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Lesson Plan: A Review of our Historical Documents Lesson Plan #1 for HITS – Summer 2007 July 16, 2007 Course: (Spanish Immersion)
# Days: 1 to 2 block classes Lesson: A Review of our historical documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and related terminology/vocabulary. Prelude to an introduction to U.S. History and the concept of differing perspectives and their effect on our interpretation of various sources – both primary and secondary Standards: Government and Citizenship: Students will know the purpose, function and limits of our republic. Students will define consent of the governed, liberty, equality, rights, responsibilities, justice, popular sovereignty, and general welfare, democracy, republic, and representative democracy. Content and Habits of Thinking: Familiarization with principal historical documents: Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. Students may be guided to use Cornell notes for defining terms and organizing information. Students will be required to collaborate and organize the vocabulary, using higher order thinking skills. They will be asked to explain their rationale and ideas to the larger group. Guiding Questions: Overarching: How can the study of our historical documents help us to understand our government today? How might different perspectives of authors affect our understanding of U.S. History? * What important historical documents do we associate with the * What was their purpose? Do they still serve a purpose today? * How are specific words or phrases associated with these documents? * How are these words also associated with the * How are they used and for what purposes? Lesson Sequence and Instructional Strategies: Preparation: Students will be given a list of words to look up and define for homework. See below. What words do we associate with the democracy, representative democracy government, consent of the governed freedom independence, equality, justice, liberty, popular sovereignty, property, republic, rights, responsibilities, citizenship Warm-up: Students should copy the first two questions from above into their notebook. Have students think about and write answers to the questions individually. With teacher guidance, the class will develop the list of documents to include the following: Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights After an introduction to the documents, students will be divided into groups of three and directed to look them up in their textbook and develop a description of their assigned document, including the date written, and their purpose. They should find the documents in their text, carefully reading the first paragraph or two, and then scanning the rest to be able to make some conclusions. Note: Before beginning, it may be helpful to discuss how to respectfully delegate work in groups, depending on their group work experience and expertise. Also, some examples of accountable talk might be helpful to review before beginning. After sharing their findings with each other, students will be asked to review their definitions of the vocabulary words. Each group will be given a poster paper and markers. Students will be asked to fold the paper into three columns, title each column with each one of the documents we are studying, and write a brief description including year and purpose below each one. Then, they need to organize the words under the three documents based on their meaning (i.e. not based on the numbers of letters in the word, alphabetical, or something similar). They must be able to give a reason for why they chose to organize the words the way they did. Day #2: Groups will be asked to share their work, taping the posters around the room. Each group will provide an explanation of their reasoning for sorting the words the way the did with the various documents. Finally, students will be asked to create a poem using the words or the title of one of the documents. (If time allows, students could begin work on their poem during the last part of the class.) Suggestions for types of poems might be diamante (words will form the shape of a diamond on the page) or cinquain (name, two adjectives, three verbs, simile, synonym for the first line) or acrostic (the letters of the word go down the page and form the first letter of each line of the poem). The goal of this activity is to help the students engage in the meaning of the words/phrases they have worked with and creatively share with each other what they have learned. The teacher will supply three different samples of poems, and discuss the rubric for the poem and its presentation before students begin work. Students will share their poems with each other – either on return to class after homework or at the end of the activity. Assessments: Notes (could be on Cornell notepaper for practice in using them) – to include notes on the three documents and definitions of the vocabulary words Group work – evidence of cooperation and collaboration in the creation of the poster Poem Instructional Considerations: (Group Work, Differentiation) If this unit is to serve as an introductory class, students will need to be directed on how to collaborate effectively in a group. Introducing one another to each other, respecting each other and each others’ opinion, dividing and sharing the work, accountable talk, etc. will be things that should be discussed before breaking into groups. If Cornell notes will be used, time needs to be allotted for describing the process of using this system of note-taking. Materials needed: Textbooks which include a copy of the text of the three documents Glossary or dictionaries Poster paper Markers How does this lesson fit with prior and future lessons? Comments: This lesson is meant to be a prelude to a lesson about differences in interpretation of documents and words associated with them and with our country.
Diamante: (in the shape of a diamond) Equality Freedom Consent of the governed Representative democracy Responsibilities Democracy Citizenship Vote! Cinquain: (name, two adjectives, three verbs, simile, synonym for the first line) Valuable, alive Balancing, protecting, guiding Like the rules of a game Contract Acrostic: (the letters of the word are written vertically and form the first letter of each line of the poem) Historias y cuentos Intereste Siempre parte de nosotros Tiempo pasando Otras vidas y épocas Reconociendo hechos y personas importantes Ideas que cambian el mundo Argumentos para mejorar el futuro
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