Unit Plan

Unit theme: Government and rules

Overall structure of a text (cause and effect)

Unit objectives (enduring understandings):

● Cause and effect
● Rules, responsibilities, and rights
● Students will be able to identify a text structure in a text.
● Students will be able to identify the cause and effect.
● Students will be able to identify a transition word.
● Students will understand the difference between rights, responsibilities, and rules.
● Students will understand government in the lives of Utah citizens.
● Students will understand government in the lives of citizens in different countries.

Utah state core objectives:

● Reading: Informational Text Standard 5: Describe the overall structure (e.g.,
chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or
information in a text or part of a text.
● Social studies- Standard 3: Students will understand the roles of civic life, politics, and
government in the lives of Utah citizens.
○ Objective 1: Describe the responsibilities and rights of individuals in a
representative government as well as in the school and community.

Essential Questions:
● Why do we need a government?
● Why is it important to have legislation, or laws?
● Why do we need rules and laws?
● What does your state government do? What services does it provide?
● Why might it be important to think of the effect of a cause?
 Unit plan outline

Day 1, Monday 2/10: No rules game with discussion about why rules are needed. Read
Wonders story, A World without Rules. Discuss cause and effect text structure, fill out graphic
organizer.

Day 2, Tuesday 2/11: Read the story See How they Run in the Wonders book. Add cause and
effect that we read in the story to the chart that we already started. This story gives a little
background about democracies

Day 3, Wednesday 2/12: Vocabulary. Review vocabulary for the Unit, if time play the game.

Day 4, Thursday 2/13: finish up vocabulary and play the game. This will be a short day and we
are also celebrating Valentine’s Day.

We had to push the lesson a week because we had testing, Valentine’s day, reward party,
parent teacher conferences, short days, no school days, and our Patriotic Program.

Day 5, Monday 2/24: Rights, rules, and responsibilities. Video from Kids academy on youtube.
Have students watch the video to learn a definition of what rights, rules, and responsibilities.
We will then have a discussion and example of each one. Students will fill in a new graphic
organizer with one right, one responsibility, and one rule that relate to each other. So they will
think of a right they have and with that right what is the responsibility they have to follow that
rule. Or they might think of a rule then why do we have that rule, what is our right that might
have encouraged that rule.

Day 6, Tuesday 2/25: Now that we have learned a little about what rules, responsibilities, and
rights are we will look at Ben's guide from UEN and learn how laws are made.

Day 7, Wednesday 2/26: Sign up for projects and review expectations, show how to use the
world book and google. Start working on group projects. Students will pick a place they want to
research to find the rules, laws, and responsibilities that citizens have in that place. They will
also research where the place is located and what type of government they have.

Day 8, Thursday: Work in groups on projects.

Day 9, Friday: Present brochures to the class to share what we learned. Complete post-
assessment.
 Three phase learning guide
Mariah Arellano
Newman Elementary
February 18, 2020
4th observation
Lesson 1 of unit plan
Grade level: 4th
Approximate length of time: 60 minutes
Curriculum areas: Language arts and social studies
Objectives:
Utah State Core:
Language Arts:
● Reading: Informational Text Standard 5: Describe the overall structure (e.g.,
chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or
information in a text or part of a text.
Social Studies:
● Standard 3: Students will understand the roles of civic life, politics, and government in
the lives of Utah citizens.
○ Objective 1: Describe the responsibilities and rights of individuals in a
representative government as well as in the school and community.

Personal objectives:
● Students will be aware of the government.
● Students will understand the relationship between cause and effect.
● Students will be aware of their rights and responsibilities

Essential questions:
● Why do we need rules or laws?
● What kinds of rules are necessary for learning, living, and playing together in school?
● How does the government maintain order and protect people’s freedom?
● Why do we need a government?

Enduring understandings or objectives:

● Students will understand how to identify cause and effect within a text.
● Students will be able to use a cause and effect organizer.
● Students will be able to identify the role the government plays in our lives.
● Students will recognize how the rules and laws affect our everyday lives.

Materials:
● Two buckets
● Ball
● Wonders literacy book- A World Without Rules
● Cause and effect organizer

Accomodations:
● Pre-made graphic organizers
● Work in partners
● Vocabulary words written
● Class reading

Phase 1: Exploration and explanation 10 minutes

Guess my rules game: 5 minutes
● The teacher divides the class into two teams and explains to the students that they will
play a game and must guess the rules.
● Each team can score a goal by putting the ball through the space marked at their scoring
end. Only the teacher knows the rules; the teacher will not explain the rules and the
students cannot ask what they are. When they break a rule, the students have to sit
down. The aim of the game is for the students to score a goal without breaking the rules;
the students’ task is to work out what the rules are so that they don’t break them.
● The rules are: Everyone can play the game, only girls can score, no-one is allowed to
move with the ball they have to pass it, the goal is to get the ball in the basket.

