Overview | Content Knowledge | Essential Questions | Connection To Standards | Initiating Activity | Learning Experiences | Culminating Performance | Pre-Requisite Skills | Modifications | Schedule/Time Plan | Technology Use
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LU Title: Letters to the Government |
Author(s): Ted Binion |
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Grade Level: 7th |
School : Ogdensburg Middle School |
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Topic/Subject Area: Government/Social Studies |
Address: 1100 State Street Ogdensburg, NY 13669 |
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Email: tbinion@ogdensburg.neric.org |
Phone/Fax: 393-0900 |
This unit is designed to have the students become active participants in their local, state, or federal governments. They will write a letter to one of their governmental representatives about a "problem" and "solution" of their choice.
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Declarative |
Procedural |
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Three Branches of Government |
Using the internet for research |
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Checks and Balances |
Writing a business letter |
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Federalism |
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How can US citizens, of any age, become involved in our representative form of government?
CONNECTIONS TO NYS LEARNING
STANDARDS
List Standard # and Key Idea #: Write out
related Performance Indicator(s) or Benchmark(s)
Social Studies Standard 1
Key Idea 1
Interpret the ideas, values, and beliefs contained in the Declaration of Independence and the New York State Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other important historical documents.
Social Studies Standard 5
Key Idea 3
Discuss the role of an informed citizen in today’s changing world.
ELA Standard 1
Key Idea 1
Interpret and analyze information from textbooks and nonfiction books for young adults, as well as reference materials, audio and media presentations, oral materials, graphs, charts, diagrams, and electronic data bases intended for a general audience.
ELA Standard 3
Key Idea 2
Present clear analyses of issues, ideas, texts, and experiences, supporting their positions with well-developed arguments.
The students will engage in a brainstorming activity where they will list as many "problems" as they can in two minutes. The students will list these "problems" in one of three columns -Local, New York State, or National.
LEARNING
EXPERIENCES
In chronological order including acquisition experiences and
extending/refining
experiences for all stated declarative and procedural
knowledge.
The following learning experiences were designed to be completed within a typical 40-minute class period or less. However, they can be modified to meet the different ability levels of the students.
"Three Branches of Government"
Acquisition (constructing)
The students will complete a "K-W-L" worksheet on what they Know, Want to know, and Learned about the three branches of government. Many of the students are already familiar with this concept from their 5th grade social studies class
Acquisition (organization)
The students will complete a graphic organizer that demonstrates the three branches of government. The graphic organizer is in the shape if a tree with a separate branch for the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The tree trunk is labeled "government" and the roots are labeled "the people."
Acquisition (storing)
The students will create a "mind map" where they fill in any missing information. It is organized into a chart starting with the three branches of government, then down to who heads each of the three branches, and finally to the function each branch has regarding the law.
Extending (comparing)
The students will compare the Federal and the New York State three branches of government. They will complete a graphic organizer to list how the three branches are alike and how they are different.
"Checks and Balances"
Acquisition (constructing)
The students will engage in a "3-minute pause" activity during the lecture/note taking discussion. Roughly every 8 minutes, I will pause for 3 minutes to allow the students to summarize what they had learned thus far.
Acquisition (organization)
The students will complete a graphic organizer shaped as a triangle. Each point represents a different branch of government.
Acquisition (storing)
The students will complete a "visual chain" representing the checks and balances system. The visual chain will consist of a smaller open triangle inside a larger open triangle. The points of the two triangles represent a different branch of government. Using arrowheads on the two triangles, the smaller triangle will point in a clockwise direction, while the larger triangle will point in a counter-clockwise direction. The students will be able to visualize how the checks and balances system "flows" in both directions.
Extending (deduction)
The students will list some of the reasons why our founding fathers established the checks and balances system. They will complete a graphic organizer to show the reasons for this system.
"Federalism"
Acquisition (constructing)
The students will engage in a "3 minute pause" activity where every 8 minutes I will pause for 3 minutes to have the students summarize what they learned thus far. It works out to a pause after a discussion of the powers of the federal government, powers of the state governments, and powers that are shared by both governments.
Acquisition (organization)
The students will complete a graphic organizer that consists of two interlocking circles. One circle is for the powers granted to the federal government, the other circle is for the powers granted to the state governments, and the intersecting space is for the powers shared by both governments.
Acquisition (storing)
The students will create a "mental picture" of the powers granted to the federal and state governments. They will visualize the diagram and its various components. This mental picture would take the form of the Venn diagram mentioned above.
Extending (classifying)
The students will rank the various powers granted to each government in order "importance." They will complete a graphic organizer that includes a space for the students to list the reasons why they ranked the powers in a particular order.
CULMINATING
PERFORMANCE
Include rubric(s)
The students will write a business letter to a member of our local, state, or federal government. These letters will address a "problem" of the student’s choice and a "solution" of the student’s creation.
The students will also have an opportunity to meet some of their local and state representatives in an assembly. Next year we would like to invite State Senator James Wright, Assemblywoman Deirdre Scozzafava, Bill Lacy from the St. Lawrence County Legislature, and Ogdensburg Mayor Bill Nelson to return.
Support 25 Provides accurate and more than adequate support for the problem and solution through the use of examples or details.
20 Provides accurate, adequate support for the problem and solution through the use of examples or details.
15 Provides accurate but not adequate support for the problem and solution. (more examples and details are needed).
10 Support for the problem and solution is inadequate, but may also be inaccurate. (few details or examples are given).
Mechanics 25 Accurate use of mechanics is evident throughout the letter.
20 Few errors in mechanics are evident throughout the letter.
15 Several errors in mechanics are evident throughout the letter.
10 Many errors in mechanics are evident throughout the letter.
A passing familiarity with using the internet for research and any word processing program.
Some students COULD be provided with more direction in focusing on a specific problem or solution as necessary. Also, the library media specialist and I divided each class so he could teach half of them at a time how to use the computer resources while I worked with the other half on generating ideas for research.
This four week project included class time for library research (two periods) and reviewing the students’ outlines and rough copies (two periods).
The students used a number of websites for researching the most
current information. In addition, the students were required to
type their rough and final copies of their letters. Any student
that did not have access to a computer was given top priority to
the computers located in the library.
The following websites provide current as well as retrospective articles on contemporary social issues. It should be noted that all of these sites represent pay services.
Electric Library: http://www.elibrary.com
– This online research service provides full text documents from periodicals, newspapers, wire services, and television and radio transcripts. Articles can be sorted by publication, date, document size, reading level and publication. This service also sorts documents alphabetically by title.
Newsbank: http://infoweb.newsbank.com
– News articles from more than 500 U.S. regional and national newspapers are provided. Articles from wire services and broadcasts are also available.
Proquest: http://proquest.umi.com
– Full text articles can be searched by date range and/or publication type. Articles come from a variety or periodicals, newspapers, and reference books. This service is continuously updated.
SIRS Discoverer on the Web- http://discoverer.sirs.com
– This interactive reference database is designed for middle school aged students. It consists of full text articles from numerous magazines, newspapers and government documents. Search methods include keyword search, subject headings search and a user-friendly subject tree search.
Wilson Reader’s Guide Abstracts: http://www.hwwilson.com
– These databases index periodicals most often found in secondary schools, colleges and public libraries. The abstracts provide a summary of the scope and content of articles from the publications.