Ragghianti 7
Student Learning PlanSeparation of Powers
Concept Formation Lesson
Context
Overview/Background
This lesson focuses mainly on one SOL objective and touches lightly on two others. The main objective deals with the characteristics of the United States government as stated in the Constitution, more specifically separation of powers. The lesser objectives are skill objectives, which focus on the ability to connect the past to the present (as will be accomplished by examples) and the ability to evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing. This lesson will be taught in the first semester for the school year and will be taught as a concept formation lesson.
Rationale
The purpose of a concept formation lesson is to have students learn an important concept, an intangible idea, by first discovering the concepts critical attributes through a study of examples, then forming their own definition of the concept, and finally labeling the concept. Ideally, concept formation lessons should be a student’s first introduction to the concept and should focus closely on student’s learning the critical attributes. I believe this model of teaching is very appropriate for the concept separation of power. The most effective way to utilize the concept formation lesson for separation of powers is to first provide students with examples of different systems of government that use separations of power and then having them apply the critical attributes they learn to events in United States history. This will allow the student to have a firm grasp of the fact that separation of powers is a concept. It is not exclusive to the United States and while it manifests itself in different forms, the basic ideas, or critical attributes, of the concept do not change. Once the student has a firm understanding of the critical attributes, they can then move to learning more in depth how the United States uses separation of powers by studying different scenarios and events.
Concept formation lessons should not be used on any concept. Rather, concept formation lessons should be utilized when the idea is either paramount to understanding content or when the concept will come up many times throughout the course. The theory of separation of powers, and more specially checks and balances, is a very important concept for students to understand as highlights the idea of equal power extremely well. In addition, there are many instances in history where separation of powers plays a large role, so understanding a somewhat complex concept is essential to student’s knowledge of US history. This is also a concept which is alive and relevant in today’s society, making it doubly important for students properly understand and identify it.
Time
This lesson is designed to take approximately an hour if the “Separation of Powers or Not?!?!?!” worksheet is assigned as homework. If the worksheet is assigned to be completed in class, the lesson should take an hour and twenty minutes.
Grade Level/ Course
- Intended Uses
o 11th Grade
o American Studies/ US History (Williamsburg James City Schools)
- Applicable To
o Any US History or Government course
Objectives
SOL Objectives
US1.7 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the challenges faced by the new nations by
b) identifying the basic principles of the new government established by the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
US1.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographic analysis, including the ability to
b) make connections between the past and present
e) evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing
WJCC Objectives
11) Identify the major compromises necessary to ratify the Constitution.
g. Separation of Powers
Essential Understanding
1) The Constitution of the United States of America established a federal system of government based on power shared.
Essential Knowledge
- WJCC
III. Constitution
B. Key Principles of the Constitution
1) Federalism= division of powers
2) Separation of Powers and checks and balances
- SOL
1) Separation of Powers
a) The structure of the new government was based on James Madison’s “Virginia Plan”, which called for three separate branches of government.
b) Legislative Branch (Congress) makes the laws
1) Congress is a two house legislature in which all states are represented equally in the Senate and people are represented in the House of Representatives
c) Judicial Branch determines if laws made by Congress are constitutional
d) The Executive Branch carries out the laws
2) Checks and Balances
a) Each branch can check the power of the other.
b) These checks keep any one branch from gaining too much power.
NCSS Standards
V) Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions so that the learner can
e) described and examine belief systems basic to specific traditions and laws in contemporary and historic movements.
Lesson Objectives
1) The student will be able to identify the three main critical attributes of separation of powers by correctly identifying the attributes in three examples of the concept from different governments and completing an exit quiz with 100% proficiency.
2) The student will be able to apply the three main critical attributes of separations of powers by labeling provided examples from US history as either examples or non-examples.
Assessment
- Students will be assessed in two ways.
o 1) “Separation of Powers or Not” Worksheet
§ Completed individually and corrected as a class
§ requires students to identify four descriptions as either examples of non-examples of separation of powers in the US
· Example: the student must correctly identify the three main critical attributes
· Non-example: explain why it is a non-example and what would make it an example (teacher created)
§ Will be assigned a page number and included in class binder
· Students will be held accountable for having it completed when binders are collected before unit test
§ Will not be assessed with regular classes
o 2) Completion of the “Concept Formation Guide”
§ completed together and corrected as a class
§ Will be assigned a page number and included in class binder
· Students will be held accountable for having it completed when binders are collected before unit test
o 3) Students will complete a four question exit quiz
§ Graded for correctness
§ Percentage Grades
· Ex: 0 wrong = 100%
· Ex: 2 wrong = 50%
Content and Instructional Strategies
Teaching Styles
- Mini-Lesson
- Guided Group Discussion
Label and Critical Attributes
- Label: Separation of Powers
- Critical Attributes
o 1. Branches within an organization have different and off setting powers, duties, or responsibilities.
o 2. Each branch within the organization has the power to act as a check on other groups.
o 3. Ability to check other branch is to not allow any group to dominate the organization.
Examples
- Examples for Critical Attributes
o United States
o France
o Venezuela
- Examples for US History
o Bailout Plan 2008
o Brown v Board of Education
o Chinese Exclusion Act
o War in Afghanistan
Procedure
1) Hook (5 mins)
o Could be a movie, an example of the concept, etc
o Still developing
2) Explain the purpose of the concept formation lesson (5 mins)
o Looking at a set of examples and answering questions on them
o End goal is to pull out critical attributes of the concept and then label it
o If students figure out the concept before the label, ask them to keep it to themselves.
3) Hand out supplies and start PowerPoint with examples bulleted.
4) Go over the first example (France) as a class (10 mins)
o One student reads example aloud
o Prompt the students to answer the following questions
§ How many different groups are there in this organization?
§ What are the powers of each branch?
§ Do the branches check each other?
§ Does any one group dominate another?
5) Have the students complete the remainder of the “Concept Formation Guide I”, presenting Venezuela first, and then the US (20 mins)
6) Once completed “Concept Formation Guide I”, hand out “Concept Formation Guide II” (20 mins)
o Have student’s first pick out the differences between all the examples.
§ “How are all of the examples different?”
o Come back together as a class and discuss the differences
§ “Why is ______different?”
o Have students then identify the similarities
§ “How are all the examples similar?”
o Come back together as a class and discuss the similarities
o As a class, try to synthesize the similarities down to the critical attributes
§ “Which ones of these similarities go together?”
§ “Do you see a theme developing in the similarities?”
o Then, ask students to individually draw a picture to help them remember the critical attributes
o Ask a few students to share their picture
o Label the concept: Separation of Powers
7) Have students return to their normal seats and hand out “Separation of Powers or Not?!?!”
o Go over the specifics of checks and balances as they relate to checks and balances
o Have students complete the worksheet
§ First two together
§ Students complete the last two
§ Go over together
o Alternately, it can be assigned as homework
8) Before the end of class
o Give students exit quiz
Resources (Appendix II)
- Course Textbook: The Americans. McDougal Littell. Boston, MA 2003.
- Larson, Bruce and Timothy Keiper Instructional Strategies for Middle and High School Students. Routledge, New York, 2007.
- www.wikipedia.org
Differentiation
- Advanced Class
o Will complete the “Separation of Powers or Not?!?!” worksheet
§ Either in class or as homework as time permits
- Regular Class
o Will only complete the chart
- Clarity
o After discussion with teacher
o Simplified language will be used at times
§ Ex: General Characteristics, not Critical Attributes
o Examples
§ Will be presented in a PowerPoint rather than written out examples
§ Simpler to read and understand
Adaptations
IEP and 504
- Lesson will be adapted where necessary to accommodate Individual Education Plans (IEP) and 540 documentation
- Examples
o Provide Partial Notes
o Have students read sources together
o Provide sources as bullet points
§ Handout or PowerPoint
- Adapt assessment assignment where necessary
Reflection
Pre-Reflection
I believe this concept formation lesson will be both appropriate and successful in teaching students about separation of powers. I particularly believe that by presenting how different nations have separation of powers will help to reinforce that separation of powers is not just a US concept, but a concept of government in general. I then think the “Separation of Powers or Not?!?!?” worksheet highlights the US system of checks and balance to assure separation of power. In the end, I believe this lesson has a high likelihood of success and the only issue I forsee is the students not gleaning the right information and attributes from the examples or the “Separation of Powers or Not?!?!?” worksheet. The best way I can see to avoid this is to ensure my examples and questions are clear and to prepare myself for questions and response I might get by talking to my cooperating teacher.
Post-Reflection
I believe this lesson on the whole was very successful and resulted in a great deal of student learning. I taught this lesson to one of my three classes due mainly to the nature of the lesson as my CT felt the Advanced American Studies was more equipped to gain the most from the lesson. My students did an excellent job working through the examples using the guided worksheet and were easily able to identify similarities and differences. In fact, I believe they discovered the critical attributes of separation of powers so quickly that I could have provided more complex examples and less scaffolding without losing comprehension. The one major flaw in the lesson was that I tried to do too much. The students had a clear understanding what separation of powers was, but had difficultly applying the critical attributes of the concept to examples of checks and balances. I believe this is because I did not spend enough time explaining checks and balances and assumed they could make the connection between the two.
This flaw leads to one of the major changes I will make to this lesson in the future. A concept formation lesson should focus on one concept. While I saw checks and balances as an example of separation of powers, I learned this connection was too much for the students. I should have had the examples after the formation be purely separation of powers driven and saved checks and balances for another day. It is important to ensure students have mastery of one concept before moving to another. I also made some changes to this lesson before I taught it. For one, we did not use groups but rather had a full class concept formation lesson. This was done mainly as at the request of my CT, but also was done to help classroom management for my first lesson. I also used a PowerPoint presentation with bulleted points rather than the text handouts below. While these two adjustments were helpful, I believe I could easily do the lesson as written, especially considering how quickly the students got it this time. The one major change I would make is to make the examples exercise more aligned with the concept formation. I would also consider having a more challenging formation in general.
I believe this lesson had mixed results regarding the Power and Authentic Social Studies (PASS) Standards. I think I would have scored rather high in the deep knowledge, higher order thinking, and connections beyond the classroom due to the nature of concept formations. I think I would have scored average in ethical valuing and substantive conversation (due mainly to how easy the activity seemed to be for them). Integration ratings would likely have been low, since the only other discipline or medium I used was the PowerPoint presentation.
Name:______
Period:______
Concept Formation Guide I
How many different groups are in this organization? / What are the powers of each branch? / Are there checks in place? / Is any branch the strongest? Why or why not?FRANCE
VENEZEULA
UNITED STATES
Name:______