7. Instructional Decision Making (LO 4.

2) (APS 3)
In day one of this unit, students learned why it was important for
the state to build its own type of government. I began by splitting the
class into two groups, one representing the upcountry of South
Carolina which had 2/3 of the states population, and rest of the class
represented the low country with the remaining 1/3. Students were
asked if they thought this type of representation was fair, or if they
thought the people in both sections of the state should work together
as one to form laws. I thought it would be a straightforward answer for
students, but we had to have some discussion to come to the
appropriate conclusion. I asked How would it be fair if you have more
people? Would they not always win the vote since they have more
representatives? After these questions, students were able to come
to an agreement that this type of representation was unfair, and that
the entire state should work together as a whole to vote on
government issues.
On day two of my instruction I really started to notice students
struggling with the lesson.
Day two of this unit is when the
introduction of each branch of the State government began. This was
done by reading from the textbook, and I followed up with several real
world examples in order to help students see how each branch of
government is essential to a successful government.
The
pronunciations were a struggle for students. I think they were so
caught up in getting that down that they completely ignored the
responsibilities of each branch of government. As we progressed in the
lesson, students began guessing which branch went with which
responsibility. Prior to beginning this unit, I chose three students to
focus on and watch their growth as we progressed. Two of these
students are the main reason why I changed the presentation of the
material. During day two of this unit, I was closely watching these
students and how they reacted to the material. Student #4, my
average learner, was extremely frustrated and overwhelmed. He was
constantly saying I dont get it, This is too hard, I need help.
Student #7, the least successful learner, was distracted and
uninterested. Student #3, who ended up being my most successful
student, did not look confused or overwhelmed, but he didnt have the
excited or confident look he usually does when he understands all the
information. At this point, I knew I had to change the way I was
presenting the material. So, I stopped, asked students to raise their
hands if they wanted me to slow down and start over. About 75% of
the class raised their hands; so, I went back to the beginning. Instead
of re-reading everything, I simply stated the branch and its
responsibility. Then, I asked students if they had any creative ideas of
how we could remember this. Since the legislative branch makes the

laws, we remembered it by the L in both. So, Legislative-Laws.

Students quickly got that one. For Executive we decided to use a
student in the class, Ethan, to help us remember. So, we came up with
Executive Ethan enforces the laws. Lastly we had Judicial Jaiden
makes sure the laws are equal and fair. Jaiden is another student in
the class. Students seemed to respond much better to this than simply
reading from the text. When we started associating it with people in
the class they got really excited and interested.
At the end of day two, we created a flip-book for the 3 branches
of government. I think this effectively helped student as well. They
were given a picture to represent each branch, and underneath each
picture, students were to write the responsibilities of each branch. I
also gave them several departments and special titles under each
branch to help them be able to identify them more easily.
Day three of this unit was supposed to be trip to the South
Carolina State House, but due to weather, it was cancelled. Although
students were not able to see it in person, we did take the virtual tour
using the state house website and were able to have a great
discussion. Students were fascinated by how nice the State House was
inside. We visited the link labeled State Symbols and Emblems and
were able to talk about the different things that are specific to South
Carolina and why they are important to us. While visiting this site,
students were gathered at the front of the room so they could easily
see the images on the Promethean board. They were attentive at the
beginning of the presentation, but as time went on, several students
began to get restless. So, they were sent back to their seats in order
to keep them from distracting the rest of the class who were interested
and engaged.
The final two days of this unit were used for review. I felt that
going into any more details would only confuse students. My goal for
this unit was for students to have an understanding of the 3 branches
of state government and to be able to identify their responsibilities. To
review, we re-read our textbook pages, had class discussions, reviewed
our flipbook, and reviewed our clue names for branches of government
associations.