Middle Childhood Education

Seminar 2

Middle Childhood Education Lesson Plan Template v. 2

Teacher Candidate Name: Jessica Reynolds
Lesson Title/#: The U.S. Constitution #1
Grade Level: 8th
Essential Question: In what ways did the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists view government differently?

Lesson Foundations

Content Standards
*Science and SS should also include
common core for reading/writing

Learning Objective(s)
Students will

SS ONLS 8.7: Problems arising under the Articles of Confederation led to debate over the adoption of the U.S.
Constitution.
CCSS.LITERACY.SS.8.1: Cite specific evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
1) Students will be able to identify domestic problems that arose under the Articles of Confederation using
the Chrome Books and textual evidence from digital sources. (understand)
2) Students will be able to evaluate the problems that arose under the Articles of Confederation through class
discussion and guiding questions. (analyze)

Prior Academic
Knowledge and Skills
What have you or your mentor
taught previously that will inform
what students are learning today?

Materials & Resources

1) Students know reasons for why the Revolution was fought.

2) Students know the new political, social and economic relationships for the American people that resulted
from the American Revolution.
3) Students are familiar with using Chrome Books to search for academic information online.
Smartboard
Elmo projector
Chrome Book cart
Entrance slips
graphic organizers,
Popplet with links to websites: http://popplet.com/app/#/3576052
timer
exit slips

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Seminar 2

Assessments

Describe the assessments that will be used in this lesson to monitor students mastery of the lesson objective(s). List assessments in order in which they appear in the lesson.

Name and number of

Assessment
A1: Jigsaw part 1:
Citing online textual
evidence

A2 Jigsaw part 2:
class discussion

Description of assessment
Formative: Students will be
divided into six groups, with 34 students per group. Each
group will be given a problem
under the Articles of
Confederation that they will
research using the Chrome
Books and provided websites
in a Popplet. They will answer
the provided guiding questions
and provide a piece of
supporting textual evidence
from the digital source where
they found their answer.

Formative: Once groups have

researched their problem on
the Chrome Books, and
students have filled in their
graphic organizers, teacher
will facilitate class discussion
about the domestic problems.

Evaluation Criteria - What is the evidence (the answers) of student learning?

Specifically list evidence of learning and learning objectives.
LO1 (understand)
Student answers will vary based upon which problem under the Articles their
group is given to research, all students should follow the graphic organizer format
given to them. An example answer looks like the following:
Domestic Problem under the Articles of Confederation: Collecting Revenue
1) Who had the power to tax the people?
-The state governments had the power to tax the people in their own state
Textual evidence: The Articles did not grant Congress the power to tax
2) How did Congress obtain money in order to pay off debts and fulfilling other
tasks?
-Congress had to ask the states for funds to pay off debts since they could not raise
revenue themselves through taxation
Textual evidence: it (Congress) could only request funds that states might
eventually get around to remitting
3) How dependable were the state governments as sources of money during this
time period?
-State governments were not very dependable, they did not always pay money to
Congress on time
Textual evidence: How that money was raised, within each state, was up to the
state legislatures. Unfortunately, this money was oftentimes not raised by the
states or given to the national government long after it was due.
(http://www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/THM1777?OpenDocument)
LO2( analyze)
Students responses will vary based on opinion and what they learned from part 1
of the jigsaw. Example answers include:

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Seminar 2

1) Why is the ability to collect

taxes important? (understand)

1) It is important because it allows the government to provide services and pay for
things like debt.

2) All citizens that work in the

U.S. have to pay taxes to the
government, when you all
begin working at your own job
youll pay taxes too. How does
the ability for the government
to tax benefit us? (apply)
3) Why were Americans afraid
of allowing the national
government to have the power
to tax the people?(understand)

2) Taxes allow for the government to provide services such as paving the roads,
building parks and other places in our communities, and providing benefits like
social security.

4) If the states wanted to make

a change to the Articles of
Confederation, such as the
ability to tax, how many votes
were needed? (remember)

6) Congress had to ask the states for money and the states had to give money based
on the amount of people that owned land

5) How did this keep the

balance of power in favor of
the states? (understand)
6) How did Congress get
money if it was not allowed to
tax the people? (remember)
7) Why was it an issue that
each state had its own form of
currency? (understand)
8) Suppose you went on a
week long road trip with your

3) Americans were afraid that the government would tax them unfairly, just as
they felt that England had under the King.
4) 13/13 votes were needed
5) It allowed the states to maintain power in the government because it only took
one vote for an amendment to not pass.

