Lesson Plan

Title: Our Three Branches of Government

Grade: 12th Grade
Subject/Curriculum Area: Government
TEKS:
113.44. United States Government (One-Half Credit), Beginning with School Year 2011-2012.
(c) Knowledge and skills.
(8) Government. The student understands the structure and functions of the government
created by the U.S. Constitution. The student is expected to:
(A) analyze the structure and functions of the legislative branch of government,
including the bicameral structure of Congress, the role of committees, and the
procedure for enacting laws;
(B) analyze the structure and functions of the executive branch of government,
including the constitutional powers of the president, the growth of presidential
power, and the role of the Cabinet and executive departments;
(C) analyze the structure and functions of the judicial branch of government,
including the federal court system, types of jurisdiction, and judicial review;
Goals:
1. Through role play, students will be able to see how the process of implementing a bill
works in our branches of government.
2. After working in their cooperative groups, students will have a better understanding of
the information by discussing other viewpoints.
Objectives:
1. Students will role play implementing a class bill after listening to lectures/PowerPoints
with 85% accuracy
2. After completing the required WIKI pages, students will understand the functions and
roles of the branches of government with 90% accuracy.
3. After reviewing the WIKI pages as notes, students will be able to answer discussion
board questions related to the 3 branches of government with 90% accuracy.
Context/Modification:

Prior to students working on their WIKI, they will have been exposed to the processes and
responsibilities of the three branches of government through lecture, PowerPoints, worksheets, as
well as cooperative group activities. This is a cooperative assignment and students will be able to
work together to assist students who might not be as academically advanced. Students who have
LEP or an IEP in place will have extra time to complete the discussion board questions.
Anticipatory Focusing:
When students walk into the classroom, they will each be given a piece of paper that will
determine if they will be a part of the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of government.
There will be 5 proposed classroom laws on the board that students will be instructed to think
about as they will be voting on which suggestion to send to the legislative branch.
Setting Expectations:
Students will work together in groups of 10, which will make up the three branches of
government. Within the group, there will be five groups of two who will be responsible for one
piece of criteria that is required to be on the WIKI page. This will ensure that every student is
participating in the creation of the WIKI page. Each group is to work together in determining the
steps that they will take with the proposed class bill before passing it on to the next branch of
government.
Input:
The teacher will give specific criteria that needs to be included on each WIKI page. The
Legislative Branch will need to include a brief description of the powers granted, important facts
that were mentioned during lecture, detailed information on the specific Article that established
the branch, the steps for passing a bill, as well as the steps that the group has decided to take on
the proposed class bill. The Executive Branch of government will need to include the powers,
important facts, detailed information on the specific Article that established the branch,
information for declaring war, as well as the steps that the group has decided to take on the
proposed class bill. Lastly, the Judicial Branch will include the powers, important facts, detailed
information on the specific Article that established the branch, information related to how the
Supreme Court hears a case, as well as the steps that the group had decided to take on the
proposed class bill.
Checking for understanding:
By using WIKIspaces to create this project, it will allow me to post questions on the students
project page, which will assist me in evaluating their understanding of the functions of the three
branches of government. By using Blooms Taxonomy to question the students throughout the
creation of their project, it will allow them to get a deeper understanding of the process that they
are going through.

Independent Practice:
Once the projects have been finished by the teams, there will be a list of discussion board
questions that each student will need to respond to independently to help assess where they are at
with the content that was presented.
Mastery Check:
Students will be assessed based off of their final product on the WIKI pages as well as the
independent discussion board questions.
Extension:
Once student groups are finished with the project, they are to start working on their discussion
board questions, which if are not finished in class, will need to be finished at home for
homework.
Closure:
Depending on the outcome of student work, I might need to adjust the number of days that I am
lecturing/presenting new information before students are to complete the project. This is a fun
activity where students are getting to create a new classroom law. They are learning as they are
having fun, which I feel will help keep them engaged. Based off of the length of time it takes
students to complete the WIKI project, I might need to lengthen the amount of time available for
them to complete. Overall, I feel that this project was a good example of relating information to
students everyday lives in creating a classroom rule that will be utilized every day.

I chose to use WIKI spaces for my students to allow them to work together to help
each other better understand the functions of our branches of government. I feel that
by adding the element of a "classroom rule" for them to vote on and send through
the branches of government is an entertaining way to see how the process actually
works. This activity also allows the students to brainstorm together on how to make
the bill constitutional, which will then allow it to be passed and introduced into our
classroom. My lesson plan for this assignment is below and you can find my WIKI
page at the link below as well. On my WIKI page, the project is created under the
projects link, which contains 5 different pages. The first page that should be viewed
is the instruction page, which will give the students all the information they need to
complete the project. The next three pages are the three branches of government
pages where students will be entering their information. The last page is the
discussion board page which has questions posted for each student to answer.