Procedures

• WARM-UP:

  To begin class, have the students respond to the following question:

  • How do you think political parties in Congress ensure that party members work together?

• INTRODUCTION:

  After discussing the warm-up questions with the class, show the following two videos and have the students answer each questions associated with the clip.

  VIDEO CLIP 1: The Significance of Congressional Leaders (1:12)

  • Explain the general roles that Congressional leaders play and their impact on legislation.

  VIDEO CLIP 2: Factors Influencing Congressional Leadership Elections (4:29)

  • Why are party leadership positions important to Congress members from that party?
  • What ways can members of Congress develop professional connections to help them get elected to leadership committees?
  • How do lawmakers' personal goals and objectives influence their vote in congressional leadership elections?
  • What are common goals that members of Congress want to achieve? How can these goals influence party leadership elections?
  • How can party leaders help individual members of Congress?

• EXPLORATION:

  Review the students' responses to the video questions. Address any misconceptions about the general roles and purposes of party leadership in Congress.

  Either individually or in a jigsaw activity, have the students watch each of the videos relating to the roles of the different leadership positions. Using the chart on the following handout have the students answer the questions listed below:

  HANDOUT: Congressional Leadership Roles (Google Doc)

  • What are the goals and responsibilities of this position?

  • Explain the history of this position or any examples of these responsibilities.

• EXPLORATION VIDEOS:

  • VIDEO CLIP 3: Speaker of the House (4:44)

  • VIDEO CLIP 4: House Majority Leader (1:01)

  • VIDEO CLIP 5: House Minority Leader (2:11)

  • VIDEO CLIP 6: Majority and Minority Whips (2:05)

  • VIDEO CLIP 7: President of the Senate (2:26)

  • VIDEO CLIP 8 President Pro Tempore of the Senate (2:15)

  • VIDEO CLIP 9: Senate Majority Leader (4:19)

  • VIDEO CLIP 10: Senate Minority Leader (1:06)

• APPLICATION:

  After reviewing each position and reviewing the information from students, assign a leadership position to each student. Using the C-SPAN Video Library have the student research their assigned leadership position. They should identify the person holding that position, provide a clip of that person speaking and explain how this clip illustrates the role and responsibilities of this position. Students should be prepared to share who their leader is and present their short clip and information to the class.

  Students can learn how to clip C-SPAN videos using the following handout:

  • Handout: How to Create a C-SPAN Clip (Google Doc)

• CONCLUSION:

  Either through a class discussion or a written response, have the students address the following prompt:

  • Using examples from the video clips and your research, how do political parties use congressional leadership positions to accomplish their legislative and political goals?

• EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:

  Research a Speaker of the House- Using the U.S. House of Representatives website choose a Speaker of the House and research that person. In a written summary, provide the following information:

  • Political Party
  • Years as Speaker
  • State
  • Significant events or legislative occurring during his/her time as Speaker

  Additional Prompts:

  • How would you reorganize the current structure of congressional leadership positions to improve how Congress operates?

  • In your opinion, would the framers of the Constitution approve of the current structure of congressional leadership positions?

  • Do the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader have too much power?

  • Are there any leadership positions that you feel are unnecessary?