Megan Stone

Direct instruction
Overview
Federal Government-4th grade-28 students
Resources and materials
Card stock For making the tri-fold at least 28 pieces
Scissors
Worksheet + instructions
Standards
C3 Structure and Functions of Government
Describe the structure of government in the United States and how it functions to serve
citizens.
Content objectives
4 C3.0.3 Describe the organizational structure of the federal government in the United
States (legislative, executive, and judicial branches).
Process objectives
Students will be able to identify the three branches of government and describe what
they do and what they are responsible for.
Teaching sequence
1) Presentation
Talk to the students about the three branches of government.
a) Overview
i) Review
What information do they remember from previous lessons about the three
branches of government? Write this information on the board. What do they
know about the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches?
ii) What

Megan Stone

Students will be learning the three branches of government. At the end of the
exercise the student should be able to explain what the three branches of
government, who is involved in each branch, and what they are responsible for.
Judicial- Supreme Court: 9 Justices (Judges) evaluates the laws
Executive- President and his cabinet, they enforce the laws, and can veto.
Legislative-Congress: House of Representatives, and Senate, they create the
laws.
*Give them a worksheet that has information about each branch.
iii) Why
To explain and know how our government works. And to know the different
parts to it.
b) Explanation
Explain to them what the three branches of government are and write them on
the board as they list them to me and tell me who is involved and what their job is
or what they are responsible for. Show them the video from school house rock
about the three branches of government.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EISWIY9bG8&noredirect=1
c) Demonstration
I will show them what my tri-fold looks like. One the flip side of the worksheet
about the three branches of government will be the directions for the tri-fold and I
will go over the directions with them and they can read along.
2) Practice
a) Guided
Have students explain the three branches of government to one another at their
tables before they do their project. Students will create their OWN tri-fold with the
information that they learned. They must include:
Executive-President and his cabinet. They carry out the laws. President can
Veto.
Legislative- Congress: House of Representatives and Senate. They make the
laws and monitor the other two branches.
Judicial- Supreme Court, 9 Justices (judges) evaluates the laws.
Have them explain what each branch does and what it is responsible for in their
own words, for better understanding.

Megan Stone

While students are working I will be walking around making sure they are on task
and answering any questions that they might have.
b) closure/summary
c) Independent
Have students for homework write at least a paragraph explaining the three
branches of government.
d) Periodic review
When they are done with the assignment we will go over the three branches
again.
3) Assessment and Evaluation
a) Daily
Check the tri-fold to see what each student came up with and if need be have
them explain it to you.
b) Mastery
Use the writing assignment that the students are doing for homework as
checking for mastery.
4) Monitoring and Feedback
a) CFU
While students are working I will be walking around and looking at what the
students are coming up with. I will be looking for the appropriate information
within each branch of government.
b) Feedback
I will also be asking them to explain what they think about what they are doing as
I am monitoring. If students have mistakes on their project their give the correct
information and have the students do another small assignment to develop
mastery over the topic or have them fix their project.
Reflection:
This lesson went really well and the students really liked it because it was kind of like an
art project. One thing that I found to be tricky is getting them not to just copy the
information that I went over on the board into their tri-folds. I did encourage them to
come up with a way to put it in their own words, but I still found students copying the
information form the board. This is because the teacher lets them just copy her work all
the time. If this were my classroom I would make them put the information in their own

Megan Stone

words all the time. Otherwise they are just learning to copy, they are not learning the
information. One way to actually see what they know is to not put the information on the
board and see what they can come up with on their own. One thing that the teacher
told me that I need to do better is give clear objectives as to what I was expecting from
the students. She told me that the lesson went really well and that I did a good job
other than that.