Political Systems Syllabus
Carden/Stromie Fall 1999
Text: United States Government: Democracy in Action, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 1999. Restitution for lost & damaged textbooks will be made by the student. Make sure you put your name, our name & the date in your text. The cost is $48!
Course Description: This one semester course is designed to engage students in our democratic heritage and provide them with the tools needed to become humane, rational, and participating citizens of the United States. By examining our political governmental process, evaluating the political process, analyzing rights and responsibilities of citizens, and comparing our system to those of other nations, students will be able to make connections between past and present political conflicts and decisions thus encouraging an individuals involvement as a participatory citizen in guaranteeing a promising future for all people.
Course Requirements: All students will take a test over each unit of study. In addition, all students will be required to keep & turn a notebook consisting of assignments from the text, in class readings and handouts. The notebook is the homework for the unit. There will also be several quizzes during each unit. These will be over teacher notes, assigned readings from the text, videotapes and content information discussed in class.
Grading Scale: A point system will be in effect for this course with tests, notebooks, quizzes, projects, etc. determining your grade. The grades will be posted daily by student number. There should never be any confusion as to what your grade is at any given time during the semester!!!
A - 100 to 90% To determine your grade at any time during the
B = 89 to 80% semester, simply add your points and divide by
C - 79 to 74% the total points possible!
D = 73 to 70%
Due Dates/Makeup Work: When a student has an excused absence, he/she has five school days in which to complete all work missed. It should be understood that it is to be done at the teachers convenience, outside the regular classroom period. If the work is not completed in five days, the student will receive a zero for the incomplete work. This does not apply to long-standing due dates - assignments that youve known about for a week or more (like your notebooks). In those cases it is generally expected that the student will turn in the assignment on his/her first day back in school. If you have an assignment due on a day where you check in/out and you miss our class, you must turn in your work prior to checking out, or once you check in to school. Otherwise you will receive no credit for the assignment.
Attendance/Tardies: The county policy limits a student to ten absences (three tardies equal one absence). After ten absences a student will not receive credit for the course unless approved by an attendance committee under unusual circumstances. BE HERE!! Students are expected to be on time to class. Repeated tardies will not be tolerated. Detention for repeated tardies will be assigned by the teacher. After the fifth tardy, students will be referred to the appropriate administrator. BE HERE ON TIME!!
Units of Study
Unit Description Chapters AKS
One The Principles of Government 1 22
Two Origins of American Government 2 23, 24, 25
Three The Constitution and American Federalism 3 & 4 26, 27, 29
Four The Political Process: Political Parties, Voters, 16, 17, 18 30
Mass Media, and Interest Groups
Five Legislative Branch 5, 6, 7 28, 29
Six Executive Branch 8, 9, 10 28, 29
Seven Legislative Branch and Civil Liberties 11, 12 28, 29
Eight Constitutional Freedoms 13 31, 32, 33
Nine Citizenship and Equal Justice 14 31, 33
When possible, notes and assignments will be posted on the world wide web at:
www.homestead.com/cardenstomie/main.html
Information provided on the web is for the benefit of the student. However, this does not preclude taking notes in class. If students choose to use the notes from the web, the notes must be brought to class and must be on the desk when the teacher is lecturing. It is advisable that other notes be taken in conjunction with the web notes. Overhead notes and web notes are only an outline of the subject matter. Explanations, examples and illustrations will be used to fill in the outline notes.
If you need to contact Coach Stromie or Coach Carden via e-mail:
NO HATS ALLOWED IN CLASS
