Blended Learning Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: America: Who? What? When? How? Where?

Objectives:
The students will be able to identify the reasons of why and how America became a
nation.
The students will be able to analyze the new structure of government in America.
The students will be able to compare and contrast the ideologies of the early leaders in
the development of the new nation.
State Standards:

Standard 4-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the beginnings of America as a
nation and the establishment of the new government.

Indicator 4-4.4: Compare the roles and accomplishments of early leaders in the
development of the new nation, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas
Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, and James Madison.

Context:
In the last standard, the students focused on the growing tensions between the Colonies and the
mother country England. The students can now explain why the American revolution took
place and why it was truly so revolutionary for our country. This previous standard will flow
seamlessly into our present standard 4-4, which will focus on exactly what was happening inside
the country during the beginnings of America as a nation and will analyze how and why
government formed as it did. This will lead to the next standard of the idea of westward
expansion and how that affected slavery.
Students already have an understanding of the results of the American Revolution and how that
brought about both positive and negative changes. In this lesson, we are going to dissect the very
beginnings of our nation and examine how it still plays a role in our government today. To do
this we will analyze the reasoning behind our Founding Fathers political systems and how they
thought America should be establish.
Materials:
iPad and headphones To take notes on and answer questions during guided
discussion portion of class. To access apps.
History notebook and pencil To take notes on as an alternate to using iPads and for
answering questions at independent digital station.
Video Clip: Where US Politics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r161cLYzuDI
Came From: Crash Course US-
History 9
IMovie
Video: Americas Early Years An
American Nation Begins
The Classical Historian
Kahoot Application
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id377298193?mt=8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg-
jLtBnTaU&t=245s
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/classical-historian-history-
learning-games-educational/id976635130?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kahoot-play-learning-
games/id1131203560?mt=8

Procedures:
Introduction:
I will start the lesson by introducing to students that we will be learning about the beginnings of
the American government. I will then proceed to explain thoroughly what the students will be
doing at each of the stations. Posted on the classroom board I will have groups of six students
assigned. The groups will be based off academic performance. Students who seem to be having
trouble will be grouped together and start at the teacher directed station. Students who have a
general understanding of the content in the previous standard will start at the collaborative
station. Students who are excelling will be grouped together and start at the independent digital
station. I will also explain to students how to use the applications. This should take
approximately 5 minutes.
Teacher Directed:
I will start off the teacher directed station by showing a brief synopsis video
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r161cLYzuDI) about how the government was beginning to
form in America. Before beginning the video, I will ask students to right down any words that
they are not familiar with in the vocabulary section of their social studies notebook. Upon the
completion of the video, I will ask the students how what words they did not know and define
them. Then I will begin an interactive lecture explaining in greater detail how the American
government formed and I will additionally introduce the prominent historians who introduced the
political ideologies that formed our early republic. We will also discuss why America formed in
the first place. This should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
Collaborative:
In this station, each student will be assigned a prominent historian who helped influence the early
American government. The historians will be: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas
Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, and James Madison. Once they arrive at the
station, there will be six cards laying face down on the desks; they are to choose one of the cards.
When they turn the card over there will be a historian on it with the historians opinions about
how the American government should have been structured and basic facts. The students will
then review the card. Then the students will use the application iMovie to act out how they
believe the six historians would have interacted with one another. This should take
approximately 15 minutes to complete.
(https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imovie/id377298193?mt=8)
Independent Digital:
In this station, students will watch a video about the forming of the early American governmental
and political system titled: Americas Early Years An American Nation Begins.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg-jLtBnTaU&t=245s). At the end of the video, a quiz
review appears on the screen. The students will complete the quiz component of this video and
write the questions and answers in their history notebook. If time allows students are permitted to
go to the application called The Classical Historian and play time-period appropriate games that
relate to the formation of the American government for the remainder of time in this station.
(https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/classical-historian-history-learning-games-
educational/id976635130?mt=8 ). This station should take approximately 15 minutes to
complete.
Closure:
The class will meet back together as a whole group. We will then use the application called
Kahoot to complete a ten question interactive assessment in which they students compete against
each other. Once the game is complete, students will do an exit slip with a question that will
appear on the board. The students who place in the top five of the game do not have to complete
the exit slip. (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kahoot-play-learning-games/id1131203560?mt=8)
This should take 5 minutes to complete.
Rationales:
Video Clip: Where US Politics Came From: Crash Course US- History 9:
This piece of multimedia is used in the teacher directed station. This piece of multimedia
benefits the lesson because it explains the content at a basic level and incorporates
graphics in a way that it is engaging and exciting for students. It will allow students to
have a brief introduction to topics and vocabulary words they have not heard of before.
IMovie:
This app is used in the collaborative station. This application benefits the lesson because
it allows for students to be fully engaged and create a product out of creativity. The tool
enables students to explain how each historian felt through a multimedia in this case a
video. This will introduce and familiarize students with this application, which is helpful
because they will be using this app to complete their unit assessment.
Video Clip: Americas Early Years An American Nation Begins
This piece of multimedia is used in the independent digital station. This piece of
multimedia benefits the lesson because students are able to visualize how the government
was formed, with reinforcement questions upon completion of the video. This video will
also briefly introduce the next topic of Westward Expansion in America.
The Classical Historian:
This app is used in the independent digital station. This application benefits the lesson
because it enables the students to be immersed in the content through an interactive app.
This app allows students to play games that revolve around the content at hand. It allows
the student to have the independence to choose the game that they wish to play and the
content they want to reinforce.
Kahoot:
This app is used during the closure section. This application benefits the lesson because it
promotes fun interaction between students, which makes the level of engagement
increase among the class. It helps the students with the retention of the content presented
to them throughout each of the stations. It helps reinforce the content learned in a fun-
competitive manner.