e-Congress 2007 Teacher Tour

What is e-Congress? e-Congress is YLI’s annual legislative simulation for students in grades 6-12, consisting of five phases spanning roughly 12 weeks each spring. Using the YLI website, students learn how Congress works. They then research and draft their own original piece of legislation. After submitting that legislation to YLI, each class receives bills from other students throughout the country which they must then debate as a committee. The committee ultimately decides if the bill will pass, fail, be tabled, or amended. All bills that “pass” the Committee Phase continue on to the House Floor for a final vote.

Overview of e-Congress 2007 Phase 1: Introduction In the Introduction, students learn about the makeup of Congress, the roles of legislators, and how Congress makes laws. Students also take a political ideology survey. A study guide is provided for this phase and there is an optional quiz at the end of the phase as well to track the students’ progress. Phase 2: Research In the Research phase, students are given a broad list of topics (Civil liberties, Economy, Foreign Policy, etc.) from which to choose a few to research. Applicable political cartoons and links to relevant websites are provided through our site to aid research. Either individually or in groups, students record their research and ideas using the provided study guide. They then narrow their focus to one particular subject area and research information on an issue of their choice.

Overview (continued) Phase 3: Writing In the Writing phase, students take the information they prepared during the Research phase to actually write their bill. YLI provides guidelines and suggestions to help draft the legislation’s title, purpose, eligibility, terms and benefits, and fiscal impact. Each section is completed step by step to guide students through the process. Once students finish writing their bills, they (electronically) submit them to their teacher for review. At this time, the teacher can enter comments and send them back to the students for revisions. If the teacher feels that a bill is good in quality and content, he or she can be send the bill to YLI for a committee to review during the Committee Phase.

Overview (continued) Phase 4: Committee In the Committee Phase, each class receives a number of bills from other classrooms throughout the country, from various geographic locations and on a variety of topics. (The number of bills your class receives depends on the number you submit.) Your students are responsible for debating the merit of each bill and deciding whether the bill should pass, fail, be tabled, or amended. YLI provides a Bill Review Guide which offers suggestions on how to evaluate a bill. Students are also responsible for providing constructive feedback on each of the bills. You as the educator will enter your students’ comments online. "There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees." - Michel de Montaigne

Overview (continued) Phase 5: House Floor In this phase, students act as independent legislators. At anytime during a 2-week time frame, students may log in to e- Congress and vote on all of the bills from their house floor that passed the Committee phase of e-Congress. This final vote will determine if the bills will in fact become “laws” or if they will not. Teachers also have the option of printing an e-Congress certificate for any students whose bill made it all the way through e- Congress!

So how do I get started?

Step 1: Read the e-Congress 2007 User’s Guide and check the e-Congress deadlines Before committing to e-Congress, YLI encourages teachers to print out and read the e-Congress 2007 User’s Guide and the e- Congress 2007 Teacher Calendar for important deadlines. The User’s Guide and calendar can be found on the Profile page after logging in to Step 2: Register! Tell us you want to participate! To register, log in to and access your Profile page. There will be a link that says, “Register now for e-Congress 2007.”

Step 3: Visit your teacher records section After you log in to click the yellow e- Congress link in the red box on the left. This will take you to your e- Congress homepage. From here you can access all the resources you will need throughout e- Congress including study guides and worksheets. From this page you can also access your Roster and Student Progress sections. Navigation Study guides and worksheets

Step 4: Create your roster(s) To create your class roster, log in and click the yellow e-Congress link in the red box on the left. Next, click the yellow Roster link at the top of the page. Once here, click Add Class to get started. This takes you to the Edit Roster page. Enter information in the appropriate fields: Class Title, Grade Level, Reading Level, and, if applicable, Advanced Placement Class. Once you create your class(es), it’s time to create your students. To do so, simply click Add Student. Enter your student’s first and last name, and create a username and password for each. If you’d rather have your students register themselves, just follow the instructions at the top of the Edit Roster page under “Student Entered Option.”

Step 5: Edit individual/group status You’re almost done! Once you’ve created your classes and students, you just need to decide whether you would like your students to work individually on their bills or in groups. This step must be done by January 31. To assign them, log in and click the yellow e-Congress link in the red box on the left. Next, click the Student Progress link at the top of the page. You should have a big red warning box at the top like so. Click the View Details icon to the right of a class title. It will look like this: Follow the prompt and click the link Click Here to Take Action. This will take you to the Edit Individual/Group Status page. This step must be done before students can begin writing their bills!

