Introduction
Description: This is a five-day web quest that will carry on for five days of learning task using a variety of components in Social Studies Civic/Government.
Grade Level: 4th
Curriculum: Social Studies Civic/Government
Keywords: Chief Executive, Congress, Citizen, Laws, Judicial, Democracy, Federal Government, Separation of Powers, Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, Judicial Branch, U. S. Senate, House of Representatives, Delegates, Election, Checks and Balances and Bill.
During this Web Quest the students will learn and explore about the United States Government and it will allow the students to understand the development of structures of power for sustaining stability in societies. This assignment is important for facilitating students to understand and recognize the value of the distinctive characteristics of American democracy. The Web Quest goal and task is to give knowledge to the students about the government. There will be internet access to help with research from websites that will test the student’s knowledge gained with a few games to make it more fun. By the end of the assignment the students will know in depth about the three branches of government.
Task
What is the purpose for three branches of government? What are their functions and how is it structured and how do they interrelate? As a citizen what is my role towards the government? Why do we need a government? How does our country’s court system affect the lives of citizens? How are our government’s and courts practices related to and influenced by time, place and events?
The assignment is designed to help you to understand what is government and how it works and who has the power. There are three branches of government that will be a part of your research and find out the structure and function of each branch of government.
During this time of discuss you will need to take good notes to help to get a foundational understanding of what all will be entailed and the responsibility gathering enough information to guide you through the completion of the assignment that will be due by the end of the week. The assignment will involve in making a presentation by using props, posters and visual aids to exhibit a demonstration of the three branches of government. The students will also be assigned to read Units 1, 2, and 3 in the textbook while working on the assignment.
Students will be formed into small groups of four and given questions of information to research regarding U. S. Government. On the following day of presentation there will be a vocabulary quiz and ten questions exam given at the end of the assignment.
Process
Step 1: Students will answer the following question regarding the U. S. Government and the three branches of government. The students will be divided into five students/group. The following questions will be handed out to each group with a total of five questions per group?
1.What is government and why do we have it?
2.What are the three branches of government?
3.What is the structure of the government?
4.What is the function or duties of each branch of government?
5.How does our country’s court system affect the lives of citizens?
6.What do laws help to provide and why are they important?
7.How do ideas, leaders and events from U. S. history affect our lives today?
8.How can individuals participate in and influence their state and national government.?
9.What does citizenship and living in a civil society mean?
10.Where does power to govern come from?
11.What does it mean to live in a democracy
12.Why do we need laws?
13.What would happen if we had no government?
14.How do governments get and use power?
15.How are governments maintained and changed?
16.What impact can citizens have on government?
17.How many people sit on the Supreme Court and what is the term for a judge?
18.Who can veto the President of the United States?
19.What limits the government’s authority?
20.Who impeaches the President and what are the requirements?
21.What is a bill and a law?
22.Where are the proposed laws sent to be passed?
23.What is the term of the United States President?
24.How does the government influence public opinion and values?
25.What does a government need to do to survive?
Step 2: Once all your questions have been answered in your group then start to gather the material that will be needed for your visual presentation. You will need butcher paper or poster board, glue, pencil colors, ruler and magazines or pictures from the internet.
Whatever questions each group was assigned needs to have information about the questions as well as the three branches.
The posters need to be lively and colorful. Presentation is very important and being able to demonstrate what you have learned from your research will help when giving your presentation.
Evaluation
The students will be graded on a 100% grading scale. There will be 25% requirement for each section. This is considered the student's maximum grade.
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Evaluation Rubric of U.S. Government |
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1
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2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
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Working together in a Group |
Impacted a little to the set grouping project |
Participated a little in the group but stayed on task for some of the assignment. |
Worked together with group members with all parts of the assignment. |
Worked together in the group. Helped the group to stay focused on the assignment. |
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Completion of the Poster |
The Poster had information that was not included |
Poster has few of the recommended items, but still not complete |
The poster has all the required items. |
The poster has all the required items and is well organized. |
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Group Presentation with Poster |
Impacted a little to project presentation |
Participated partially in the presentation but others did majority of the work |
Took an active role in the presentation. Everyone participated. |
Took a leader role in the presentation. |
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The 3 Branches of Government Questions |
All the questions were partially answered |
Not all the questions were answered. |
All questions were answered completely but partially stated. |
All questions were completely and clearly stated. |
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Conclusion
The students will have the ability to learn about the function and structure of the government of the U. S. Understand how the government works is extremely important. The students should be able to know the three governing body that makes up the laws and also carries out the laws that truly have been broken.
