TEKS Based Lesson Plan
Subject: 8th Grade History
Weeks: 2nd Nine Weeks Group 2
Unit of Study: Crisis and Resolution
Essential Questions:
• How did first American political parties originate?
TEKS/Essence Statements:
8.21) Citizenship. The student understands the importance of the expression of different points of view
in a constitutional republic. The student is expected to:
(A) identify different points of view of political parties and interest groups on important historical
and contemporary issues;
Critical Skills/Postsecondary Goals:
This section needs to be completed based on the students in your class.
Instruction/Classroom Activities:
Small Group Instruction:
1. Hand out party hats and favors to each student. The party hats will be labeled 1-3. Tell the
students we are going to have a party but it is going to be a different type of party that they will
create themselves called a political party.
2. Ask the students if they have ever heard of a political party or the words Republican and/or
democrat. Explain that government is all around us and that decisions made by government affect
us. Many times in cities, states and countries, groups of people who share the same political
opinions want their government to make decisions in a certain way. Many times the people who
hold opinions in common form a group that elects leaders who best promote those ideas. These
groups are called political parties.
3. Explain that the political parties encourage voters to support their candidates through many
methods such as sponsoring debates, advertising, fundraising, and letter or e-mail writing
campaigns, slogans, making speeches and hosting big meetings called conventions. Show the
students show political party advertisements from the computer.
4. Discuss the first political parties created.
5. Divide students into two to three groups. The number on their party hat determines to which group
they belong. Each group will form a political party. The group is responsible for identifying their
group with a name, an animal symbol, slogans, a site for their convention, campaign hats, buttons,
pennants, etc., an issues platform and an opening speech for their convention.
6. Students should be encouraged to develop a name and animal symbol that are connected in some
way to a quality they think government should possess. Discourage the use of names of sports
teams or other unrelated names. Each group will be given a chart paper or poster board. They will
design a political poster incorporating their party's name and animal mascot. The students will
present their posters to the class.
7. Explain to students that political parties use conventions as a way to publicize the party's platform
and choose candidates. To illustrate the idea of a platform, lay out sentence strips with schoolrelated opinions on each strip (e.g., "school lunch should be ten minutes longer," "there should be
a social hour for students," etc.). Step on the "platform" of strips and model a short speech about
the ideas presented there. Discuss the connection of your "platform" to your speech's content.
North East Independent School District
TEKS Based Lesson Plan
8. The students will design campaign hats, pins, buttons and pennants. Museums in your area may
have extensive collections of campaign materials or a guest speaker who is a collector might offer
advice. If no resource person or collection is available, then examples can be seen at Duke
University's "America Votes."
9. At the conclusion of all conventions, students will choose the parties that they liked the best and
explain their reasoning verbally or in writing. Explain to students that in some states, voters must
choose or "declare" a particular party when they register to vote. Learn more about voting and
voter registration by playing the interactive game, "Inside The Voting Booth
Stations/Centers:
o Word Wall Vocabulary Activities
o Political Party Match
Individualized Communication Planning: This section needs to be completed based on the
individualized communication needs of the students in your class.
Differentiated Tasks:
Level 3
Level 2
Level 1
The students will create
The students will identify a
The students will participate in
political party to include the
political party, which will
creating political party to include
name, mascot, and platform.
include the name, mascot, and
the name, mascot, and platform.
Students will generate a
platform.
Students will participate in a
platform speech.
Students will present a platform
platform speech.
speech.
Materials/Resources:
Party hats and favors, sentence strips
Assessment Strategies: This section needs to be completed based on the strategies appropriate for the
students in your class.
IEP Connections: This section needs to be completed based on the IEPs documented in the students’
ARDs in your class.
North East Independent School District