American Government Review

American Government

Publisher: Intellego Unit Studies

Authors: Michele Wolf

Price: $15.95 download, $19.00 CD

Available at: Intellego Unit Studies, PO Box 832, East Longmeadow, MA 01028-0832; Phone: 413.348.2634

Other Notes: 164 color pages

The study of the American Government begins long before the establishment of the United States. It begins in Ancient Greece where government as a ruling concept more complicated than just tribal or clan rule began.

Intellego Unit Studies has produced a 164-page unit study that invites students to learn about the history and formation of American Government. The study comes in PDF format, complete with easy navigation within the document, and Internet links. You'll find all Intellego Unit Studies organized along the same lines, with teacher helps at the beginning of the document ("How to use," course objectives, troubleshooting, vocabulary building, and other notes), plus an answer key for each chapter at the end. Course material is divided into chapters. For each chapter there is a materials list and introduction to the chapter topic, followed by activities. Activities include reading and researching, filling out graphic organizers, writing, timeline and mapwork, art and craft projects, keeping a vocabulary journal, watching videos, discussing questions, and more. At the end of the study you're encouraged to organize your student's work into a portfolio. Some of the activities are laid out step-by-step, others are given as suggestions for further study or links to online activities.

Exploring Greece and specifically Ancient Athens, students will begin to create a democratic timeline. The timeline will lead the student through the exercises of defining and describing government, explaining vote as a process and how exactly elections are suppose to work.

After the initial concepts of democratic government are established the unit study begins with the establishment of the American government. The beginning of America was a radical departure from the dominance of the English monarchy. Taxes of 4% were considered completely abominable considered over-taxation and were one of the rallying cries to rebel. From that the gentleman government of the Continental Congress formed ideas, conceptualized the formation of a more equitable system and set into place the framework from which to build what was the first system to include the population at-large.

The inspiration for a government with backbone came from brave men like Captain Parker who said to the Minute Men: “Stand your Ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”

The formation of the government by separation of the powers that govern was intended for change within government to be ever evolving to a higher form and to guard against any faction becoming too powerful. American Government examines the branches, with a chapter devoted to each, providing for a thorough understanding of separations, reasoning behind such separation and the cadence of governmental change. The pendulum of public opinion may require immediate legislative / political change but the judicial branch is meant to prevent mob-mentality or trampling of human rights.

State and local governments reflect the regional differences from state to state, county to county, town to town. All with their own levels of responsibility and power, American Government allows the student to examine state and local governments online in a simple compare & contrast analysis.

Links to further information keep the American Government unit study current and fresh. You can type in the links from the document into your browser, but for an additional layer of security, if you click on the links in the document, you go through the Intellego site to the links. From the whitehousehistory.org to bbc.co.uk students and teachers will be pleased with the variety of perspectives. Worksheets, writing assignments, research reflection and other exercises will help the student recognize key historical changes in the US government and will unlock the student’s ability to decipher the code that makes America truly special.

Review by: Kate O'Mara
Kate O'Mara writes about history and other fascinating tidbits from a place she lovingly calls "the dungeon." When Kate Blogs