POS ____: The Government of the United States and Arizona for
Elementary Teachers
Course Syllabus
Class Time:
Instructor:
Day and time, location
name
Office Phone:
xxx-xxxx
Cell Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Email:
xxxx@xxxxx.edu
Web page:
www.xxxxxxxxxxxxx.edu
Office Hours:
time and location
Academic Institution
Academic Unit
Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course.
Requirements met by this course: This course is designed to fulfill the SB general
studies requirement and the US/Arizona constitution state teacher certification
requirements.
Course Introduction: Aspiring elementary teachers need to understand how their
national and state governments operate for several reasons. Teachers are held
up as models of informed citizens, aware of the world including their government.
They need to be able to construct lesson plans to help their students develop the
fundamental skills of citizenship. In addition, teachers are often affected by the
outcomes of political processes, as national, state, and local legislators and
administrators make decisions that affect the content and manner of their
instruction and the resources available to them. This course will challenge students
to move beyond a passive model of citizenship, to think and act intentionally to
participate in constructing public policy beneficial to educating Arizona’s youth.
To this end, this course will examine the theoretical foundations of our system of
national and state government, explore the workings of its myriad actors and
agencies, and highlight the many ways and means to both create and block
change in policy that affects every one of us.
Course Goal: To provide students with the detailed background they will need to
teach government in Arizona’s elementary and middle schools as well as help
them gain the tools necessary to be active participants in directing and shaping
public policy.
Required Text: A basic American government text and an Arizona Constitution
text
Outcomes Linked To Educational Standards: This is not a course in how to teach. It
is a content-rich course about the government of the United States and Arizona.
This content does, however, relate to a number of different standards. The
content of this course is part of a sequence of four courses that will prepare you to
master these standards:
The United States and Arizona 1 (SB, C) - first course in the required sequence
The World 1 (SB, G) - second course in the sequence
The United States and Arizona 2 (upper division) - third course in the sequence
The World 2 (upper division ) - fourth course in the sequence
Educational
Standard
How this course connects
The AEPA
Test for
Middle
School
Grades
Social
Studies.
This course helps prepare students for the following AEPA Field 06:
Political Science/American Government Test Objectives:
Note: even
if you do
not plan to
teach in
middle
school,
having
deeper
knowledge
of what is
taught in
slightly
higher
grade levels
is important
in helping
you make
connections
for your
students.
Arizona
State
Teacher
Standards
Course
Outcomes
Those
elementary
students
0001 Understand political science terms, concepts, and theories
interested in
0005 Understand the history of political thought through the modern era. taking the
0006 Understand various governmental systems.
AEPA Middle
0008 Understand U.S. foreign policy.
Grades Social
0009 Understand the historical development of government in the United Studies Test
States.
will be
0010 Understand the United States Constitution.
prepared
0011 Understand the structure, organization, and operation of the
after taking
federal government.
this course
0012 Understand the relationship of government to the United States
and
economic system.
subsequent
0013 Understand the development of political parties in the United
courses in the
States.
social studies
0014 Understand the election process in the United States.
sequence.
0015 Understand the role of political culture, public opinion, and the
media in United States politics.
0016 Understand state and local government in the United States.
0017 Understand the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship.
0018 Understand basic features of democratic government in the United
States.
0019 Understand state government and government of American Indian
nations in Arizona.
This is a course rich in academic knowledge and does not have any
focus on pedagogy. Thus, the standards addressed are 7 and 8:
Elementary
teachers
completing
Standard 7: The teacher has general academic knowledge as
this course
demonstrated by the attainment of a bachelor’s degree. The teacher
and
also has specific academic knowledge in his or her subject area or areas subsequent
sufficient to develop student knowledge and performance to meet
courses in the
Arizona academic standards
social studies
Standard 8: The teacher demonstrates current professional knowledge
sufficient to effectively design and plan instruction, implement and
manage instruction, create and maintain an appropriate learning
environment, and assess student learning
4. Arizona
Student
Content
Standards
Addressed
in this
Course.
This course uses explicit examples from Strand 3: Civics/Government of
the Social Studies Standard:
(https://www.ade.state.az.us/standards/sstudies/articulated/strand3.pdf)
The course does not provide material at the level of elementary school
students. Rather, different performance objectives in Grades K-8 are
explained at the college level. For example, although Kindergarten
students are to explore the role of citizens by showing understanding of
fair rules on the playground and classroom, college students will have
assignments requiring them to show an understanding of the pathways
of citizen engagement and policy change.
sequence will
master these
standards.
Elementary
teachers
completing
this course
and the
subsequent
courses in the
social studies
sequence will
have a
college-level
detailed
understanding
of the
knowledge
behind these
standards.
Course Requirements
Chapter Presentations: The course content will be presented in an audio-enriched
web presentation using Breeze Macromedia technology. You will need a web
browser with a current Macromedia Flash plug-in to view the presentations.
Chapter Discussions: Since we will not be meeting in person, we will rely on on-line
discussions for class interaction. I do not expect you all to be logged on at a set
time, instead we will maintain an on-going conversation about topics in the course
which you can join at your convenience. These discussions can involve questions
about the material or opinions on the course content or current events. Such a
discussion will only work if everyone participates and if everyone follows proper
rules of decorum. Accordingly, I will require a minimum of three entries a week on
the on-line course discussion board. By “entry,” I mean a coherent, paragraphlength communication of an idea. Small replies or inappropriate “flames” will not
count. You are free to participate more than this, but if you fall below this rate, I
will assume you have lost interest in the course and may drop you. Of course, any
planned absence (such as a family vacation or business trip) or medical
emergency that will take you away from internet access for a while will not incur
this penalty (being dropped) if discussed with me ahead of time, or if you contact
me immediately after in cases of medical emergency. You will earn 5 points a
week if you maintain the minimum number of posts, beginning XXDateXX and
going to XXDateXX. There are 80 points assigned for the discussions. Your first entry
should be a biographical sketch so we can get to know each other.
Chapter Exams: There will be a short multiple choice exam covering each chapter
of the text. After you read the chapter, review the chapter presentations then
take the exam for that chapter. The chapter exams are available at the course
management site, and are considered open-book. You should not waste your
time trying to find the answers in the book though. Since it is take-home open
book exam, the direct answer is not likely even in the book. The questions require
you to extrapolate upon and use the information in the book. For example, I am
not going to ask you what the fourth amendment is, since all you have to do is flip
to the page and copy it down. But I will give you an example of police abuse of
authority and ask what prevents the police from doing that. The exact type of
abuse is probably not discussed in the book, but the concept of 4th amendment
protections is, and the quiz tests whether you understand the concept by requiring
you to fill in the blanks on your own. Each chapter exam is worth 10 points.
Policy Position Paper: The best way of learning is doing. This assignment is to put
into practice what you are learning by actively participating in the formation and
promotion of public policy in your community. This assignment is an exercise in
thinking about how you could use a pathway to get government to do what you
want. In a five to seven page paper, you will identify a concern in your
community, find out what government bodies are involved, describe your
preferred solution to this problem, then describe one pathway for citizen action to
influence policymakers to adopt your solution. The assigned paper is brief, so you
will need to focus on effective advocacy rather than a background brief on the
topic. To prepare to write it, first select a local concern, then identify what options
are being considered, then identify who the actors are who have decision-making
authority. The paper itself will focus on how you would use the pathways of
change to advocate your policy preference given the political realities you
identified. You will need to come up with a topic on your own for it to be
meaningful. If I were to give you a topic, you would just be pursuing my agenda,
and what's the fun in that? Once you have a topic, the next step is to frame the
issue more clearly. You do this by identifying the options under consideration by
the policymakers who are in charge of this topic. What are they considering?
What options are other groups asking them to consider? Is the option you prefer
on the table yet? Is doing nothing a viable option? You need to know the real
answers to these questions to avoid writing an academic-disconnected-fromreality paper on your topic. You can find the answers to these questions by doing
a digital newspaper search, looking at the websites of the agency or city you are
focusing on, and even calling and interviewing a staff person who works in that
area. Contacting interest groups who are lobbying for change in the topic area
will also produce a wealth of information. Don't make this part harder than it is, all
you need to do is find out enough to be able to frame the topic by answering
those questions. Once you have done this, your paper will be over half complete.
The next thing to do is to identify the actors involved in making this decision. You
will need to identify them by name and include contact information in your
references. Knowing who they are and what position they hold will also tell you
what influence strategies will work best, which will enable you to write the most
important part of the paper. The paper should show how you would effectively
advocate a policy change given your new-found knowledge of how American
government works. The action plan in your paper should be on a local, concrete,
do-able topic. I don't want you to write on a generic, national level topic. Buying
an opinion essay on gun control from the internet will result in a very bad grade,
for example. The paper will be scored with the following rubric:
Paper Rubric
Describe Project: This should be about 25 to 50 percent of the content. Describe
the issue and why it is important.
Select Policy: What policy are you supporting? It is always a good idea to
acknowledge alternate policies and briefly state why you reject them.
ID Actors: What decision-making body has the authority to enact your favorite
policy? Who are the key actors?
Political Action: This is the most important part of the paper and should be at least
25 percent of the content. Given your policy and the actors, how would you use
the political process to influence the actors to make the decision you want them
to make? This is where you demonstrate what you have learned from the course.
Use of Course Concepts: Dropping political science terms with the correct usage
into your paper is also a good idea. Remember that all paper assignments in
college are ways to demonstrate learning.
Grade: /100
Think of this assignment as a blueprint for action rather than an issue essay. This
works best if you stick to a local issue that does not need federal action. This
assignment is due xxxDate – 15 days prior to semester endXX and is worth 100
points.
Policy Position Presentation:
This assignment is to put into practice what you are learning by actively
participating in the formation and promotion of public policy in your community.
