ETE 335 Elementary Social Studies Lesson deBono’s Thinking Hats

ETE 335 Elementary Social Studies Lesson deBono’s Thinking Hats Abby Bruno Civics and Government/Three Branches of Government 4th Vote for the Answer

ETE 335 Elementary Social Studies Lesson deBono’s Thinking Hats Goals: Through this activity, students can reinforce their knowledge of what they have learned about the three branches of government while still being interactive. Objectives: Content/Knowledge: Students Will: Learn about the jobs and responsibilities of the three branches of government. Process/Skills: Students will be recalling on their knowledge to answer questions about the three branches of government.

ETE 335 Elementary Social Studies Lesson deBono’s Thinking Hats Rationale: Students will will learn about the important role of the branches of government and what they do. They will be enforcing this knowledge through this activity. Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.5 Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.5 CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area. National – NCSS Themes Culture Individuals, groups, and institutions Power, authority, governance Civic ideals and practices

Objective

The teacher will introduce the topic of the Three Branches of Government. He or she will go over what each one does and what the jobs entail. Students will then create a powerpoint presentation. They will present this to the class. It will be an overview of what the teacher said in addition to researched information. Materials: Powerpoint/computer Objective

Intuitive

Students will be split up into groups of four for this activity. Each student will choose a different slip of paper: one will be assigned legislative, another judicial, and a third executive. The fourth student will pick a problem or a crime that they have created. As a group, they will decide what each branch of government would do, if anything, and create a solution to the problem. Materials: Group Assignments Intuitive

Positive/Strengths

Positive/Strengths Students will be broken up into groups. Within these groups they will create their own government system. They can choose the laws they enforce and which branch of government deals with what problem. It must be a similar set up to the American government with three branches.

Negatives/Weaknesses

This will be similar to the Red Hat activity. Students will be broken up into groups of 4. Together they will decide who is what part of government and which person is the problem- creator. They will create a problem that the government must solve. Students should reference the American branch system to solve their problem. Negatives/Weaknesses

Creative

Creative After the teacher informs students about all the information they need for the Three Branches of government, students can choose to work individually or as a group to create a poster. On this poster they will pose what each branch is and what they do. Students will present these to the class. Materials: Poster/markers Outside resources for students to reference to

Thinking About Thinking

Students will be working individually for this activity. They will write some type of final product (a paper, web, chart, etc.) explaining their opinions. They will write what they think the government will be like in 50 years. They should include similarities and differences. Materials: Paper/markers Outside resources

ETE 335 Elementary Social Studies Lesson deBono’s Thinking Hats Visual Learning, Assessment, and Online Resources: Assessment: TO assess students we will do a class activity. Students will receive three different colored pieces of paper. The teacher will ask various questions regarding the branches of government in which students will raise a different piece of paper to pertain to a different branch of government. Teachers will assess how well their students do as a whole in order to know if there must be a re- engagement activity. Online Resources: