a) Narrative Overview: Provide an overview for EACH of the ten to twelve (or more)

lessons in your unit.

1. In lesson one students will be introduced to the idea of government and what it
entails. We will discuss the many types of governments and some of the similarities
and differences. Students will identify that in the United States we operate under a
Democracy and analyze what makes up a democracy and their roles as citizens in a
democracy. Students will also identify individuals who work for the government and
analyze the roles that they play along with the services that they provide.
2. Students will discuss the steps that led up to the signing of the Declaration of
Independence and why it was necessary. Students will be taken through some of the
more important interactions between the British and colonists so that they will better
be able to comprehend why the Declaration of Independence was necessary and
understand the timing behind the creation and signing of the document. Students will
be introduced to the Stamp Act, The Sugar Act, The Quartering Act and a few others.
This will give students the basis as to why the colonists decided that the needed to
form a government.
3. Students will be introduced to the basic understandings of how our government was
built. They will read and analyze the Declaration of Independence. Students will dive
deep into what the Declaration of Independence meant for the colonists and the future
United States of America and also what it said to Great Britain. Students will be able
to identify the reasons and grievances that the colonists had with Great Britain and
comprehend why the decision was made to create a different government. Students
will then be tasked with being able to communicate the principals and rights that the
Declaration of Independence provided to the citizens of the United States. Students
will be introduced to Thomas Jefferson and the role that he played in the creation and
signing of the Declaration of Independence.
4. Students will then be shown the other side of Thomas Jefferson and understand some
of the hypocrisy that was going on at this time with the idea of African-Americans
and other groups in regards to the Declaration of Independence. Ex. All men are
created equal Except African-Americans and women. Students will be presented
facts about Thomas Jeffersons past history owning slaves and how he spoke about
African Americans. Students will be asked to do a character analysis of Thomas
Jefferson and will be asked to defend their position with facts and supporting details.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson35976004/?no-ist=&preview=_pa&page=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/opinion/the-real-thomas-jefferson.html?_r=0
5. Students will be introduced to the Constitution and the events that led up to its
creation, the rights and privileges it guaranteed individuals. They will be asked to
compare and contrast the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution and
discuss the roles that they still play in their lives today. We will discuss more in depth
the Bill of Rights and what they guarantee to citizens, students will be asked to recall
any experiences they have had or people they know have had with the rights that the
constitution has provided for them.
6. This lesson will begin the introduction of students to the three branches of
government. They will start with the legislative branch and the understanding of the
separation of this branch into the House of Representatives and The Senate. Students

will work through the process that the legislative branch goes through in order to
create a law and how states are assigned their senators and state representatives.
7. This lesson will focus on the Executive branch and its responsibilities. Students will
be alerted to the fact that the executive branch is much more than just the president
and the vice-president. Students will be introduced to the Presidents cabinet and the
role that it plays in the Presidents decision making process. We will also discuss
citizens roles in electing the executive branch and how they can voice their
displeasure if they feel the president and executive branch isnt doing their job.
8. This lesson will focus on the judicial branch and its role in the government. Students
will talk about how the judicial branch impacts the constitution and discuss in depth
the Supreme Court and its nine Supreme Court justices. Students will better
understand the process of Supreme Court justices being appointed and the
responsibilities that they carry while fulfilling their job. Students will also analyze the
role that the Executive Branch, mainly the President plays in nominating those
Supreme Court Justices and the role that the Legislative Branch plays in approving
them.
9. Students will be introduced to the idea of Checks and Balances throughout the three
branches of government. They will be able to compare/contrast and articulate how the
branches of government can balance out each others power and why we must have
that balance. Students will be taken through a host of scenarios in which one branch
would need to check the others power, so that they are truly able to understand the
system of Checks and Balances.
10. In the next three sessions students will work together in a group to create a
presentation about how the three branches of government have played their roles
throughout certain time periods in U.S History, with an added focus on AfricanAmerican History due to Black History Month. Students will be assigned a court
case, law that was created and an executive order or other executive decision by the
President of that time. In addition students will be asked to research and present on a
social activist of their time period and a large event that also impacted AfricanAmericans, these range from the California Gold Rush to The Red Summer. This
project will let students know how the government has impacted the lives of AfricanAmericans throughout almost 100 years of U.S. History and hopefully make the
things that they just learned in their textbooks/other resources come to a more vivid
sense of reality.
b) Assessments:
1. Assessment-Concept Circles. Students will be able to identify four vocabulary words
pertaining to the idea of government and be able to articulate how they are related.
a. Objective-Understand and explain basic principles of U.S. Government.
2. Assessment-Timeline. Students will create a timeline spanning from The
Proclamation of 1763 to the signing of the Declaration of Independence so they can
better understand and put into context the steps leading up to the creation of Americas
new government.
a. Objective-Understand the development of U.S. political ideas and traditions.

