Title of Unit:

The Foundations of Our Government Submitted By: Mary Wood

Title of Lesson: Parts of Our Government

A. Summary of the Lesson Plan: This 4th grade civics lesson will introduce branches of our government. It will also look at how voting and elections work using the Houghton Miller 4th grade textbook. B. Target Population: Grade Level: 4th Grade Skill Level: Students at all learning levels. Grouping: Whole Group: Discussion, Election, Video Small Group: Activity on branches of government. Individual Work: Reading from textbook C. Materials: Houghton Miller 4th grade textbook (p. 308-310) Im Just a Bill video http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=220870 Unit resource worksheet page 86. D. Objectives: o NV State Social Studies Standards C13.4.2 Explain that democracy involves voting, majority rule, and setting rules.

Student-Friendly Standards I can explain what democracy is, what "majority rules" means, and how voting works.

E. Procedure: 1. Prior to the lesson starting, write the following vocabulary words on the board: o o o o o Democracy government by the people, either directly or through elected representation Representation a person who is chosen to act for a group of people Election the way by which voters choose their representatives in a government Majority - the greater part or number; the number larger than half the total (opposed to minority) Constitutional - in agreement with the Constitution, the document that determines what ways the government can act to govern and that protects the rights of US citizens Encourage students to write them in their social studies journal. They can be found on page 308.
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2013 Karen Powell- Instructor page 1

Title of Unit:

The Foundations of Our Government Submitted By: Mary Wood

Title of Lesson: Parts of Our Government

2. Whole Group: Discuss how we have recently learned about rules and laws. What do we remember? o In this lesson we are going to find out how laws are made, what a government is and how ours works!

3. Individual Work: Have students quietly read page 309 in their textbooks. The section is entitled How the People Rule 4. Whole Group: Instruction: explain that we live in a democracy and in a democracy we get to vote on people who will represent us. o We need representatives because there are so many people in the United States that if every single person got to vote on every bill it would take too long to get anything done. We vote on the people that we think would vote the way we would when we send them to Washington D.C. to vote for us. When we vote for our representatives it is called an election. The winner is the person that gets the majority of the votes. In elections everyone that is over the age of 18 and a United States citizen can vote on the people they want to represent them. The people that represent us include: the President, our Senators, and our Congressmen.

o o

5. Whole Group: Classroom election demonstration o Ask for volunteers to be our "pretend class representative" Have two or three students come to the front of the class and explain why they would like to be the pretend class representative. Have students write the name of the candidate they think would best represent them on a scratch piece of paper. Have a volunteer collect all of the papers and tally the votes of the board. The student with the most votes (majority) gets to be our class' pretend representative for the day. Explain that this is an example of majority rules.

6. Small Group: Explain to the students that our government has three branches to make sure no one in our government has too much power. Each has its own duties and not all of the people, especially in the judicial branch are elected. Those people that make the rules ARE voted on. Include that the legislative branch is made up of both the Congress and the Senate.

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2013

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 2

Title of Unit:

The Foundations of Our Government Submitted By: Mary Wood

Title of Lesson: Parts of Our Government

Break the students up in to three groups. Assign one group to be the legislative branch, one to be the executive branch and one to be the judicial branch. Have each group read through page 311 together and then have one person from each group read their paragraph out loud to the class.

7. Whole Group: Explain to students that for a law to pass it has to have a majority of the vote of both parts of the legislative branch, the Congress and the Senate. This is another example of majority rules. Then the president (executive branch) has to approve it. The judicial branch may be called upon to make sure a law is constitutional and to judge if citizens have broken a law. o Show the Schoolhouse Rocks video Im Just a Bill http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=220870

8. CLOSURE: Cool Down: write the following questions on the board during the video: o o o How does voting work? What part of the vote does a representative need to have to be elected the winner? What are the three branches of our government? Hand out a note card for the students to write their answers on and turn in. Assign homework: read pages 308-311 and fill out unit resource worksheet 86. F. Assessment: What will you use to measure student understanding? The objective for this lesson is for my students to be able to explain that democracy involves voting, majority rule, and setting rules. I will assess my students knowledge of this standard by their ability to complete their lesson cool down and their homework. Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson. I will listen to see if my students are able to participate in the discussions. I will read their cool downs to see if they listed the key concepts and check their homework to see if they were able to find the correct answers. G. Reflection: 1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach? I think this lesson was is pretty complex. The easiest part to teach, I think, would be talking about why we need representatives. I think that they would understand that concept with the help of my instruction and the text.
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2013 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3

Title of Unit:

The Foundations of Our Government Submitted By: Mary Wood

Title of Lesson: Parts of Our Government

2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach? I think the part about the three branches of government would be the most challenging because it is a lot of information that the book crammed into a few short paragraphs, when there could honestly be an entire lesson on each branch. 3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson? I will follow this lesson up by talking about a citizens rights and the Constitution. The Constitution is in the text for this lesson but I felt the lesson was covering too much material to do more than just a brief mention of it in this lesson. 4. What will you do for students who dont grasp the concepts? I have a feeling many students will need a review of this lesson as it has several complex components. I will help everyone as best as I can during the small group activity when they are reading about the branches of government. For my students that are having a hard time I will help them during preferred activity time or before or after school. 5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change? I could see this lesson potentially being too long based on how much time instruction takes. I do not want to get rid of the class election or the video because I think they are both good visuals so if I need to I will hold some of the material over for the next day. 6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part? I think this is a good lesson I think there is actually so much to cover that it was hard to pick what is most important. It was also hard for me on this lesson to decide how far I need to get into some of the concepts for a 4th grade class. I really like politics and government but I know the point of this lesson is not to teach them everything I know or think is interesting about our government. They would be so overwhelmed.

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2013

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 4

Title of Unit:

The Foundations of Our Government Submitted By: Mary Wood

Title of Lesson: Parts of Our Government

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2013

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 5