Date: 25 February 2018 Teacher’s Name: Amanda D’Addona

Subject: United States History &Government Grade level: 11th

Unit: Constitutional Foundations Length of lesson: 45 minutes

Central Focus:
This learning segment will look at the development of the United States Constitution. In order for
students to have an understanding of how the United States Constitution was constructed, they will
have to identify the failings of the previous governmental setup, The Article of Confederation. In
addition, students will be able to recognize how Enlightenment Philosophers influenced the writers of
the Constitution. The goal of this learning segment is for students to know how the government
functions and works, and their rights and responsibilities in this governmental system. The Federalist
versus Anti-Federalist debate will be addressed in this learning segment. It is important for students to
have an understanding of why the founders had different ideas on how the Constitution and U.S.
Government should look. Students will gain an understanding of their rights through analyzation of the
Bill of Rights. Students will be able to identify how fundamental rights can still be violated in today’s
society.

Lesson Title: The 3 Branches of Government

For unit, 1 out of 5:

Essential Question(s): What are the roles and functions of the three branches of government? Why did
our founding fathers include a system of separation of powers and checks and balances?

Learning Standards:
New York State Content Standards
11.2 Constitutional Foundations (1763-1824): Growing political and economic tensions led the American
colonists to declare their independence from Great Britain. Once independent, the new nation
confronted the challenge of creating a stable federal republic.
 Students will examine the structure, power, and function of the federal government as created
by the Constitution, including key constitutional principles such as the division of power
between the federal and state government, the separation of powers at the federal level, the
creation of checks and balances, the sovereignty of the people, and judicial independence.
Literacy Standards
RH.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an
accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
WHST.11-12.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Pre-Assessment: N/A

Learning Objectives: Assessments:

Illustrate the structure, function and powers of
the government in the United States as
established in Articles I, II, and III of the U.S.
Constitution.
Handout #1 Semantic Map
Handout #2 (3 Branches of Gov’t Graphic
Organizer)
Annotation of Constitution (Article I, II, or III)
Handout #3 Homework Assignment
 Identify the main role and function of each of the
three branches of government.

Describe how the Constitution of the United

States provides separation of powers and checks
and balances.

Differentiation: During the guided practice, students will be split into three different groups based on
ability level (approaching, on-level, and beyond). The students will be given a section of the Constitution
based on text difficulty. The teacher used a Lexile analyzer to measure the text level. Approaching
students will be assigned to the group reading Article III because it had the lowest Lexile measurement
(1100-1200L). Article I and II had the same Lexile measurement of 1300-1400L. Beyond students will
work on Article I because it is the longest, and On-Level students will be given Article II. Some of these
students might be mixed into different groups to ensure that all groups are the same size. However, it is
essential that my ELL’s are placed into the group reading Article III because it is the shortest and easiest
to comprehend.

Academic Language: This lesson will address the academic domain specific vocabulary phrases
separation of powers and checks and balances. Students will also have to engage with the following
language functions analyze, and interpret.

Procedure:
Anticipatory Set
The teacher will have a semantic map graphic organizer drawn on the whiteboard at the beginning of
class. This is a pre-reading activity that will prepare students to read sections of the Constitution later on
in the class period. The semantic map will consist of a main box that has the term United States Federal
Government written in it, along with three empty boxes stemming off the main box. Students will be
provided with Handout #1 on their desk.
Students will be asked to answer the following questions in Handout #1:
1. Please identify the three branches of government in the blank boxes.
2. For each branch of government, write down any prior information you have learned about the
structure of the branch and any powers that they have.
The purpose of this activity is to activate student’s prior knowledge on the three branches of
government that are explained in Articles I, II, and III of the U.S. Constitution. It will get them thinking
about the concepts of separation of powers and checks and balances. Students will have approximately
3-5 minutes to fill out their handouts.

Initial Phase
Direct Instruction
The teacher will begin to call on students to share how they filled in their semantic maps. Teacher will
ask 3 students to come up to the whiteboard to identify the three branches of government. After
students identify the branches, the teacher will ask students if they know how these branches are
structured or if they know any roles that these different branches have. Students will be reminded to
continue to add more to their semantic map as we go over it and are discussing. Teacher can fill in any
essential information that students might have missed into the semantic map on the board. This will
lead the class into discussion about the idea of separation of powers and checks and balances. A short
YouTube video clip will be shown to the class to explain separation of powers and checks and balances.
Students will be instructed to take notes on main ideas in the video. Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEPd98CbbMk (2:50 minutes). The anticipatory set activity and
teacher led discussion will lead us into the reading of Articles I, II, and III of the Constitution. The teacher
will explain to the class the Constitution is split into sections, and there are sections explaining the roles
and power of each branch of government (Article I, Legislative Branch, Article II Executive Branch and
Article III Judicial Branch). The teacher will explain that powers were laid out in the Constitution to
prevent one branch from holding too much power over another branch. Also, that there was a system of
checks and balances put in place to ensure that one branch of government did not become tyrannical.
Once students have been provided with background information, they will be reading sections of the
Constitution in groups. The direct instruction should take approximately 7-8 minutes.

Middle Phase
Guided Practice
Students will work together in three different groups. Groups will be pre-selected by teacher based on
student’s ability levels. Teacher used Lexile analyzer to determine the difficultly of the three different
texts. Each group will be assigned a section (Article I, II, or III) of the Constitution to read, annotate, and
evaluate. Student’s will be provided with Handout #2, which is a three-column graphic organizer (one
section for each branch of gov’t). After each group reads their assigned Article of the Constitution and
completes their section of graphic organizer, a member from each group will describe the powers that
are explicitly given to each branch of government. Teacher will project same graphic organizer on the
Smartboard, one representative from each group will come up to the board to fill in their assigned
section of the graphic organizer. This is an expert grouping activity, it would be too much to assign all
three Articles to every student to read. Therefore, breaking the class up into group will allow for
students to really decode and comprehend the section that they were assigned, and then share their
“expert” findings to the rest of the class. Students will have to complete the rest of their graphic
organizer based on what the other students shared/wrote on the board. Once all of the groups filled in
the graphic organizer on the smartboard, the teacher will shift to a whole-class grouping. Teacher will go
over main powers for each branch, including any information that students might have left out. This
section of the lesson should take 30 minutes.

Concluding Phase
In the last 2-3 minutes of the class period, students will be given Handout #3 to be completed for
homework. This handout will require students to refer to Handout #2 in order to complete. Handout #3
will ask students questions that will reinforce the material covered in class today. Teacher will tell
students that this assignment is due at the beginning of class tomorrow.

Follow up: Students will complete Handout #3 for homework. This homework assignment is based on
the work that students completed in class today.

Materials: Whiteboard, expo markers, Smartboard, Laptop, Handouts #1, 2, and 3, Constitution Articles
I, II, and III (Link provided in lesson plan)

References and Resources: Cite (APA style) sources, texts, lesson plans used
Lexile Framework for Reading. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from https://la-tools.lexile.com/free-analyze/

McLaughlin, M. (2015). Content Area Reading: Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness. United States: Pearson.

The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription. (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2018, from
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript
Youtube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEPd98CbbMk