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Constitution Unit: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan outlines a social science class focusing on the US Constitution. Students will review the three branches of government through a Jeopardy game and analyzing political cartoons. They will build their study guide for an upcoming test on the Constitution. The teacher reviews expectations and facilitates discussion of the cartoons to reinforce students' understanding of different perspectives and the complexity of the legislative branch.

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86 views

Constitution Unit: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan outlines a social science class focusing on the US Constitution. Students will review the three branches of government through a Jeopardy game and analyzing political cartoons. They will build their study guide for an upcoming test on the Constitution. The teacher reviews expectations and facilitates discussion of the cartoons to reinforce students' understanding of different perspectives and the complexity of the legislative branch.

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api-421034123
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Original

What I was thinking


What happened

Lesson Plan____________________________________________________________________

HEADING
Chloe Stiffle 12th Grade Social Science 12/06/18 1 hour and 37 minutes
Constitution Unit

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

 Students will continue to understand the 3 branches of govt., how they work and how
they interact with one another
 Students will understand how to discuss the government, while remaining respectful of
differing opinions.
o Talking about almost any aspect of politics is value-laden. Without promoting 1
type of thinking about government, difference perspectives on a particular topic
may emerge and it is extremely important that as a community we learn to talk
with one another, even when our opinions differ.

GOALS/OBJECTIVES
 Students begin to have a reinforced understanding of the three branches of govt.
through test review
o Through an in-depth game of Jeopardy, I sought to reinforce the content of the
unit in a variety of levels of difficulty.
 Students will continue to build their Constitution test study guide through guided notes
and handouts.
o This goal, due to moving around the schedule, was tackled more on 12/06 by
spending the majority of class explicitly going over the “Whose Job is it?” and
“State v. Federal Powers” worksheets; at this point, the students’ study guides for
the Constitution test were built.
 Students will learn about and analyze Political Cartoons to evaluate the three branches of
government.
o Following evaluation in pairs, students will work together as a class to discuss the
implications of these cartoons.
VOCAB
 Judicial Branch, Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, Supreme Court, President, Vice
President, Cabinet, Congress, House of Representatives, Senate
 Political Cartoons

STATE STANDARDS
 Standard - 5.1.12.D
 Standard - 5.1.12.E
 Standard - 5.3.12.A

MATERIALS
 Student provide their own writing utensil and paper for the warm up as well as any points
they need to reinforce during our test review
 SmartBoard slides – including Jeopardy slides
 Packet on Political Cartoons

PROCEDURE

START OF CLASS:

 8:18-8:30: As students walk in, have warm up on the board.


o Warm up question: “The founding fathers put the power of the Legislative Branch
first in the Constitution (then Executive, then Judicial). Why did the founding
fathers intend for the Legislative Branch to be the most powerful one?”
o We had not explicitly talked about this yet. The goal of posing this question
towards the end of the unit was to gage how students could take what they know
and apply it to a deeper question which involved many components of the unit.
o When students were working on answering the questions individually, a few did
ask if we had covered this before, so, to the entire class, I explained how this is
based off what we know at this point.
o Students work quietly as individual then we discuss responses as a class.
 Also discuss what answering a question completely should look like on the
upcoming test.
 I want my students to be more thorough in their responses. So, through
doing a do now, discussing it as a class, and then showing a variety of
increasingly complete answers students see what I am expecting for their
written work on a test and beyond.
 Through the “expanding mind” meme I explained how each answer is
more complete than the next. Further, I explained the value in always
trying to answer a question, even if you are not sure, rather than leaving
the space blank.
o During this time, I will also return work to students not present on Tuesday.
o To these students I also explained that importance of the answers of the
worksheets we had gone over and to email me or call me over if they have any
questions.