3. Assessment-Nearpod Quiz about the Declaration of Independence. This quiz features

many different types of questions. Yes or no, multiple choice and open-ended. These
questions range from asking about what type of grievances the colonists had who
were the main authors of the Declaration of Independence, to what The Declaration of
Independence actually state.
a. Objective-Apply the skills of Historical analysis and interpretation.
4. Assessment-Model U.S. Government Activity-Students will be assigned one of the
three branches of government and I will give them a scenario to see if they can
correctly identify the steps that the Branches must take to balance out the power.
a. Objective-Understand the structures and functions of various political
systems.
5. Assessment-Citizenship To-Do List. Students will identify ways that they can help
build the community and to an extent government both now and when they are older.
Students will be asked to identify the roles that they can play when they turn 18 and
their responsibilities. This will help them identify the changes that happen for
individuals in regards to the government as they get older.
a. Objective-Understand the roles and interactions of individuals and groups in
society.
6. Assessment-Final group presentation. Students will be asked to research and present
about a certain time period and how the three branches of government impacted
African-Americans during that time period. Each group will have a court case, law
and executive decision and students are expected to communicate the importance of
that event and other important details (5 Ws).
a. Objective-Understand the roles of individuals and groups in political systems.

c) Out-of-school learning: opportunities to expand and enrich the curriculum outside

of class (home assignment):
a. Final Research Project- Students will have to do some of the research for their
final group project out-side of the time that they have allotted at school as this
will be a very comprehensive project and will take a lot of their time up.
b. Debates-Students will be asked to watch at least a portion of one of the upcoming
debates so that they will be able to learn more about the election process. There
are multiple debates in the next three weeks with at least one being on public
television. Students will be asked to write any questions that they have down,
along with any interesting comments or things that they see. This will be able to
give them a deeper grasp on the election process, especially focusing on the
executive branch and our roles as citizens in government.
c. Caucuses-Students will be asked to do out of school research on the upcoming
caucuses, the South Carolina caucus on Feb 20th and the one in Nevada taking
place on Feb 23rd. Students will be asked to do outside of school research,
whether it be online or through the newspapers on the candidate they believe is
most likely to win those races. (Important point. Not the candidate they would
most LIKE to win) Students will be asked to make an educated claim and have
facts to support that claim.

d. Pearson My world Book-Students will be asked to simply fill out the Chapter 3
Review and Assessment portion of their My World Textbook. This assessment
will test their knowledge and grasp of the topics that we had touched on in the
unit plan. It has many different question types throughout the assessment ranging
from matching, to open-ended to summarizing. This will let me know how well
students were able to digest the material that we have touched on.

Your Name: Drexton Sportel

Grade Level: 4th
CT:
School: Andrew Carnegie
Date: 2/16/16
Overall lesson topic/title Duration of time: Principles of our Government/ 30-45 Minutes
Objectives for todays lesson: SWBAT: Understand and explain basic principles of U.S.
government. SWBAT: Identify and be able to compare and contrast between different types of
governments.

Materials & supplies needed: Pearson: My world. Social Studies book. Discovery Education
video about government: https://app.discoveryeducation.com/learn/videos/de43d3b6-bc854149-8d33-19908b1dd7a7?hasLocalHost=false
Concept Circle handouts for students to complete.

