Teacher: Wymore/ Martinez/ Chacon

Date: Feb 15th/16th/17th/18th

School:Blevins Middle School
Content Area: History
Title:Executive Branch
Lesson #:6 of 11

Grade Level:8

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:

Civics Standard 4.1. Analyze elements of continuity and change in the United States
government and the role of citizens over time
Civics Standard 4.2.The place of law in a constitutional system
History Standard 1.2. The historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas and themes from the origins
of the American Revolution through Reconstruction and their relationships with one another

Inquiry Questions:
Why do we create government and laws.
Concepts and skills students master:
The functioning of the Executive Branch

Evidence Outcomes: (Knowledge/ Skills, Lesson Objectives)

Every student will be able to:
I can understand the roles of the executive branch and how it functions.
Assessment of Evidence Outcomes:
Executive Branch Skeleton Notes + Essential question paragraph.

Planned Lesson Activities

Activity Name

Executive Branch

Approx. Time

2 hours and 30 minutes

Anticipatory Set

3 Branches Crash course: Youtube video that goes into detail on

the powers of each branch. Students will finish a video guide they
started from the 3 Branches chart activity.

Teaching/
Presentation:

Includes: Input, Modeling and Checking for Understanding

1.
Input: RAP 3 Branches Video and Individual 3 Branches
Chart
2.
Modeling: The majority of the lesson is modeling as we
present the executive branch powerpoint while the students fill in
and complete their executive branch skeleton notes.
3.
Checking for Understanding: While the students are
modeling for the majority of the lesson, they will have a chance to
display their understanding through their essential question
responses and their learning target reflections. Both the response
and reflection will pull on background information they have
learned either before this lesson or during the direct instruction
aspect.
4.
Questioning Strategies: Remembering: Who was our 16th
president? Understanding: What is the primary job of the
executive branch? Applying: How does the president fulfill the
primary job of the executive branch, and how does his cabinet
assist him? Analyzing: Why is it the presidential cabinet has
grown to 15 positions over time?

(Select the most

appropriate
teaching model.)
-direct instruction
-presentation
model
-concept teaching
-cooperative
learning
-inquiry

Teaching Strategy:
Guided Practice
&
Differentiation

Over the two days that we will be presenting the executive branch
powerpoint, the students will be filling out the notes as we
progress through the slides. The majority of the lesson relies on
direct instruction, as we explain in detail the roles of the president,
vice president, and cabinet members. Apart from their roles,
students will receive background information on the people
inhabiting the roles and how they function in the constitutional
system.

Teaching Strategy:
(Independent
Practice)

While the majority of this lesson focuses on direct instruction,

students will receive independent practice time to fill out their 3
branches chart and to complete their executive branch essential
question response.For the EQ response, students will need to pull

information from their background knowledge or the direct

instruction they will have just received.

Closure

Materials

Accommodations
&
Modifications

Assessment

To close the lesson, we will have students finish up their EQ

responses and reflect on their learning targets to see if they met
their success criteria. If there is any remaining time during the
class, students will have the opportunity to work silently on
sheppard software to study for their upcoming map tests.

3 Branches individual chart

Executive Branch Powerpoint
Executive Branch skeleton notes
3 branches crash course video
For lower level kids we offered them hardcopy and filled out
skeletons that they would need to highlight. Their executive
branch eq response would also be limited based on the subjective
skill of the student.

Executive branch skeleton notes (either highlighted or filled out)

Executive branch essential question response
LT reflection + RAP video guide

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved?
The objective of the lesson was to gain an understanding of the role of the Executive
Branch, how it functions and its interaction with the other two branches of government.
The students took Cornell notes as the teachers walked through a two day powerpoint.
The Cornell summaries were our formative assessment of what exactly students
retained from the lesson. A lot of students wrote more about the cabinet then they did
about checks and balances or roles of the Executive Branch. This shows me that we
need to spend more time and place more emphasis on the checks and balances/role of
the branch then the cabinet members.

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you
were to teach again?
If I were to teach this lesson again I would eliminate the detailed information about
each cabinet position and member. Like the three branch activity I saw a lot of the
information as nonessential. I would keep the lesson the same as far as having the
students take Cornell notes because they are transition into high school and must learn
how to take information from a lecture as well as how to take effective notes. I would
insert more videos or images to reach visual learners.
2.

What do you envision for the next lesson

Our next lesson covers the Legislative Branch. The checks and balances addressed in
this lesson will come up again in the next lesson as we continue to examine how each
branch interacts with one another.

Purpose of Lesson/
Standard Addressed

Civics Standard 4.1. Analyze elements of continuity and

change in the United States government and the role of
citizens over time
Civics Standard 4.2.The place of law in a constitutional
system
History Standard 1.2. The historical eras, individuals, groups,
ideas and themes from the origins of the American
Revolution through Reconstruction and their relationships
with one another

Co-Teaching Strategy and

Rationale

For the executive branch lesson we used the team teaching

strategy. We decided on team teaching because it allowed
each one of the instructors to utilize their expertise where it
was needed. We were able to jump in and out of instruction
in order to inform the entire class to the best of our collective
ability.

Would you use this

strategy for this lesson
again? Why?

If I were to teach this lesson again, I would use team

teaching, as it not only lessened the burden of instruction
placed on each teacher, but allowed each teacher to
express their unique experience and expertise in a fashion
that did not feel like it disruptive to the flow learning.

For the initial quarter of the lesson, we utilized the one teach
Were there any other coone assist strategy as the students completed their RAP and
teaching strategies used
in this lesson. If so, Why? branch charts independently. We chose to use this strategy
in this instance because it made more sense for use to
assist where we were needed while one instructor guided
the classroom.