Step 5: Edit individual/group status (cont.) You’ll notice that at first, all your students appear in the Available Students column. To move your students to Students Working Individually, simply click on the name of the student and drag their name down to the Students Working Individually section. All changes will be automatically saved. To have your students work in groups, first click Add Group. Once a new group pops up, drag the names of the correct students to that group. To make another group, click Add Group again. Do this until all students have been assigned to individual or group work. Do this for each of your classes. Before

After Great job! When you’ve finished assigning your students, your page will look something like this. At this point, you can still move students around, but any movement may possibly delete any work they’ve done. If you get stuck, first consult the User’s Guide. If you can’t find the answer there, call or YLI staff. Step 5: Edit individual/group status (cont.)

Well, I’m all setup. Now what do I do while my students are working?

Step 1: Monitor your students’ progress Now that you’ve created your roster and assigned your students to individual/group work, you can just sit back and monitor their progress. Click the yellow Student Progress link at the top of your e-Congress homepage. To view the details of a class, click the View Details icon to the right of the class title. This will show you many things: the last time your students logged in to e- Congress, whether or not they took the political ideology survey, what they got on the introduction quiz, etc. You may view the progress of your students’ bills and it will also show you if your students have finished their bills and are waiting for you to review them.

Step 2: Provide feedback to your students It will be helpful to your students if you provide them with feedback as they work on their bills. It may also help you to provide them ongoing feedback so that you don’t feel overwhelmed when it comes time to read them all before submitting some to YLI. Click the yellow Student Progress link from your e-Congress homepage. To view a student’s bill, click a yellow View Work in Progress link. This will show you the student’s bill. At the bottom of the bill, there is a white box in which you can write any comments for your students. DON’T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR COMMENTS!

Step 3: Send finished bills to YLI When a student is finished with a bill, they send their bill to you for review. You can tell which students have sent their bills to you for review by going to the Student Progress page and clicking the View Details icon to the right of the class title. On this page you will see a yellow link that says Teacher Review Finished Work. At this point, you can either enter more comments and send the bill back to your student for corrections or you can submit the bill to YLI. Once you send a bill to YLI, you will not be able to make any more changes. Please make sure the quality of bills you choose to send to YLI is high, as other students will be reviewing these bills.

It’s time for the Committee Phase. What should I do now?

Step 1: Debate bills sent to your classes for review View the bills sent to your classes for review by logging in and going to your e- Congress homepage. From there, click the yellow Committee link at the top of the page so you can view the bills assigned to your class for review by clicking on the class name under the heading Bills ASSIGNED TO your classes. Your students do not have to have computer access for this phase of e- Congress. You can print copies of the Bill Review Guide and each of bill for students to use in class. Step 2: Enter your students’ comments Once your students have finished debating each bill, take a vote to determine if the bill should pass, fail, be tabled, or amended. If amended, provide the necessary amendments. Log in to your teacher records and select the appropriate bill. Record your students’ constructive comments on that bill, reminding them to focus on the content of each bill. Continue this process until all the bills sent to your class(es) for review have been voted on, commented on, and sent back to YLI.

Important note about sending bills to YLI and submitting comments from your students during the Committee Phase: If you send bills from your classes to YLI at the end of the Writing Phase, we will assign bills for your classes to review in Committee. Likewise, classroom committees across the country will be reviewing your students’ legislation. This phase is a reciprocal process in which your students receive comments on their legislation and various committees submit comments on your student’s work. Just as your students expect thoughtful, constructive comments on their work, so do the original authors of the legislation your classroom committee is reviewing. e-Congress is most beneficial for each student when this phase of the simulation is approached in a meaningful, constructive manner. Please consider carefully your committee’s comments and votes on each bill assigned, and do not allow your students to enter comments on your behalf.

We’re done with Committee, what’s that last phase again?

Don’t forget the House Floor! Step 1: Have students vote on the House Floor Anytime during the last 2 weeks of e-Congress (March 26 thru April 5), have your students log in to e-Congress and vote on all the bills that passed in Committee. Students may not have enough time to vote on all the bills that made it to the House Floor so it’s a good idea for them to focus on the bill topics that mean the most to them. If any of your students’ bills have made it to the House Floor phase, you can also monitor the progress of those bills. Step 2: Log back in to view the results e-Congress results will be posted online April 11, At that time, both you and your students can visit the YLI website and view votes on each bill assigned to your House Floor. If any of your student’s legislation passes both Committee and House Floor, you may wish to log in and download the certificate of achievement for the author(s) of that bill.