Scheme of Work Example (Simple)
Course title and code:
Federalism in the United States: changes and challenges (HH321)
Dates and Time of course:
Thursdays, 10:30 – 12:30
Tutor Name: Dale Mineshima Lowe
Week
Content/topic
Overall aim (focus of the session)
Assessment
1
Introduction / Backgroundcontext overview for
course
Initial assessment
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Share previous experience in the subject and personal
goals
Introduce learners to the Articles of Confederation and the
developing idea of federalism in the USA
2
The Federalist and AntiFederalist Debates = U.S.
Constitution
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Identify key points from each side of the federalism debate
in the U.S.
Choose an optional topic for Weeks - death penalty; health
care; gun control; education
3
Dual Federalism (1789 –
1920s)
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Explore early Dual-Federalism (1789 – 1861) leading up to
the American Civil War
Learners to define ‘dual federalism’ and identify at least
one issue that existed with the concept before and after
the American Civil War
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Check starting points using e
voting
Q&A
Monitoring of small
groups/paired work
Recap
Monitoring small group work and
feedback;
Q & A with use of directed
questions related to pre-set
reading
Recap
E-voting multiple choice Qs on
pre-reading for session
Directed Qs
Monitoring learner feedback
© City Lit and Dale Mineshima Lowe, September 2015
1
4
Outline federalism under
LBJ and his Great Society
programme
(Visiting tutor)

Cooperative Federalism
and the New Deal (1930s1960s))
Mid course review

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Understand LBJ’s conception of federalism – relationship
between the state and federal government levels
Define ‘creative federalism’ and outline key roles each
level of government plays and their relationship to oneanother under this type of federalism
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Q&A
Monitoring discussion
Post-it notes of one thing take
away from today's session OR
one question to follow-up on
from today's session
Define what is meant by ‘Cooperative Federalism’ during
this period
Identify characteristics (economic and/or social situation)
that inform the change to American federalism during
these 30 years

Recap and Q’s from previous
week
Q&A
Monitoring paired work and
feedback from pairs to larger
class
IRL mid course reflection on
personal goals
5
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6
Creative federalism and
Civil Rights – whose
responsibility? (State or
National government?)
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Identify what the state-federal government relationship is
during this period in America and evaluate how this
impacts on the issue of Civil Rights and the Civil Rights
movement in America
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7
New Federalism: Nixon to
Reagan in the 1980s
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Understand how change in society impacts state-federal
level government relations
Identify how New Federalism differed from Creative
Federalism and explore reasons for these changes
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Recap
Q&A
Monitoring of discussion
following short video clip
Post-it notes of one thing take
away from today's session OR
one question to follow-up on
from today's session
Monitoring – discussion of prereading and directed Qs
Group / paired work to “unpick”
key differences and feedback to
larger class group
© City Lit and Dale Mineshima Lowe, September 2015
2
8
Federalism today:
Optional Issue 1: gun
control
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Understand what the key points are on both sides of
the gun control/gun lobby debate
To be able to discuss some reasons why this issue
should be handled at: a) the national/federal level; b)
state level
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Understand the key issues involved with the current
health care debate
Be able to explain or link how federalism today (statefederal level relations) impact who has and what level
of responsibility either/both levels of government have
for dealing with health care in America
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Understand the link between societal changes and
government changes to evolution of federalism
Relate these changes to key points debated on
issues like gun control, health care, death penalty …
to place changes into context
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Lino post-it notes recap
E-voting system
Q&A
Monitoring participation/Qs
from class discussion
9
Federalism today:
Optional Issue 2: Health
Care
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Recap
Q & A following video clip
shown in-class with directed
Qs
Monitoring participation/Qs
from class discussion
10
Summary/Conclusion:
Who controls Congress,
dictates federalism in
America??
Final review
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Learner-led discussion either
in pairs w/ feedback or as a
class group
Responses/feedback about
using e-voting & Moodle
course access this term
© City Lit and Dale Mineshima Lowe, September 2015
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