BODY OF THE LESSON:


 8:30-8:35: Go over expectations for class.
o Before discussing the packet, explain how there will be no tolerance for doing
work for English class in this class and that if I see a worksheet it will be taken and
returned to that student at the end of this class.
o This has been a reoccurring issue in class, and the previous class I had taken a
worksheet from a student, so I wanted to be explicit with all of my students about
doing work for another class in my class as well as blatantly copying each other.
o It seems that the students were receptive to my comments and I did not see
another worksheet for the rest of class.
o Students will pair up and work together through the political cartoons packet.
They will both be annotating the image about what they notice as well as
answering the questions beneath the image.
o Some students asked to work in threes, and I stated that groups of two make
more sense for the packet and work distribution (students were allowed to work
alone, though).
o Then we will go over the packet as a class in order to build a deeper understand
of the value of Political Cartoons as well as the content we have been covering.
o We went over the 3rd and 4th cartoons, which were more complex. Students
discussed their answers and together we came away with a more comprehensive
standing of the images at hand.

 8:35-9:05: Students will have 30 minutes to work through the packet of political cartoons
in pairs. Walk through class and answer questions as needed.
 Many students had wonderful questions that showed they were thinking more deeply
and/or critically about the legislative and executive branch
 When students asked questions relevant to the whole class, I walked to the center of the
room and paused everyone to explain the question and my response to it.

 9:05-9:25: Class discussion working through the images to build a collective


understanding of the images. As we go through questions, ask further questions related
to specific content questions.
 I intentional chose some of the images to make it clear that the House and Senate work
both together and in opposition of one another to drive home the complexity of the two
parts of Congress within the Legislative Branch.
o At end of discussion, have students turn in packets (1 per group)

 9:25-9:54: Test Review


o Jeopardy questions I made on content.
o The content reflected a range of questions in increasing difficulty.
o Originally, I wanted students to answer for themselves, but after a few questions
decided to add a “Phone a Friend” feature to make students less anxious to
participate. As a result of this addition, students who are shyer opened up and
participated.
o Made it teacher vs. class to add a competitive edge to the game with a prize.
Further, the class is very divided, and I found this as a way to build connections
and support across groups.
o Explain that this test review is a privilege not a right and for us all to be successful
next Tuesday we need to listen to one another when they speak and also not
shame anyone if they do not get the answer correctly because we all make
mistakes, myself included.
o While games are a good way to build class camaraderie and content
understanding, that can only occur if clear boundaries and expectations are set.
 Back-up plan: Write out the Constitutional requirements for the following
positions and respond to written out Constitutional scenarios.
CLOSURE
 9:54-9:57: Remind students that they will be taking the test next Tuesday and to email me
over the weekend if they have any questions. Also, remind students that all the notes
have been posted on Google Classroom.

ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
 Political Cartoon packet (turned in following discussion).
 Observe student involvement in participating in different parts of the lesson – warm up,
discussion, test review.
 Students remain respectful of others when speaking, especially during the packet
discussion and test review.
 Student asking clarifying or expansive questions on the content.
 This was very present when walking around while students were working on their packets.

ACCOMODATIONS
 Give students time warnings before coming together from individual work.
 Ensure the size and font on the SmartBoard is accessible to all students, no matter their
location in the classroom.
 Clear, guided notes.
 Time for clarifying questions.

 Additional comments:
o As talked about during a reflective meeting with Jackie, we discussed how I should
lean in to when I need to be serious and discipline my students. After setting a
serious tone that working on class for English, and blatantly cheating in front of
me, is not tolerated, I made a slight, lighthearted comment to try to tie together
the moment in a bow; this isn’t always necessary. Moving on to Jeopardy would
have served as the transition.
o I was really happy with how Jeopardy went because from students’ private
comments to me, there are obvious divides in groups in the classroom. Through
phoning a friend, I saw students calling on their peers that they hardly speak to in
general. I hope to do more activities which causes my students to see each other
rather than just stay in their comfort zone.
o Despite the fun-factor of the Jeopardy activity, and excitement it generated, the
activity still felt purposeful and intentional in its mission. For their test on the
covered material, a few of the questions are coming right from the review, so I
really hope my students are successful on their tests.

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