Megan Courtney Name: To Be An American Class/Subject: Civics Date: 3-15-2012 Objective: To have students analyze different aspects of American

n Culture and how they personally relate to their lives. For students to recognize that Content Standards: 4.A.5 Analyze ways in which federalism protects individual rights and promotes the common good and how at times has made it possible for states to protect and deny rights for certain groups. 3.C.5a Communicate information and ideas in narrative, informative and persuasive writing with clarity and effectiveness in a variety of written forms using appropriate traditional and/or electronic formats; adapt content, vocabulary, voice and tone to the audience, purpose and situation. Material/Resources/Technology Computer/Projector Scaffolding Worksheets Bellwork Question List of Historic Quotes Teachers Goals: For students to begin building links between good citizenship skills and implementation For students to produce a strong piece of writing on their opinions. Time: 55 min 10 min Start of class: Teacher will hand out Scaffolding Worksheets. Teacher, as bellwork, will ask students to define what civic value is and the three most important civic values. Teacher will then group students together to share their opinions. 10 min Introduction to the lesson: Teacher begins conversation on American value, by giving the students what she feels is the most important civic value. Then students volunteer their own opinions on civic values to the classroom. 30 min Lesson Instruction: 1. Teacher places scaffolding worksheet up on the monitor so

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that class could follow along together. 2. Teacher hands out historic quotes sheet to students. Students will pick out two quotes that they feel work with their civic values. 3. Students will then get together in their groups to discuss their decisions of historic groups. Teacher will share her favorite quote, and ask for a few volunteers to give the class theirs. 4. Teacher will then ask students to think of two historic figures that represent their civic value. Before giving them time to think, the teacher gives her personal experience. 5. Once students have written down two historic examples, the groups will reform to share answers. Then the teacher will bring the class back together, and ask for volunteers to give answers. 6. The teacher, using her own examples, will share how the civic value, historic quote, and historic figure affect her life personally. 7. Once the teacher is sure that students are comfortable with the information, teacher will ask students to answer Question 4 in a short essay, about a page long. Checks for understanding: Teacher will listen to the responses students give during the different steps, and adjust understanding if needed. At the end of the period, the teacher will collect the short writing assignment to be read and analyzed. Closure: As students complete their writing assignments, teacher will turn on CNN student news so that students can receive some news information. Self-Assessment: Teacher will reflect on how the lesson went, and see if the writing prompts were what the teacher were looking for. Determine whether the scaffolding was able to allow the students to complete the writing assignment.