MultiMedia Tools

Lesson Idea Name: Branches of Government

Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 3rd Grade
Content Standard Addressed: SS3CG1 Describe the elements of representative democracy/republic in
the United States.

Describe the three branches of national government: executive (president), legislative (Congress), and judicial
(Supreme Court of the United States).

Technology Standard Addressed: Knowledge Constructor

Selected Technology Tool:

☒ Movie (list application):
☐ Audio (list application):
☐ Other: (list)
URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable): N/A

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☒ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☒ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

For engagement, the students will be able to write about whatever they want for their specific branch. The
students will research and become a member of the branch. For representation, the students will be creating
a video using iMovie that will allow them to be creative and give our audio and visual learners more
assistance. For action and expression, the students will be using multimedia tools like iMovie to create their
videos on their branch. This lesson is great for our ELL students as well. They are able to see and hear the
video which will allow them to make connections and get a better understanding of the topic.
Lesson idea implementation
The lesson will start off by having the students watch the iMovie I created on the branches of the United
States government. Then, the students will be broken up into three groups based upon three branches of
government. The students will then do research on their one particular branch. The students will become a
member of this branch (president/vice-president for executive branch, a justice for judiciary branch, and a
senator or house representative for the legislative branch. The students will then write in the point of view of
this selected member of the branch about who they are, what their job is, and what they do in their job.

Overall, this lesson will take a couple of weeks. For the first week, the students will be conducting their
research on their member and the branch they are a part of. The next week, the students will come together
with the people who have the same branch as them. As a group, the students will then create a video
describing their branch and the important features of the branch as well as significant members of the
branches using iMovie. The students will be assessed on the information from the video as well as the
neatness. The lesson will be concluded by watching the all of the videos.

Spring 2018_SJB
 MultiMedia Tools

Importance of technology:
The iMovie technology is important in this lesson because the students are using the tool to create the video
that they are being assessed on. This project could be completed on a poster, but it would not be nearly as
fun as creating the video using iMovie. Using iMovie, they are given a lot of voice and choice and are allowed
to express their creativity.
Inspiration (optional): N/A

Internet Safety and Student Privacy:

One issue that could occur is if I publish the videos on our class blog. I would need to get permission forms
from all of the parents/guardians to make sure that it is okay to publish. I would also make sure that the
students did not include any videos of their faces to make sure that this stays confidential on our class blog.
At the end of videos, I would give the students fake names to keep their work confidential and not put any of
the students at risk. If this still was an issue for parents or administration, I could put the work under the
password protected section of the blog so only people with the password can see the students work.
Reflective Practice:
One way to extend the lesson would be to have the students research the history of their branches and describe in their
videos how the branches have changed since they were first created by the founding fathers. This would be a great way
for the students to build connections to the past.

Spring 2018_SJB