Teacher: Wymore/ Martinez/ Chacon

Date: Feb. 24/25

School: Blevins

Grade Level: 8

Content Area: Social Studies

Title: Judicial Branch
Lesson #:8 of 11:
Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:
Civics 4.1 Analyze elements of continuity and change in the United States government and the
role of citizens over time.
Civics 4.2 The place of law in a constitutional system.
History Standard 1.2. The historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas and themes from the origins
of the American Revolution through Reconstruction and their relationships with one another
Inquiry Questions:
Why do people create governments and laws?
Concepts and skills students master: (Understandings, Big Ideas, Unit objectives)
Secondary source document analysis.
The process and application of Judicial Review
How the Supreme Court functions

Evidence Outcomes: (Knowledge/ Skills, Lesson Objectives)

Every student will be able to:
I can draft the process of a Supreme Court ruling
I can explain three Supreme Court cases regarding civil rights
Assessment of Evidence Outcomes: (How will you assess the selected lesson objectives
(general explanation, you will go into more detail at the end of the lesson plan)
Supreme Court case flow chart
Supreme Court case document summary and analysis worksheet.

Planned Lesson Activities

Activity Name

Judicial Branch

Approx. Time

1 hour 15 minutes

Anticipatory Set

Teaching/
Presentation:
(Select the most
appropriate teaching

We begin the class by showing off a video that deals with the
current event of the presidential nomination of a supreme court
justice and the issues and controversy surrounding it.
Includes: Input, Modeling and Checking for Understanding
Presentation model for the initial half of class and cooperative
learning for the latter half.

model.)
-direct instruction
-presentation model
-concept teaching
-cooperative learning
-inquiry

Input: LTs/RAPs about the issues surrounding replacing supreme

court justices. Students will identify a number of issues that may
come up when Obama attempts to nominate a new justice.
Modeling: Marriage Equality supreme court case flow chart.
Students fill it out while we model it on the overhead.
Checking for Understanding: Students are assigned 1 of 3 landmark
supreme court decisions and must adequately summarize the case
in order to successfully present the details and outcome to the
class.
Questioning Strategies:
Remembering: When did the particular supreme court decision
happen? Understanding: Who did this decision directly and
indirectly impact. Applying: In what way do these cases reflect
modern day supreme court cases? Analyzing: How did these cases
set precedent for modern day supreme court cases?

Teaching Strategy:
Guided Practice
&
Differentiation

RAP 32: Students will answer questions after watching a video on

supreme court justice nominations.
Flowchart: Students will fill out a flow chart on the process of how a
case gets to and goes through the supreme court. Students will
need to be paying attention to verbal and visual cues as i complete
the flowchart on the overhead projector.

Teaching Strategy:
(Independent Practice)

Following the RAP and flowchart activity, the students will have to
access their document analysis skills, as they will be required to
read a document based on a landmark supreme court decision.
After successfully finishing their document, they will construct a
summary that will adequately inform their peers of the case they
were assigned.
Who did the case involve?
What happened in this case?
Where did this case originate?
Why is this case important? (What was the lasting effect?)
When did this case take place?
How did the supreme court rule?

Closure

To close students will present their supreme court case summaries

and reflect on their learning targets for the day.

Materials

Supreme Court Chart. Key + Handouts

Supreme court cases worksheet + 3 articles on Plessy V Ferguson,
Brown V Board, Dredd Scott.
Replacing a supreme court justice YouTube video

Accommodations
&
Modifications

Students having issues with focus will be given a filled out flow
chart and be asked to highlight instead.
The 3 articles about supreme court cases will be assigned to
students based on skill.

The summary portion will also be created in a skeleton notes

fashion for lower level students.
Assessment

Completion of the Marriage Equality supreme court case flow chart.

A thorough and accurate summary of their assigned supreme court
case (Plessy v Ferguson, Brown v Board, Dredd Scott).
Presentation of the case to members of a group who completed a
different case

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to
justify your level of achievement)As the students were familiar with a number of the
court cases, due to instruction from other classes, they were able to grasp the
objectives fairly quickly. By the end of the lesson there was no question as to if the
students were aware of the landmark Supreme Court decisions.
2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you
were to teach again? If I were to reteach this lesson, I would choose lesson
famous Supreme Court decisions, as well as less cases in general in order to
lessen the workload for our limited class time.
3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach content,
etc.) Since we were crunched for time, well spend extra time reflecting on the lesson in
order to make doubly sure that the students were able to follow a court case through the
different levels of the judicial system.
Purpose of lesson/State
Standard Addressed

Civics Standard 4.1 Analyze elements of continuity and

change in the United States government and the role for
political change over time.
Civics Standard 4.2 The place of law in a constitutional
system
History Standard 1.2. The historical eras, individuals, groups,
ideas and themes from the origins of the American Revolution
through Reconstruction and their relationships with one
another

Co-Teaching strategy
and Rationale

For this lesson we stuck with one strategy and utilized one
teach one assist throughout the period because we believed
the first half of the lesson fit perfectly for it (direct instruction
into modeling). The latter half of the lesson dealing with
document analysis and summaries, however was not suited to
one teach one assist and a different strategy, perhaps stations
or supplemental, would have worked better.

Would you use this coteaching strategy for

this lesson again?

If I were to reteach this lesson I would still use one teach and
one assist for the first half of the lesson, however for the civil
rights cases analysis I would attempt to implement either
station teaching or supplemental teaching in the future. The
one teach one assist worked well for the flow chart and hook,

but if we used station teaching for the case analysis, the

students would become familiar with all three cases rather
than with just what they hear from their peers presentation. It
would also be easier to manage our time as instructors so that
the students got what they needed and were given structure
to their learning.

Were there other coteaching strategies used

when implementing the
lesson? If so, why?

The only strategy used for this particular lesson was one
teach and one assist, and I believe our singular strategy is
part of the reason why we saw a drop off of focus towards the
latter end of the lesson.