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The life of a legislative bill (lesson plan)

The life of a legislative bill (lesson plan)

In this lesson, students investigate bills under consideration by the United States Congress and create a flow chart that tracks the movement of the bills to gain understanding of the legislative process.

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Overview

Students examine bills under consideration and create a chart tracking their movement through the legislative process.

The life of a legislative bill

Lesson plan information

Lesson plan
Item Requirements
Instructional level
  • Intermediate user
  • Advanced user
School level
  • Middle school (11-14 years)
Curriculum areas
  • Social studies
Themes
  • Government
Class time
  • Several weeks
Academic standards
  • Social studies: Power, authority, and governance
ISTE NETS Standards for students
  • Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
  • Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative works
Software required
  • Microsoft Office Visio
  • Microsoft Office Word

Teacher guide

Objectives

  • Students will track one bill sponsored by either a senator or representative from their state to gain an understanding of the legislative process.
  • Students will create a flowchart, with Microsoft Office Visio to track the status of their bill.

How to begin

  1. Save the document Student directions to your classroom computers. Adjust the directions as needed for your lesson. When presenting your lesson to the students, have them use the student directions sheet as a jump point into the activity.
  2. Discuss with students various bills that have become law.
  3. Review the process for bills to become laws.
  4. Explain to students that they will be selecting and tracking a bill as a part of this assignment.

Resources and web links

Bill flowchart (Microsoft Visio flowchart 65.6 KB)

Bill flowchart (Microsoft Word document 125 KB)

Student activity

Description

In this activity, you will investigate current legislation under consideration by the U.S. Congress. You will choose a bill that has been sponsored by one of your U.S. senators or one of your U.S. representatives and track it using a flowchart.

  • Software: Microsoft Visio
  • What to do
    Track a legislative bill using a flowchart
  1. Open the Bill Tracking Flowchart. You will use this flowchart over the next few weeks to track a bill sponsored by someone from your state.
  2. Visit: http://thomas.loc.gov/, and click Bill Summary & Status.
  3. Under "Sponsor/co-sponsor," select either a representative from your state or a senator from your state.
  4. Read through the various bills and select one to track.
  5. Within the Bill Tracking flowchart, write the name of the bill, a brief description, and names of the sponsor and co-sponsor.
  6. There may already have been action on your bill. Enter each action into a circle. Be sure to date the action. The first circle should be the first action taken on the bill, with the last circle being the last action.
  7. Inside the box, in the lower left corner, explain whether you support the bill. Provide specific reasons to support your opinion

Ways to extend the student activity

For each action on the bill, have the students research the committees that review the bill, voting history of bill sponsors and co-sponsors, and pro and con arguments of the bill.

Assessment

  • Review students' flowcharts.
  • Ask students to describe verbally or in writing the process for a bill to become law.

This content is reprinted with permission from Microsoft. For additional content, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/education/default.mspx.