Teacher:
Kimbra Shaner
Room #: N/A
Lesson # in unit: 2
Period (s): N/A
Topic: Introduction to the Constitution
Social Studies Lesson Objective and Assessment:
By the end of class the student will be able to:
Content Objectives:
SWBAT: identify and summarize the major functions of the Preamble of the
Constitution, use textual evidence to form an opinion on who the Founders
meant by “we the people”
Academic Language Objectives:
SWBAT: define the phrases form a more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty; analyze primary
documents; annotate texts as a literacy strategy
NCSS Thematic Standards
Culture and Cultural Diversity
Power, Authority, and Governance
Time, Continuity, and Change
Production, Distribution, and
Consumption
People, Places, and Environments
Science, Technology, and Society
Individual Development and Identity
Global Connections
Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Civic Ideals and Practices
X
Assessment Statement: What artifacts show they have met the objective?
The students will annotate their own copy of the Preamble in which they
summarize/define the major functions (form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty). They will also
complete a graphic organizer answering questions about five short primary
documents which give insight into who the Founders meant by “we the
people.”
Specific Standard Indicators Aligned with this Lesson:
USG.1.3 Interpret the purposes and functions of government found in the
Preamble of the United States Constitution. (Economics)
Planned Supports for Variety of Learners
Students with IEPs/504 Plans (List Individual’s specific accommodations):
I do not know what the specific needs of my students will be yet, but I start the lesson by asking my students to
do a literacy strategy, annotating, all together; this will help all students better understand the text. I will also
make myself available when they work independently on the primary document organizer for individual questions
and concerns.
Students with Specific Language Needs:
Reading older English can be particularly difficult for EL students. In this lesson, we first read and summarize the
Preamble in our own words as a class so that students can practice decoding the language and see other people
modeling how to decode the language first before trying it on their own. The primary documents are already
pretty short, but depending on the language level of the students as a whole, I might decrease the documents
they look at to three so that the students have enough time to analyze them.
Students with Other Learning Needs:
I will need to define who the “Founders” are and where the Preamble comes from when I introduce the lesson
because I may have students who did not grow up in U.S. schools learning about them.
Learning Tasks:
X Class/Group Discussion
Cooperative Learning/Small Group
X Guided Practice/Teacher Modeling/Demo.
Lecture/Direct Instruction
X Bookwork (Reading)
Question/Answer
Learning Stations
Writing to Learn
Inquiry Learning/PBL
Simulation/Role Playing/Game
Independent Learning
Other
Specific Learning Tasks Description:
The students will begin the unit on the Constitution by
studying the Preamble—what the Founders set out to
do and who they meant to protect. The teacher will
guide the students through reading and annotating the
preamble; together the class will come up with
definitions for the major phrases: form a more perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. Then the
teacher will give the students five short primary
documents that will give the students an idea of who
the Founders meant by “we the people.” They will also
receive a graphic document organizer where they will
note for each document the date, author, and purpose;
quotes which indicate who the founders meant to
include/exclude, and then a summarization in their own
words about who the founders meant by “we the
people.”
Lesson Agenda
Prior Academic Learning and Prerequisite skills (Warm up): How will you support students in accessing prior
knowledge, personal, real world and/or cultural connections?
I will prompt the students to define the functions listed in the Preamble by asking them where and how they have
heard the words used before and then what they might mean in this context. The students who may have studied
the Preamble before might be able to help define the different parts of it for other students who have not studied
it or do not remember it.
Transitioning and Stating Objectives:
Time
5 minutes
15 minutes
10 minutes
Teacher Will Be
Students Will Be
Rationale
Directing students to pick
up necessary materials
and giving students time
to finish bell work –
Completing bell work
signing classroom
discussion agreements
and short “quiz” on
procedures/policies
I am still trying to get my
students in the habit of
doing bell work at the
beginning of class, so I
will ask them to do it
even when it’s not
explicitly about the
content.
Directing students to get Annotating the Preamble
out the copies of the
and offering definitions
Preamble and introducing for the major functions
annotation activity
This activity models
annotation, an important
content literacy skill,
while also helping build
the vocabulary which
students need for the
lesson.
Directing students
towards the primary
documents and graphic
Going through an
example before setting
the students loose to do it
Listening, asking any
questions
organizer; introducing
the activity; going
through one of the short
documents with the
entire class
15 minutes
5 minutes
on their own will help
answer some of the
questions they might
have had and prevent
frustration from kids who
feel like they’re being
asked to do something
difficult without any help
or direction.
Giving students time to
complete the graphic
organizer activity and
walking around room to
monitor progress and
answer questions;
Reading primary
documents is another
important content literacy
skill that I want students
to begin practicing early
Reading primary
in this class. The
documents and filling out documents I provide will
graphic organizer
each be about half a
page; the longest is one
page long. This will also
be a good warm-up for
reading the Constitution,
which is much longer.
Assigning exit ticket:
How has our
understanding of who is
included in “we the
people” changed from
when the Preamble was
written to today?
An exit ticket is a quick
way to check for
understanding that will
Answering and turning in
also help me know if I
exit ticket
need to revise the next
day’s lesson to address
gaps in understanding.
Daily Assessment
Level(s) of Higher Order Thinking
Addressed Today:
knowledge
X comprehension
application
X analysis
synthesis
evaluation
Formative:
X Class discussion
CPS clickers
Email teacher
X Entrance/Exit slip
Teacher Observe
Listened to conversations
Quiz
Thumbs up, neutral, or down
X Homework check
Video quiz
Voting
Whiteboard Check
Other
Summative:
X Test
Project
Report
Presentation
Final Exam
Other
Preparation needed for this Lesson
Materials: classroom agreement contract, bell work “quiz,” copies of the Preamble, primary document packet,
document organizer
Technology: N/A
Copy: classroom agreement contract, bell work “quiz,” copies of the Preamble, primary document packet,
document organizer
Based on student assessment feedback, what is the instructional impact for tomorrow’s lesson:
If the exit ticket or document organizers show that students struggled to understand the primary documents or
connect them with how the Founders understood “we the people,” I will need to take time out of the next day’s
lesson to address how each document pointed to people group(s) being included or excluded.
Other reflections:
Because these students are older, I decided to jump right into content rather than spending a lot of time on get-to-know-you
activities. I plan to have a lot of opinion-based discussions in my classroom (which is why I spend a lot of time on classroom
discussion agreements on the first day), so the students will have a lot of opportunities to share about themselves.