UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program

LESSON PLANNING GUIDE

Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity
This guide may be used for the Culturally Relevant Lesson Plan, as well as the lesson observed by your Support Provider or Mentor Teacher.
Topic of Lesson: U.S. Constitution. Date: November 7, 2023

Inquiry Question: If you could create your own constitution for the school, what would it look like? Grade Level: Fourth Grade
Expected Outcomes: What is your learning objective for students to know Behavioral Needs Focus Student: How will you modify, accommodate,
at the end of this lesson? or differentiate instruction to ensure universal access to curriculum for
your Focus Student?
Students will be able to explain the structures, functions, and powers of their
Prior to this lesson, the students would have worked with the teacher in
own constitution and how that relates to the U.S. constitution as shown when
annotating informational articles about the U.S. constitution. We would
they present their constitutions to the class with 80 percent accuracy
have also watched video on the constitution and how it affected the local,
according to the rubric.
state, and federal governments. An anchor chart would have been made
that stated the important elements of the local, state, and federal
governments. I will also be sure to have my low students in small groups
so that I may better assistant them when annotating the articles with the
class.

Assessment: What evidence of learning will you gather to assess student Flexible Grouping Strategies: How will you group students in the lesson
learning? to address identified language, academic, and instructional needs for
individual students?
The students will present their constitution to the class. They will write their
I will have students grouped by one high student, two high to low students,
constitution on an anchor chart. Along with this, the students will make a
and one low student according to the English Language Arts scores. I will
minimum of a three slide PowerPoint that explains how their constitution
also be sure to put a bilingual student next to my two high English
will affect the levels of power in the school. The board of education would
Language Learners.
be the federal government, the administrators would be their state
government, and their teacher would be the local government.

What academic content standard(s) will you focus on during this lesson?

4.SS.5 - CS.SOC.4.4.5 Students understand the structures, functions, and powers of the local, state, and federal governments as described in the U.S.
Constitution.

ELD.PI.4.9.Ex – Expressing information and ideas in formal oral presentations on academic topics

Lesson Differentiation: Explain how you will ensure student engagement and differentiate within this lesson to meet the needs of students who have
learning difficulties, students who are language learners, and students who are gifted.

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide

 UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program
LESSON PLANNING GUIDE
Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity

To ensure their student engagement, I am giving the students the ability to “change” their environment in this situation. If there is something that they do
not like about school, they may be able to change it in some way with their school constitution. I am giving them the power. Not only that, but I am
relating to things they know about and the environment in which they work in every day. In order to the help the students who may be low, I will be
putting them into the same group. Here, I will guide them through the process of making their constitution such as giving them ideas of some things. I,
however, will not be coming up with a ton, just a start for the students. Not only that, but I will be sure to ask them scaffolding questions about the process
to keep them thinking about the topic at hand. For the students who do not speak English well, I will be sure to pair them with individuals that are bilingual
so that the students feel comfortable to speak their first language if they would like to if they cannot find the correct words in English. The way in which I
will help students who are gifted will be by having them spread amongst the class. It will be their job to guide the conversations as well as think beyond
the classroom and how that will affect them. They should also be thinking how it will affect other classes.
Lesson Design: Explain your planned activities to meet your learning objective.