7) It made it difficult for people to trade between states and with other countries
8) It would be difficult because they would not want to accept our money. It would
be weird if everyone had different money because we are accustomed to having
the same type of money as everyone else. Its always easy to buy something
because our money is all the same.
9) Congress did not have the power to raise their own army, and did not have the
resources or people to stop rebellions
10) I would feel unsafe because our military protects us from conflicts and wars
with other countries
11) Our government today has three branches with separation of powers, and
checks and balances to make sure that no branch is more powerful than another.
Our government also has the power to tax, raise an army, and has established a
strong economic system

Middle Childhood Education

Seminar 2

family, and you traveled to

Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois,
and Wisconsin. Imagine each
of those states all had a
different form of currency,
different from the dollar bills
and money you are used to,
different than Ohio money?
How difficult would it be to
purchase something in another
state? Go to eat at a
restaurant? Buy gas for your
car? (apply)
9) Why did Congress have
issues maintaining national
security and stopping events
such as Shays Rebellion?
(understand)
10) How would you feel if we
did not have a national
military that protected us?
(analyze)

A3: Exit Ticket

11) How does our national

government in the present day
maintain power and prevent
problems like these from
arising? (analyze)
Formative: Students will be
given an exit ticket and are
asked to respond to two
questions: First they are to
answer the essential question
Is the best government the
government that governs the

LO1 & LO2 (understand & analyze)

Students will answer the essential question based on their opinion and
understanding of the days lesson. Student answers will vary. Possible answers
include:
Governments should govern more in order to prevent problems, such as the ones
that arose under the Articles of Confederation. Learning about the domestic
problems demonstrated how problems arise when there is a weak central

Middle Childhood Education

least? that was posed at the

beginning of the class.
Students are then asked to
answer the question: How do
the domestic problems that
arose under the Articles of
Confederation inform your
response to the essential
question?

Seminar 2

government, There should be a strong central government to keep problems from

arising and provide for the people.
Governments should govern less because each state has a right to make their own
decisions about how to govern themselves, even though there were problems
among the states, they got to make decisions that served their people directly and
did not have to worry about the central government becoming too strong.

Instructional Procedures/Steps

Each portion of this section should be aligned with learning objectives. Note when you are addressing a learning objective and when enacting an assessment.

Teacher will

Include instructional practices, questions you will ask, checks for

understanding, differentiation, evidence of culturally responsive
teaching practices.

Opening
____5___ Minutes
-

Hook?
Activate prior
knowledge?
Communicate LOs?

Teacher will have discussion questions set up on the

Smartboard when students enter the room. Graphic
organizers will be placed at the center of each table,
enough for each student to have one. Each table will
have a problem on a sheet of paper at the center of the
table, this is the problem that the students will be
researching during part 1 the jigsaw lesson. Teacher
will greet students as they enter the classroom and
hand them a Chrome Book and an entrance slip.
Students are instructed to sit at their assigned table
with their Chrome Book but to not open or log on to the
Chrome Books yet. Students are told to read the
questions on the Smartboard and write their responses
on their entrance slips as students are still coming into
the classroom. Once all students have a Chrome Book
and are seated the teacher will open the class with the
discussion questions on the Smartboard. This opening is
used to activate prior knowledge before beginning new
material. Teacher will read the discussion questions
aloud for students with reading difficulties.

Student will

What will students be doing?

What evidence of learning will students demonstrate?
Student-centered learning/opportunities for practice and application.

Middle Childhood Education

Last week when we wrapped up class we were in a

newly founded nation, the United States of America.
The American colonists had won the Revolution
against England, they had broken away from the king
and from Parliament and had a new nation to govern.
1. Discussion questions (Activating prior
knowledge):
1) What was the number one thing that the American
colonists were seeking when they fought for their
independence from England? (understand)
2) How are people given the authority in our
government today? (apply)
Our current government allows people to vote for
both local and national leaders and to vote on
important issues in our society, such as school levies.
When you all turn 18 you will be able to register to
vote and be able to have your voices represented in
the decisions that are made in our government. Our
Constitution grants us this right, as well as others, and
it explains how the government should function
within our society. But when America was founded,
the Constitution did not yet exist. The Articles of
Confederation was the governing document of the
country.
The Articles of Confederation gave the majority of
power to state governments, and less power to the
national government. The weakness of the national
government created domestic problems within the
United States.
We are going to research and analyze these problems
during todays lesson.
2. Reviewing agenda and LOs (agenda and LOs will
be displayed on the Smartboard for students to see,
teacher will read agenda and ask students to read the

Seminar 2

1. Students will enter the classroom and be given a Chrome

Book and an entrance slip. Students will sit at their assigned
tables and are not to open or log on to their Chrome Books
until that instruction is given. Students will read the
discussion questions on the Smartboard and write their
responses on an entrance slip as students are still entering
the room and receiving Chrome Books.
1) The American colonists were fighting for their right to
have representation in the government, and to give the
authority to the people, not a king or a single ruler.
2) People are given the right to vote on issues and
representatives in the government.