Credits
Once the assignment has been completed the student should be able to give distinct detail the function and structure of each branch of the government. Including a presentation that has detail one of the branch of government that enforces the ability of checks and balances of the each branch that shows how they have achieved knowledge about the U.S. Government.
Teacher Page
Academic Content of the Lesson on U.S. Government
Language Arts
Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies
Comprehension Strategies, Academic Vocabulary and Language and Cooperative Learning, Formative Assessment Process
- Identifying key ideas, supporting details
- Select, create and use graphic organizers to interpret textual information
- Answer literal, inferential, evaluative and synthesizing questions to demonstrate comprehension of grade-appropriate print texts, electronic and visual media.
The U.S. Government and the Three Branches of Government
The U.S. Government that we have the wonderful privilege to live in a democracy where we have so many freedoms that not many other countries are allotted. The assignment chosen, U.S. Government the Three Branches of government seemed to be something that would give the students an overall view of what our government is made up of a group of people who were put in place by the people. How to make this assignment exciting would be a little challenging but it would be worth it. If there is a way to motivate students to learn social studies and find it to be exciting and fun, then learning about the Three Branches of Government can be fun ride for both the teacher and the student.
The whole idea of getting the students involved would be to have them interact with each other and use events that were current to help them to relate to what was going on now. Teaching social studies is not a high requirement in most state and this causes big problems in the future especially when it comes to using their right to vote. In our society, today politics has taken place or affects so many arena of our lives and getting kids involved early in life about the government can be a great asset in their life to come.
As U.S. citizens, these young adventurous minded students need to understand their role as future U.S. citizens who will one day be political leaders and make important decisions for our country. In the U.S. today, there is only one state that can be considered as keep up with the tradition of teaching students about our own country would be South Carolina. There is a study done that ranked the standards for history to be taught in all 49 states that Rhode Island has no mandatory requirements standards for teaching social studies but just a guideline by suggestion. The state of South Carolina is the only state that would be ranked number 1 on the list that makes it a mandate to teach social studies.
Many students in our classrooms are flunking out about information of their own country. It is a sad situation when we find that people who are from another country seem to know more about the U.S. Government and their laws then their own citizens. Just today alone, many high schools do not recommend students to even take a Civic/Government class. Teaching government, civics and history is eventually becoming an important factor that is an important subject that is needed. Due to so many distractions especially with the internet and social media many students are disconnected from the civic and political life. Allowing students to have total control over what they are learning gives them a sense of independence a belief system that makes them believe that they can conqueror anything.
A survey was done through the Center on Education Policy in 2006, through the effects of the No Child Left Behind done by elementary school. the survey said that 71% there was less amount of time spent on studying subjects such as social studies, music and the arts and just more time with the reading and math than any of the other subjects (Hansen, 2011). In 2005 a survey was given by the ABA and results said that only 1/2 of Americans were not able to correctly identify the three branches of government (Hansen, 2011). A 2005 survey by the ABA, for example, found that nearly half of all Americans were unable to correctly identify the three branches of government and a survey by A Find Law said that 57 percent of Americans could name any Supreme Court justice (Hansen, 2011).
Social studies are important because it teaches students essential perceptions of the culture, economics and politics skills to train them into be well informed, productive citizens. Social studies centers around understanding how the world works on a social level. Reading the material is going to play a very important role in gathering information and understanding the three branches of government.
Helping students to recreate history or infiltrate a walk-in time is to help them feel the power of the way our government system works and how important it is to see interaction between the U.S. president and another leader of a foreign country. There are games and group activities and even virtual reality games with the technology that would be a great technique to had as a at home project or free time to develop knowledge about the three branches of government. Planning field trips to the local government office or even to the state capital and allow them to see different the different branches of government come into life. The students will be encouraged to pay close attention to what is seen while on the field trip because on the next class day questions will be asked about their experience.
My mentor teacher's practices just gave me a boost on being creative and knowledgeable about the subject matter before teaching and motivating to make sure the students are interacting during the activity. Also, students have the capability to learn when they can relate to what the lesson is all about. This means creating assignments that would cause them to try to enjoy and see the excitement on their face. Advised on giving the students the ability come up with ideas that would improve government system and do role playing to inspire them to learn and have fun with it. Motivation is the key factor and continued encouragement allows the students to see their own ability to do things beyond what they could imagine. The whole idea of being able to present lessons for a class allows everything was taught to come to life as well. The teaching strategies are helpful because it teaches a new teacher can direct and influence young minds. The demonstrations are to develop in them character and striving for excellence. The goal is to make a difference in their young lives and then allow them to grow from that point to be one who can make a difference in the society that they live in.
Hansen, M., (2011). ABA Journal. Flunking Civics: Why America's Kids Know so Little. Retrieved from