Lesson Plan #4

Grade: 4th Social Studies Strand: Civics

Submitted By: Vida Reljic

EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science Nevada State College Spring 2014 Instructor: Karen Powell

Lesson Plan #4 Civics

B. Summary of the Lesson Plan:

submitted by: Vida Reljic

This social studies lesson is designed for 4th grade students to learn about the importance of the three branches of government. Students must also connect the three branches with literature by using different myths. C. Basic Information: Grade Level: 4th grade Time to Complete this Lesson: approximately 50 minutes Groupings: direct instruction, discussion, independent for activity, assessment

D. Materials: Supreme Courts Myths- Variety of myths including the three branches of government.

Song of Creation- A poem of the Pima Culture

White board, dry-erase marker, and expo eraser

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 2

Lesson Plan #4 Civics

submitted by: Vida Reljic

Paper, chart paper, Venn diagram, and journals.

Pencils and markers

E. Objectives: NV State Social Studies Standards C14.4.5. Name the three branches of state government. I can explain the three different forms of government: Executive Branch, Judicial Branch, and Legislative Branch. Student-Friendly Standards

F. Vocabulary Executive Branch- Branch that carries out the laws. Judicial Branch- This branch is the court system. Laws- Rules and guidelines enforced usually by the US Supreme Court. Legislative Branch- Branch that writes laws. Myth- A story that may or may not be true. Myths are generally very old. This means there are no records or other proof that they happened.
EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3

Nevada State College

Lesson Plan #4 Civics

submitted by: Vida Reljic

Supreme Court- The decisions of the Supreme Court are absolute and final. It is a part of Judicial Branch. Veto- When the court vetoes something it means its rejected or postponed.

G. Procedure: 1. View the School House Rock video clip about the three branches of government. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLQg7G3hkGY Introduce the words Executive/Judicial/Legislative Branch, laws, Supreme court, and veto. Discuss how the boy in the video related government to a circus. Call of students to share their answer.

2. As a class think about how our class government can be set up to reflect the three branches of government. Independently-Have students brainstorm. Ask students-Who in our classroom would be in Executive, Judicial & Legislative Branches? What are the roles for each of them within our classroom? Have five students write their answers on the white board.

3. Discuss the importance of the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative Branches. 4. Hands-on activity: Use Strategy 13- Connecting With Literature. Define the word myth. Read to the whole class a short poem that contains a myth, Song of Creation. Have students read their own myth. Have students find the comparisons and contrast across myths, people, and the three branches of government. Record the findings on the class data chart.

5. Give each student a copy of a different myth from the book Supreme Myths.

6. Create a class Venn diagram after all of the students recorded their findings on the class data chart. Students must record their data on the Venn diagram chart. Students must record their data using a color according to the branch they were working on. (Key: Yellow- Executive Branch, Blue- Judicial Branch, RedLegislative Branch) Students must write the data in their journals as well. Turn in the journals.

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 4

Lesson Plan #4 Civics

H. Assessment: What will you use to measure student understanding?

submitted by: Vida Reljic

I will measure students understanding by viewing how the students used the myths to in order to compare and contract the three branches of government. Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson. Students must Record the data in their journals and turn the journals in. Students will also stand up and pair-up with another student and discuss the findings of their myths with the appropriate branch of government. I. Closure: Each student will pick a random vocabulary word from the lesson hat. Students must define the vocabulary word or use an example, and share their answer with the whole class.

J. Reflection: 1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach? I think explaining the three different branches of government will be the easiest to teach because the School House Rock video explains the three different branches in a very simple way, which makes it easier for me to explain the activities. 2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach? I think the most challenging part to teach will be having the students compare and contrast the myths with the branches of government because some of the myths can seem confusing. However, I am more than willing to clarify any confusion the students are having with their myths. 3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson? As an extension to the lesson, I would have the students create a preamble for a classroom constitution. Once completed, students would type up their preamble using Google Docs. This would be done as a whole-group activity. 4. What can you do for students who dont grasp the concepts? For students who dont understand the concepts in this lesson, I would use the Skill and Strategy diagram. I would work together with the struggling students to complete the chart using supporting ideas from the text I presented. I would also read the questions before reading the text and have the students think about the questions as we read the text. 5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change? I dont believe anything needs to be changed. 6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part?
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 5

Lesson Plan #4 Civics

submitted by: Vida Reljic

The most difficult part of writing this lesson plan was deciding how to incorporate the myths with the three branches of government. Some students might find it confusing if they havent worked with myths before. Therefore, introducing this new concept to the students will be a challenge. 7. Explain the strategy from Integrating Language Arts & Social Studies that you included in this lesson plan. The strategy that I chose to incorporate in this lesson plan was Strategy 13: Connecting with Literature. I chose this strategy because it would be beneficial for students to learn about myths while learning about the three different branches of government. The students will not only expand their knowledge in social studies but in literature as well.

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 6