American Institutions Honors Classes Hold Mock Congressional Hearings

The Mock Congressional Hearings program comes from We The People and is implemented by the American Institutions teachers: Gus Grossklaus, Chad Thompson and Jeffrey Bergstrom.  The following comments written by Jeff Bergstrom explains the yearly program.  Parents and community are invited to watch these future leaders of America.

“We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution is about ideas, values, and principles fundamental to understanding our constitutional democracy. The curriculum is organized around ideas that form part of the common core of civic values and concepts that are fundamental to the theory and practice of democratic citizenship in the United States.”

• “The main goal of the program is to promote civic awareness and responsibility in students. By emphasizing student involvement and encouraging students to relate important concepts and principles to historical and contemporary situations, it strengthens student's critical thinking and public speaking skills.”
• The We the People lessons, questions and activities are geared to focus on the analyzing, evaluating and creating levels of blooms taxonomy.
• Each unit assessment contains 25-30 high level multiple choice question on one essay question.
• 2011-2012 over 100 9^th Grade students participated in the program
• Community members served as judges
  • One Judge (Michael Moran)
  • Local Lawyers
  • Curriculum Coordinators
  • State We the People Coordinator
• Students study the text “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution”
  • 6 Units of Study
  • 39 Different chapters
• Steps to the process
  • Students read and take Cornell notes on every chapter
  • Classroom instruction focused on
    • Critical thinking skills
    • Discussions
    • Current event connections
  • One “practice” Congressional Hearing after Unit 1
    • Students placed in groups of 4-6
    • Students prepare a 4 minute opening statement
    • Students prepare answers to possible questions from judges
    • Jim Kegel (State We the People Coordinator) serves as a judge for this practice hearing
    • Students reflect on struggles and successes of practice hearing
  • One Congressional Hearing
    • Based on Unit 5 (Bill of Rights)
    • Hearing held during an evening so parents/community members can attend
    • Students placed in groups of 4-6
    • Students prepare a 4 minute opening statement
    • Students prepare answers to possible questions from judges