PASS+Lesson+Plan

Ellen Lippy PASS Lesson Plan

**PA State Standard:** 5.3.C.G: Analyze the influence of interest groups in the political processes **NCSS Themes:** 1. __Culture__: How does our political ideas influence parts of our culture 2. __Individual Development and Identity__: we need to understand why people behave the way they do when creating new laws or evaluating existing ones 3. __Individuals, groups, and institutions__: The students have to know what classroom (group) rules they did or did not have; and they have to know government (institution) laws there are 4. __Power, authority, and governance__: Students have to know the different laws the government has in place **Big Idea:** Citizens honor the personal property of others ** Essential Questions: ** 1. Why do we have rules and laws? 2. What happens when I don’t follow the rules? ** Learning Objectives: ** 1. Students will understand why rules and laws are important to have 2. Students will be able to create a product (see active instruction procedure) with at least five laws they create and the punishments for not following the rules **Concepts:** Citizens have rights, liberty, and responsibilities. **Materials:** Computer, project materials, big paper, markers, website list paper ** Instruction Procedures/ Activities ** 1. Meaningful: Have a class discussion about if the students have ever been in a classroom where there were no rules. Ask “What was it like?” and “What happened?” After, have the class brainstorm and create a list of punishments they have received when they broke a classroom rule. 2. Challenging: Have the students come up with or research current laws in Pennsylvania or in the United states. Hold a class debate on why or why these laws aren’t important, and what would happen if we did get rid of them. Students can use the following websites for information on different laws; a. [] b. []

3. Active: Have the students pretend that they are each in charge of making new laws for the United States. Each student needs to create some sort of product (poster, story, debate, video, song, etc.) explaining the following; why it is important for the American people to follow their rules, at least five laws, and punishments when the laws are broken. ** Assessments: ** 1. Students will complete the poster in the active instruction procedure 2. Students will complete two of the following website activities a. [] (quizzes on different laws) b. [] (game testing knowledge on different laws) c. [|http://www.lawforkids.org/games/WORD_SCRAMBLE/index.cfm\] (law word scramble) d. [] (law jeopardy game)