Discussion: 5 minutes
● What did you think about the game? Was it good? Bad? Fair? How did you know that
there were some rules? How did you feel about not knowing what the rules were? “Why
do we need rules in school?” The major criteria in terms of “equality”, “participation”,
“fairness” and “respect” should be on the blackboard at the end of the session.
● Sit down in a circle and talk about the game. Talk about if it was difficult to play a game
that had no rules, or the rules were not stated. Why was it difficult?
● Talk about how we also have rules in school, the US, and in life in general. We are
going to read a story about a world with no rules.
Read aloud: 10 minutes
● Have students grab their wonders literacy book and turn to page 238. Explain that we
are going to read a story about a world with no rules to see a glimpse of what the world
might look like if there were no rules and why we need our government.
● Reading through the first time, we are only reading to familiarize the story but tell
students they are looking for what happens when there are no rules. What are the
consequences of whether they are good or bad?
● We will then head back to our desks to discuss more of the cause and effect.
● Have students take turns reading each paragraph as a whole class.
Text structure: 5 minutes
● Explain that authors use text structures to organize the information in a text. When
explaining events, procedures, ideas, or concepts, they may use a cause-and-effect text
structure to present information that explains how or why something happens.
● A cause is why something happens
● An effect is what happens as a result
● To find a cause-and-effect relationship, students should look for an event or action that
causes something to happen. Then students can identify the effect, or what happens as
a result.
● Some signal words and phrases when looking for cause and effect are “because, so,
since, and as a result.”
● Sometimes cause-and-effect relationships occur in a chain with each cause and effect
bringing about a related cause and effect. For example a row of dominoes being
knocked over.
Cause and effect: 5 minutes
● As a class we will go back to our desks and read through the first paragraph “A strange
morning.” As a class, we will find causes and their effects of not having rules and write
them down in our chart.
● In the chart notice how the arrow shows us that the effect happens because of the
cause. We don't have the effect first then the cause.
 ● We should find 3 causes and effects within the first paragraph.

Transition to phase 2: Review phase 1 concepts/explain directions for phase 2

I want you to work with your neighbor to find the cause and effects of the second paragraph.
Remember, a cause is why something happens and an effect is what happens as a result. You
should have at least 3 causes and effects from the second paragraph. If you finish, show me
and then you can try the third paragraph on your own.

Phase 2: Guided practice/individually differentiated instruction: (10 minutes)

Students will work in partners to find the relationships of cause and effect within the second
paragraph. I will walk around and scaffold as needed.

Transition to phase 3: Review concepts taught in phase 1/ explain directions for phase 3.
Now that you have had some practice with cause and effect, I want to see if you can find the
causes and effects on your own in the third paragraph. This one might be a little more tricky
because we are getting back to reality and you might have to dive deeper. You might think of
what laws we have in place and what effect that has on us. For example, we live in a
democracy which means we have the privilege of voting for the people that we want to run the
country. We have laws to protect us.

Phase 3: Independent practice/assessment 10 minutes

This might take students a little longer to do because the clues are not as evident. They have to
think about the real world and how the laws affect us.

Assessment: We will continue working on the cause and effect strategy as well as discussing
rights and responsibilities throughout the unit. For this lesson, I am only looking to see if
students see the relationship between cause and effect. I also want to assess if they are
starting to see how rules play a role in our lives. I will be assessing students throughout the
process based on their answers but then i will look at their causes and effect chart at the end to
see the big picture.
 Cause and Effect

Name: ________________________________________

· Signal words: because, so, as a result, since

Cause Effect
Why something happens What happens as a result

Example:
Without rules You don’t have to go to school

Lesson Plan for See How They Run

Grade level: 4th

Approximate length of time: 60 minutes
Curriculum areas: Language arts and social studies
Objectives:
Utah State Core:
Language Arts:
● Reading: Informational Text Standard 5: Describe the overall structure (e.g.,
chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or
information in a text or part of a text.
Social Studies:
● Standard 3: Students will understand the roles of civic life, politics, and government in
the lives of Utah citizens.
○ Objective 1: Describe the responsibilities and rights of individuals in a
representative government as well as in the school and community.

Personal objectives:
● Students will understand the history of government.
● Students will understand the relationship between cause and effect.

