Civics Lesson!

 This lesson we taught about the civics in Mexico and the United States! First thing we did was have students take a pretest, which was a cut and paste activity where students had a picture or short definition and glued it under the correct term! (Link to Pre- and Post-Assessment
). Then we began introducing our tier 3 vocabulary to the students!

The vocab words were hidden by a piece of construction paper, and each student was able to come up with and reveal them! The students still seem to enjoy doing this and get excited to see the next word. Three of our vocabulary words were the different branches of government. We specifically taught the students about the United States version of the three branches first (Legislative Branch, Executive Branch, and Judicial Branch), we wanted to give the students a strong understanding of how our government worked before we began comparing it with Mexico's (Which is actually quite similar!). We did this by giving group work all about one specific branch of government. We welcomed the students to their brand new jobs as workers for the government. They would be split up into three groups, one for each branch of government.

They were given a “Top Secret” folder which contained a bunch of information about their branch in different styles, some were letters, government documents, messages written from congress or the president, or attendance lists from meetings, all aimed to give students facts about their branch. The students first had to find their responsibility and write that down on the sheet of paper, then find three more facts and create a symbol to represent their branch. We just helped the groups as they needed, as they completed this activity. At the end, we tested their knowledge to see how much they knew about their branch in a game called “Who Branch is this?!?”. I would read out a specific job for a specific branch and then ask each student if it was a part of their branch!

They would either answer yes or no, and the correct group would receive their card with their job to add to their folder! The students did a really great job with this; they either knew if it was a part of their branch right away or were able to use their sheet of paper to determine if it was their branch. We then compared our government systems to Mexico. One of the main differences students noticed was the names of the branches (Legislative = The Congress, Executive = The Presidency, and Judicial = The Courts), and we discussed how they had similar jobs but related to Mexico's different politicians. After this activity, we wanted to give students a brain break and they were able to choose to make

either a quill (to write laws like Congress), create a police badge (enforcing laws like the executive branch), or create a gavel (like the judges in the judicial branch). All of the students had selected to make gavels!

They were able to decorate their gavel, and when they were finished, we played another game. Where they would tap their gavel down if they agreed with the law! Some examples were, longer time for recess and extra homework. Next, students analyzed a primary source of a newspaper talking about the Mexican Government. Three parts were highlighted, and students were to determine which branch of government was being discussed (There were two executive and one legislative). After this, the students were ready to vote! First, they filled out a voter registration form.

This was me pretending to check if it was really them, they thought it was funny! After they were accepted, they were given their ballot and they could drop it in the ballot box. This is the link to the voter registration and their ballots: Lesson #3 Voter Registration and Ballot (Mexico). The last one determined what their next brain break could be, and they voted on it! Students gave a drumroll as the answers to their votes were called out, and for their brain break, they voted on playing headbands. They were given a card to hold up to their head, and as a group we worked together to help them guess what their card said (they were related to our vocabulary!). Students did pretty well at this, although many of them struggled to pronounce their words, so they were getting a little nervous to say their answer to the group. Next time I think we will review or practice the words in headbands so they feel more comfortable. Since we were running low on time, instead of writing a reflection students were just asked to share with a partner different ways to participate in the common good. Most students shared how planting a garden could be beneficial for the common good of the community. Then they were given a post-test which they all did really well on and that was the end of the lesson! Overall, the lesson went really well, although they did spend a little longer then we had planned for them to decorate their gavels, so next time we may tell them their allotted time and set a timer for them to see so they know how quickly they have to work so we are able to fit all of our plans in and they are accountable for how they spend their creative time!