Unit topic: Government

Grade: 2/3

Created by: Connie Yiu

Email: connieyyiu@gmail.com

Description of Practicum Class

I am doing my practicum in a Grade 2/3 class. There are 23 students in the class. The

class is composed of 10 girls and 13 boys. There are 3 students who are on Individual Education

Plans and one of them requires lesson adaptation. There are two ELL students and they can

both read and write; they may need more assistance and adjustments to the writing

requirements. Overall, the class is eager to learn and students are very capable learners.

Prescribed Learning Outcome

Grade 2:

C1 describe their role, rights and responsibilities at home and at school

C2 explain the purpose of classroom and school expectations

Grade 3:

C1 describe how an understanding of personal roles, rights and responsibilities can

affect the wellbeing of the school and community

C2 Summarize the role and responsibilities of local governments

Rationale

The unit was created with the students in mind. I hope students will gain an

understanding of key concepts of the government through play and enacting. Students will

enact government processes like voting, law-making and campaigning with issues and topics

that are relevant to them.

Key Concepts

Government

Levels of Government: Municipal, Provincial and Federal

Election

Democracy

Voting

Campaign

Assessment

Formative assessment will be done every lesson as students will be asked to share their

ideas either in written form or orally in a sharing circle. Students will be asked to reflect and

discuss ideas taught in class. Feedback will be given on written components.

Summative assessment will be done by creating a check list for the main 3 activities of

the unit: class constitution, election and campaign. Each activity will have its own criteria which

will be created with the students.

Lesson Topic Activities

1 Introduction to Government: What is government? Who is the leader of our government? What is the role of our government?

KWL chart –Government Read-aloud: Who Runs This Country, Anyway?: A

Guide to Canadian Government by Joanne Stanbridge

Who is this man (Stephen Harper)? Fill in KWL chart

2* Levels of Government: Municipal, Provincial and Federal and their responsibilities What are the levels of government? What are their responsibilities?

Levels of Government Responsibility graphic organizer (cut and paste)

Trivia game!

3* Game Without Rules (Gym or outside) What happens when we don’t have rules? Why are rules important?

Experience playing a game without rules Create rules for a game Connection: rules and laws Reflection: What would a community be like

without rules/laws?

4 Classroom constitution How are laws made in the real world? What rules do you think we need in our class? [2 lessons]

Rule creating process (in groups of 4/5) Passing it through the group like a bill ideas rules

5 Mock Election Who can vote? Why should we vote? What should we look for when we vote for a party? [2 lessons]

Mock Election 1) Learn about candidate via video campaign

and/or written profile 2) Vote 3) Write about why you want to vote for that party

6* Create your own campaign Why should we vote for

Read aloud: Vote for me by Ben Clantan Vote for me poster

you? What do you care about? [2 lessons]

Create campaign video or profile *students with the same interests may work in groups (no more than 3)

Resource Critique

1) Our Country, Our Parliament.

-Parliament of Canada

http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/Education/OurCountryOurParliament/pdfs/Bo

oklet-e.pdf

This document was great for lesson planning; I especially liked the illustrations of the

House of Commons and the Parliament. These illustrations can be used to give students

a sense of where government processes happen in the real world.

2) Who Runs This Country, Anyway?: A Guide to Canadian Government by Joanne

Stanbridge

This book is great for children to get a basic understanding of government concepts. The

language used in this book is simple, but primary students may need some help with

some of the terminologies.

3) Vote for me by Ben Clantan

This children’s book is fun and simple. I will use the book to introduce concepts like

campaign and voting.

4) Hands-on Social Studies

http://www.portageandmainpress.com/lesson_plans/plan_49_1.pdf

The lesson plan is great for its facts and clip arts which I used to make a trivia. It is a

great resource for lesson planning.

Lesson plans for

Lessons: 2 Levels of Government

Lesson 3 Game without Rules

Lesson 6 Make Your Own Campaign

Lesson Topic: Levels of Government

Lesson 2/6

Created by: Connie Yiu

Grade: 2/3 Lesson duration: 45 min Subject: Social studies

Purpose Students will learn that there are different levels of government.

Students will learn the roles and responsibilities of these governments.

PLOs Social Studies: Grade 3: C2 Summarize the role and responsibilities of local governments

Material Graphic organizers X 23

Service magnets

Pictures of the leaders

Levels of Government Trivia

Vocabulary municipal, provincial, federal

Prior knowledge

Services in our community

Stephen Harper (from lesson 1)

Hook (Intro) I will show students pictures of our leaders: Mayor Malcom Brodie, Premier Christy Clark and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

I will create a T-chart on the board with Richmond (Municipal), British Columbia (Provincial) and Canada (Federal) as the topics.

Students will guess who the leader for each topic is.

Steps (Directions)

1) I will explain that we have different levels of government that make laws and provide us with services. They have different roles and responsibilities.

2) I will show students a picture of different services and they will guess which level of government is responsible for the services.

3) Students will cut-out the leaders/services and fill out their own graphic organizers.

Closure Levels of government trivia (If we run out of time, we will start with the trivia next class!)

Adaptation I will guide students with questions.

We will work as a class first.

