Congress has two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, that were designed by the framers to be bicameral with different structures in order to represent the interests of both large and small states. The House has more members who serve 2 year terms and represent population, while the Senate has fewer members who serve 6 year terms with two Senators per state. Important leadership roles in Congress include the President of the Senate, party whips who work to advance their party's agenda, and various committees that handle specific legislative issues.
2. Bell work 11/7 **WATER ONLY**
• Why do we have “committees” in our Legislative
branch? (look back to our last assignment if you need
help understanding the role of the committees.)
3. #23 Structure of Congress
• Use the links on the class webpage
• Copy the question OR the underlined text
TabbCivics.wikispaces.com
Calendar---when absent, use this!
Unit 4---Day 2
4. A. Parts of Congress (5 min)
1. Define bicameral in YOUR OWN WORDS
2. Give ONE reason the framers chose a bicameral system:
(Keep this link open to help with question #3)
5. 3. House vs. Senate (8 minutes)-link 5 has some of these answers
4. Which house has more prestige (power)? What made you think
that?(there is no link- from the info you read above)
5. How often do we count citizens (census)? What do these counts
impact?
House of Reps Senate
Age
Citizenship
Residency
Term
# in congress (how many are there)?
6. B. Leadership Roles in Congress (15 minutes)
6. Who is the President of the Senate? What is the position called that
covers for the Senate President when they can not be at meetings?
7. What do Party Whips actually do? (summarize each of the 7 body
paragraphs in a few words to describe the things a whip does- this can
be a list)
7. C. Important terms: (25 minutes-don’t use word in definition!)
• Use the internet to define these terms in RELATION to The United
States Congress. For each term draw an image to represent:
TERM DEFINED DRAWING
Veto
Constituents (noun)
Naturalization
Commerce
Appropriate ($)
Advocate
Correspond
Treaties
Impeachment
8. Constitutional Hall Pass
1. Why do you think the Legislative was the first
branch addressed by the founders?
2. How did the founders make sure conflict could
be dealt with fairly? (What was the solution to
so many different ideas?)
3. Give one other important piece of information
from the video (not the history part)