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event

LAUNCH (BEFORE)
Mr. Sportel: So today were going to start discussing
governments and were going to focus on the type of
government we have here in Chicago, Illinois and in the United
States of America. Also, as we know every country doesnt
have the same type of government so were going to talk a bit
about the other types of governments in the world but were
going to especially focus on what makes the United States
government different from the other governments. First well
watch a short Discovery Education video that helps us
understand the different types of governments and some crucial
vocabulary words, then were going to see what your social
studies book has to say about the government and then finally

Academic, Social and

Linguistic Support during
each event for my focus
students:
Both of my students with
IEPS will struggle reading the
textbook. This is part of the
reason why I decided to play
the video as well. It will give
them something visual and
auditory as a way to
differentiate their instruction.
That way when they are
reading the text and I come
around and provide support to

youre going to fill out a concept circle that will let me know
how well youre putting these ideas together.
( 5-7 minutes)
EXPLORE (DURING)
Mr. Sportel: So before we get started who can tell me what
they think government or a government is?
Possible student responses: Something that makes laws.
Barack Obama. The President. Something that puts people
in jail and keeps us safe.
Mr. Sportel: Ok perfect those are all great answers, now lets
look at what this Discovery Education video has to say to us.
(Plays Video): During video I will ask students to repeat
some vocabulary words including: Monarchy, Autocracy,
Democracy, government, dictatorship, and oligarchy.
Mr. Sportel: Alright yall what did we learn from that
video?
Possible student answers: That there is more than one type of
government. That a government is a system by which
something is governed. That a dictatorship means that one
person is in charge of a government That the United States
government is a democracy.
Possible misconceptions: Some students may think that we
have a monarchy or a dictatorship because they misunderstand
the presidents role in the government and think that he has
absolute power over things. I will actually clear that
misconception up in a few days as we get into the three
branches of government because I believe that they will
understand more clearly when they are shown the checks and
balances system instead of a quick explanation during this
lesson.
Mr. Sportel: Alright, now I want yall to take out your social
studies books and quietly read both pages 78-79 and annotate
them, I want you to especially look for similarities and
differences in the video we just watched. When I come around I
want to see some text to text connections or in this case text to
video connections. Ill give you about 5 minutes to read and
annotate and then were going to come back as a class and Im
going to provide you with something called a concept circle.
(15-20 minutes)

SUMMARIZE (AFTER)

them I can connect it to the

video and give them some
connections they can fall back
on.
I also chose the concept circle
because there is minimal
reading for them to do, it is
more putting their own words
down on the page, so while
their spelling and punctuation
may still suffer the main point
is to make connections so as
long as they can still
communicate the connections
they are trying to make that
will be beneficial.

Mr. Sportel: Alright now Im going to pass out something

called a concept circle. It is just that, a circle that has four
sections. Heres what I want you to do with it. I want you to
take four words that youve been introduced to today and put
one word in each portion of the circle. Now you cant just put
any word in the space ok? Because the goal is for you to pick
four words that relate to each other. So for example if I wanted
to put citizen in one section and government in the other, how
would I explain the relationship between those two
words/concepts?
Possible student answers: A citizen is someone who belongs
to either a country or state that is controlled by a government.
A citizen is someone who belongs to a government.
Possible misconceptions: It will be important to point out that
different words will have different relationships for different
governments.
Mr. Sportel: So we want to remember that different words will
have different relationships depending on the type of
government right? So a citizen in a dictatorship is going to have
a different role than a citizen in a democracy, so we want to
make sure that were taking our time with this. After yall are
done well come together as a class and we can call on some
volunteers to share their concept circle.
(10-15 minutes)

Assessment: Concept Circles. These will help alert me to if Academic, Social, and
students are truly understanding the ideas and how they relate to Linguistic Support during
each other or if they simply are just looking at the definition of assessment
these words. Once I see how well/room for improvement they
are grasping ideas I can use that to direct my instruction on the
three branches of government in future lessons. It will also set
the table well for the next lesson which discusses the Declaration
of Independence because we will be able to discuss the
differences between our governments during British rule versus
after.

