Teacher: Martinez/Chacon/Wymore

Date: Feb
1,3,4,5
School: Blevins

Grade Level: 8
Content Area: Social Studies

Title: Citizenship Lesson

Lesson #: 3 of 11
Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:
Social Studies Standard 4:1 Analyze and practice rights, roles, and responsibilities of citizens.
B. Analyze the changing definition of citizenship and give examples of the expansion of
rights.
Inquiry Questions:
Why do people create governments and law?
What does it mean to be an American citizen? What rights and responsibilities are required of
American citizens?
What information is deemed important for American citizens to understand? Why would this
information be valuable to know as an American citizen?

Concepts and skills students master: (Understandings, Big Ideas, Unit objectives)
Analyze elements of continuity and change in the United
States government and the role of citizens over time.
Evidence Outcomes: (Knowledge/ Skills, Lesson Objectives)
Every student will be able to:
I can build background knowledge about the U.S. government by answering questions new
citizens are required to know.
Assessment of Evidence Outcomes:
Citizenship pre-test
What it takes to become a citizen RAP
Citizenship game High Scores

Planned Lesson Activities

Activity Name

Citizenship Game

Approx. Time

2 hours and 30 minutes (two class periods)

Anticipatory Set

RAP: Informational video put out by the USCIS about the steps
toward naturalization with accompanying chart with the following
headings: benefits, requirements and cant do. Students will take
note of the video using the chart then well debrief as a class on the
steps required of immigrants to become naturalized. This discussion

will focus on the importance of the citizenship test and why it would
be important to know American history/government.
Teaching/
Presentation:
(Select the most
appropriate teaching
model.)
-direct instruction
-presentation model
-concept teaching
-cooperative
learning
-inquiry

Includes: Input, Modeling and Checking for Understanding

1.
Input: USCIS naturalization informational video
2.
Modeling: Discussion on the importance of knowing
American history/government and sharing of video chart information
gathered by students.
3.
Checking for Understanding: Show of hands on students
perception of accuracy on the citizenship quiz questions every
fifteen minutes. Citizenship pre-test. Citizenship group quiz.
4.
Questioning Strategies: 1)Remembering** All 100
citizenship questions 2)Understanding **Several of the citizenship
questions 3)Applying What would happen if you failed to pass the
citizenship test as an incoming immigrant? 4) Analyzing Why is it
important for American citizens to understand American history/
government and culture?

Teaching Strategy:
Guided Practice
&
Differentiation

Teaching Strategy:
(Independent
Practice)

Closure

Materials

Accommodations

Citizenship Pre-test (25/100 possible questions)

Citizenship flashcard group game
Citizenship online quiz
Citizenship group quiz
This quiz will be one of the pre-assessments for the unit and
will appear again in the Constitution assessment

Lessons to follow include but arent limited to:

o The three branches
o Elections
o Checks and balances
o Federalism
o How a bill becomes a law
o Bill of Rights
All of which were concepts questioned in the Citizenship quiz. Each
lesson will go into depth on the questions that were asked during
this lesson. A post-test identical to this pre-test will be given at the
end of the unit to check for growth in understanding.
After students have tallied the amount of questions their teams got
right and the winning team receives praise we will do a show of
hands (1-5) of the students level of understanding of American
history/government. We will then ask the question Is it fair to
expect American citizens/ incoming immigrants to know this
information? Should we, as American students/citizens, be
expected to know American history/government, why or why not?
Access to uscis.gov-Quiz and Video
Citizenship Flash Cards
Citizenship pre-test
To modify: Lexi 3S- Will ask the questions and will be the score

&
Modifications

keeper, Alaya 3S- Will be the lead with Ms. Wymore in asking the
group game questions.
A differentiated quiz will be given to mod/IEP students with 11 of the
20 possible questions.
To extend: Students will pair with other advanced students and go
one-on-one in the citizenship flashcard game.

Assessment

Citizenship Pre-Test
Citizenship Rap
Citizenship game scores.

Co-Teaching
strategy

Purpose of Lesson/Standard addressed:

Social Studies Standard 4:1 Analyze and practice rights, roles, and
responsibilities of citizens.
B. Analyze the changing definition of citizenship and give
examples of the expansion of rights.
Co-Teaching Strategy/Rationale:For this lesson we used the team
teach co-teaching strategy. The citizenship video at the start of
class was ran by one teacher and only took up the first 15 minutes of
class. From there on out the students were divided into table groups
of 4-5 to quiz each other on the citizenship questions. All three
teachers circulated the room and engaged with all the groups to
gauge initial understanding of American government/history culture
through the accuracy of questions asked from the citizenship test. At
the end of the lesson on teacher tallied each groups final scores
while another teacher debriefed and gave direction and the third
teacher collected the materials.
Were there other co-teaching strategies used when implementing
the lesson? If so, why?
No other teaching strategies were used in this lesson.
Would you use this co-teaching strategy for this lesson again?
Because this lesson is predominantly student-driven, team teaching
works well. All three teachers circulate the room with purpose of
gauging students initial understanding. No one teacher plays a
bigger role because it is the students who are driving the learning in
the lesson.

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to
justify your level of achievement) The lesson objectives were completely achieved and
the students were completely focused in this student driven lesson. Many students were

able to make connections to the naturalization process as a number of them were

aware of someone who had become a U.S. citizen after birth.
2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you
were to teach again? If I were to reteach this lesson, I would modify the cards that
the students were given. The only reason why the cards needed to be somewhat
modified, is that a few of the cards were dated to the first term of Obamas
presidency.
3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach content,
etc.) The citizenship lesson provides a solid background on American citizens, and its
important for the students to know who can receive the benefits from the constitution.
That being said, the content was covered adequately and well be moving on to the
actual benefits and intricacies of our constitution.