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About this guide

The Gavel to Gavel Alaska Curriculum Guide for Teachers is designed to increase understanding and involvement in state government among students in grades four through twelve. The guide is produced by NEA-Alaska and KTOO-TV with financial support from the University of Alaska.

How to use the guide

This guide is divided into six units. Each unit has two sections.

The first section presents factual information to help you provide an understanding of the structure and interrelationships that exist between the state policy makers of the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

The second section provides student lessons. These suggested lessons are intended to be supplements to your current district civics curriculum. Select and adapt these as you need to help your students interact with and internalize the factual information in each unit.

Unit 1	Who's the Boss?	Unit One Lesson Plan
Unit 2	Meet Your Legislators	Unit Two Lesson Plan
Unit 3	The Process	Unit Three Lesson Plan
Unit 4	The Nuts and Bolts	Unit Four Lesson Plan
Unit 5	Who Counts	Unit Five Lesson Plan
Unit 6	You Count	Unit Six Lesson Plan

About Gavel to Gavel Alaska

Gavel to Gavel Alaska is a cable television and Internet service of KTOO-TV, Juneau's public TV station, and provides unedited live and tape-delayed coverage of state government activities. Normal broadcast hours are from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday during the legislative session. As the need arises, we extend our hours to cover weekend or late-night meetings and floor sessions. Click here for the most current Gavel to Gavel schedule.

In addition to the the cable television broadcasts, Gavel to Gavel Alaska also streams legislative audio and video on the Internet. This service includes live audio web casts of many events in the State Capitol. In addition, all the events are archived and available for listening at a later time. Click here for information about Gavel to Gavel's audio streams.

Gavel to Gavel's legislative coverage includes committee meetings, floor sessions, press conferences and other legislative events. In addition, Gavel to Gavel covers oral arguments before the Alaska Supreme Court, administration press conferences and briefings, general government activities, and other meetings about legislative issues or of political interest.

KTOO has been producing Gavel to Gavel Alaska since 1995. KTOO pioneered legislative coverage in Alaska in the late 70's with weekly and daily "wrap-up" programs. KTOO also provides news feeds and related broadcast services to the major news organizations on the East Coast and to other Alaska stations.

Gavel to Gavel Alaska is distributed statewide by satellite to cable systems, including all of the cable television systems owned by GCI. Gavel to Gavel Alaska is streamed on the Internet by ACS. For a list of cable channels, click here.

Gavel to Gavel Alaska is supported by a major grant from the City and Borough of Juneau. Major private sector sponsors include ACS and GCI. A number of other Alaska businesses and organizations support the service. Click here for a complete list of sponsors.

Credits

The guide was originally produced and published by NEA-Alaska in 1997. Mary Bohanan and Kris Tierney-Sword compiled and wrote the first edition. The guide was updated and re-written by Juneau writer Bill McAllister in 2003. KTOO-TV staff converted the printed guide to web pages. Funding for the 2003 update and web project was provided by the University of Alaska.

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