EDUC 2220- Educational Technology Lesson Plan

The Founders and Us

Cody Benedetto

10th Grade - American History

Common Core Standards:
● Problems facing the national government under the Articles of Confederation led to the
drafting of the Constitution of the United States. The framers of the Constitution
applied ideas of Enlightenment in conceiving the new government.
● The Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers structured the national debate
over the ratification of the Constitution of the United States.
● The Bill of Rights is derived from English law, ideas of the Enlightenment, the
experiences of the American colonists, early experiences of self government and the
national debate over the ratification of the Constitution of the United States

Lesson Summary:
This lesson entails that students will get an understanding on how documents like the
Constitution and Declaration of Independence were created and what the writers meant in
those documents. They will use any forms of research to learn about the founders. The
purpose of this lesson is to connect these “old, white men” to the student’s lives.

Estimated Duration:
This lesson will be no more than four days. It will be divided into three 40 minute class
periods and one 50 minute class period.

Commentary:
I plan on getting these students hooked onto this lesson by tieing what the founding fathers
said and believed in historical American documents with the student’s own lives and beliefs.
My hope is to get these students to understand the tough language of early America. We are
not able to pull up a video of the actual founder. The only way to really know what they
meant is to look in depth at their writings. Just like the students, these were just regular
people who wanted change in their lives and were tired of being ruled by an tyrannical ruler.

Instructional Procedures:
Day 1:
I will introduce the topic of the founding fathers without going into too much detail (5 mins)

I will show pictures of some of the founding fathers and documents then I want a student to
tell me what they know about them. I want to know who he is and what he did (5 mins)
Students will then grab a laptop or tablet. I will have a random selection of founding fathers in
a top hat. These will range from George Washington to Button Gwinnett. Students will
choose at random one name. That is who they will research (10 mins)
Students will research independently while I walk around to answer any questions and to
help when needed. While researching students will need to type/write down some notes for
themselves (20 mins)
When there is 5 minutes left in class, I will tell them to save their work and put their