TITLE:  MOCK CONGRESS

AUTHOR:  Rosella S. Campos; George Washington High
         School, Guam

GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT:  9-12
  Implementation of Student Congress in the Secondary
Classroom.

OVERVIEW: Many students do not understand the process of
lawmaking.  Neither do they know the basis of these laws.
where do laws come from?  The intricacies of law-making and
the length of time it involves are not clearly understood.

PURPOSE:  This activity can be implemented in all grade
levels, (9th - 12th).  The purpose of this activity is to
get the students involved in the legislative process of law-
making by assuming different roles and understand the
relevance of these laws to their lives.

OBJECTIVES:
1.  To learn about parliamentary procedures.
2.  To enable students to generate their own ideas as
    basis of making laws and become better advocates of
    these ideas.
3.  To develop leadership skills.
4.  To develop communication skills through debate
    and speech.
5.  To learn about contemporary issues.
6.  To learn and understand the workings of
    democracy.

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
     Before the activities begin, the teacher must have
discussed with the students the importance of the
different committees in Congress, such as Rules Committee,
Ways and Means Committee, Appropriation Committee, Armed
Services Committee, Education Committee, etc.  Students must
also have been familiarized with the steps on how a bill
law.  This acitivity allows for 3-5 class meeting.
     Each student should have prepared or written a bill on
any subject of his/her own choice following the smaple or
format specified by the teacher.  At the end of the
activity, students will also be asked to evaluate their own
peers following these criteria. (See attached form)


                 EVALUATION ON ORAL PRESENTATION

                            Evaluated by:___________________
NAME OF PRESENTER

_____________________________

Rate the individual according to the following criteria.
Circle a number the scale from 1 - 10.  1- lowest score, 10-
highest score.



_________________________________________________________
Content            1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

(evidence of research)
_________________________________________________________Cre
at/Orginality    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10

(Use of audio/visual aids)

_________________________________________________________Cla
rity/brevity     1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10
concisness
_________________________________________________________
Organization/
logical             1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10

sequence

_________________________________________________________
  Style of
presentation       1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

_________________________________________________________

Total Points

GRADE DISTRIBUTION:   45-50   A

                      40-44   B

                      35-39   C

                      30-34   D

Comments/Suggestions;

1.   Students will be divided into groups of 4-5 members
     each.
     Each group will assign differewnt committee chairperson
     and a recording secretary.
2.   Each committee will discuss the different bills written
     by each student before the activity.  The committee
     chairperson will lead the discussion.  Each student
     must be given at least 2 minutes to present his/her
     bill.
3.   After the discussions, each committee will choose one
     particular bill to propose to the whole assembly of
     legislators.  This shall be done through voting.
     Teacher should remind students that decisions should be
     done through majority vote.
4.   After a bill has been considered, the committee will
     now decide what changes to make, if any, this is called
     the mark-up session.
5.   When all changes have been made, the committee votes
     either to kill the bill or to report it.
6.   If the committee decides to report it, they send the
     revised bill to the whole legislative assembly.  All
     the members of the committees will now assume the role
     of the whole asembly.

     At this point the following leaders are chosen,
     presiding officer, or speaker, Sargeant at Arms, and
     recording-clerk.
7.   Each committee will present its own proposed bill by
     allowing a student speaker to presen the bill to the
     whole assembly.

     After the presentation, questions will be asked by
     members of the assembly.  These questions must be on
     the mechanics of the Bill of Rights, alot five members
     for each bill.
8.   After all committees have made their presentations,
     members of the asembly will now vote for the bill(s)
     they would propose to become a law(s).
9.   At the end of the activity , the students will evaluate
     the performance of their peers based on the criteria
     given to them by the teacher at the beginning of the
     activity.