Week 5 • Draft your plan
Make your idea clear enough to review.
Begin when Mr. Fullerton assigns Week 5. Bring your Decision-Maker Map, Evidence Board, and coach feedback.
You have compared approaches. Now explain what you recommend, why, and how it could work. A draft is a first version for feedback. It can include questions that still need answers.
Your destination: My Draft Plan, the Week 5 section in your iCivics Project Notebook. Allow about 40–60 minutes, divided into short work periods.
You will draft a community proposal with action steps, resources, approval needs, and a way to judge success.
You will organize a bill draft for your approved Anytime Congress topic, including purpose, who benefits or qualifies, proposed actions, implementation, and fiscal impact. Mr. Fullerton reviews it before any platform submission.
You will organize a bill draft for your approved Anytime Congress topic, testing how its proposed rules, responsibilities, costs, and safeguards would work. Mr. Fullerton reviews it before any platform submission.
Your six steps for Week 5
- Learn what makes a plan reviewable.
- Practice identifying a clear action and an honest cost statement.
- Study a worked draft or organize your own project evidence.
- Write your draft plan.
- Have someone test the plan, then revise.
- Check your draft and prepare it for coach review.
Move from a wish to a workable proposal
What problem are you addressing, and who should benefit?
What would happen, who would do it, and in what order?
What resources and approval are needed? How would you know whether it helped?
Keep your evidence separate from your proposal. “Four students reported a conflict” describes a fictional source finding. “Try another borrowing time” is a proposed action. Evidence can support a proposal without proving it will succeed.
Make the next step visible
Instead of “Make borrowing better,” write “Ask the principal and book-room manager to review a second borrowing session, including staff availability.” You are proposing a decision—not announcing that permission has been granted.
Resources include time, people, space, materials, and money. A plan using existing materials can still require staff time. Label costs as researched amounts, estimates with a stated basis, or unknowns. Do not turn a guess into a fact.
A success measure tells you what to check after an approved trial: for example, whether students with a scheduling conflict can borrow at the new time. Decide what information would answer that question; do not invent the results.
Could another person understand the plan?
Read a draft with questions still open
Fictional worked example • A second borrowing time
This continues the invented book-room case from Weeks 3–4. Proposed timing below is an example, not an approved schedule.
- Problem and evidence: Four of six students in one discussion group reported a conflict with the current borrowing time. We do not know how many other students have the same problem.
- Proposal: Ask to try a second 15-minute weekly borrowing session for two weeks, if staffing and approval are available.
- Approval: In this fictional case, the principal approves hours and staff assignments; the book-room manager helps plan the session.
- Steps: Ask which times students need; have staff review timing and resources; request approval; run a trial only if approved; review the results.
- Resources: Existing books and room; staff time and availability still need checking. No verified added cost is available.
- Success check: Compare whether students who reported a conflict can borrow during the trial. Staff would arrange an appropriate way to gather that information.
- Trade-off and backup: Another session needs staffing. If staffing is unavailable, review request-and-collect instead.
Notice: This draft explains a next step while keeping its uncertainties visible. It does not claim that a trial has occurred or that the problem is solved.
Use this structure for your own proposal. If you need the supplied case, draft your version using these facts and explain what you would change or investigate.
The book-room example models planning; it is not a federal bill topic. Apply the structure to your approved topic. If topic approval is pending, use the fictional case for planning practice and record the question you need Mr. Fullerton to resolve.
The book-room example models planning; it does not establish federal authority. For your approved topic, test whether the proposed action belongs with the decision-maker you identified. If approval is pending, practice with the fictional case and keep your bill topic provisional.
My Draft Plan
Use your existing iCivics Project Notebook. This is another weekly section, not a new document.
Open your notebook here each time
Teacher review: The Week 5 section is ready in the master notebook. Mr. Fullerton will assign each student a private copy through Google Classroom; this button will be connected to that grade’s assignment before launch.
When connected, open your attached notebook from Mr. Fullerton’s assignment and find Week 5 • My Draft Plan. Type in the blue response boxes. Google Docs saves automatically while connected. Return through this same button each time.
Start with these prompts
- Title and purpose: What do I propose, what problem does it address, and who should benefit?
- Evidence: Which details from my Evidence Board support this choice? Identify the sources and a remaining limit.
- Proposed action: What would change? What steps or rules would make that happen?
