Concept Formation Lesson Plan
Context: This lesson plan is designed for 11th graders in Advanced American History. They will need no prior background knowledge. The lesson plan will investigate the changing political parties during the Jacksonian Era. The beginning of the lesson will be concept formation. They will compare and contrast the views of 1820s political parties, giving them examples and non-examples. The students will be given a handout on modern politicians with their political views. They will have to decide which political party of the 1820s these modern day politicians fit into. The students will be surprised to find that Republicans of today resemble the Democrats of the 1820s and vice versa. Representing these different political perspectives will engage the student in high leveling thinking while still answering the essential question of SOL VUS6.d “In what ways did political democracy change following the War of 1812?” After completing the concept formation portion of the lesson the students will be continue to go through a PowerPoint that lays out the election of 1828 and controversial topics during Jackson’s presidency. This lesson should last approximately 95 minutes.
Objectives: 1) Students will be able to identify the political parties of the 1820s and their political stances.
2) Students will be able to categorize politician’s views and put them into the political groups of the 1820s
3) Students will be able to compare and contrast the differences between 1820s political groups
4) Student will be able to criticize the major topics of Jackson’s presidency
5) Students will be able to analyze Jackson’s presidency and be able to support and oppose the idea of “King Andrew” or “Andrew Jackson, Champion of the Common Man”
Assessment: Assessment will take shape in a variety of different forms throughout the lesson. While the instructor lectures they should be asking probing questions to make sure that the students are getting a basic understanding of what is being discussed. The modern politician’s sheet will be collected to see if they could make the jump between the ideals of the modern politicians and the political parties of the 1820s. At the end of the lesson the students will have to complete an exit ticket which will ask them to support Andrew Jackson as King Andrew or the Champion of the Common Man with at least three supporting reasons. This will draw on their knowledge of his presidency as well as his party politics during his presidency.
Content and Instructional Strategies:
Concept to be formulated: Political Parties change over time.
Bell Ringer/Role (10 minutes) – The students will take their seats quietly while role is being taken. A bell ringer with questions reviewing the day’s previous material on the election of 1824 will be on the board for the students answer.
PowerPoint (20 minutes) - The students will be given a handout to fill out while the teacher presents a PowerPoint on the political parties of the 1820s. The students will be taking notes on the key characteristics of each party which they will reference in the next activity. These notes also provide adequate examples and nonexamples of what characteristics are crucial to each party. They will also be given a chart to help conceptualize their ideas.
Modern Politicians Handout (10 minutes) - The students will be given a handout with modern politicians and their views on it. They will have to analysis these views individually first and decided what party they belong too. After they decide what party they belong too they will have to answer why they think that. They will then confer with the student next to them and see whether they agree or disagree. Below is a list of critical attributes of each party. By seeing a list of examples of what each party should look like they are also creating non-examples by comparison.
1) Democratic Party
- Proponents of Manifest destiny
- Extending the Franchise
- Laissez-Faire Economics
- Patronage/Spoils System
2) National Republican/ Whig Party-
- Strong Federal Government
- Strong National Bank
- The American System
- Universal Public Education
3) Know-Nothing Party
- Severe Limits on Immigration
- Restricted political office to native born Americans
- Temperance Movement and the restrictions on the sale of liquor
- Restricted use of languages other than English
Class Discussion (10 minutes) – The teacher will go over the handout and see what conclusions the students came too. The handout will be intentionally designed to have disagreements between students so that they engage in civil discourse. If all the students agree the teacher will play devil’s advocate to push for higher level thinking. This is where the concept will come together. I will ask them what surprises they encountered when they were working on their worksheet and I will facilitate conversation until the students realize how these two political parties have in fact switched over the years.
PowerPoint (10 minutes) - Students will continue to fill out their handout while the instructor lectures about the election of 1828 and some of the major issues of Jackson’s presidency. The instructor will take this portion of the class to emphasis the good Jackson did in his presidency, like extending the franchise and his appeal to the common man.
YouTube (10 minutes) - The instructor will put show the two YouTube clips that are already linked within the PowerPoint. One is of Will Ferrell impersonating George W. Bush on his farm while he appeals to the common man. The second clip is a campaign clip from the 2000 election featuring George W. Bush appealing to the common man. The idea behind this activity is to engage the students further in their understanding, but also to show that Jackson’s appeal to the common man is something that politicians still do today. The instructor must show both videos because the first one will get the students engaged and laughing at something while the second video drives the point home that appealing to the common man is not something that politicians have lost touch with.
PowerPoint (10 minutes) – The lesson returns to the PowerPoint and the teacher now emphasizes the power that Jackson exercised during his reign (i.e. the veto of the national bank and Indian Removal). The instructor wills now emphasis the more controversial issues of Jackson’s presidency.
Discussion (10 minutes) – The students will then engage in a discussion about Jackson’s presidency. Jackson is either seen as a corrupt tyrant who exercised his complete authority over those he ruled or as the champion of the common man who fought for the common man’s ideals and beliefs. The students will partake in civil discourse as the instructor will play devil’s advocate if all the students seem to agree.
