How Does A Bill Become A Law?

Explicit instruction/Teacher modeling

• Go over the How Does A Bill Become A Law slideshow.
• Explain each slide with examples.

Guided practice/Interactive modeling

• Ask your students to get into groups of four.
• Ask each group to write a bill that they want to change into a law.
• Divide the class into three groups. The three groups should be senators, representatives, and committee members.
• Assign a speaker of the house and play the role of president yourself.
• Go through the steps of how to change a bill into a law for one of the bills using the three groups.
• After all the steps have been completed, change the roles of your students and repeat the process for the second bill.
• Have your students repeat the activities and switch roles until all bills have been debated.
• After all bills have been debated, go over the ones that passed and the ones that did not.

Independent working time

• Ask your students to answer the questions on the How Does a Bill Become a Law: Reflection worksheet.

• Enrichment: Ask advanced students to partner up. Have each student write a bill with at least three sections. Have the students switch bills with their partners. Ask them to rewrite their partners' bills, making changes to each section of the bill.
• Support: Ask struggling students to think of a bill that could turn into a law. Go over the steps with your students while they illustrate what is happening to their bill at each step.

• Ask your students to write and explain the steps that it takes for a bill to become a law.

• Have your students to discuss some of their answers from the worksheet as a class.