Teacher: Wymore/ Martinez/ Chacon

Date: Feb.
10/11/12
School: Blevins Middle School
Content Area: Social Studies
Title: Slavery in the Declaration of Independence

Grade Level: 8
Lesson #: 5 of 11

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:

H: 1.1 Develop an understanding of how people view, construct and interpret history; Formulate
appropriate hypotheses about United States history based on a variety of historical sources and
perspectives.
a. Use and interpret documents and other relevant primary and secondary sources
pertaining to United States history from multiple perspectives.
H: 1.2 Analyze key historical periods and patterns of change over time within and across nations
and cultures; The historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas and themes from the origins of the
American Revolution through Reconstruction and their relationships with one another.
F. Analyze ideas that are critical to the understanding of American history and give
examples of the ideals involved in major events and movements.
C: 4.1 Analyze and practice rights, roles and responsibilities of citizens; Analyze elements of
continuity and change in the United States government and the role of citizens over time.
d. Evaluate the result of various strategies for political change over time.
E. Analyze primary sources supporting democratic freedoms and the founding of our
government. Documents to include are: Declaration of Independence.
Inquiry Questions:
Why do people create government and laws?
What role does the issue of slavery play in the Declaration of Independence?
What role did compromise play in deciding to keep the issue of slavery in the Constitution?
Concepts and skills students master:
Self-Direction Understanding social studies requires a productive disposition, curiosity and
self-direction. This involves monitoring and assessing ones thinking and persisting to search
for patterns, relationships, cause and effect, and an understanding of the events and people
throughout time.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning Social studies is a discipline grounded in critical thinking
and reasoning. Doing history, geography, civics and economics involves recognizing patterns
and relationships across time and space. Social studies provide the structure that makes it
possible to describe patterns that exist in nature and society.

Evidence Outcomes:
Every student will be able to:

1. I can build background knowledge of slavery terms and construct a timeline of

slavery.
2. I can explain why the Founding Fathers kept slavery in the Constitution and some
chief compromises about slavery.
Assessment of Evidence Outcomes:
Learning target reflection

RAP: Background information on understanding of slavery

Primary/secondary source analysis SHEGG handout

Planned Lesson Activities

Activity Name

Slavery in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution

Approx. Time

1 hour 15 minutes

Anticipatory Set

Teaching/
Presentation:
(Select the most
appropriate teaching
model.)
-direct instruction
-presentation model
-concept teaching
-cooperative
learning
-inquiry

Students will type in todays learning targets

RAP: What is your background knowledge about slavery in
the history of our country? Write at least 3 things
Down. We will share out our collective initial understanding of
slavery before beginning our lesson on the origins of slavery in our
Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Includes: Input, Modeling and Checking for Understanding
1.
Input: the first activity we will be looking at slavery terms used
in the Constitution. Students will be given a worksheet with the
terms and definitions already provided from the teacher. They will
have to rephrase the vocabulary definition and draw a visual
representation of the term. Then they will read a description of the
event regarding slavery and determine importance by giving it a title
and short description for a timeline which will be led by the teacher.
2.
Modeling: We will be doing a play about how slavery was
dealt with in the constitution, answering a few questions and then
applying it to our knowledge about Federalist and Anti Federalist
political parties. After this we will be completing a primary/secondary
source activity analyzing how slavery was dealt with in the
Declaration of Independence then how it was dealt with in the
Constitution and why it was kept in even though there was some
opposition. These activities will be completed through teacher
modeling over the doc cam and independent student work with the
lead teacher monitoring for understanding.
3.
Checking for Understanding:
Asking guiding questions while circulating for understanding.
Term images/Timeline construction
Graphic organizer
Reflection of learning targets
4.
Questioning Strategies: Remember: What prior knowledge
can you recall about slavery? Understanding: Paraphrase the terms
used in place of slave in the Constitution. Applying: Illustrate the
terms used in place of slave in the Constitution. Analyzing: Can you
explain why slavery was kept in the Constitution despite opposition
towards slavery during the time of the ratification of the Constitution?
Evaluating: Do you feel the way the issue of slavery was dealt with in
the Constitution was ethical? Why/why not? Creating: Construct a

timeline of slavery in American history.