Informal Assessment (5 minutes) - The students will have to two tasks to complete at the end of class. First, they must list which political party of the 1820s they most agree with and the reasons why. This should reflect the political views that they learned about previously in the lessons and engage them deeper into the material. Then, they will have to decide whether or not Andrew Jackson should be viewed as “King Andrew”, the power hunger monarch, or “Champion of the Common Man”, the president who fought for the common man making his views matter.
Resources: The things you will need for the lesson are as follows: a laptop with PowerPoint, the PowerPoint, and the handout for the PowerPoint, the handout comparing Modern politicians to 1820’s political parties, access to the internet and YouTube
Differentiation: Depending on the class make up there are a lot of different things the instructor can do with this lesson. The lesson is designed so that it can be flexible. The lesson can have more discussion or it could be more lectured based depending on the behavior of the class. The lesson has visuals and visual aids to help visual learners understand the concepts and ideas better, but is also complimented by a lecture that keeps the attention of the auditory learners. The students will be constantly engaged in either a hand out or an activity so that their interests are kept and focused on the task at hand.
Adaptations: To support the learners in my classrooms who have IEPs or 504, the notes will be made available to them to look over while I am lecturing. This gives them the answers to the handouts so that they will not fall behind due to processing or because I am going to fast through the material. The visuals used in the PowerPoint will help those visual learners and the lecture will help audio learners process the material. The lesson is set up in a way to give the students as many opportunities as possible to make connections with the material.
Reflection: I believe that this lesson can be very productive and useful in the classroom. It not only deals with the idea that political parties are constantly changing and that’s why it’s so important to have a grasp on what each party is advocating, but also deals with Andrew Jackson’s presidency who helped form American Democracy as we know it today. Some issues that could arise during this lesson are technical issues. If the PowerPoint doesn’t work or if there is any problem with technology, this lesson can still survive on its own. In that case I would recommend that the instructor have an understanding of the political parties of the 1820s and be able to write on the board the similarities and differences between the parties as the students discuss them in class. This way the concept formation portion of the lesson is not lost and the instructor can just continue using the handout as a guide for the lesson even if they do not have the PowerPoint and visuals to go along with them. I believe that this way the informal assessments are still valid and necessary to complete. The students will still not need any background information on the lesson, so everything should still be able to happen.
Post Reflection: I felt really good about how this lesson went. I was nervous because it was my first time having the class all to myself; however, I felt that everything went really well. The students settled in quickly and we dove right into the material. The modern politician’s activity I thought was especially useful to the students because they were asking a lot of great questions about changes over time and I could tell that they were “getting it.” The only thing that kind of made me rush a little bit was that it was picture day in school. 15 minutes of my lesson had to be cut because we had to go down to the auditorium to take pictures. However, this also allowed me to have a few minutes to reflect on a couple things. I noticed I was speaking very fast and that I really needed to slow down so the students could process the material. When we got back into the classroom I was really happy how well the students were able to get settled and get back into the material. I slowed down and felt more comfortable when we got back into the classroom. I really think they enjoyed the Youtube videos and that they actually got something out of it. Afterwards a student asked why did we watch those videos and we opened up a small class discussion and together they were able to figure out why they were shown. I really enjoyed leading the class discussion and helping them find the right answers. Lastly, I was very pleased with the handouts and informal assessments I collected. They were thoughtful in their reasoning for why Andrew Jackson should be viewed as a tyrant or as a champion and the handouts were completed with excellent reasoning. Overall, I really enjoyed my first teaching experience and look forward to the next time.
The Handout for the Students to follow during the PowerPoint (Questions in bold correspond to Concept Formation portion of the lesson)
Name: ______
Date: ______
Jacksonian Era
- Who were four candidates running for President in 1824?
- What is the difference between plurality and majority?
- How did Jackson lose the election even though he had the most electoral votes?
- What was the corrupt bargain and who were the individuals involved?
- What parties was a part of the First Party System?
- List three ideals of the Democratic Party.
- List three ideals of the Whig Party.
- What was the American system?
- List three ideals of the Know-Nothing Party.
- What parties was a part of the First Party System?
- What were the characteristics of politics in the Age of the Common Man?
- What happened to voting qualifications between 1800 and 1830? Why?
- Why were there only two candidates in the election of 1828?
- What voters did Jackson rely on in the election of 1828?
- Why did Jackson win so convincing?
- What controversial issues defined Jackson’s presidency?
- How did Jackson’s opponent view the spoils system?
- Why did the spoils system fail in the long term?
- What policies defined Andrew Jackson as the Champion of the Common Man?
- What was the tariff of Abomination?
- How did it affect the South’s economy?
- What was nullification theory?
- What was the Force Bill?
- How was the nullification crisis and secession avoided?
- Give three reasons Jackson did not trust banks.
- What was Manifest Destiny?
- How did the Louisiana Purchase propel the idea of Manifest Destiny?
- What was the Indian Removal Act of 1830?
- Why was it referred as the Trail of Tears?
- Did the South support Indian Removal? Why or why not?
Name: ______