The United States of America’s Founding Documents

Katlyn Ferrell
9th Grade/ History

Common Core Standards:

1. The Declaration of Independence elaborates on the rights and role of the people in building the
foundations of the American nation through the principles of unalienable rights and consent of the people.

2. The Northwest Ordinance elaborates on the rights and role of the people in building the foundations of the
American nation through its establishment of natural rights and setting up educational institutions.

3. The U.S. Constitution established the foundations of the American nation and the relationship between
the people and their government.

4. The debate presented by the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers over protections for individuals and
limits on government power resulted in the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights provides constitutional
protections for individual liberties and limits on governmental power.

Lesson Summary:
In this lesson, students will learn how to properly research historical information on school approved
resources. Students will do research on the founding documents of the United States, the people involved, and
the impacts the documents had on society then and now. Students will also work in peer groups, work on
projects, and hold civilized debates. Lastly, students will be expected to study the material for their lesson
exam.

Estimated Duration:
This specific topic in American history requires more time than usual because of the amount of information
students are expected to learn for the Common Core Standards. Therefore this lesson will take eight 50 minute
class periods (Including time to review and take exam).

Commentary:
I anticipate that it may be challenging for my students to become interested in the history. I plan to make this
lesson energetic and interesting. I will get my students “hooked” by showing short films so they can see and
understand what they have been reading. I will also have students play games that help them retain the
information and have fun while doing so. I would like to have the students invision how things would most
likely be NOW if things didn’t happen THEN, or if things happened differently to help them understand why
the history is important.

Instructional Procedures:
Day 1:
I will begin class by having students pull out their assigned laptop and click on the class link I will have
provided for the pre-assessment quiz. It will be a short multiple choice quiz to see where every student is at
knowledge- wise relating to the lesson topic (Founding Documents of the U.S.) The students will receive a
participation grade for this activity.
The students will be allowed 15-20 minutes to complete and submit the quiz. I will then be able to access the
scores and seen the average questions answered correctly and incorrectly. For the results, I will then know
what to focus on more when I am introducing the topics.
I will spend 20 minutes on introducing the first section of the lesson : The Declaration of Independence. I will
use my smartboard to present my slides on what the Declaration of Independence is, what it reads
(briefly),who drafted it, why it was made, etc.. I will focus more deeply on the areas where students were
lacking knowledge on the pre-assessment.
I will then give students 15 minutes to ask questions, make statements and work on homework.
For their homework, the students will be required to visit the website given on our activity page with their
assigned laptop (they can take home). The online activity will have them watch a short video about the
Declaration of Independence to recap the information we learned in class. The website will then give them a
few true or false and multiple choice questions that will be for a participation grade. However, students will
earn bonus points for getting a 90% or higher on the quiz. This gives incentive to do well on the quiz.

Day 2:
I will spend 10 minutes ( or longer ) answering questions students have on the homework or don’t understand
about the topic.
Now that we have learned about the Declaration of Independence, we will move on to the Northwest
Ordinance.
I will spend 25 minutes going over my slides on the Smartboard about the Northwest Ordinance, what it is,
why and how it came about, who was involved, why was it important, etc.. (students will have access to these
slides on our class page)
I will again focus more deeply on the areas that the students struggled with in the pre-assessment.
For the last 15 minutes I will answer any questions students may have, and explain the homework.
The homework will require the students to answer the questions listed above in the form of a short essay and
turn it in on turnitin.com.
I will provide students with appropriate websites to research as well as the lecture slides in class.

Day 3:
I will take 10 or more minutes to answer questions about the Northwest Ordinance and the move on to the U.S.
Constitution.
I will spend about 25 minutes going over my slides on the Smartboard about what the Constitution is, who
created it, who all was involved, why, when , how, etc…
Again, I will focus more on the areas that the students seemed to miss on the pre-assessment.
I will of course give students 15 minutes to ask question and I will explain their homework assignment.
For this topic, their homework will be participating in an online game where the students will have to go back
into time and be apart of the creating the Constitution. This allows students to use their creativity and use
historical thinking to come up with rational solutions to the problems faced in the game.