Teaching Strategy:
Guided Practice
&
Differentiation

Then the first activity we will be looking at slavery terms by drawing

visuals to help them make the connection to the term. Then they will
read a description of the event regarding slavery and determine
importance by giving it a title and short description for a timeline.
Then we will be doing a play about how slavery was dealt with in the
constitution, answering a few questions and then applying it to our
knowledge about Federalist and Anti Federalist political parties.
After this we will be completing a primary/secondary source activity
analyzing how slavery was dealt with in the Declaration of
Independence then how it was dealt with in the Constitution and why
it was kept in even though there was some opposition.

Teaching Strategy:
(Independent
Practice)

This is new material but we have been studying the Constitution for a
few weeks now about the 3 branches of government, Articles of
Confederation and Federalist/Antifederalist viewpoints. A lesson
coming up in the coming weeks about the Judicial Branch will have
students read through three different Supreme Court decisions
regarding slavery and civil rights. These court cases will be a
refresher on the issue of slavery in the Constitution and how
concepts and laws change over time thanks to the framework
established in the Constitution of judicial review.

Closure

Students will reflect on the lessons learning targets and assess their
understanding of the learning targets.
Debrief questions, which are on the handouts, will be discussed at
the end of class. The debrief questions are:
1. Overall did these men realize that slavery was a problem?
2. Who didnt think it was a problem and why?
3. Who DID think it was a problem and why didn't they do
anything to abolish slavery?

Materials

Accommodations
&
Modifications

Learning target/RAP slides

SHEGG handouts
Modified handouts
Constitution book for 3s mod cog students
Timeline and terms handout
Play scripts for all students
Highlighted scripts for students with roles in the play
To modify: Mod cog students in 3S will read a book about the
Constitution with a para. Modified SHEGG worksheets for IEP
students
To extend: Students with good verbal/communication skills will be

chosen to have a role in the play along with student volunteers.

Roles are implicitly assigned by length/ vocabulary difficulty
Assessment

SHEGG worksheets
Debrief questions
Learning target reflections and self-assessments

Co-Teaching
Strategies
Purpose of lesson/State Standard Addressed:
H: 1.1 Develop an understanding of how people view, construct and
interpret history; Formulate appropriate hypotheses about United
States history based on a variety of historical sources and
perspectives.
b. Use and interpret documents and other relevant
primary and secondary sources pertaining to United
States history from multiple perspectives.
H: 1.2 Analyze key historical periods and patterns of change over
time within and across nations and cultures; The historical eras,
individuals, groups, ideas and themes from the origins of the
American Revolution through Reconstruction and their relationships
with one another.
F. Analyze ideas that are critical to the understanding of
American history and give examples of the ideals involved in major
events and movements.
C: 4.1 Analyze and practice rights, roles and responsibilities of
citizens; Analyze elements of continuity and change in the United
States government and the role of citizens over time.
d. Evaluate the result of various strategies for political change
over time.
E. Analyze primary sources supporting democratic freedoms
and the founding of our government. Documents to include are:
Declaration of Independence.
Co-Teaching strategy and Rationale: Supplemental teaching was
used for this lesson. While the material was taught through the lead
teacher; Sarah Goodfellow discussed the lessons content at a
differentiated level for mod cod students in 3S. Ms. Goodfellow read
a book about the Constitution with these students and worked
through the slavery terms with these students.
Were there other co-teaching strategies used when implementing
the lesson? If so, why?
In classes with no mod cog students one teach one observe was
used. Ms. Wymore led the class through the lesson while Mr.
Martinez and Ms. Chacon observed for student engagement. This

strategy was used because it happened to be a lesson that Ms.

Wymore was being observed for.
Would you use this co-teaching strategy for this lesson again?
In a class with mod cog students supplemental instruction works to
deliver the content at differentiated levels. Because of the ability to
have paras provide additional support to specific students, this
strategy would work well again.

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data
to justify your level of achievement) Due to the fact that this lesson paralleled
the theme of compromise that weve been covering since the revolutionary unit,
the students were able to quickly catch on to the significance of slavery in two
most important United States documents. As they were able to latch on to the
significance, they had the tools to effectively reach their learning targets and
standards.
2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if
you were to teach again? On the day we were teaching this lesson, some
of the classes were shortened due to a school assembly. If I were to
reteach this lesson Id hope for a full period where we could effectively get
through everything we had set up in the lesson plan.
3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach
content, etc.) After further touching on the concept of compromise in our slavery
lesson, the students seem very keen on the subject. The next lesson well forgo
any continued practice or reteach and move on to the subject of the individual
branches of our government starting with the executive branch.