Government, Day 4 - Class Recap

The White House, in Washington, D.C., which is typically seen as a symbol of the leadership of the United States government, because the President lives there. Photo taken in 2010.

Dear class,

I enjoyed seeing the skits today about the various forms of government around the world that we are studying! Hopefully, combined with the reading and notes, you now have a good idea about how each system works. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 17: I can explain how and why world societies organize themselves and how power is established and maintained.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: "Princess of China" by Coldplay and Rihanna. Selected for today because a princess is part of a monarchy, which is a form of government that we are discussing. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 11/18/15:
News Brief – Hitesh
Group Work
Skits
Who Rules?

Homework: Read the blog. Study for forms of government test next class. Next news brief: Ethan.

News Brief: Hitesh had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about with the class: MSN.com - More than 30 dead as carnage returns to NE Nigeria. Another tragic story about a bombing around the world. We talked a little bit about Boko Haram and what is going on in Nigeria, as well as the continuing story in Paris, before moving on.

Ethan was selected to do the next news brief.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Group Work/Skits: As I mentioned above, I really enjoyed the skits about representing different forms of government, even if they were very brief. The groups did a good job of thinking of how to present each of the main ideas!

Here was the packet that this was based on (a few of the types were not on the PowerPoint, like Oligarchy and Anarchy, so make sure to review them and what some of the benefits and drawbacks of each system are):

Google Drive - Types of Government Readings

Just look at the readings from A-G, because you do not need to know the economic structures that are later in the packet, yet. In class, we went over the form of government, along with possible benefits and drawbacks.

Who Rules?: The rest of class was devoted to your groups going through this packet, designed to be a review before the forms of government test:

Google Drive - Who Rules? Reading and Questions

The first page has a good overview of the types and classifications of governments that we are studying. The following pages are practice, to help compare and contrast the systems of government. We will finish this next class and then take the test. A question from the test, for checking the blog, is: What form of government  ...is ruled by a small group of people, usually the wealthy elite?
a.  oligarchy, b.  theocracy, c.  communism, d.  anarchy. Guess in the comments and I will tell you if you are correct!

 Please study and ask questions if you are at all confused! See you next class! :-)