Your Government

A WebQuery for 9th Grade U.S. History

Mr. Carrigan
carrigankj@yahoo.com

Introduction

You and your fellow country men just fought a bloody war for eight years, lost family, friends, and loved ones and are now free from oppression from your mother country. Can anyone guess what war was just fought and won? You guessed it, The American Revoultion! Can you imagine after all the fighting and blood shed, that the thirteen original colonies are now one nation and they get to establish thier own Government? Can you imagine winning the war and then having to build a brand new govermnet from the ground up?

Task

You and your four other group members will be creating your own governmnet from scratch. I want the group to create a Constitution for your newly formed governmnet. I also want everyone to have a government position (President, Vice Presidnet, Senator 1, Senator 2, House of Rep.1) (Remember this is a democracy not a dictatorship VOTE!). I also want a four page personal diary on the process of making the Constitution, what governmnet position you were given and the responsibilities that you had. I want the design to be unique and creative. I do not want unrealistic laws or anything off that nature in this project.

Diary requirments: (20 points)

4 page Min, 5 page Max (1)
Double Spaced (1)
12 pt. Font (1)
Times Roman Numeral (1)
Free of gramatical, punctual eroors, etc. (1)
Creative and full of information (5)
Descirbes the making of the Constitution (5)
The position you were given & the responibilites (5)

Constitution requirments: (70 points)

A Preamble (5)
At least 10 Amendments (Be Specific!) (5 points for every amendment)
8 page Min, 10 page Max (1)
12 pt. Font (1)
Double Spaced (1)
Times Roman Numeral(1)
Free of gramatical, punctual errors, etc.(1)
Realtistic Laws (5)
Creative and Unique (5)

Participation: (20 points)

10 points will be given by me from my ovservation on everyone's indivudual participation
10 points will be given by your peers on how much they thought you contributed

TOTAL POINTS: 115

The Process

While you are working on this project I want you to think about the following questions:

Where should you start?
Are my laws realistic?
Is there any way to put your constituion on a creative piece of paper?
Do our laws make sense?
Are the laws organized?
Did you vote to create the laws?
Does everyone have a political position?
Is everyone participating?
Did you look at my favorite history sites to see if there are any useful sites?
What kind of Information wil you need for this project?
Where will you get some ood information for this project?
Do you have all the requirements that were aksed of you to complete the project?
Can you break this project down into smaller parts?
Is the project creative?
Did you look over your final project for any errors?

Resources

When looking for resources please remember that you need to look at other websites just not the ones that I have listed below.

Take a look at the life size Constitution on my wall.
Check out books from the library.
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html Shows the constituton and the amendments.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/index.html Shows the Amendment Process
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html Has the Constitution and the Articels (Shows the responsibilities of each brnch of government).

Evaluation

The points you earn on this project will come from the following rubric created by myself. Remember that you are to have ten amendments and they are worth five points a piece. The twenty participation points are split in two ways. I give ten of the points out and the other ten will be given to you by your group members.

Diary Rubric

Mr. Carrigan

CATEGORY	5	4	3	1
Format	Complies with all the requirements for a awesome diary.	Complies with almost all the requirements for a good diary	Complies with several of the requirements for a ok diary.	Complies with less than 75% of the requirements for a diary.
Grammar & spelling (conventions)	Writer makes no errors in grammar or spelling.	Writer makes 2-3 errors in grammar and/or spelling.	Writer makes 3-4 errors in grammar and/or spelling	Writer makes more than 5 errors in grammar and/or spelling.
Politcal Position	You described the political role that you were assigned and did a ggreat job on it.	You described your political role but left out a few important things.	You described your political role but left out important things.	You did not do a very good job on describing your political role.
Creativity	Your diary was full of creativity and thoughtfulness.	Your diary had some creatvity and thoughfulness but was missing something.	It had the beginings of a good diary but was missing somethings.	Your diary needs to be improved quit a bit but you still did a great job.

Writing a Constitution Rubric

Mr. Carrigan

CATEGORY	5	4	3	2
Preamble	Your preamble was creative, unique, well written.	Your preamble was unique but it was missing something.	Your preamble was ok. It was missing quit a bit of material.	Your preamble was not very well thought out and needs some improvement.
Amendments	Your amendmets are creative, clear, specific and well written. You also had 10/10 amendments.	Your amendmets are creative and well written. You also had 9/10 amendments.	Your amendmets are creative.You also had 8/10 amendments, but they were missing some important material in them.	Your amendments wer enot creative, clear or well writtne and you only had 7/10 amendments.
Spelling and Punctuation	There are no spelling or punctuation errors in the final draft.	There is one spelling or punctuation error in the final draft.	There are 2-3 spelling and punctuation errors in the final draft.	The final draft has more than 3 spelling and punctuation errors.
Creativity	The constitution contains many creative details and/or descriptions that contribute to the reader's enjoyment. The author has really used his/her imagination.	The constitution contains a few creative details and/or descriptions that contribute to the reader's enjoyment. The author has used his/her imagination.	The constitution contains a few creative details and/or descriptions, but they dont go with the rest of the material. The author has tried to use his/her imagination.	There is little evidence of creativity in the constitution. The author does not seem to have used much imagination.
Realistic Laws	The laws that were created were realistic and could be applied to the U.S. Constitution today.	The laws that were created were some what realistic and could possibly be applied to the U.S. Constitution with a little modification.	The laws that were created were not to the United States standards and would not make it to the Constitution.	The laws that were created were not realistic and would not be applied to the U.S. Constitution by todays standards.

Participation Points from Teacher

Mr. Carrigan

CATEGORY	5	4	3	0
Contribution	From my perspective you participated everyday with your group and did what was needed to get the project done and did it well.	From my perspective you participated most of the time with your group and did what was needed to get the project done and did a good job.	From my perspective you participated somewhat with your group and did help on the project but with minimal effort.	From my perspective you hardly participated with your group and did not help out at all.
Attendance	You showed up everyday to help out the group.	You missed one day of group work.	You missed two-three days of group work.	You missed way to many days of group work

Participation Points from Peers

Mr. Carrigan

CATEGORY	5	4	3	0
Contribution	Thier contrbution was awesome and could not have done it all with out thier help.	Their contribution was good but slacked in a few areas.	Their contribution was ok and I say ok because they were kind of a hinderance to our group.	They did nott contribute at all!
Attendance	They showed up everyday.	They missed a day or two.	They missed several days.	WHAT! They were in my group...?

Date Created: Jul 21, 2008 04:51 pm (CDT)

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Conclusion

Well you have done it! You have created your own government and now I am going to leave you alone to run it, BYE! NOT!!!! You all did a great job now you know what it was like for our founding fathers to try and create a new government from the ground up. It takes time, knowledge, creativity, know how, and a little fun. I hope the next time you decide to use one of your rights that your take a second to thank those awesome men who gave them to you!

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