Important Political and Legal Documents in the United States

Lesson Plan

To begin the school year I provide all students with the state-adopted standards for

social science for their specific grade level. This can be found in the syllabus as well as

a handout that lays out a road map for the class.

Time of instruction: 75 minutes

Backward Design Lesson

Writing prompt (5 min)

As students enter the classroom they will take their assigned seats, take out their

notebooks and write about the prompt that I have provided. “What are the most

important individual rights that we have as citizens of the United States?” Students will

take about 5 minutes to write their responses. During this time I will take attendance

and go around and stamp the completed homework assignment. Students should have

outlined and taken notes on Chapter 2 Section 2. I will also connect my computer to the

projector so that I am prepared for the direct instruction lecture later in the class period.

Class Discussion (5 min)

During the class discussion volunteers will offer to share their responses to the prompt.

I will open the class for discussion so that we can debate the importance of each right

that students feel are important. I will also write each response on the board so that all

students can see what others feel are important and to bring attention to some rights

others may not have thought about.

Lecture (20 min)

Direct Instruction
I will introduce the lesson by further discussing the individual rights that the students

came up with during the class discussion. I will quickly discuss where these rights

originate and how they came to be a part of our society. I will turn on the projector that

will display an interactive powerpoint presentation. The powerpoint will provide a brief

description of each philosopher and an outline of their many philosophical ideas as they

relate to government and society. The interactive powerpoint will have three font colors

green (important information critical to the lesson), yellow (connecting information that

can be used as evidence to connect ideas), and red (information that does not

necessarily be written down but fills in some blanks and provides further background to

the content). As I discuss the information I will pause after each slide to make sure that

students have completed their note taking as well as address any questions that

students may have. I will also ask a general question as a review for each philosopher

that will be based on the philosophers main idea.

Home Groups (40 min)

Students will get into their preassigned home groups. Each student will take out their

graphic organizer and have 10 minutes to complete the organizer as a group. Each

group will receive a copy of either the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution,

and the Bill of Rights.

Next the groups will have 10 minutes to analyze the documents searching for each

philosophers influence on each documents. It is noted that there may be more than one

philosophers influence on each document. After 10 minutes the students will rotate

documents so that each group has sufficient time to analyze the documents. Rotation of
documents will occur three times. Students graphic organizers should be completed at

this time.

During this time, I will be circling the classroom to make sure students are staying on

task and answer any questions that students may have. I will also be asking students

guiding questions to help them critically think through their assignment.

Closure (5 min)

Students will take out their learning journals and record two pieces of information that

they learned today in class as well as two questions that they have for tomorrows

review session. After they complete their learning journals, students will straighten out

desks and pack up their belongings.