- Responsibility and approval: Who would carry it out, and who must review or approve it?
- Resources and timing: What people, time, materials, or money are needed? What must happen before the plan starts?
- Success, trade-off, and open question: What would I check to judge whether it helped? What could go wrong or leave someone out? What still needs an answer?
- After feedback: What did I revise or keep, why, and what did I contribute? What do I need Mr. Fullerton to review?
Finish a first draft before Step 5. A clearly labeled unanswered question is better than an invented fact.
Give your plan a reader test
Project coaching: 11:45–12:15 • G4 Thursdays • G5 Mondays • G6 Tuesdays.
- Prepare: Bring your own draft and one question for a reader.
- Share: Each person briefly explains the purpose and first action.
- Discuss: Students lead while Mr. Fullerton listens. A reader explains the plan back: “I think you want __ to do __ after __.” Identify unclear steps, missing resources, or unsupported promises.
- Revise individually: Improve your draft and explain which feedback you used or why you kept your wording.
- Report back: Your agreed spokesperson summarizes the proposed action, key revision, and question needing coach review when Mr. Fullerton rejoins.
Discussion Guide
Give every author a turn and keep feedback specific and respectful.
Evidence Checker
Check claims, resource estimates, and whether approval is being assumed.
Connection Maker
Record the team’s proposed steps and questions for the coach.
Rotate from Week 4. In a group of four, the Process Checker checks that every member contributes and has a revision to consider. Everyone keeps their own draft and reflection.
Working independently or waiting for your group?
Read your draft as if you were the person asked to carry it out. Can you identify the first action, responsible role, approval, resources, and success check? Compare it with the worked example, revise one unclear part, and explain your change. Record an unresolved question for Mr. Fullerton.
Team record: Add the shared proposal, action steps or provisions, resources still to check, revisions, and each member’s next contribution to your assigned team document. Keep earlier choices visible.
A draft can say “not yet known”
I do not know how much it costs.
List the resources first. Say which amounts are verified, which are estimates and why, and which are unknown. Ask a focused question such as “Would this require paid staff time?”
My proposal is too big.
Identify one decision or a smaller trial that could help you learn. Explain what the smaller plan would address and what would remain outside it.
Our team disagrees.
Compare the evidence and the same criteria for each option. Record the disagreement and what information could resolve it. You do not need to claim agreement that has not been reached.
I am waiting for topic approval.
Complete the fictional planning practice and write your topic-fit question for Mr. Fullerton. Keep your real-topic draft provisional. Do not submit it to Anytime Congress yet.
Prepare your draft for Mr. Fullerton
- I connected the problem and recommendation to my evidence.
- I explained who would do what and what approval is needed.
- I identified resources and timing, with estimates and unknowns labeled.
- I included a success check, a trade-off, and an unresolved question.
- I used a reader test and explained my individual revision and contribution.
Your draft includes ordered community action steps. You are preparing a proposal for review, not carrying out an unapproved activity.
For your approved AC topic, include eligibility, provisions, implementation, timing, and a fiscal-impact explanation. Mr. Fullerton must review the draft before you enter or submit it in the AC platform. Use his current format directions.
For your approved AC topic, also check safeguards, responsibility boundaries, and the assumptions behind fiscal estimates. Mr. Fullerton must review the draft before you enter or submit it in the AC platform. Use his current format directions.
Follow Mr. Fullerton’s posted Pearson directions for the subject and submission. This website does not submit your work to Pearson or Anytime Congress. If submission details are not posted, your notebook remains ready for review.
Stop here • Week 5 is complete
Your draft is ready for feedback, not a final approval. Begin Week 6 when Mr. Fullerton assigns it. Next: use feedback to make your idea stronger.
Teacher guide • Week 5
Assess the link between evidence and recommendation, clear actions, realistic responsibility, honest treatment of resources, and individual revision. A supported estimate or useful unknown is stronger than false precision. Do not assess the fictional case as real local research.
For G5–6, this is a drafting scaffold, not a statement of current YLI platform requirements. Check topic approval, federal fit, official AC fields and rules, fiscal reasoning, and student readiness before platform entry. Students awaiting topic review can demonstrate planning through the fictional case.
Before launch, assign private student copies of the completed Weeks 1–8 master through Google Classroom, connect each grade’s assignment link, and provide the relevant dates and submission directions.