Background Information: Prior to starting this lesson, we would have already had a few lessons on what the constitution is and how it affects the federal,
state, and local governments. There will be a couple of anchor charts that will be around the room of the main points of the federal, state and local
governments. Those lessons would have started with us reading an informational article about one of the forms of government and then a video about it.
From that point, we will fill out a graphic organizer of how the constitution affects this branch of government. These are some of the main points that are
written on the anchor chart.
Lesson Opener: We will review the connections to the three types of governments: federal, state, and local. The teacher will then explain the objective to
the students and what it is that they will be doing in this lesson. In this lesson, they will be forming a school constitution. The board of education will be
acting as their federal government, the administrators as their state government, and their teacher acting as their local government. It will be up to the
students to form a constitution that will form the environment that they think will have the most success.
Activities: Now I will talk about the roles of each person in their group. I will then model what each group members will be doing in the activity. Here I
will go over each role and walk through the roles one-by-one, The team leader will be the one to start the conversation about what the important things that
the group would like to address in the constitution. Here, they can discuss academics or anything that they might find important that they want to change
for the better or stay the same. From that point, the scriber would be writing down the notes and ideas that come up from the group members on a
worksheet. On the worksheet, sentence frames will be provided to help the students stay on task. Not only that, but it will also help the ELD students in
following along with the project. After all the notes have been written, the scriber will review the notes with the group and then begin writing down that
rough draft on the constitution. During this time, the leader will facilitate the discussion amongst the group members. Not only that, but I will walk around
to ensure everyone is staying on task or needs any help. Once there is a rough draft of the constitution being written, the editor and group mates will check
the constitution as it is being written for the important components: a preamble, the articles, and amendments. They will also look it over to ensure that it
makes sense and that everything is spelt correctly. The scriber will now begin writing the constitution on the poster paper as the final draft. The other
group members will then begin working on the PowerPoint that will address the different types of governments that will be affected in their constitution.
Their governments will be the board of education acting as their federal government, the administrators as their state government, and their teacher acting
as their local government. Once these are all written, the editor will look at all of the presentation slides and the poster of the constitution to ensure that all
elements of the rubric have been discussed to the best of their abilities. After all of this is explained. The teacher will display an example of a finished
product. Here the students will then be asked to rate the project based off of the rubric. Once this has been done, the teacher will show the rubric, role
descriptions, and the example on the board. These will be kept up for the duration of the activity. They will then be given 25 to 30 minutes to begin. The
UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide
 UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program
LESSON PLANNING GUIDE
Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity
teacher will be walking around to ensure that everyone is on the right track and is helping anyone who is confused or is getting distracted. Students will not
have enough time to present in the same day, it is for this reason they will stop working on their projects and have them ready to present the next day.
However, when the students present the next day, the students watching will have to write two positives and one negative about the group’s constitution.
Sentence stems will be provided for students during this time.
Closure: Students will review how their constitution is similar to the United States of America’s constitution.

Academic Vocabulary Instruction: What specific vocabulary/terms will Culturally Relevant: How is this lesson relevant to the students in your
you explicitly teach and have students practice during this lesson to ensure class? How does this lesson encourage a classroom that is supportive of
concept understanding? diversity?

Federal, Constitution, branches of government, Preamble, separation of This lesson is relevant to the students in my class because it would be giving
powers, checks and balances, executive branch, judicial branch, legislative them the opportunity to make their own rules, which would help make their
branch school environment better and more to their liking. This will encourage a
classroom that is supportive of diversity because it allows students to make a
constitution that will help form an environment that will better support them
and their group’s interests.

Classroom Management: What do you anticipate your focus student will Integration of Technology: How will you integrate available technology
need to be successful with this lesson? What other issues should you resources into this lesson as you plan, teach, and assess student learning?
consider to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for student learning? How might students use technology in this lesson to deepen their
understanding of the content?
Each group member will have roles throughout the entire process. This
ensures that all members are all doing something through the lesson. The I will integrate technology into the lessons by having the students use google
roles are as follows: slides to make their presentation of how their federal, state, and local
governments will be affected. The students will work on this on in class
Team leader – will keep everyone on task, and will grab any and all supplies
where I know the students have access to the computer. The students use of
that may be needed to make their anchor chart for their constitution. They
technology will deepen their understanding of the content because they are
will also act as a helper to the presentation scriber.
able to able to do further research if needed to better understand the
Scriber – will take notes while the students are presenting the ideas for the functions of the constitution. Not only that, but they are also able to look up
constitution and the effects that it will take on the federal, state, and local photos of the various branches their constitution will be affecting to enhance
governments. their presentation.
Scriber of the Presentation – will type out the effects that will take place on
the federal, state, and local governments. They will also be sure to add a
theme to the presentation,
Editor – will look over any and all work prior to presenting it to the class to

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide

 UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program
LESSON PLANNING GUIDE
Inquiry I: Effective Learning Environments and Supporting Cultural Diversity
ensure there are no errors.
Other issues that could happen are people still not listening and are talking
about random things or looking at the web at things that are not related to the
topic. Our school has GoGuardian which is a site in which I am able to track
all of the students computer screens to ensure they are all on the proper
pages, such as google slides or google images for images for the
presentation. Another issue that could occur are the students arguing. I will
state the expectation of behavior prior to the activity starting. I will remind
the students what we do when we get in arguments using out Getting Along
Together program.

UCLA Extension Clear University Induction Program- Lesson Planning Guide