Subjects: U.S. Government, U.S. History

Grade Level(s): Grades 9-12

Time Frame: 45 Minutes

Objectives [What the student should know and be able to do at the end of the lesson]:

1.0 Overall: A dramatic scene in a high school government or civics class provides the setting. Students follow a process of inductive reasoning in a situation which is especially relevant to their daily lives. In the scene, the teacher grants a student permission to get a drink of water and the student begins to leave the room. But does he or she have “implied” authority to get out of his seat, open the door, and walk out into the hall? 

Bloom's Taxonomy: CongressLink lesson plans are built around Bloom's taxonomy. The purpose of the taxonomy is to provide a coherent format for lessons and to make it easier for teachers to design them according to CongressLink's standards.

2.0 Knowledge: Students follow a process of inductive reasoning in a situation which is especially relevant to their daily lives.

3.0 Understanding: Students arrive at an understanding of the concept of implied powers.

4.0 Application: Students will give dramatic readings of relevant portions of the script and compare their own ideas to those evolved by its characters.

5.0 Analysis: Students will determine who should decide whether a certain power is implied.

6.0 Synthesis: Students will determine the similarity of their role in the script for identifying implied powers (those powers which are necessary and reasonable) and the “elastic clause.”

7.0 Evaluation: Students should be able to identify powers that they think may be implied by enumerated powers.

Procedure/Sequence

Teachers can use the classroom drama in a variety of ways. Copies can be distributed for students to read silently or aloud as a drama. Teachers can assign parts, assuming the role of the teacher themselves and acting out the scene with their students. It might be considerably more effective, however, for teachers simply to take their cue and opening lines from the script and let an analogous scene unfold in their own classrooms. Teachers who do this might find it useful to control the discussion by stopping the spontaneous classroom performance periodically and referring students to pertinent sections of the script. This tactic might help to clarify the discussion or get it back on track. At these points, students could give dramatic readings of relevant portions of the script and compare their own ideas to those evolved by its characters.
As a follow-up:

1. Call attention to the similarity of the students’ role in the script for identifying implied powers (those powers which are necessary and reasonable) and the “elastic clause.”
2. Ask who should decide whether a certain power is implied. The student? The teacher? Congress? The courts?

Materials:

Copies of the attached classroom drama

National Standards Addressed by Lesson: See the Center for Civic Education’s National Standards for Civics and Government at http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=stds.  

Evaluation/Assessment: Ask students to identify powers that they think may be implied by the enumerated powers, such as:

*Adapted from: White, Joseph L., Teaching About the Constitution, Eds. Clair W. Keller and Denny L. Schillings, NCSS Bulleting No. 80, Washington, D.C.: National Council for the Social Studies, 1987.