Your Name: Drexton Sportel

Grade Level: 4th
CT:

School: Andrew Carnegie

Date: 2/17/16
Overall lesson topic/title Duration of time: Events leading up to the Declaration of
Independence 45 mins.
Objectives for todays lesson: SWBAT: Understand and analyze the reasons that the United
States decided to break apart from the rule of Great Britain and form its own nation.

Materials & supplies needed: Discovery Education Website which will provide students with
resources to best understand the reasoning behind Americas decision to break away from
Britain.
Paper Money which will model the taxes and things that the colonists have to pay to the British
for taxes.
Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event
LAUNCH (BEFORE)
Mr. Sportel: Now yesterday we learned about different types
of governments and the role that citizens play in different
governments. We also learned about what type of government
the United States has correct? And which government was that?
Possible Student answers: Yes. We have a democracy.(This
should be a unanimous answer, if any student is unclear about
this I will clear it up immediately as it is absolutely crucial that
they understand we have a democracy, so they can understand
the role that they play in a democracy.)
Mr. Sportel: Now has the United States always been a country?
Can someone tell me about who was in charge of America had
its own government?
Possible Student answers: Yes we have always been a
country. No, we havent always been a country. We had to
fight some people to be a country. We had to fight the
British
Student Misconceptions: I fully expect many students to be
confused about the idea of Great Britain being in charge of the
colonies. Some students may think that we had to fight Native
Americans for freedom. I think the majority of students will
understand that we took place in a war but may be confused
with who we were fighting/what we were fighting for. These
will be misconceptions that I will work to correct throughout
this lesson.
Mr. Sportel: Alright so as some students pointed out the
United States was always not its own country with its own
government. Before the Declaration of Independence which we

Academic, Social and

Linguistic Support during
each event for my focus
students:

will talk about a bit today and more tomorrow, the colonies
were under control of Great Britain. For a little while the
colonists werent that unhappy with Great Britain but then as
some of yall in the class like to say Great Britain started
Doing too much and doing things that the colonists considered
bogus. Some of these things might not make a lot of sense
right now but as we move through the lesson Ill show you why
the colonists were getting more and more frustrated.
( 5-10 minutes)
EXPLORE (DURING)
Mr. Sportel: Alright so after the French and Indian War which
we talked about a bit earlier this year, Great Britain started
doing a lot of things that upset the colonists. The first thing that
they did to upset the Colonists was something called The
Proclamation of 1763 which said that some colonists couldnt
settle or live west of the Appalachian Mountains. (At this point
I will have students all move to the back of the classroom in one
large group to model them being east of the Appalachian
Mountains. I will split students into three groups, Native
Americans, Colonists and British. I will move the Native
American group on the other side of the mountains and then
have the colonists try to reason with the British to get across the
Appalachian mountains so that they can have places to settle or
they can try to buy and sell land so they can make money.
British will explain that they are keeping them from the Native
Americans and that this is for their own good but they have to
pay them to keep them safe.)
Mr. Sportel: Now how do the colonists feel? How do the
British feel?
Possible Student responses: Im really upset. This isnt fair.
I hate this. I love this being British. Its so fun.
Mr. Sportel: Can yall start to see why the colonists were
getting so frustrated? It gets even worse. In 1764 and 1765
British Parliament made even more tax laws, which meant the
colonists had to pay the British even more.
First came the Sugar Act which increased the taxes that
colonists paid on things like sugar of course but other things too
that they needed to use to make food. (Ill model this by
collecting money from students who have ever gotten
something to eat from the school.) Next came the stamp Act in
1765. This said that newspapers, legal documents and a bunch
of other things had to be written on special paper that only
Great Britain could make. So colonists had to pay for that too. (I

will model this by taxing any students who have ever used
paper that Mrs. Roberson or I have given them.)
Things got even worse for colonists after this. In 1765 the
British Parliament passed the Quartering Act. This meant that
the British soldiers that the colonists hated so much could stay
in the colonists houses.
Finally things got so bad between the British and colonists that
on March 5th 1770 in Boston there was a riot in which 5
colonists died. Things kept getting worse till the Revolutionary
War started in 1775. The colonists decided that they needed to
start creating their own government and decided to do that with
the Declaration of Independence, this was signed on July 4th
1776.
(20-25 minutes)

