Alabama Social Studies SS24.2.2a
The Standard
- SS24.2.2
- Identify the three branches of government and describe their roles.
Compare the state and national governments in respect to their powers, roles, and leaders.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students compare Alabama's government with the national government. They identify the governor and president as leaders, and the state legislature and Congress as lawmakers. They match jobs, such as issuing driver's licenses and passports, to the right government.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can tell who leads each government and who makes its laws. They can explain that Alabama laws apply in the state, while national laws apply across the country. They can give one job each government handles.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think the president runs Alabama's government or the governor runs the whole country. Some think the president makes laws alone. Others assume every government job belongs to just one level.
How to Assess It
- On an exit slip, have students label governor, president, Alabama driver's license, and U.S. passport as state or national. Ask: Who makes laws for Alabama?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs six cards, governor, president, state legislature, Congress, Alabama driver's license, and U.S. passport, to sort on state and national mats.
Ask, 'Who makes laws for Alabama, and who makes laws for the whole country?' Have students write one sentence comparing them.
Play a two-corner game: read 'issues U.S. passports' or 'issues Alabama driver's licenses,' and have students move to the matching government sign.
Show a U.S. mailbox and an Alabama driver's license application, then ask which government a family would contact for each.
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Printable SS24.2.2a Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS24.USG.13
Outline how the federal system of the United States divides powers between national and state governments.
- SS24.6.10a
Compare and contrast the division of power among levels of government in unitary, federal, and confederate styles of governance.
- SS24.AS.20
Compare and contrast the roles of statewide elected officials, including the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and attorney general.
- SS24.USG.13a
Compare specific functions, organizations, and purposes of local and state governments.
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