2nd Quarter Benchmark Description

• Three Branches - Legislative, Executive and Judicial

  • For EACH branch identify TWO positive and TWO negative examples of how the branch of government impacts your life. (can be STATE, LOCAL or FEDERAL)

• Identify at least one reputable source for each of the 12 different pieces of the project. DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE
• Cite the source using the MLA format

• Write a one paragraph for each of the 12 pieces that summarizes the law, bureaucratic office or court case AND then EXPLAIN how that law/bureaucratic office/court case positively or negatively impacts your life. **If you would like to communicate the information in some other format than writing... clear it with me, I am open to creative suggestions. I REALLY welcome a more creative approach, don't be boring. please.

For instance... for me I would write for one of the legislative negatives:

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

"No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" Pub.L. 107-110 January, 2002. 23 Dec. 2009. <http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html>.

No Child Left Behind is a piece of legislation that brought stronger federal control over individual state and locally run schools. Under this legislation, federal monies were only disbursed to those schools and districts abiding by the stipulations outlined within the law. Throughout the tenure of this legislation, schools have increased the number and intensity of multiple choice testing to adhere to the accountability requirements. After beginning my teaching career in 1997, I was given free reign to teach the content and in the manner that suited project based learning. After the passage of NCLB, project based learning became an unpopular approach to teaching because of its inability to easily assess the student's learning. This devaluing of project based learning has had an overall negative impact on the teaching and learning that I witness in the vast majority of schools. In effect, this law has turned my profession into a less thoughtful and reflective career, thus negatively impacting my life.