2. Students will listen during the opening, review of the

agenda and the description of LOs.

Middle Childhood Education

LOs aloud): Our next few lessons are going to focus on

the Articles of Confederation, the problems that arose
under them, and how this led to the creation of the
U.S. Constitution, in order to develop a better
understanding of how our government functions in
the present day. There are two learning objectives
that we will be focusing on during todays lesson; can
I have a volunteer read the first one please?
Can I get another volunteer to read the second
learning objective?

Seminar 2

1) Students will be able to identify domestic problems that

arose under the Articles of Confederation using the Chrome
Books and textual evidence from digital sources.
2) Students will be able to evaluate the problems that arose
under the Articles of Confederation through class discussion
and guiding questions.

3. Introducing the essential question (Teacher will

display essential question on the Smartboard for all
students to see; teacher will read the essential question
aloud for students. Essential question is typed at the top
of the graphic organizer that students will be using
during todays activity): Our essential question that
we will be working to answer for the next couple
weeks is: Is the best government the government that
governs the least?
We will constantly be visiting and re-visiting this
question throughout the next few weeks in order to
develop an understanding of how government
functions within our society.

Instruction
___40____ Minutes

(5 minutes)
This opening is used to activate prior knowledge, the
discussion questions activate prior knowledge as well
as make a culturally relevant connection to the
students understanding of how our government
functions in the present day. The learning objectives
and the essential question are introduced here to let the
students know where they are headed in this lesson as
well as future lessons.
1. Instruction, Jigsaw part 1: citing online textual
1. Students will each take a graphic organizer from the
evidence (LO1, A1): Today you will be working with center of the tables. They will listen to instructions before

Middle Childhood Education

Procedures and steps to

the lesson.
Strategies?
Assessments?
Q & A?
Evidence of learning?
CRP?
Planned supports?
Transitions: Identify when
you are transitioning and
how you will make that a
smooth transition?

your group members at your table to research one of

the six problems that arose under the Articles of
Confederation to complete the first part of our jigsaw
lesson. You will be using the Chrome Books to
research your assigned problem, and will be using the
graphic organizers at the center of your tables to
answer three guiding questions and provide three
pieces of supporting textual evidence that helped you
respond to the question. . Each group has already
been assigned a problem at the center of your table.
Open up your Chrome Books, log on, and pull up the
Popplet page written on the board.
Teacher will pull up Popplet page on the Smartboard to
model for students the appropriate way to search for
information, then answer a guiding question in the
graphic organizer with one piece of textual evidence.
I am going to model an example of how you should
use your graphic organizers. If I want to research the
problem of maintaining national security, I will go to
the Popplet page and find the website I should visit.
When I find the answer to my question, I am going to
answer the question and also put the quote or
statement that helped me answer the question under
textual evdience.
(Teacher models how to write in the graphic organizer)
Problem: Maintaining national security
Guiding question: 1) What power to maintain national
security was Congress lacking?
Congress did not have the ability to draft their own
army
Textual evidence:
According to the Articles of Confederation, Congress
had the sole power to make peace and war, but did
not have the authority to raise an army of its own

Seminar 2

getting started. Students will log on to the Chrome Books

when instructed and bring up Popplet that features
provided websites.
Students will listen and follow along while the teacher
models an example of searching for information and
providing textual evidence in the graphic organizer.

Middle Childhood Education

How does Congress inability to draft soldiers become

a threat to maintaining national security?
(understand)

Seminar 2

If the United States had a conflict with another country,

there would be no standing militia or army to defend the
country.

