Directions:
Please complete ALL questions and define all vocabulary. Please attempt the position paper on eliminating the electoral college. I would love to read what you have to say about it. Please read all directions about the position paper and follow all directions. It is only 3 pages. Try your best, that’s all I’m asking.
Objective: SWBAT identify the President’s many roles
Do Now: List the characteristics that you think make someone a good President
Vocabulary:
Quote Analysis:
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2. How does the President function as the Chief of Party? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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SWBAT explain the role of the list of Presidential Succession
Vocabulary:
3. President Pro Tempore of the Senate
4. Secretary of State
6. Secretary of Defense
7. Attorney General
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Choosing the Vice President:
“When the founding fathers created the office of the President…they had little to say about the vice presidency. They saw the VP as a kind of understudy in case the star should, as the Constitution explains, die, become incapacitated, resign or be found guilty of treason, bribery or “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Yet time after time, both parties have selected their VP candidates with little or no thought of how effective they would be should the single heart between them and the white house cease to beat. Preserving party unity and adding strength the ticket in a particular state or region…not the ability of the person selected, continued to be the determining factors in nearly every case. Still, more disturbing, since television and the increase in the number of the presidential primaries have diminished the role of national conventions in the selection of candidates, the choice of a running mate has a prerogative of the person who wins the presidential nomination.
Presidential candidates have nearly always had a hand in choosing their running mates. But until the decline of the conventions’ importance, they had to give some thought to how the delegates would react to the selection.
Leaving the choice to the head of the ticket had not changed the reasons particular candidates are chosen. But despite all their hoopla and sordid dealing, the old fashioned nominating conventions have substance to the idea that people, through their chosen delegates, were deciding who the standard- bearers would be.
The primary system is undoubtedly a more effective way of discovering which candidates for president the voters prefer. The primaries practically compel candidates to describe what they would do if they were nominated, but they studiously avoid committing themselves as to whom they want as running mates. And there are no vice presidential primaries.
Given the frequency with which fate has turned vice presidents into instant presidents, this is disturbing. That presidents should be able to pick their successors is undemocratic. It is also illogical. Since they must be dead, incompetent or disgraces before the occasion can arise, they are the last persons who should have that power.”
Questions:
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Grading
1. You will receive 5 points for each day that we do the readings in class (10 points total)
2. You will receive 20 points for working on your paper in class on November 13th
3. You will receive 10 points for Peer Editing another student’s Paper on November 14th
4. Your final Position Paper will be out of 50 points (based on the rubric)
5. Dialogue Session: 10 points for your participation, cooperation and respect
What is a Position Paper:
A position paper presents an arguable opinion about an issue. The goal of a position paper is to convince the audience that your opinion is valid and worth listening to. Ideas that you are considering need to be carefully examined when developing your argument, and organizing your paper.
It is very important to ensure that you are addressing all sides of the issue and presenting it in a manner that is easy for your audience to understand. Your job is to take one side of the argument and persuade your audience that you have well-founded knowledge of the topic being presented. It is important to support your argument with evidence to ensure the validity of your claims, as well as to address the counterclaims to show that you are well informed about both sides.
General Outline for a Position Paper
1. Introduction (6-8 sentences)
A. Introduce the topic
 C. Assert the thesis (your view of the issue)
2. Body Paragraph- One side of the argument (10-12 sentences)
A. What was the name of the reading? Who was the author?
 B. What is their opinion/stance on the issue?
 C. What do they use to support their opinion- be specific and use concrete examples!
3. Body Paragraph- Other side of the argument (10-12 sentences)
A. What was the name of the reading? Who was the author?
 B. What is their opinion/stance on the issue?
 C. What do they use to support their opinion- be specific and use concrete examples!
4. Body Paragraph- Your opinion! (10-12 sentences)
A. Which reading do you agree with?
 B. Why do you agree with it- be specific!
5. Conclusion- Tying things up (6-8 sentences)
A. Restate your argument
B. Provide a plan of action- what should happen in the future?
YOUR POSITION PAPER SHOULD BE APPROXIMATELY THREE TYPED, DOUBLE SPACED PAGES!
Rubric: This is what you will be graded on:
Criterion
Insufficient
Limited
Adequate
Proficient
Exceptional
Some elements missing; regular breaks in organization; flow breaks down.
All elements present with occasional disorganization and flow interrupted.
All elements well presented; well organized and flows smoothly
All elements thoroughly presented; extremely well organized, allowing smooth & logical flow; crisp and ready for publication.
Mechanics
meaning of paper.
Regular errors; flow/meaning of paper breaks down.
Errors noticeable, and on occasion, detract from flow or meaning of paper.
Some errors, which are minor in nature, & don't detract from overall meaning of paper.
Essentially faultless; errors may result from risk-taking and do not detract from meaning of paper.
Positions
Positions partially presented; weak information; shows lack of relevant data.
Positions substantially presented; some imbalance in positions; some information missing or gaps in explanation.
Positions completely presented; relevant, accurate, clear and well explained.
Two or more positions thoroughly presented; comprehensive, relevant and accurate explanation of positions.
