Grade 12

Topic: Legislative Branch

Government 12, NVACS Social Studies

Content Knowledge:
Students must know the organization of the three branches of government, how
these institutions interact, and how the checks and balances system works. For this
unit, students will learn this content through the lens of the legislative branch.
Because of this the students will need to develop solid understanding of the
bicameral congress, implied powers, expressed powers, gerrymandering and
redistricting. These allow the students to analyze how the system works. Also
students must see the representation they have in Congress, along with the
qualifications and way that representatives are elected and distributed.
Curricular Knowledge:
C14.0 The Federal System: U.S., State, and Local GovernmentsStudents understand the U.S. Constitution and the government it creates,
including the relationship between national and sub-national governments, as well
as the structure and function of state and local governments.
Curricular Objectives:
5.1 STUDENTS WILL EXAMINE THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED
STATES CONSTITUTION AND DESCRIBE THE STRUCTURE IT CREATES,
INCLUDING THE EXECUTIVE, LEGISLATIVE, AND JUDICIAL BRANCHES BY
UTILIZING ONE OF THE BIG 11 SOCIAL STUDIES SKILLS.
(1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10) [NS: C14.(9-12).6]

5.3 STUDENTS WILL DESCRIBE THE CREATION OF LAWS THROUGH THE

LEGISLATIVE PROCESS BY UTILIZING ONE OF THE BIG 11 SOCIAL
STUDIES SKILLS.
(1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10) [NS: C14.(9-12).10]

Teacher-Written Objectives:
SWBAT evaluate the duties of the legislative branch.
SWBAT analyze the effectiveness of checks and balances and balance of power.
SWBAT role-play the process of creating a law from bill to passage.
SWBAT examine the United States Constitution and describe the powers implied
and expressed to the legislative branch.
SWBAT analyze the effectiveness of the necessary and proper clause.
SWBAT examine and describe the powers implied and expressed to the legislative
branch.
SWBAT analyze an individual power of the legislative branch.
SWBAT complete a poll to synthesize a public interest report.
SWBAT synthesize a campaign strategy for a fictional US Senator to represent our
state.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge:
The hardest concept for the students to comprehend will be the system of
checks and balances and expressed vs implied powers. These are concepts taught at
a young age but the prior knowledge that they have of the way the system works will
not be enough to meet the standards. I also believe that delving further into the
legislation process, which can be difficult for students to grasp. I believe that
teaching these types of concepts in a student centered way will allow for student

mastery. Students tend to not like to look up things in the Constitution as a

primary document, so I will need to incorporate the specific sections into the lesson
in order to make it more of a fun, scavenger hunt kind of learning.
Prior Knowledge:
The students must have a basic understanding of the three branches of
government and a rudimentary idea of how the system of checks and balances
works. They must also understand the set-up of the Constitution to be able to cite
where the powers of the legislative branch come from in Article I. The students will
also need prior knowledge in collaboration as well presenting in order to succeed on
the group projects.
Future Connections:
The context of this unit is the first among the three branches of government.
Directly after this unit, the students would cover the executive and then the judicial
branch. They would be able to connect the checks they learn in this lesson to the
balances learned in future. They would also be able to connect the legislative
process to when we would discuss judicial review in the future as well as the veto in
the executive branch.
Assessment:
I will assess comprehension of material through informal, oral assessment as
well as "committees" in which the students will take a break from brief lectures in
order to discuss the material with their classmates by responding to given
prompts. This formative assessment will be used to aid me with pacing and to allow
me to find new ways to teach content that is not being learned by a majority of the
class.
Door tickets will be used as summative assessment to see what the students
walk out the door having learned. Also the students will have a presentation to do
on a power or duty of congress that will be used as summative assessment. At the
end of the unit, the students will have a project to be presented that will count as

their summative assessment for the unit. This project will involve working on a
fictional congressional campaign to see the process that goes behind campaign
strategies.
All formative and summative assessments link directly with the objectives I
have written for each lesson. Because the standard and the CCSD curricular
objectives are so broad, I chose to write specific objectives for each lesson and these
allow me to work within the benchmarks of the curriculum, but also diving more indepth, allowing the students to make more of a connection with the content.