About This Lesson
In this 90 minute lesson, students will develop SEL skills such as responsible decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness while learning about the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and evaluating a hypothetical bill. Students will engage in a Do Now exercise to activate prior knowledge before reading about what the CBO is and what it does. Then in small groups, students will read about an imaginary bill and an imaginary U.S. Representative and her congressional district. Using all that information, the group will decide whether or not the representative should vote for or against the bill, and write a paragraph defending their decisions. Included to help students with their paragraph is a prewriting graphic organizer and a scoring rubric. Once students have finished their small group work, they will complete an exit ticket to reflect on the content knowledge they have gained and how well they worked in their small groups. Answer keys for all activities are included. This lesson is aligned to the Common Core Standards for History/Social Studies and the Ohio State Content Standards for American Government.