Analysis (compare/contrast, evaluate positions)
Little or no examination of data (information); lacks comparison, contrast, and evaluation.
Some examination of data (information); little comparison, contrast and evaluation.
Adequate examination of data (information); some degree of comparison, contrast & evaluation.
Skillful examination; shows strong degree of comparison, contrast, & evaluation.
Demonstrates thorough examination of data (information); shows advanced degree of comparison, contrast, & evaluation.
Understanding
Little or no understanding of positions; failure to appreciate points of view.
Little understanding of positions; little appreciation for points of view.
Adequate understanding of positions; some attempts to appreciate points of view.
Reveals strong understanding of positions and an effort to appreciate points of view.
Reveals mature and insightful understanding of the positions and a solid appreciation of points of view.
Objective: SWBAT describe the President’s major Legislative and Judicial powers
Vocabulary:
2. Reprieve:
3. Pardon:
4. Clemency:
5. Commutation:
Legislative Powers: The President sends three things to the Legislative Branch each year:
1.
2.
3.
Veto Power: The President can do four things when he receives a bill:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Vocabulary:
1.
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3.
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4.
5.
“Red Tape”: Bureaucracies are considered to be “red tape” because there are often delays in paperwork and actual action.
Questions:
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Objective: SWBAT explain how and why the Constitution gives Congress the power to tax
Vocabulary:
1. Progressive tax:
2. Excise tax:
3. Estate tax:
4. Gift tax:
5. Regressive tax:
Agostini v. Felton
In the 1985 case Aguilar v. Felton, the Supreme Court ruled that NYC Public School teachers could not provide extra instruction to disadvantaged students at religious schools during regular school hours. Such instruction, the Court declared, violated the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment. Following that decision, the city’s board of education used other methods to help religious school students, mostly by busing students to public school buildings or other (rented) facilities after regular school hours.
In the years after Aguilar, the Supreme Court decided other cases involving government support of special education in religious schools. In a case from Arizona, Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1993), for example, the Court allowed a sign-language interpreter, paid for with public funds, to help a deaf student with his class work at a Catholic High School.
Twelve years after Aguilar v. Fenton, NYC officials returned to court to ask that the decision in that case be reconsidered and reversed in light of the more recent Supreme Court cases. The district court and court of appeals declined to do so, and the case then went to the Supreme Court.
Arguments for Agostini
1. Government funding of secular instruction in religious schools violates the Establishment Clause by promoting religion. Because the instruction takes place in religious schools, the public school teachers might tailor their teaching to conform to the school’s religious beliefs, whether intentionally or not.
2. Government funding of secular instruction in religious school entangles church and state because the government has to monitor the ways in which the funds are used.
Arguments for Felton
1. The board of education’s program does not promote religion because the skills on which students will be helped are not related to students’ religious beliefs or where they go to school. Therefore, recipients of aid have no incentive to change their religious beliefs or practices in order to get help.
2. The program requires only very limited government supervision of the ways in which funds are used, and thus does not result in excessive entanglement with religion.
Facts:
This suit was brought by a New York parochial school board, and some of its student's parents, as a challenge to a District Court ruling upholding the twelve-year-old decision set out in Aguilar v. Felton (473 US 402). The decision in Aguilar prohibited public school teachers from teaching in parochial schools as a violation of the Establishment Clause. On appeal from the Second Circuit's affirmance of a District Court's denial of the parent's challenge, the Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Question
Is the Establishment Clause violated when public school teachers instruct in parochial schools?
What do you Think? Why? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conclusion
No. The Court overruled its decision in Aguilar v. Felton. The Court held that there was no evidence to support its former presumption that the entrance of public school teachers into parochial schools will inevitably lead to the indoctrination of state-sponsored religion. The New York program under which public school teachers were sent into parochial schools did not provide parochial schools with any incentive, financial or other, to establish religion in order to attract public school teachers. The Court added that under its new view, only those policies which generate an excessive conflict between church and state will be deemed to violate the Establishment Clause. As such, one should no longer find that all entanglements between church and state have a distinctly positive or negative impact on religion.
Top of Form
Objective: SWBAT describe foreign policy and understand the components of the Department of State
Vocabulary:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.
2.
3.
Quote Analysis:
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2. “Foreign policy is ultimately about security -- about defending our people.”
–Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State
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7. “Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when that number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place.” ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Objective: SWBAT fill out the following Study Guide
Defining Terms: Choose Seven (2 points each, 1 point for each additional one)
1. “Balance the Ticket”
2. Commander in Chief:
3. Line Item Veto:
9. Isolationism:
Short Answer: Choose Seven (5 points each, 1 point for each additional one)
1. Name the three qualifications a person must meet to run for President of the US:
2. Briefly describe the Electoral College and give your opinion of it.
3. The President can do four (4) things when he receives a bill- name and explain three of them.
4. Name the three features of a bureaucracy
5. Name at least three (3) examples of Governmental Departments
6. Describe the “gift tax” and give your opinion
7. What was the case of Agostini v. Felton about? Who won?
8. What is the difference between domestic and foreign issues?
9. How is the Vice President chosen? What is your opinion of this selection process?
10. Who creates the Federal Budget? Who has to approve it?
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