'Ensure that sending a GET request to self.url returns the expected
status code (200 by default).
Arguments:
expected_status_code: (default 200)
params:
query parameters to include in the request. Can include
`username`.
Returns:
response: (HttpResponse) The response returned by the request'

def verify_response(self, expected_status_code=200, params=None, url=None):

    query_params = {}
    query_params.update((params or {}))
    response = self.client.get((url or self.url), data=query_params)
    self.assertEqual(response.status_code, expected_status_code)
    return response