(5 minutes)
2. Setting Expectations: Everyone should have the
Popplet page pulled up on their Chrome Book. Each
group needs to search the online resources provided
for your assigned domestic problem. There are three
guiding questions on your graphic organizers. You
will respond to each question and provide a piece of
textual evidence that helped you answer the question.
You all will have 15 minutes to work in your groups. I
will set the timer, and remind you when you have 10,
7, and 3 minutes left to work. Go ahead and begin.
. Teacher will walk around the room assisting students
during their research to ensure that students are on
track and using their time on the Chrome Books wisely.
Teacher will redirect students that are off task and will
provide students with time checks in order to let
students know how much more time they have to
research. Teacher will be monitoring student use of the
graphic organizers to ensure that students are using
the organizer correctly.
(15 minutes)

2. Students will search the online resources for information

that relates to the problem their group is assigned. Students
will be discussing the web resource and the information
they find with their group members in order to answer the
questions and provide textual evidence in their graphic
organizer.
Student answers will vary based upon which problem under
the Articles their group is given to research, all students
should follow the graphic organizer format given to them.
An example answer looks like the following:
Domestic Problem under the Articles of Confederation:
Collecting Revenue

Guiding questions for all six problems will provided to

the students:
1) Who had the power to tax the people?
-The states had the power to tax the people in their own
Maintaining national security
state
1) What power to maintain national security was
Textual evidence: The Articles did not grant Congress the
Congress lacking?
power to tax
2) How were the states able to avoid abiding by
2) How did Congress obtain money in order to pay off debts
national laws set by Congress?
and fulfilling other tasks?

Middle Childhood Education

3) Why wasnt Congress able to stop Shays Rebellion

from happening?
Creating a stable economic system
1) How did each state determine how to run their
economy?
2) How did states avoid raising taxes? Why was this
problematic?
3) Why was it a problem that each state could print
their own form of currency?
Paying war debts
1) What did state governments try to do in order to
get out of wartime debt?
2) Why did Congress struggle to pay back the national
debt after the war?
3) What did Congress resort to doing in order to try to
pay for the national debt?
Collecting Revenue
1) Who had the power to tax the people?
2) How did Congress obtain money in order to pay off
debts and fulfilling other tasks?
3) Were the state governments dependable sources
of money during this time period?
Regulating trade
1) Who was given the right to regulate trade between
the states?
2) What problems did this lead to between the states?
3) Who did Congress have the (limited) power to
regulate trade with?
Correcting flaws in central government
1) Why did some Americans believe that a strong
national government was a bad form of government?

Seminar 2

-Congress had to ask the states for funds to pay off debts
since they could not raise revenue themselves through
taxation
Textual evidence: it (Congress) could only request funds
that states might eventually get around to remitting
3) How dependable were the state governments as sources
of money during this time period?
-State governments were not very dependable, they did not
always pay money to Congress on time
Textual evidence: How that money was raised, within each
state, was up to the state legislatures. Unfortunately, this
money was oftentimes not raised by the states or given to
the national government long after it was due.

Middle Childhood Education

Seminar 2

2) How did states remain independent from one

another under the weak central government?
3) How many of the thirteen states had to agree if an
amendment was to be made to the Articles of
Confederation?

3. Transition into Jigsaw part 2: Class Discussion

(LO2, A2): Once all groups have their three pieces of
supporting information,. teacher will use attention
getting technique to regain students attention in order
to facilitate a class discussion.
321 I need everyone to wrap up and finish the
sentence they are writing. We are now going to shift
into the second part of our lesson and have a class
discussion.
Teacher facilitates discussion about the six major
problems.
1) Why is the ability to collect taxes important?
(understand)
2) All citizens that work in the U.S. have to pay taxes
to the government, when you all begin working at
your own job youll pay taxes too. How does the
ability for the government to tax benefit us? (apply)

3. Students participate and listen to classmates during class

discussion.

1) Its important because it allows the government to

provide services and pay for things like debt.
2) Taxes allow for the government to provide services such
as paving the roads, building parks and other places in our
communities, and providing benefits like social security.

Middle Childhood Education

Seminar 2

3) Why were Americans afraid of allowing the

national government to have the power to tax the
people?(understand)

3) Americans were afraid that the government would tax

them unfairly, just as they felt that England had under the
King.

4) If the states wanted to make a change to the

Articles of Confederation, such as the ability to tax,
how many votes were needed? (remember)

4) 13/13 votes were needed

5) How did this keep the balance of power in favor of

the states? (understand)

5) It allowed the states to maintain power in the

government because it only took one vote for an
amendment to not pass.

