Government, Day 4 - Class Recap

The White House, in Washington, D.C., which is typically seen as a symbol of the leadership of the United States government, because the President lives there. Photo taken in 2010.

Dear class,

I enjoyed seeing the skits today about the various forms of government around the world that we are studying! Hopefully, combined with the reading and notes, you now have a good idea about how each system works. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 18: I can explain how and why world societies organize themselves and how power is established and maintained.
Communication LT 2:  I can use language and style that is appropriate to the content area.

Soundtrack: "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King. Selected because of the connection with monarchy (which is mentioned in the lyrics)!

AGENDA 11/20/14:
News Brief – Sierra
DBQ/Review Cornell Notes
Government Skits
Who Rules?

Homework: Read the blog. Study for forms of government test next class. Next news brief: Mary

News Brief: Sierra had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: CNN.com - ISIS comes to Libya. We found Libya on the world map (in Africa!) and talked about other news of the day, like President Obama probably issuing an executive order regarding immigration tonight. I played the VICE "Beyond the Headlines" news clip for today, as well.

Mary was selected to do the next news brief.

DBQ/Review Cornell Notes: First, let's talk about the DBQ for the culture unit. I was finally able to grade all of your DBQs from the culture unit, along with the collection of evidence. This was the first time doing an essay like this in high school, so it is understandable that there is room for improvement with almost everyone! I tried to go over some of the key points as to how I assessed the learning targets and how they could be improved. Specifically, make sure that your Collection of Evidence for the culture unit is completely done!

Next, we went back and looked at our Cornell Notes from the Forms of Government PowerPoint last class. Specifically, I asked everyone to make sure to follow the guidelines listed in the process document, by highlighting important information, thinking of "outside the box/notes" questions, then writing a three to five sentence summary of the material at the bottom. This should really help you prepare for the test next class! Keep reviewing your notes! :-)

Government Skits: As I mentioned above, I really enjoyed these, even if they were very brief. The groups did a good job of thinking of how to present each of the main ideas! Here was the packet that this was based on (a few of the types were not on the PowerPoint, like Oligarchy and Anarchy, so make sure to review them and what some of the benefits and drawbacks of each system are):

Google Drive - Types of Government Readings

Just look at the readings from A-G, because you do not need to know the economic structures that are later in the packet, yet.

Who Rules?: The rest of class was devoted to your groups going through this worksheet packet, designed to be a review before the forms of government test:

Google Drive - Who Rules? Reading and Questions

The first page has a good overview of the types and classifications of governments that we are studying. The following pages are practice, to help compare and contrast the systems of government. We will finish this next class (our only class before a week long break for Thanksgiving) and then take the test. Please study and ask questions if you are at all confused! :-)