Preliminary Information

Lesson 3 of 3

Date: 10/6/16

Grade: 5
Number of Students: 20

Course/Subject: Social Studies

Unit/Theme: Government in the Western

Hemisphere

Estimated Duration: 1 Hour / 1 Class Period

Where in the unit does the lesson occur?

Beginning of the unit.
Middle of the unit.
End of the unit.

Structure(s) or grouping for the lesson. Check

any that apply:
Whole Class
Small Group
One-to-one
Other (specify)

Lesson Title/#3: The Bill of Rights & U.S. Constitutional Amendments

Grade Level: 5
Central Focus: Identifying why the Bill of Rights and other amendments are important our
nation as a Representative Democracy and how these amendments are applicable to us as citizens
today.
Rationale/Context: Students have been discussing the topic of government for the first few
lessons of this unit. This lesson builds upon previous lessons in which the students learned about
different forms of government around the world (Representative Democracies, Constitutional
Monarchies, and Dictatorships), and analyzed primary sources by viewing the founding
documents of each type. Students are now introduced to the Bill of Rights and the amendments
to the United States Constitution in greater depth.
Prior Academic Knowledge and Experiences: Students will be building upon knowledge
collected in previous lessons about different forms of government. For this lesson, they will be
focusing on what they have already learned about representative democracies. Students
understand that a Representative Democracy puts power in the hands of its citizens. Students
have already compared the basic rights of citizens from representative democracies,
constitutional monarchies, and dictatorships. They have analyzed how each form of government
affects its people in different ways. For the purposes of this lesson, students will remember what
they have learned about the rights of American citizens as members of a Democratic nation, and
apply this to the lesson they learn today pertaining to the amendments. Students already have a
familiarity with analyzing founding primary source documents. After this lesson, students will be
familiar with the term amendment, and the reasons why it was imperative for the amendments
to be added to the Constitution after it was written.

Learning Objective(s): Students will be able to define and describe what an amendment is.
Students will be able to write about and defend important amendments listed in the Constitution.
Students will be able to identify and explain why these rights are still important to our freedom
as American citizens today.
Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.1
Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.4
Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate
facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an
understandable pace.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing
their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.1
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing
inferences from the text.
Academic Language Demands: Academic vocabulary words that are essential to this lesson
include the following: Bill of Rights, citizen, Congress, right, government, liberty, freedom,
amendment, and Constitution. Students will be expected to analyze, rank, and explain each of the
amendments to the Constitution. This lesson puts heavy emphasis on pushing students to think
critically about the Constitutional amendments, analyze how and why they still affect us today as
citizens, and explain why they think some amendments may be considered more important than
others. Students already have a basic understanding of what a founding document is based upon
previous lessons. In order to be engaged in this lesson, students must be able to take what they
learned about founding governmental documents and apply this knowledge to what they know
about their everyday lives. Students will need to use academic language throughout this lesson
over a variety of contexts. They will be reading and listening about the amendments in a short
book, and writing about which they feel are most important. Students will also be collaborating
with a partner to pick an amendment to write about, and later explain their decisions to the class.
By participating in reading, writing, listening and speaking tasks, students in this lesson will be
enhancing their literacy skills while connecting History to the present-day.
Evidence and Assessment of Student Learning: Students will be assessed throughout the
lesson informally. During group work, the teacher will be walking around the room listening to
the conversations the students are having with one another. This is a good indication of whether
or not the students understand the lesson content and related objectives. Worksheets will be
collected at the end of the lesson and used as an individual assessment tool as well. Students will
have met the learning goals for the lesson if their writing is accurate and reflects the ideas
discussed in the lesson for the day. Students will be asked a series of closing questions at the end
of the lesson relating to the lesson objectives. Answers to these questions will also be assessed
for student learning. There is a mid-unit quiz that will be distributed towards the middle of the

unit that assesses student learning from the first half of the government unit. This will include
information given in this lesson.
Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks:
Launch (Motivation)
_ 5_ Minutes
Students will be watching a BrainPop Video that discusses the background of why the
amendments are a necessary addition to the United States Constitution. This video is
equally as engaging as it is informative, and sets a motivational tone for the rest of the
lesson.
Instructional Procedure (Explore):
_20_ Minutes
Students will receive a simplified copy of the amendments to be reviewed. A picture of
the actual amendments to the Constitution will be on the SmartBoard.
The teacher will facilitate discussion about why we needed these additions to the
Constitution
The teacher will reiterate background information learned from BrainPop video and
synthesize it with information discussed in class. Students will turn and talk to one
another and discuss what theyve learned.
The teacher will ask higher order thinking questions: Why is the Constitution important?
Why do we need to be protected under the law? What would happen if we werent?
Would life be the same if we didnt have Constitutional rights?
Structured Practice and Application:
_ 25_ Minutes
Students will now be applying what theyve learned in the first two segments of the
lesson to the work they will now be doing both individually and with a partner.
After receiving a copy of the list of amendments, students will be asked to rank the top
three amendments that they think are the most important. Students will be given a
handout and asked to explain why they chose to put some amendments before others.
Once the individual work is done, the teacher will stop the students and ask them to turn
and talk to the person sitting next to them, and talk about why they ranked the
amendments the way they did. The teacher will walk around the room and listen to the
conversations students have amongst one another.
Once the students are done talking with their peers, the teacher will now instruct the
students to collaborate with the person sitting next to them to pick the most important
amendment amongst the two of them. Each partner group will receive a worksheet where
they will write about the amendment they chose, why they chose it, and draw a picture of
it.
Closure
_ 10_ Minutes
Once the students have completed their worksheets, the teacher will ask for students to
volunteer to share under the document camera with the class. The worksheets cards will
be collected at the end of the lesson and reviewed for content knowledge, accuracy, and
description. Closing questions will include the following: Why do we still follow the
Constitution? Why are the amendments still important to us today as citizens?
Differentiation/Extension: In order to ensure that all students have access to key concepts of the
lesson, there are multiple components to this lesson that cater to all student needs. There are
visual aspects as well as writing and reading aspects that will allow students to learn based on

their own preferred learning needs. Struggling students have the opportunity to work with peers
for guided assistance when completing the activity. Students who are high academic performers
may be asked to go into more detail on their worksheet activity and answer teacher-driven
questions based upon the amendment they chose. Small group instruction will also be available
for struggling students.
What If's (Accommodations/Student Supports): A resource teacher is available in this class to
pull small groups of students who are academically low performing or have IEPs or 504 plans.
These resource teachers work with the lead teacher to modify curriculum, homework, and class
lessons. In this lesson, resource teachers may have the opportunity to pull small groups and reteach key parts of the lesson if these students did not understand. For students that have
difficulties writing, they may have handouts or sheets that are already partially filled in. For
students that are English Language Learners, there are multiple aspects of the lesson that will
have nonlinguistic representations of the key points of the lesson. The opportunity to work with
the resource teacher during this lesson is a great help to the students who may become lost
during whole-class instructionespecially those who have language difficulties.
Instructional Resources and Materials:
SmartBoard
Document Reader
BrainPop Video
Handouts: Constitutional Amendments: Which do you think are most Important?
United States Constitutional Amendments, and Constitutional Amedments