Resources for Teachers

A variety of resources exist to help you, as a classroom teacher, prepare for a visit from a Wyoming legislator to your classroom. The Teacher's Guide on the left-hand side of the page offers background information on the goals of the event and activities to use as a complement to the legislator's visit. NCSL makes available, free of charge, a variety of classroom materials for high school, middle school, and elementary school students to be used by state legislators visiting classrooms in conjunction with the program. To request copies of the materials, please contact Legislative Information Officer, Wendy Madsen, at (307) 777-7881 or by e-mailing Wendy at: wmadse@state.wy.us.

NCSL has produced online lesson plans to complement the "Your Ideas Count" theme that legislators will bring to the classroom as part of the program. These plans are available under the NCSL Lesson Plan link on the left, where you will find plans for elementary, middle school or high school students. Lesson plans for high school students include topics such as the importance of diversity in public policy making, the role of special interest groups in legislation, and the importance of compromise in representative democracy. Middle school plans include an assessment of students' trust in government, a day in the life of a legislator component, and a public hearing simulation. Elementary plans include a segment on compromise, who legislators are, and citizen participation. The Eagleton Institute of Politics has also prepared lesson plans on Appreciating Democracy and Appreciating Representation, which can be downloaded in Adobe .pdf format at the links on the left-hand side of this page.

NCSL has prepared several evaluation forms for the project for teachers and students to complete, which are available online on the link on the left-hand side of this page.