You will discover in this course that it takes more to get government to act than to
just announce you have a good idea. Once your policy paper is written, you will
engage in political action by actively advocating for your policy with a state or
local decision maker with the authority to enact your policy choice. You will
create a presentation in digital format based on your action plan. Since the
audience is a policy maker, the focus of your presentation should be your policy
pitch. The presentation should include a media component (Powerpoint, website,
or AV) and a handout. Your grade will depend on the professionalism of your
presentation, not whether or not your pitch is successful. You will use this
presentation to demonstrate through oral communication your knowledge,
reasoning, skill, and understanding of the political process. XXfor traditional
coursesXX. The instructor will use the contact information provided in your paper to
invite the policymakers to class for the presentation. Group presentations are
encouraged. XXfor on-line or hybrid coursesXX. You will send a copy of your pitch
to the policymaker electronically and copy your instructor on the submission. This
assignment is due XXDate – last week of classXX and is worth 100 points.
Final Exam: While the chapter exams are multiple choice, the final will be an
opportunity to write some short answers and essays. You should remember that all
college essays are opportunities to demonstrate learning, so be sure to correctly
use concepts from the course and reasoned analysis in your answers. Answers
that read like diatribes that could have been written without having taken the
course will likely score low. The final is worth 100 points.
Getting Everything Done: One of the great advantages of an on-line course is the
ability to go at your own pace. This is also one of the great disadvantages, as the
temptation is great to not do anything for some time, then to rush all the
assignments in. Please do yourself the favor of spacing out the reading
assignments for the course and writing the policy paper. They are not overly
taxing, but would be unpleasant, and probably of poor quality, if done in one
sleep-deprived binge. The coursework listed above will be most beneficial to you if
done in the text’s order and with sufficient time between chapter readings to
ponder and digest each chapter’s concepts.
To turn in the policy paper, submit it as an attachment from the Assignments tab
within the course management site. If that fails for some reason, send it to me via
email to one of the addresses listed above. Text files should be formatted in Word
or WordPerfect. If you are unable to format your documents this way, then format
them as .rtf or .txt files before you send them. This will destroy any formatting you
had, but the file will arrive with your words and ideas intact! Contact me
immediately if you have troubles doing this.
Point Summary
Weekly Discussion Postings (16 @ 5 pts) 80 pts
Chapter Exams (14 @ 10 pts)
140 pts
Policy Position Paper
100 pts
Policy Presentation
100 pts
Final Exam
100 pts
Total
520 pts
Outline of Course Content: The sequence for the course is listed below. Each
section of the course has an accompanying Breeze presentation available on
the course management site. Your instructor will indicate the corresponding
chapters/pages to your text. For each unit, skim the assigned readings, then
review the Breeze presentation and other supplemental content given by your
instructor. After you have reviewed the material, go to the discussion board and
ask or answer a question about that unit with your classmates. Finally, take the
chapter exam on the course management site.
Outline of America and Arizona Government for Elementary teachers
1.
Foundations of American Government
a. Role of the State
i. Purpose of Government and the Tragedy of the Commons
ii. Enlightenment thought, the Social Contract and Natural Law
b. Development of the American Idea
i. Ideological formation
1. The Limited state and the Magna Charta
2. Liberty and British common law
3. Self-Governance and the colonial origin
4. Equality and the demand for labor
ii. Revolution
1. Mercantilism and the French/Indian War
2. Taxes and Tea Parties
3. The Declaration of Independence, natural law and propaganda
4. Elements of victory
iii. Articles of Confederation
1. A reaction to past Tyranny
2. Failures of the Articles
c. Constitutional Basics
i. Convention Politics
ii. Constitutional Framework
1. Madison’s dilemma – Fed 10
2. Problem of Power – Fed 51
3. Ratification and Bill of Rights
iii. Federalism – an American invention
1. Supremacy clause – 10th amendment
2. Evolution of Federalism
3. Contemporary issues – health care and immigration
2. Institutions of Government at the National level
a. Legislature
i. Models of representation
ii. Legislative process
1. Committees
2. Rules
3. Dynamics, logrolling, earmarks
iii. Incumbency Advantage
b. Presidency
i. Roles and Duties
ii. Historical Development
c. Courts
i. Process and structure
ii. Selection of judges
iii. Judicial Review
d. Bureaucracy
i. Organization
ii. Development
iii. Control
3. Government at the State Level
a. Origins and Constitutional Framework
i. Territoriality and the drive for statehood
ii. Arizona Statement of Rights
iii. The Constitution and the hierarchy of laws
b. State Institutions
i. Legislature
ii. Judicial
iii. Executive
iv. Independent Commissions
c. Local Government
i. Counties
ii. Cities
d. Direct Democracy in Arizona
i. Initiatives and the Recall
ii. Referendum
iii. Indian Reservations
4. The Politics of Government
a. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
i. Origins and definitions of rights
ii. Expansion of Rights – Incorporation, Amendments
b. Public Opinion and Socialization
i. How to measure opinion
ii. Where opinions come from
1. Passive socialization
2. Active Socialization
c. Getting together
i. Interest Groups
ii. Parties
d. Active Citizenship
i. Voting and participation
ii. Elections and campaigns
iii. Social movements and citizen action
iv. The Policy process