SUMMARIZE (AFTER)
Mr. Sportel: Ok so lets talk about why the colonists decided
they didnt want to be ruled by the British anymore.
Possible Student answers: They werent being treated fairly.
The British were being mean to them. The British were giving
them all of these taxes and stuff. They were making it hard to
live, they didnt have any freedom.
Mr. Sportel: Exactly and thats why the colonists thought that
they needed to make their own government and that started with
the Declaration of Independence which were going to talk
about more in depth tomorrow.
(5-10 minutes)

Assessment: Students will create a timeline denoting the events Academic, Social, and
that led up to and including the signing of the Declaration of Linguistic Support during
Independence. This will let me know if they grasp the assessment
progression and reasons of why the colonists decided to break
away from the British rule. This will provide the groundwork
for students understanding of why and how the Declaration of
Independence was important.

Your Name: Drexton Sportel

Grade Level: 4th
CT:
School: Andrew Carnegie
Date: 2/18/16
Overall lesson topic/title Duration of time Analysis of Declaration of Independence
Objectives for todays lesson: SWBAT: Analyze the Declaration of Independence including the
rights that it guaranteed to citizens and communicate how it is still relevant to this day.
MI GLCEs
Materials & supplies needed:
Nearpod lesson on Declaration of Independence:
https://app.nearpod.com/#/market?view=npPreview&id=a9b39474600e495edf0033a95513a7d31&element=npp&ar=lb
Pearson My World: Social Studies

Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event

LAUNCH (BEFORE)
Mr. Sportel: So yesterday we learned about the events leading
up to the Revolutionary War and The Declaration of
Independence, today were going to learn a little about what the
Declaration of Independence meant for the colonists and what it
said to The British.
(3-5 minutes)
EXPLORE (DURING)
Mr. Sportel: Alright so if you can all get your chrome books
and go to nearpod and put this session password in we can learn
a little bit about what the Declaration of Independence actually
was.
Near Pod Lesson: The Near pod lesson frames the Declaration
of Independence as a break-up letter from the colonists to King

Academic, Social and

Linguistic Support during
each event for my focus
students:

George. It focuses on the grievances that the colonists had with

the British, who did most of the writing and how many people
signed the Declaration of Independence. Throughout the lesson
it has both multiple choice, yes or no, and open-ended questions
that gauge students interests and learning from the lesson. This
will be what I use as my assessment from this lesson plan.
There is also a couple of slides in the nearpod lesson that
mentions that the statement All men are created equal didnt
pertain to women and African-Americans.
(15-20minutes)

SUMMARIZE (AFTER)
Mr. Sportel: Alright so what were our big takeaways from this
lesson about the Declaration of Independence?
Possible Student Answers: That the Declaration of
Independence was a big breakup letter from the colonists to
Great Britain. That Thomas Jefferson did most of the writing of
the Declaration of Independence. That a lot of people signed the
Declaration of Independence. That the colonists were really fed
up with Britain.
Possible Misconceptions: As I touched on earlier the Nearpod
lesson mentioned that African Americans and women were not
really included in the Declaration of Independence. Some
students may point this out and if not it will be a great jump-off
for my next lesson which will focus on Thomas Jefferson and
his hypocrisy.
(5-10 minutes)

Assessment: The assessment will take place throughout the Academic, Social, and
nearpod lesson. These assessments will be yes or no questions, Linguistic Support during
multiple choice questions and open ended questions along with assessment
some opinion questions. This assessment will help me
understand how well students grasp the Declaration of
Independence and the things that it guaranteed certain
individuals.