NCSS Theme 5 Individuals, Groups and Institutions

John Stokes
Capstone Portfolio

NCSS Overview

Citizenship and Government Substrands and Standards

Substrand 1 Civic Skills

Standard 1: Democratic government depends on informed and
engaged citizens who exhibit civic skills and values, practice civic discourse,
vote and participate in elections, apply inquiry and analysis skills, and take
action to solve problems and shape public policy.

Substrand 2: Civic Values and Principles of Democracy

Standard 2: The civic identity of the United States is shaped by
historical figures, places and events, and by key foundational documents and
other symbolically important artifacts.
Standard 3: The United States is based on democratic values and
principles that include liberty, individual rights, justice, equality, the rule of
law, limited government, common good, popular sovereignty, majority rule
and minority rights.

Substrand 3: Rights and Responsibilities

Standard 4: Individuals in a republic have rights, duties and
responsibilities.
Standard 5: Citizenship and its rights and duties are established by law.

Substrand 4: Governmental Institutions and Political Processes

Standard 6: The United States government has specific functions that
are determined by the way that power is delegated and controlled among
various bodies: the three levels (federal, state, local) and the three branches
(legislative, executive, judicial) of government.
Standard 7: The primary purposes of rules and laws within the United
States constitutional government are to protect individual rights, promote
the general welfare and provide order.
Standard 8: Public policy is shaped by governmental and non-
governmental institutions and political processes.

Substrand 5: Relationships of the United States to Other Nations

and Organizations
Standard 10: The United States establishes and maintains relationships
and interacts with indigenous nations and other sovereign nations, and plays
a key role in world affairs.
Standard 11: International political and economic institutions influence
world affairs and United States foreign policy.
 Standard 12: Governments are based on different political philosophies
and purposes; governments establish and maintain relationships with varied
types of other governments.

Resources

https://www.learner.org/workshops/socialstudies/pdf/session1/1.ExecutiveSu
mmary.pdf (NCSS Standards)

https://www.everyday-democracy.org/resources/resources-teaching-civics-
and-government (Resources for teaching Civics and Government)

http://teachingcivics.org/find-lessons-2/ (Teaching Civics)***

https://www.icivics.org/products/lesson-plans (iCivics)***

https://www.learner.org/resources/series177.html (Making Civics Real)

http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/articlearchives/civics/resource.ht
m (Scholastic)

http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/best-civics-sites-for-teachers
(Annenberg Classroom)

http://www.ipa.udel.edu/democracy/resources/lessonplans.html (Institute for

Public Administration)

https://www.everyday-
democracy.org/sites/default/files/attachments/Resource-List-for-Civics-
Teachers.pdf (Resource List for Teaching Civics and Government)***

http://www.civicmissionofschools.org (Campaign for the Civic Mission of

Schools)

http://www.crf-usa.org (Constitutional Rights Foundation)

http://www.ncsc.org (National Center for State Courts)

Overview of the Theme

As described on the National Council for Social Studies Website, this theme

has several ideas that are the main focus of the theme. The first idea for the

theme is to cover how institutions are the formal or informal political,

economic, and social organizations that help us carry out our daily affairs.

This idea refers to School, Religion government, family and learning about

how all play an important role in our life. The second idea is to teach

students how institutions are formed and how they influence our culture and

how they are influenced. This idea is important for students to understand as

it teaches them how institutions are important and how they formed and

came to dominate society and culture today. The third idea relates to

students identifying the institutions that they encounter, this theme can

show students how organizations help relate to their goals and the goals of

society. The final idea relates to where this theme is taught and how it should

be taught, this theme is taught or should be taught in classes relating to

Sociology, History or Political Science.

This theme has many strengths and the strengths outweigh the weaknesses.

First strength is that this is a unique theme that stands on its own, although

it may be covered in other themes it wont in the depth and detail of many of

the organizations which this theme will and it allows students to understand

the power of these organizations and also how they got started so in the

future students could possibly start their own organization or participate in

one that is already going on. Another strength is that this theme allows

students to research organizations that represent them and how it was

formed and what they do. A weakness of this theme is that it doesnt go into

specifics about what is covered in this theme and besides the government

what other organizations should be covered, however state standards might

fix that. Another weakness is that the word organization is broad and could

refer to almost anything or any group.

Lesson Plan 1

Lesson Plan 1: Youve got rights?

Objective: Students learn about the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights
and other important constitutional amendments. First they consider what
rights they believe are important, then they read and analyze the real text of
each amendment. This lesson also helps students analyze the impact that
the Bill of Rights has on their daily lives.

Source: https://www.icivics.org/teachers/lesson-plans/youve-got-rights

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies: 9.1.3.4.2

Individuals in a republic have rights, duties and responsibilities.
Benchmark: Explain the scope and limits of rights protected by the First and
Second Amendments and changes created by legislative action and court
interpretation.

Strengths and Weaknesses: The strengths of this lesson is that it allows

students of various learning styles to participate as it offers a guided
reading, a video and a small group discussion. All of those combined can
help students learn and comprehend the rights they have and how these
rights got formed and who fought for them. Another strength of this lesson
is that it offers explanations of rights, shows pictures of protests or
organizations fighting for rights and also some primary sources. A weakness
of this lesson is that is doesnt go into very much detail since it is a one-day
lesson and only scrapes the surface of the rights that are being discussed.

Lesson Plan 2

Lesson Plan 2: The Living Room Candidate

Objective: In a media-saturated environment in which news, opinions, and
entertainment surround us all day on our television sets, computers, and cell
phones, the television commercial remains the one area where presidential
candidates have complete control over their images. Television commercials
use all the tools of fiction filmmaking, including script, visuals, editing, and
performance, to distill a candidate's major campaign themes into a few
powerful images. Ads elicit emotional reactions, inspiring support for a
candidate or raising doubts about his opponent. While commercials reflect
the styles and techniques of the times in which they were made, the
fundamental strategies and messages have tended to remain the same over
the years. The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials,
from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue
advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short
ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach
more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a
permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run.

Source: http://teachingcivics.org/lesson/the-living-room-candidate/

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies: 9.1.1.1.3

Democratic government depends on informed and engaged citizens who

exhibit civic skills and values, practice civic discourse, vote and participate in
elections, apply inquiry and analysis skills and take action to solve problems
and shape public policy.

Benchmark: Evaluate sources of information and various forms of political

persuasion for validity, accuracy, ideology, emotional appeals, bias and
prejudice

Strengths and Weaknesses: A huge strength of this lesson is that it shows

students real world evidence of how powerful some corporations or
organizations are as it pertains to Political groups or SUPERPACs and how the
money of these groups help influence politics and what is being shown on
ads or commercials. Another strength of this lesson is that it shows students
how to interpret information as it shows them to look during the ad who
made the ad and what that group stands for. In this era of fake news this
lesson allows students to see how this evolved over time and how
organizations are powerful even so today and it will show students how a
supreme court ruling can affect the US. A weakness of this lesson is that it
doesnt describe what a PAC is or a political organization but I will most likely
explain this at the beginning of class. This lesson plan also lacks a formal
assessment piece.