Mckynzie Bouches

Sarah Groves- High K. Cassell Elementary

Presented: April 12, 2018
Submitted: April 5, 2018

LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON
Three Branches of Government Review

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
This is a review lesson for the students as they have already been taught the information. They learned
about the three branches of government towards the beginning of the semester and struggled to fully
grasp the concept. This was apparent to both myself and my CT because I had briefly asked them what
they could tell me about the branches. Some had to think for a few minutes before giving me a partial
answer while others could not remember any details. They could remember that there were three
branches but did not understand who lead each category and what they did. When I gave them a
couple hints they were able to piece some of the information together, yet would still mix up which
duties were each branches responsibilities. In order to refresh their memory I decided to give them a
hands on activity that will hopefully help them grasp this concept a little better than before. The
students will be completing a flipbook about the three branches of government. In addition to the
flipbook, they will also watch a short video reviewing the information discussed, and complete a
Kahoot quiz to assess their understanding after completing the activities. By having the students
complete the Kahoot quiz they are participating in an informal evaluation that gives me data to see
what progress is being made. As we have discussed in several education course, both informal and
formal assessments are beneficial because they provide data that can be evaluated. These three
activities will help them have a better understanding of the topic as well as assessing what they were
able to take away from the lesson through a brief quiz.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand – The students will Know – The students will know how Do – The students will complete a
understand what the three branches of to explain the duties of each branch flipbook that provides details about
government are. They will understand of government. They will know what the branches of government. They
that the president is part of the people perform each job in each will be able to explain their
executive branch which carries out branch. The students will also know understanding of the responsibilities
the laws, congress is part of the the differences and similarities each branch has to handle. The
legislative branch which makes the between the three branches. students will be able to discuss and
laws, and the supreme court is part of compare the three branches. This will
the judicial branch which interprets allow them to look past the simple
the laws. details and into other aspects of the
branches duties.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
In order to make sure that the students have understood the information within the activities, we will
have a whole group discussion to go over the details. We will talk about what may still be confusing
and give other examples to help clarify certain details. The students will also be assessed by
completing the Kahoot quiz. This quiz will consist of some questions like the following: “How many
branches of government are there, Who belongs to the legislative branch, What branch does the
president work for, Which branch does not perform the following jobs, What is another name for the
judicial branch?” etc. Each question will have between 2 and 4 answers to choose from. This will
allow me to see what they have learned and what still needs to be reviewed in the future. I will also
push them to think passed what they already know about the branches to see how they can relate to
one another.
Mckynzie Bouches
Sarah Groves- High K. Cassell Elementary
Presented: April 12, 2018
Submitted: April 5, 2018

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING

3.10 The student will recognize the importance of government in the community, Virginia, and the
United States of America by
b) Explaining that the basic purposes of government are to make laws, carry out laws, and
decide if laws have been broken;

F. MATERIALS NEEDED
 Construction paper (provided by myself)
 Branches worksheet (provided by CT)
 Scissors (provided by students)
 Glue stick (provided by students)
 Colored pencils (provided by students)
 Chromebook (provided by students)

G. PROCEDURE
This lesson will be taught during “Power Up” time. This period of the day is after recess
where the students have about 30 minutes to complete work from earlier in the day, finish their reading
rotations, or whole group review time. My cooperating teacher had requested for me to teach this
lesson to the students in order to ensure that they had a better understanding about the three branches
of government. When they were originally taught the information they struggled to fully comprehend
the topic and how they intertwined. Because of this, I will be reviewing the information about the
three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) and what they consist of.

At the beginning of this lesson we will have a 5 minute whole group discussion about what the
students remember learning regarding the branches of government. I will start by asking them simple
questions (How many branches, what are the names of the branches, etc.) to determine the complexity
of the discussion. If the students struggle with some of the simple questions, I will try scaffolding their
thinking. If most of the class does well with the simple questions I will start to look into more complex
questions such as: “How do the three branches work together within the government?” or “”What
happens if one branch is not performing their duties, how will this affect the other branches?”. During
this time the students will be able to use the information as a reminder to what they had previously
leaned. I will then transition the students into watching the video by explaining that the video will
provide further details about these branches that we did not cover in our discussion.

Then, the students will watch a Flocabulary video that is about 5 minutes long, as a reminder
of the specific responsibilities of each branch. These branches and responsibilities include: Legislative
(congress makes the laws), Executive (President carries out the laws), and Judicial (Supreme Court
interprets the laws). The video will also cover more detailed aspects of the branches duties and explain
how they work together as a team without one branch having too much power. We will discuss what
the video talked about to make sure that all of the students were paying attention. We will also
compare as a class what we thought we knew and what the video taught us. I will make sure to answer
any questions that the students may still have after the video. Once, I am sure that the class has the
same understanding I will introduce the flipbook to them.

After I explain the flipbook to the students, I will give them all the materials necessary to
complete this activity. I anticipate this activity will take between 10-15 minutes because the students
will have to gather the materials, cut out the foldable and assemble it. The students will cut out the
foldable from the worksheet given to them and create their own foldable on the construction paper.
When all of the students have completed the flipbook activity I will have them talk to their group
members about what they learned from these activities before coming together as a whole group to
Mckynzie Bouches
Sarah Groves- High K. Cassell Elementary
Presented: April 12, 2018
Submitted: April 5, 2018

briefly discuss the content. I will make sure that the students have a better understanding and feel more
comfortable talking about the branches of government.

Once we finish our small group and whole group discussion we will transition into the Kahoot
by having them add their flipbook to their social studies section in their binder. I will explain that we
will be completing a Kahoot to see what they now know and remember about government. They will
then grab their Chromebooks and begin the Kahoot quiz. This will allow me to see how much
information they retained from the activities. We will review why the answers are correct for each
question to ensure the students are grasping the main idea. The Kahoot will allow me to see who might
still be struggling with this topic and whether or not it should be reviewed again in the future.

H. DIFFERENTIATION
If there were students that were unable to cut out the foldable from the worksheet they could be precut
for them so that they would only have to assemble the pieces. If there was an ELL student in the class
then there could be explanations in their native language to help them better understand the topic and
be able to retain the information given to them. This activity could also be simplified if the students
are really struggling to understand how these branches work within the government. Some students
will have a better understanding than others and be able to catch on to the information. If this is the
case then I can present them with higher questions to make them think deeper about how the
government works. These questions could be “what ifs” or have concrete answers depending on their
level of confidence. For the students that are really struggling I could potentially work closely with
them while others are working on more independent tasks. In the future if this were happening I could
have the students work together to act out the roles therefore allowing them to actually see these parts
play out and work in real life.

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
In this lesson the internet could be down and then both the video and Kahoot would not work. If this
happened I would give them a summary of the video and provide the information that they would have
learned from it. If the Kahoot was not working then I would ask them the questions and have the
students answer on a piece of paper. The students could also be having a bad day and be distracted
therefore not learning what they need to from this lesson. In order to avoid this issue I will try to
maintain the students’ behavior as we transition through the activities.