begin researching and drafting legislation. Teachers may elect to use a variety of lesson plans to help students conduct research depending on time restrictions. Once students complete their research, they need to access the template provided in e-Congress Lesson 1 to craft their bill and place it in the required format.

Lessons Referenced:

• e-Congress Lesson 5 – Historical Background on Sample Legislative Issues (optional)
• e-Congress Lesson 6 – Evolution of Legislation for Sample Topics (optional)
• e-Congress Lesson 7 – Organizations That Support Specific Legislation (optional)

Resources Referenced:

• e-Congress Rubric – Rubric for teachers to use when assessing legislation (optional)

Day 3: Each legislative group will distribute their sample legislation to the entire class. (This step will be eliminated if a teacher chose to write one piece of legislation as a class.) The class will then serve as the Authorizing Committee to determine which single piece of legislation they will submit to the YLI Hopper. During class on this day students will be guided to analyze each bill, debate their merits, suggest modifications and select one that surfaces as the strongest piece of legislation. Once they agree on a single piece, they will need to complete the Fiscal Impact Form and send both pieces of information to YLI through e-mail or regular mail. If students are participating in the structured portion of this game they will need to submit their bill by Friday, February 9.

Lessons Referenced:

• e-Congress Lesson 8 – The Merit of a Bill (optional)
• e-Congress Lesson 17 – Selling Your Bill (optional)
• e-Congress Lesson 9 – Fiscal Impact (required)

Day 4: Once YLI receives legislation in the YLI e-Hopper, it will be assigned a number and sent to a specific "sub-committee" of the Appropriations Committee. You will be notified by the "Speaker’s Office" as to which subcommittee your legislation has been assigned. The subcommittees will then work on building consensus in order to get their bills passed by the entire congress. Discussions will take place during a two-week time period using the Appropriations Sub-Committee portion of the YLI web site. Students will logon at any point during the given period of time and express their concerns and views with other members of their sub-committee and exchange information until they have created legislation as a sub-committee that they want to submit to the House Floor.

Lesson Referenced:

• e-Congress Lesson11 – The Cornerstones of Consensus (required)

Resource Referenced:

• Web site deliberations through the Appropriations sub-committee under YLI e-Congress (required)

• Web cast featuring an interview with U.S. Congressmen on strategies used to build consensus (optional)

Day 5: As teams within the sub-committees are attempting to build consensus with each other, they will also be challenged to meet the needs of special interest groups as it relates to their legislation. Some will be supportive of their bill, while others may encourage them to drop all parts of it. Students may also be informed of veto threats, media questions, concerns from political action committees, constituent backlash/support etc. The way they deal with each of these will impact the likelihood of the passage of their bill.

Lesson Referenced:

• e-Congress Lesson11 – What are Outside Influences? (required)

Day 6: Each sub-committee will submit their final bill(s) to the House Floor. If changes have been made to pieces of legislation, students will need to make revisions and submit the Bill(s) in the required format.

Lesson Referenced:

• e-Congress Lesson 1 – Drafting a Bill (provides template legislation) (required)

Day 7: All students will need to review the bills on the House Floor and vote using the ballot on the YLI web site. Students will receive two votes during this process. One vote will most likely be cast for their personal legislation.

Lesson Referenced:

• e-Congress Lesson 12 – How to Vote on Bills? (required)
• e-Congress Lesson 13 – How to Analyze Bills Critically Before Casting Your Final Vote? (optional)

Resource Referenced:

• YLI e-Congress Ballot

Day 8: In the event that your legislation passes the YLI e-Congress, the White House will inform you of the President’s decision on your legislation. Students and teachers will evaluate both the political process involved in passing a piece of legislation through the House of Representatives and the e-Congress game.

• e-Congress Lesson 14 – Evaluation of the Political Process to Pass a Bill
• e-Congress Lesson 15 – Evaluation of the YLI e-Congress game