TPACK Template

Online Learning Asynchronous classroom

Environment
Subject U.S Government

Grade Level 12th

Learning Objective GOVT.7 The student will apply social science skills to
understand the organization and powers of the
national government by
a) examining the legislative, executive, and
judicial branches
Content

b) analyzing the relationships among the three

branches in a system of checks and balances
and separation of powers
Online Activity 1. During this activity, the students get to represent
the district of their choice in the US House of
Representatives! They get to choose what priorities
would be important to a member in their district,
and then craft a bill, gain support, and have the bill
pass. The students will learn all of the nuances and
time consuming process that it takes to pass a bill.
2. Before this lesson, the students and teacher will
have already engaged in a discussion on the proper
flow of a bill becomes a law, and the long process
that it takes. This lesson provides the students with
the opportunity to experience how intense and
frustrating it can be when trying to create a new
law. This activity is bound to reinforce existing
knowledge of how a bill becomes a law, but it will
also give the students a feeling for how long the bill
making process can be in a better way than words
alone can.
3. Because this is a senior level class, I want to
replicate what it feels like it take an online college
course. Because of that, this lesson involves a
discussion between the students and teacher, as
Pedagogy

well as the simulation.

4. When introducing the lesson, tell the students that
they get to be a US Congressman or
 Congresswoman!! This is exciting, so make sure to
keep the energy high. This can be done in either a
well-written letter, or a video. For this lesson, I will
be using a VoiceThread, and I will post a video
introduction for this lesson, but this can also be
done in an exciting letter on a discussion board
page.
5. In this introduction, pose a question to students
that gets them thinking what it would be like to
have their bill introduced and discussed, and ask
them what they think the process will be like. This
will get them thinking about the subject, and it
make show a massive change from beginning to
end of the assignment. The student should post
their answers in the VoiceThread, and respond to
others when they feel the same way, or totally
opposite. The students must post how they are
feeling, and then respond to TWO other students
posts. This assignment must be completed by
Sunday at 11:59 pm, and these three initial posts
must be made by Thursday at 11:59 pm. While
these answers are being posted, the teacher will
respond and pose other questions that challenge
the students’ feelings about the issue in a manner
that gets them to think deeper about the issue.
6. Once this has been completed, the students can
move on to the simulation titled LawCraft. In this,
the students will select a district that they want to
represent in Congress. Each district comes with its
unique constituents, and the simulation provides all
of that information before a district is chosen.
Then, the students are given various topics and
must see who would support those measures. This
is like a calibration to make sure that everyone is on
the same page. From there, the students are able
to select a bill to support given their constituency,
and then they must hold hearings and gain enough
support for it to pass. This is a long process. Once
the bill passes in the House, it moves over to the
Senate. The Senate will make recommendations
and changes and send it back to the House. Then
the students will need to hold more hearings and
choose speakers wisely in order to gain enough
support for the bill to pass. Throughout the
 simulation, there are measurements and metrics
that tell you whether or not a change you have
made to the bill gains or loses support, making this
a user friendly simulation. Once enough support
has been earned, the students can put the bill to a
vote, and have it pass. IF it does not pass, they are
able to make changes to ensure that it does!
Throughout this process, the teacher will not be
supervising the students to see if they have this
simulation correctly. Because of this, the teacher
must be readily available to answer any of the
students questions, through email, about this
assignment.
7. Some helpful features of this simulation that make
it more accessible are the fact that there are some
highlighted and colored words that can be clicked
on. Once clicked on, they provide a definition for it.
Also, students can read and/or listen to the
simulation, making it a great resource for those
who struggle with reading or listening!
8. When they have finished the simulation, the
students will realize the importance of consistent
support, how to prioritize policies based on who
you represent, the long process and lots of hearings
that it takes to pass a bill, and the chances you have
of being reelected.
9. Because there is no way to know if the students
completed the simulation or not, the students will
have to make another post in the VoiceThread
about who their constituents were, what bill they
support, why they made the changes that they did,
and if they were able to pass their bill. In this
posting, they must also discuss some of the
challenges that they had while trying to get their
bill to pass. At the same time, the students will
discuss what surprised them the most about the bill
making process. The students must post their own
reflection and then respond to another student’s
reflection but Sunday at 11:59pm. Reflecting will
help the students to understand how intricate and
detailed the process is, and it will help them to
discover if some of their preconceived ideas about
law making were wrong. While the students are
posting their reflections, the teacher will respond
 to the students and pose thought-provoking
questions to get the students to think deeper. The
teacher should respond to every student’s
reflection.
10. Once all of the students have posted their
responses, the teacher should provide
individualized feedback to each student to ensure
that they know how they did with the assignment.

Technology The simulation is called LawCraft, and can be found at

Techn
ology

https://www.icivics.org/games/lawcraft
This simulation is completed best on a laptop computer.