SUBJECTS

U.S. Government, Civics, U.S. History

 GRADE LEVEL

9-12

This lesson will address the role of standing committees in Congress. Students will learn how to depict the standing committees in Congress kinesthetically and visually. They will be able to explain why each committee is important to Congress and analyze the difference between standing and select committees.

 LESSON PLAN

Vocabulary

 Subcommittee

 Select committee

 Joint committee

 Conference committee

 Standing committee

 Committee jurisdiction

Step 1: Assign students a standing committee from the House and/or Senate. (For smaller classes you may need to assign students multiple committees to make sure they are covered.)

House Committee

Senate Committee

Agriculture  Appropriations  Armed Services  Budget  Education and the Workforce  Energy and Commerce  Financial Services  Government Reform  Homeland Security  House Administration  International Relations  Judiciary  Resources  Rules  Science  Small Business  Standard of Official Conduct  Transportation and Infrastructure  Veterans’ Affairs  Ways and Means

Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Appropriations Armed Services Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Budget Commerce, Science, and Transportation Energy and Natural Resources Environment and Public Works Finance Foreign Relations Homeland Security and Government Affairs Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Judiciary Rules and Administration Small Business and Entrepreneurship Veterans’ Affairs

Students will visit the Web sites of the House and the Senate and link to their committee web site in order to determine their committee’s jurisdiction.

Step 2: The students must bring in an object(s) that represents a subject with their assigned committee’s jurisdiction. Have them place the object in the House or Senate Committee Chest.

Step 3: Students come up one at a time and pick an object from one of the boxes. They must guess which committee the object represents. (It helps if you have the list of committees on the board and you erase them as you go.)

Step 4: The student who brought in the object must then come up in front of the class and explain why the committee is important and why it is a standing committee instead of a select committee.

Step 5: Students will identify various committees and groups within their school and determine their “jurisdictions.”

Step 6: Students will compare the two sets of committees.

Step 7: When all of the committees have been explained, the students will write a reflection. They must write about their committee and why they chose that object to represent its jurisdiction. They must also suggest how congressional committees might be improved.

 RESOURCES

 Two large boxes, one labeled “House Committee” and the other labeled “Senate Committee.”
 Access to the House and Senate Web sites.

 CREDIT

Sara Piotrowski
Plainfield Central High School
Plainfield, IL