Essential questions:
● Why is our government run the way it is? Or why is our world run the way it is?
● How does the government maintain order and protect people’s freedom?
● Why do we need a government?

Enduring understandings or objectives:

● Students will understand how to identify cause and effect within a text.
● Students will be able to use a cause and effect organizer.
● Students will be able to identify the role the government plays in our lives.
● Students will learn the history of government.

Materials:
● Wonders books- See How They Run
● Cause and effect graphic organizer
● Pencil

Accomodations:
● Pre-made graphic organizers
● Vocabulary words written
● Whole class read

There is a lot of history and vocabulary within this reading so I want to read it as a class to make

sure we can clarify any confusing terms. Therefore, I will not have students work in groups,

partners, or individually, we will read the whole story as a class. We will continue to add cause

and effect to our graphic organizer as we see them.

Read the essential question and discuss reasons why we would need a government. Observe

the picture of the donkey and elephant on the first page. Read the first part “Beware of Greeks

Bearing Gifts” pay close attention to the roots of democracy. Discuss who can vote now?

Read the next section “There’s No Place Like Rome,”

How was the Roman and Greek democracies different?

Read “1,800 years later- here comes American democracy”

Discuss who the founding fathers are and how did they alter their democracy?

Discuss the three branches of government and what they each do.

Read “Getting Better All the Time”

Read the good and bad news of how the constitution has changed.

While reading, we will discuss cause and effect and add ideas to our graphic organizer.

For example, the effect of being a citizen is you’re able to vote. The constitution was not perfect

so the bill of rights was written.

Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities Lesson

Rights, rules, and responsibilities. Video from Kids academy on youtube. Have students watch
the video to learn a definition of what rights, rules, and responsibilities. We will then have a
discussion and example of each one. Students will fill in a new graphic organizer with one right,
one responsibility, and one rule that relate to each other. So they will think of a right they have
and with that right what is the responsibility they have to follow that rule. Or they might think of
a rule then why do we have that rule, what is our right that might have encouraged that rule.

Grade level: 4th

Approximate length of time: 60 minutes
Curriculum areas: Language arts and social studies
Objectives:
Utah State Core:
Language Arts:
● Reading: Informational Text Standard 7: Interpret information presented visually,
orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or
interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an
understanding of the text in which it appears.
Social Studies:
● Standard 3: Students will understand the roles of civic life, politics, and government in
the lives of Utah citizens.
○ Objective 1: Describe the responsibilities and rights of individuals in a
representative government as well as in the school and community.

Essential questions:
● Why do we need rights, rules, and responsibilities?
● What do those look like in my life?
● Why should I follow the rules or laws?

Enduring understandings or objectives:

● Students will understand the difference between rights, rules, and responsibilities.
● Students will be able to identify rights, rules, and responsibilities in their class, home,
and in the world.

Materials:
● Youtube Video- Kids Academy
● Graphic organizer- rules, rights and responsibilities
● Pencil

Accomodations:
● Pre-made graphic organizers
● Interactive video

Ben’s Guide Lesson Plan

Now that we have learned a little about what rules, responsibilities, and rights are we will look at
Ben's guide from UEN and learn how laws are made.

Grade level: 4th

Approximate length of time: 60 minutes
Curriculum areas: Language arts and social studies
Objectives:
Utah State Core:
Language Arts:
● Reading: Informational Text Standard 7: Interpret information presented visually,
orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or
interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an
understanding of the text in which it appears.
Social Studies:
● Standard 3: Students will understand the roles of civic life, politics, and government in
the lives of Utah citizens.
○ Objective 1: Describe the responsibilities and rights of individuals in a
representative government as well as in the school and community.

Essential questions:
● What are laws? Why do we have them?
● What are the laws already in place?
● What do those look like in my life?
● Why should I follow the rules or laws?

Enduring understandings or objectives:

● Students will understand how a law is made and who makes them.
● Students will be able to navigate through the website to conduct research about laws.

Materials:
● Website- Ben’s guide
● Spiral notebook to take notes
● Ipads

Accomodations:
● Interactive webpage
● Ipads to interact together

We will first look at what laws are, who makes the laws, and then finally look at a few laws.
As a class, we will go to Ben’s guide website on our ipads to practice how to navigate the
website. We will read what laws are, who makes the laws, and how laws are made in the
United States. After we have navigated through this part of the website, students will work in
partners to look through the Bill of Rights or the laws that are in place. They will use their
graphic organizer to fill in one law we have and what that means our responsibility and rights
are based off of that law.