Social Studies

Lesson plan #: 2 1. Type of Lesson: Talk about the importance of rules and
develop and debate rules for a classroom constitution.
Span of time:

Objectives Enduring Understanding, Knowledge, Skills

1. Enduring 1. How to be a civically responsible democratic citizen
Understanding (big working for the common good
takeaway): Essential Questions:
What are the roles and responsibilities of democratic citize
Can an individual make a difference?
2. Knowledge, know Why do we have rules and laws?
whats. Students will How do we maintain the common good?
learn that: 2. Knowledge
-civic responsibility
-voting
3. Skills, know hows. -how to support the common good
Students will learn -importance of rules
how to: 3. Skills
-debate opinion
-decide what is important an unimportant

KEY ACADEMIC MATERIALS NEEDED FOR THIS LESSON

VOCABULARY
-civic responsibility -large old looking paper
-common good -old Founding Fathers wig
-democracy -PowerPoint of main ideas of constitution
-the constitution
-amendments
-rule

FORMATIVE
ASSESSMENT
What formative 1. Assessment on knowledge and skills:
assessment will give you Students debate on rules to be kept and why.
information on each of
your students learning 2. Assessment on Enduring Understanding (did they
outcome(s)?
meet the overall goal?):
*Specify whether the
If everyone votes it will give an idea if students are learning
assessment activities are to be civically responsible with a sense of duty to protect th
homework. common good. I ask many questions leading up to the
students to answer why rules are important. Students deve
rules that provide for the common good of the classroom.

LESSON PLAN Describe with detail how the lesson will be introduce
Class begins and
1. How will your intro
communicate the Miss Cronin says: We are going to play a game called Mi
usefulness of the Cronin says, when I say Miss. Cronin says to do ______ you
learning content? How must do it or you're out! (play game till several are out)
will you connect the
learning to their
personal experiences?
When you were playing the game, why did you listen to wh
I said? why do you do anything during a game? (Because it
2. How will you draw was the rule of the game, if they aren't coming up with thi
upon their prior idea and keep repeating... because youre the teacher,
knowledge? have someone else be the leader of the game and listen to
them, want them to get the idea across that is was a RULE
What is rule? (one of a set of explicit or understood
regulations or principles governing conduct within a
particular activity or sphere.) Where are there rules in our
lives? (sports, playground school, world) what are example
of some rules you follow in your life? why do you need rule
Why do you follow rules? Why would you not follow a rule?

I want you to imagine a professional football game without

rules and referees? What kind of problems might arise in
that game? Would you want to play in that game? Why or
why not? (people would cheat, nobody there to keep thing
fair, somebody might get hurt). So rules seem like they ar
pretty important. What about outside of sports? What are
the rules and referees in our everyday world? (laws and
government). Why are rules important in our world? (keep
peace and order, safety, justice, fairness, common good).
Rules and government are made to support the common
good. The common good is the benefit and interest of
everyone.
Through the Learning Brief students on the constitutions contents: Yesterd
(A) Descri we created our class preamble, today we are going to mak
be the main our own class constitution. Give briefing on ideas covered
activities of your the constitution to give students background knowledge.
lesson plan,
estimating the
Writing Class constitution: Now to write our own class
amount of time
that each activity constitution, these are our class rules. Based off the ideas
will take. recorded in the preamble that discuss the purposes of our
classroom, Be sure to be civically responsible and keep in
(B) How mind the common good of the classroom. In the same grou
do the activities you were in yesterday, you will develop 6 rules to our
help your classroom that you believe to be the most important. You w
students learn? then need to persuade your classmates of which rules you
feel are most important.

Debate: give students time to collaborate and then have

each group share their goals. Students will have to convin
their peers why a certain rule is more important than
another. Then after each group has presented give time fo
closing arguments.
Vote: A vote for which rules to include in the constitution.
Students will raise their hands for the 5 rules they support
and the 6 with the most votes will be written in the
constitution. Make it clear that students dont HAVE to vot
it is their choice or right.
Signatures: Record on rules that were voted on out the
official paper (large paper that is old looking) and write th
constitution on it and then give each student a chance to
wear the wig and sign the document and then take a class
picture with it
Wrap up: This is our classroom constitution that was writ
by the students for the students. You all developed the rule
and signed the document for the common good of the
classroom and each other, you should be proud of
yourselves! You have a civic responsibility to hold yourselv
and each other accountable for these rules because after a
you created them!
Why do you think our classroom rules are important? How
they support the common good? Why is the common good
important within our classroom?
The activity we just did where you all developed the rules
you believed in and then took a vote for which you support
is an example of a democracy. Raise your hand if none of t
6 rules you voted for made the constitution. (hopefully littl
to nobody). Why might not submitting a vote be a failure to
have civic responsibility? (have not only the right to vote b
 the responsibility to vote to protect the common good ). A
democracy is when the people rule, in our case the studen
rule, all of you had a hand in developing, persuading, and
voting for these rules and were civically responsible becau
you were voting on these rules while keeping in mind the
common good.
In a democracy citizens who have a sense of civic
responsibility, submit a vote for what they support, and
whatever or whoever receives the most votes is chosen. N
we can and know how to participate in a democracy! And
now we can hold ourselves and our peers accountable for
responsibilities!
We will see if they work out or if revisions need to be adde
in the future. These revisions are called amendments, and
even the Founding Fathers left out some very important
ideas! In our next lesson we will study a democracy more i
depth such as how our government is set up into different
branches, the different responsibilities of each branch, and
how power is balanced among the branches.

DIFFERENTIATION
FRAMEWORK
How will you differentiate LANGUAGE SUPPORT FOR ELLs
your lesson to meet Student will be given auditory and visual instructions on a h
diverse students needs?
EXCEPTIONAL LEARNING NEEDS
Student may receive additonal attention as needed.

CLASSROOM
MANAGEMENT
How will you foster a positive Seating/Classroom Arrangement (only if special arrangement
learning environment that needed for this lesson)
will enhance all students
learning and growth?
Special Rules/Procedures (only if special rules/procedures require
for this lesson)

Describe your strategy for

classroom management. If
a student or several were
to disrupt the class
activities and lessons, how
will you respond?