Day 4:
I will take 10 or more minutes to answer questions about the U.S. Constitution and gather thoughts about the
homework assignment.
We will then be moving onto the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. I will spend 25 minutes giving my
lecture via Smartboard telling the students what the papers were about, the people involved, why they started,
what the result was, etc…
I will go into depth on the areas the students struggled with.
The last 15 minutes will be used answering questions the students may have and explaining their homework
assignment.
Their homework will be to do research on the papers with their laptops and choice which side they would be
for and which side they would be against and why.

Day 5:
I spend 10 or more minutes answering questions and setting the classroom up for a debate.
I will have the students who are playing as “Federalists” move to one side of the room and the “Anti-
Federalists” move to the other side. I will have the students hold a civilized debate over why each side is
“right” or “wrong”. This activity allows students to use historical and critical thinking and is more memorable
so that they can retain the knowledge they have learned.
I will spend the remainder of the time handing out study guides with QR codes to websites that will help them
study for the exam.

Day 6:
We will go over the study guide as a class and I will answer any questions they may have.
The remainder of the time will be spent playing a review game on Kahoot. The students will log onto kahoot
on their phones, laptops, or ipads and play for candy prizes. This will be a fun way to get the students ready for
the exam.

Day 7:
Students will be given a written exam with a scantron to put their answers on. The exam will contain questions
from all four sections we went over in class. There will be multiple choice, true or false, and a few short
answer questions.
Students will be given the full 50 minutes to complete the exam which will be out of 100 points.
Pre-Assessment:
Before entering a new topic section, I will give my students a short electronic quiz that aligns with the
Common Core Standards the students are required to know. I will use the results to plan my lesson
accordingling. I will go into depth on the areas the students need help and maybe move a little faster over the
ones they don’t need much help with.
Scoring Guidelines:
The students will receive a participation grade for completing the pre-assessment quiz. I will be able to see the
results of each individual student and calculate the topics that majority of students answered incorrectly and
plan the lesson according to the results.
Post-Assessment:
The students will be given a post-assessment exam after going over all of the standards required. The exam
will be written and given with a scantron. The students will answer multiple choice, true and false, and short
answer questions.

Scoring Guidelines:
The post-assessment exam will be out of 100 points. The scantron answers will be automatically graded
but I will hand grade the short answers. I will grade them based off : 1. Did they answer all the
questions? 2. Were they correct or had the right idea? 3. Did they use proper punctuation and grammar?

Differentiated Instructional Support

Describe how instruction can be differentiated (changed or altered) to meet the needs of gifted or accelerated
students:
I will allow the “gifted” or “accelerated” students extensive assignments they could complete if they are ahead.
I would also allow time in class for these students to maybe help the students who may be struggling or need a
little help.

Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the
material:
I will offer one on one time for students after class who may need help. I will also give all students my contact
info to contact me outside of school if they are struggling. I would give students more websites or games that
could help them better understand the information in different ways. Lastly, I will give students access to a
page on our class website where they can post and ask each other questions and receive help when needed.

Extension
https://www.history.com/
http://constitutionus.com/
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/
https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-articles-of-confederation/the-great-debate/

Homework Options and Home Connections

My students will have homework that is research based where they will need to take their assigned laptop or
ipad home to complete it. They will also be given websites, applications, and games that they will need to visit
in order to complete most of their homework assignments. All students will be given access to the technology
they will need.

Interdisciplinary Connections
The lesson will also be integrated with English when they have to write papers and essays. Students will be
using Science when they have to conduct and gather research for the class as well as Art when they create
projects and presentations.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers Smartboard, Computer, Printer, Paper, Laptop cart, Advanced software for
applications.

For students Individual assigned laptops/ iPads, Paper, Pencils/Pens, Folders

Key Vocabulary
Declaration of Independence
Unalienable rights
Northwest Ordinance
The U.S. Constitution
Natural rights
Bill of Rights
Federalist Papers
Anti-Federalist Papers