Lesson Plan #3 - The Federal Bureaucracy

In my American Government class, we are starting a unit on the executive branch and the federal bureaucracy.  I could not think of a better way to show the potential dysfunction of the giant federal bureaucracy than to examine the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.  The lesson plan I selected can be found at http://beep.browardschools.com/lv/io_s001_04.forward.

The main purpose of the lesson is examine the pros and cons of Federalism and shared powers between the federal, state and local governments

First, we will start with an essential question “Why did Congress create the bureaucracy?”  Then we will examine some key vocabulary terms of the executive departments of the Federal Government.  Next, I will assess my student’s prior knowledge of Hurricane Katrina. Most of my students were 9 or 10 years old when the hurricane struck the Gulf coast. We will explore the FEMA website and then examine the structure and effectiveness of FEMA under both Presidents Clinton and Bush II. I will also incorporate video of the disaster examining it from different perspectives.  The class will also examine news articles, specifically a time line of Hurricane Katrina and an article about FEMA Director Brown’s resignation.  We will then look at the changes made to FEMA post Katrina and the structure of the agency under President Obama’s administration.