1. Government Shutdown of 2013
Concept: A Broken Congress? The effects of partisanship
Skills: Reading comprehension, listening, and discussion

2. What you’ll be doing today…
Examining a Washington Post article on the government shut down of 2013
Discussing and listening to what others are thinking and saying
Responding in a paragraph using AT LEAST TWO pieces of evidence from the reading to the following question?:
Is the government shutdown an indicator that our Congress is broken?

3. How you’re working today…
Cohorts
Tool You’re Working With
You’re working in cohorts from last reading session
Roles for today:
Facilitator
Time Keeper
Reporter
This tool is designed to help you keep track of:
Evidence
Thoughts
Summary of what you got out of today
I Read…I Thought…I Learned
How you’re working today…

4. Taking a First Stab at question…
Here is the first source on the government shutdown of 2013:
New York Times On Govt Shut Down
Take 2 mins to respond silently on paper:
Is the government shutdown an indicator that our government is broken?
Now take 45 seconds each to share your thoughts with your SW partner
Bringing this out to the floor…

5. Don’t Take My Word…
This is an editorial from the Star Ledger in New Jersey…
“It is not just the veterans who are affected. It is the nearly half-million federal employees and their families living without paychecks. It is the threat, if this drags on much longer, to programs such as Head Start and financial aid for college. Locally, it is the furlough of nearly half the staff at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark, which will inevitably damage investigations.”
nment_shutdown_dishonors.html

6. Digging Deep to find the Truth!...
You will now engage in some discussion and analysis in your reading cohorts from last reading session…
Your job will be to find out exactly how this government shut down affected Americans…
But more importantly, what insights or understanding can you conclude based on the reading and this conversation…

7. Some Language to know…
Partisan- A strong supporter of a party, cause, or person.
Bipartisan-Of or involving the agreement or cooperation of two political parties that usually oppose each other's policies.
Appropriations-a sum of money devoted to a special purpose (Congressional spending)
Stop Gap Measure- A temporary act by Congress- stopgap budget bill to keep the government running.
Debt Ceiling- an upper limit set on the amount of money that a government may borrow.
-"on Friday, Congress raised the debt ceiling by $800 million"

8. Reading Before We Begin Analysis
You will be reading in cohorts
Take the next mins to read the Washington Post article on the Government shutdown
Feel free to highlight, annotate, write summaries- whatever you need to understand the basics of this article
After you have read-we will walk into cohort analysis

9. Think-Write-Discuss-Report
Step 1: Think about what you read before you walk into analysis
Take 3 mins to read what you read, highlighted. etc
Find at LEAST TWO pieces of evidence that stand out to you the most or you have questions about

10. Think-Write-Discuss-Report
Step 2: Write
Take 4 mins to write down the pieces of the text that help highlight the following questions:
Why did the govt shutdown happen?
What are the “key government functions”?
Have at LEAST TWO pieces from text that highlight these questions

11. Think-Write-Discuss-Report
Step 3: Discuss
Take 8 mins to discuss with cohort to make sure all of you are on the same page
Why did the govt shutdown happen?
What are the “key government functions”?
Discuss at LEAST TWO pieces from the text that answer these questions

12. Think-Write-Discuss-Report
Now, let’s bring this out to the floor and figure out how we can make sense of what your cohort are saying
Norms for this discussion:
Monitor air time
Everyone participates
Cite as much as you can from text

13. Think-Write-Discuss-Report
Step 4: Discuss Part 2
Take 5 mins to discuss with cohort an analysis of new set of questions:
How does the shutdown highlight any issues or challenges present in Congress?
Can you explain how the govt works based on your understanding of this reading?
Discuss at LEAST TWO pieces from the text that answer these questions

14. Think-Write-Discuss-Report
Now, let’s bring this out to the floor and figure out how we can make sense of what your cohort are saying
Norms for this discussion:
Monitor air time
Everyone participates
Cite as much as you can from text

15. Let’s Put All This in Writing…
Now that we have discussed and broken down this reading into pieces…
You will now put all this conversation into ONE paragraph…but you have options:

16. OPTIONS…5 minutes Option 1: 5 mins Option 2: 5 mins
Add to your original response any important NEW piece of evidence to your response (A TOTAL OF 2 PIECES OF EVIDENCE FROM READING) OR
Option 2: 5 mins
Re-write YOUR OG response based on the discussion and findings and add TWO pieces of evidence from reading that help justify your new thinking

17. Debrief
Now show me fingers to your response to the question we looked at today…
4= Strongly Agree
3= Agree
2= Disagree
1= Strongly Disagree
Take 30 seconds to process how you feel about this question and conversation today before you show me fingers