Assessment Completion of graphic organizer

Student’s participation during trivia

Levels of Government

Name: ______________ Date:______________

Municipal (Richmond)

Provincial (British Columbia)

Federal (Canada)

Mayor ______________

Premier ______________

Prime Minister __________

SERVICES

( http://www.portageandmainpress.com/lesson_plans/plan_49_1.pdf ) with modification

Teacher resrouce: Fact Sheet Taken from: http://www.portageandmainpress.com/lesson_plans/plan_49_1.pdf (with modification) Government of Canada ■ Makes laws for all of Canada ■ Responsibilities include: soldiers, army, navy, air force passports television and radio R.C.M.P. banks and money fisheries stamps and postal services national parks

■ Leader: Prime Minister Stephen Harper Government of British Columbia ■ Makes laws for British Columbia ■ Responsibilities include: V.P.D. driver’s licences hospitals education child care birth certificates provincial parks

■ Leader: Premier Christy Clark Municipal Government (Richmond) ■ Makes laws for Richmond ■ Responsibilities include: garbage pick up and recycling repairing streets snow ploughing local police, fire, and ambulance public transit

■ Leader: Mayor Malcom Brodie

Lesson Topic: Rules: Game without Rules

Lesson 3/6

Created by: Connie Yiu

Grade: 2/3 Lesson duration: 45 min Subject: Social studies

Purpose Students will get to experience what it is like without rules.

Students will reflect on the importance of rules.

PLOs Social Studies: Grade 2: C1 describe their role, rights and responsibilities at home and at school C2 explain the purpose of classroom and school expectations

Material Graphic organizer X 23

Ball

Hook (Intro) I will tell students we will play a game for Social Studies.

I will tell students to stand in a circle, throw the ball in the middle and ask them to play!

Steps (Directions)

1) Students will play the game without rules and it may get a bit chaotic and confusing.

2) I will gather students and ask the following questions: How do we feel about the game? Do we know what the rules are? What happened when we didn’t have rules to follow?

3) I will ask students what kind of rules we should have to make the game fun and work better.

4) Students will make their own rules. If students cannot agree on a rule, we will vote on the rule.

5) We will play the game with the rules 6) We will debrief after we get back to the classroom and brainstorm

ideas for the following questions: What happened when we did not have rules? Why are rules important? What would our community be like without rules?

7) I will ask students to reflect on their experience and draw connections to the real world with the graphic organizer provided.

Closure I will ask students to share their ideas.

I will explain that rules are important because it keeps us safe and ensures that we all have the same expectations.

Adaptation Students may work in pairs.

I will brainstorm ideas before we start on the reflection.

Assessment Students will be evaluated by the thoughtfulness of their reflection.

Reflection

Name:____________________ Date:______________________

What happened when we did not have rules?

Why are rules important?

What would our community be like without rules?

Lesson Topic: Create Your Own Campaign

Lesson 6/6

Created by: Connie Yiu

Grade: 2/3 Lesson duration: 90 min (2 blocks) Subject: Social studies

Purpose Students will create their own candidate profile.

Students will make a campaign video or create their own campaign poster.

PLOs Social Studies: Grade 2: A4 present information using oral, written, or visual representation Grade 3: C1 describe how an understanding of personal roles, rights and responsibilities can affect the wellbeing of the school and community

Material Create your own campaign poster graphic organizer x 23

Candidate Profile graphic organizer X23

Book: Vote for Me by Ben Clantan

Vocabulary Campaign

Prior knowledge

Students would have participated in a mock election the lesson before.

Hook (Intro) Read aloud: “Vote for Me!” by Ben Clantan

I will ask students to respond to my questions through actions. (e.g. rub your tummy if you like candies!)

I will stop at “the winner is…” and ask students to vote for the character they like by walking to different areas of the room.

We will count the numbers of vote for the characters in the book.

I will read the rest of the book where the twist will be revealed (because neither of the characters won).

Steps (Directions)

1) We will brainstorm the strategies the characters in the book used for their campaigns.

2) We will talk about the pros and cons of these strategies. 3) We will review the candidate profiles/videos from the mock

election last class. 4) I will tell students the new elected mayor of McLean Ville, who

was elected by you, has asked you to create your own candidate profile and campaign for him! This is for him to take a look at the potential candidates.

5) Students will create their own candidate profile using a graphic organizer.

6) We will create a checklist of three things we think is important for the campaign assignment.

7) Students will create a campaign video or poster. (Students may work in groups if they are making a video)

Closure We will do a gallery walk for students to look at their classmates’ campaign video/posters and candidate profiles.

Students will fill out a peer-evaluation form.

I will tell students the mayor of McLean Ville really enjoyed the profiles and campaign videos/posters. He has appointed Div. 9 to be his group of student representatives.

Adaptation Students may work in groups for the campaign video.

I will help students when needed.

Students may write in point form for the candidate profile if needed.

Assessment By peer-evaluation form (checklist made by students)

By evaluating student’s campaign video/poster and candidate profile

Candidate Profile

Name: ______________ Date:_______________

About me:

I care about…

What will you do for McLean Ville? (For example: Plant trees, build a new

playground)