6) How did Congress get money if it was not allowed

to tax the people? (remember)

6) Congress had to ask the states for money and the states
had to give money based on the amount of people that
owned land

7) Why was it an issue that each state had its own

form of currency? (understand)

7) It made it difficult for people to trade between states and

with other countries

8) Suppose you went on a week long road trip with

your family, and you traveled to Kentucky, Indiana,
and Illinois, and Wisconsin. Imagine each of those
states all had a different form of currency, different
from the dollar bills and money you are used to,
different than Ohio money? How difficult would it be
to purchase something in another state? Go to eat at a
restaurant? Buy gas for your car? (apply)

8) It would be difficult because they would not want to

accept our money. It would be weird if everyone had
different money because we are accustomed to having the
same type of money as everyone else. Its always easy to buy
something because our money is all the same.

9) Why did Congress have issues maintaining national 9) Congress did not have the power to raise their own army,
security and stopping events such as Shays
and did not have the resources or people to stop rebellions
Rebellion? (understand)
10) How would you feel if we did not have a national
military that protected us? (analyze)

10) I would feel unsafe because our military protects us

from conflicts and wars with other countries
11) Our government today has three branches with
separation of powers, and checks and balances to make sure

Middle Childhood Education

11) How does our national government in the present

day maintain power and prevent problems like these
from arising? (analyze)

Seminar 2

that no branch is more powerful than another. Our

government also has the power to tax, raise an army, and
has established a strong economic system

(17 minutes)

4. Students will listen to debrief of lesson.

4. Wrap up discussion: Debrief/Review LOs/Preview
tomorrows lesson: Teacher will lead debrief of the
lesson.
Todays lesson helped us build a foundation of
knowledge to understand and identify the domestic
problems that arose under the Articles of
Confederation. This information will help you
tomorrow when we examine how each of these
problems impacted individual states.
Teacher explains how todays lesson connects to future
lessons in order to allow students to know where they
are headed.
(2 minutes)

Middle Childhood Education

Closure
____5___ Minutes
-

Assess?
Wrap up?
Set-up?

Modifications/Accom
modations/Enrichme
nt
Differentiation: How will
you provide students with
specific learning needs
instructional support? How
will you provide students
access to learning?

1. Exit Ticket (LO1, LO2, A3):

Teacher will pass out exit tickets to students. Exit
ticket asks students to respond to two questions: First
they are to answer the essential question Is the best
government the government that governs the least?
that was posed at the beginning of the class. Students
are then asked to answer the question: How do the
domestic problems that arose under the Articles of
Confederation inform your response to the essential
question?
Teacher explains that we will continuously re-visit the
essential question as we move forward in our future
lessons. Teacher explains that students
understanding of the essential question will change
over the next couple of weeks.
(3 minutes)

Seminar 2

1. Students will respond to the two questions on the exit

ticket. Student answers will vary. Possible answers include:
Governments should govern more in order to prevent
problems, such as the ones that arose under the Articles of
Confederation. Learning about the domestic problems
demonstrated how problems arise when there is a weak
central government, There should be a strong central
government to keep problems from arising and provide for
the people.
Governments should govern less because each state has a
right to make their own decisions about how to govern
themselves, even though there were problems among the
states, they got to make decisions that served their people
directly and did not have to worry about the central
government becoming too strong.

IEP Students: n/a

504 Plans: (Specific 504 plan for particular student) extended time is allotted if needed, student is allowed to sit
separate from other classmates in order to avoid distractions if needed
ELL Students: Providing a graphic organizer for students with sentence frames, modeling the research process for
students and writing in the graphic organizer for students to demonstrate expectations, extended time to turn in
assignments if needed, , providing directions on the graphic organizer as well as explaining them verbally
Gifted/Talented: n/a
Struggling Students: Modeling how to access the Popplet page and find information on a digital source, modeling
how to write in the graphic organizer

Academic Language
What language function do
you want students to
develop in this lesson?

Identify
Language Function: Identify

Planned Supports
Language Function: Teacher modeling, graphic organizer
with guiding questions, student group collaboration, whole
class discussion

Middle Childhood Education

What vocabulary do
students need to support
learning of the learning
objective for this lesson?
What supports do you have
in place to assist students
with AL?

Vocabulary: Articles of Confederation, domestic

problems: maintaining national security, creating a
stable economic system, paying war debts,
collecting revenue, regulating trade, and correcting
flaws in the central government, supporting evidence

Syntax or Discourse? syntax

Seminar 2

Vocabulary: Using graphic organizers to answer guiding

questions and provide textual evidence, whole group
discussion about domestic problems

Syntax or Discourse? Graphic organizer give students the

format to answer questions and document textual evidence
from a digital source, teacher models how to use graphic
organizer