Hilary Troutner SIOP Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is intended to be used in a general educational classroom, with fifth graders or 10-11 year olds

Standards:
-5th Grade Social Studies: Standard 3:Objective 1: Assess the underlying principles of the US Constitution as the framework for the United States form of government, a compound constitutional republic

-Distinguish between the role of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of the government. -Explain the process of passing a law. -Describe the concept of checks and balances.

WIDA Proficiency Levels:

Listening and Reading: -Complex grammatical constructions, sentence patterns across content areas, words and expressions with multiple meanings across content areas

Speaking and Writing: -Organized expression of ideas with emerging cohesion, a variety of grammatical structures, specific and some contentarea language, sentence patterns characteristic of particular content areas, words and expressions with expressive meaning

Theme
Democratic government systems

Topic
Post-Revolutionary war, the three branches of government, checks and

balances

Objectives
Content Objectives: Students will be able to explain what each branch of government does and how a bill becomes a law by discussing the process as a class, and by writing their own laws individually or with a partner and then participating in a class vote. Language Objectives: Students will be able to demonstrate brainstorming and drafting skills by writing their own laws individually or with a partner.

Learning Strategies:
Take A Stand (socioaffective, cognitive) Brainstorming (socioaffective, cognitive) Role playing (metacognitive, socioaffective, cognitive) Direct instruction and demonstration (cognitive)

Key Vocabulary
Content-Obligatory: Bill, checks and balances, legislative, judicial, executive, veto

Content-Compatible: Process, vote, democracy, branch (of government), overturn

Materials
Im Just a Bill-School House Rock clip Markers, paper, and other materials for students to write with and on Visual of checks and balances flow chart, chart of jobs of each branch

Motivation
To begin the lesson, the class will participate in the Take a Stand activity. To begin, students should be split into groups of at least three, but no more than five depending on how many students are in the class. The groups should be based on the tables they are sitting at, or a cluster of desks designated by the teacher. The group should choose one student to be the writer, one student to be the reader, and one student to be the checker.

Previously, the students had been taught about the three branches of government and how they check and balance each other. Review what the three branches are, by asking, Who can tell me one of the branches of government listed in the Constitution, and a job that branch has? Have students respond until each branch has been covered. Explain how the activity works to students: Now as group, you need to make a list of jobs that each branch has. The writer should write down all of the jobs your group comes up with. You will have 2-3 minutes for each branch. First we will start with the Executive branch. Begin listing all the jobs and tasks you can think of that the Executive Branch takes care of. After 2-3 minutes tell students, Now think of all the jobs and tasks the Legislative branch does. After 2-3 minutes, repeat with the Judicial branch. After the groups have brainstormed, tell the class that each checker in the group must now switch with the checker in another group. Tell the students they are now going to take turns reading jobs they wrote on their lists for each category, until every job has been repeated or read. The last group out wind. Say, The checker should check the list as the reader gives an answer to make sure they have written down what they read. We will start with the Executive branch, and go around starting on the left side of the room. With the first branch, point to show the order of who should read from their list next. Have students read their lists from each branch until they run out of ideas. After every list has been read, write the branches on the board. Have the students give the three most important jobs for each branch. Answer any questions students have as you move along.

Presentation
To begin the teaching of new material, read the content and language objectives to students. Next, go over the word bill. Ask students what they think a law is. After collecting 1-2 responses, tell students, A law is a rule. What are some of the laws we have in this classroom? After a few responses, ask students, Who creates laws? Turn back to the notes for each branch on the board if no student can give a correct response. Next say, Laws are created by the government to protect and govern society. There are laws about driving too fast or being at least 16 years old to get a drivers license, there are laws to keep people from stealing money, and there are even laws about going to school! What do you think our country would be like without laws? After collecting responses from a couple of students, then say, A bill is a rule that is not officially a law. It first must go through the branches of the government. Next show the School House Rock clip. Ask students to watch for how a bill

will turn into a law. After watching the video, ask one student to give a quick summary of the process a bill must go through to become a law. Next, tell students, I want you to think about issues in the classroom and around the school. What things do you think need to be changed or altered to make our school or classroom a better place. Give students a minute or two to think, and then start having students raise their hands to share ideas. Write their ideas on the board.

Practice and Application

After brainstorming a list of changes students want to see, tell them they are now going to create their own bills. (Hooray!) Pass out a piece of lined paper for each student to write on. Tell students, You should write a bill for a law on something you feel passionate about and really want to change. You should write your laws like this: I propose that recycle bins be put in each classroom at Utah Elementary that require paper to be put in them Tell students each bill should begin with, I propose___________. Write the stem above the example law. Tell students they can work in teacher-approved pairs. Tell students to find a partner if they want to work in pairs, and to raise their hands once they have their partner. The teacher should go around and make any necessary pair adjustments. Students should then have about five to ten minutes to brainstorm for their bills. The teacher should walk around and answer any questions students may have.

Review and Assessment

After 5-10 minutes, the teacher should gather the class back together to review and share the bills the students created. Tell students, You have now written bills that you want to become laws. What branch must your bill go to first if it becomes a law? Once students have provided the correct answer, tell students that as a class they are going to share their bills and then vote on which ones they would like to become a law. The teacher should say, In order for a bill to become a law, the legislative branch must vote on which laws to pass. As a class we will all be a part of the Legislative branch and vote on which bill be think should become a law. Tell students they dont have to share their bill, but have students who want to share their bill raise their hands. The teacher should then call on students one by one hand have them read their bills out loud.

After all the bills have been read, go through each bill and have the class do a blind vote (eyes closed, heads down). Tally up each bill on the board. Take 3-5 bills with the highest amount of votes, and have students do another blind vote. Once the students have voted on the bill, the teacher should read the winning bill out loud and write it on the board. Next, say, As a Legislative branch, we have chosen to make this bill a law. What branch of government would this law go to next? Once one student responds with The Executive branch, ask students, If the President didnt approve of the law, what could he do? Once a student responds with, He can veto it, ask students, Then what role would the Judicial branch play? Once students respond with correct answer, tell students they will work with other classes (who are acting as other branches) to make sure the bill is finalized as a law. The students participation in the voting and discussion will act as a formative assessment for the teacher to ensure they have met the content and language objectives. The teacher should be able to understand if students understood the objectives and vocabulary from their responses and the bills they created.

In future lessons, the students can learn more about how the law is taken through each of the other branches. If the law the students voted on is something that would concern the other classes in the fifth grade and they are willing to participate, then the other classes can act as the Judicial and Executive branches to veto or approve the law and/or have a hearing.