INQUIRY (5E) LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Teachers: Max Martin Subject: Civics/ Grade: 12

Government
Common Core State Standards:
 HS.SP1.3 Evaluate the significance of past events as they relate to their own lives and the world.
 HS.SP3.8 Present arguments and explanations that feature ideas and perspectives on issues and topics to
reach a range of audiences and venues using print, oral, and digital technologies.
 HS.C1.1 Explain the significance of civic virtues to a well-functioning constitutional republic.
 HS.C2.4 Analyze the responsibilities of citizens.
 HS.C3.1 Examine how the United States Constitution established a system of government that has powers,
responsibilities, and limits and analyze how those powers, responsibilities, and limits have changed over time.
 HS.C4.4 Analyze the purpose, process, implementation, and consequences of decision making and public
policies in multiple settings and at various levels.
 HS.C4.6 Assess options for action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self- reflection,
strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.
 ISTE 3: Research Information and Fluency
 ISTE 4: Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making

Objective (Explicit):
 Students will understand the objectives of the long-term project, while developing an interest in a
political conflict of the United States that holds their interest.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable):
 Include a copy of the lesson assessment.
 Provide exemplar student responses with the level of detail you expect to see.
 Assign value to each portion of the response
 Students will identify one area of study of the current issues facing America that interests them. In this
identification, they will understand at least one cause of the issue and one potential solution.
Sub-Objectives, SWBAT (Sequenced from basic to complex)
 How will you review past learning and make connections to previous lessons?
 What skills and content are needed to ultimately master this lesson objective?
 How is this objective relative to students, their lives, and/or the real world?

 Students will call on their past knowledge of U.S. history, specifically the formation of the country with the
creation of the Constitution, and the conflict between Federalists and Anti-federalists.
 Students must have a basic knowledge of how the U.S. government functions, some knowledge of current
events, and a cursory understanding of our past, including the drafting of the Constitution and American values.
 The objective is relative to students as they are directly affected by the current policies of the American
government, and they have the power to alter it as citizens.
Key vocabulary: Constitution, Federalists, Anti- Materials: Computers, paper, writing utensils, peers
federalists, climate change, gun control, taxation policy,
immigration,
Engage
 How will you activate prior knowledge?
 How will you hook student attention?
 What question will you pose, based on your objective, that students will seek to answer in Explore?
Teacher Will: Students Will:
 Teacher poses the question to the class, “What is  Students write their answers to what their
your version of an American utopia?” After giving utopia would look like, then engage in class
students time to answer, the teacher facilitates a discussion.
class discussion.  Watch the video clip from John Adams, filling
 Teacher asks another question, inquiring how out the video note sheet that will give them a
students can achieve their ideal utopia. Leads into refresher course on the Continental Congress
driving question: “How would you fix the problems (American history).
that currently plague America?”
 Introduce the project (3rd Constitutional Congress),
through a clip from the series John Adams which
shows the Continental Congress in action. Students
will fill out a video note sheet.

Explore
 How will you model your performance expectations? (Remember you are not modeling what you want students to discover but need to
model expected behavior or required procedures.)
 How will students take the lead and actively use materials to discover information that will help them answer the question posed in the
Engage?
 What questions or prompts will you be prepared to use with students while they are “exploring”?
Teacher Will: Students Will:
 Provide students with a plethora of resources  Leverage the resources provided by the teacher
(websites, videos, online activities) to have them in identifying issues in the United States.
discover the variety of different issues that are  Write their individual questions down, and ask
occurring in the United States. the teacher if they have questions about the
 Act as a facilitator, walking around the room, asking topics they investigate.
students various questions that make them think
more in-depth about the topic.
 Answer questions that students may have about
certain topics, seeking to enhance their
understanding but not simply give them answers.
Co-Teaching Strategy
 What co-teaching approach will you use to maximize student achievement?

Differentiation Strategy
 What accommodations/modifications will you provide for specific students?
 How will you anticipate students that need an additional challenge?
Explain
 How will all students have an opportunity to share what they discovered?
 How will you connect student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations?
 How will all students articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the sub-objectives by answering the question from the
Engage before moving on?
Teacher Will: Students Will:
 Assign students into groups of 3-4, instructing  Converse with their peer groups on the topics
students to discuss with their peers the topics they they looked into, including what they found
looked into. interesting, surprising, or problematic.
 Walk from group to group, listening to their  Students will fill out a worksheet in which they
conversations, posing thought-provoking questions write down what their peers discovered, and
to groups if needed. think about whether those topics interest them
or not.
 Attempt to answer the teacher’s questions.
Co-Teaching Strategy
 What co-teaching approach will you use to maximize student achievement?
Differentiation Strategy
 What accommodations/modifications will you provide for specific students?
 How will you anticipate students that need an additional challenge?
Elaborate
 How will students take the learning from Explore and Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of this
learning at a deep level?
 How will students use higher order thinking at this stage (e.g. A common practice in this section is to pose a What If? Question)?
 How will all students articulate how their understanding has changed or been solidified?

Teacher Will: Students Will:

 Give each student a “what if” question, specific to
their chosen topic (teacher created these already
before the class started).
 Provide students with a video that shows their topic
in action, e.g. a Congressional debate, a protest, or a
news clip (teacher had these videos already picked
out before the class).
Co-Teaching Strategy
 What co-teaching approach will you use to maximize student achievement?
 Think about their “what if” question, which will
frame their perspective while watching the in-
depth video specific to their topic.
 Upon completing the video, the student will
attempt to answer the “what if” question,
drawing on their knowledge of the video and
previous cursory research in the Explore and
Explain sections.

Differentiation Strategy
 What accommodations/modifications will you provide for specific students?
 How will you anticipate students that need an additional challenge?
 Teacher will provide an online resource which translates articles into different reading levels for specific
students (Cengage).
 Teacher will talk to students who do not feel very comfortable with public speaking, seeking to design a
specific strategy to address the problem.
Evaluate
 How will all students demonstrate mastery of the lesson objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content)?
 How will students have an opportunity to summarize the big concepts they learned (separate from the assessment)?

Teacher Will: Students Will:

 Provide students with an exit ticket, which will ask
the students what specific topic they chose and
about a cause of the problem and a solution.
 The teacher will once again ask the driving
question, which students will attempt to answer
on the exit sheet.
 Teacher collects the exit tickets before the
students leave and review them for the next
lesson.
 Fill out the exit ticket, calling back on the previous
information they gained today.
 Attempt to answer the driving question, in a short
2-3 sentence answer. Students will understand
that they are not expected to have an answer for
it at this time, but they should at least try.
 Students will turn in their exit ticket upon
completion.