Unit 1: Civics and Government 

Driving Question:

• How does our government meet our needs and how do we, as citizens serve our democracy?

Essential Questions: 

• What does it mean to be a citizen?

• What is the purpose of law?

• Why is a Constitution important?

• How does our American republic work? 

Supporting Questions:

• How does the United States government protect its people?

• How does the government assure a strong economy?

• How are government leaders chosen in a representative democracy?

• Why should citizens vote and participate in government?

• How can citizens support the common good? 

• How do our rights as citizens depend upon our civic duties? 

Prior Knowledge 

• Measure prior understanding of the purpose of government, duties of national officials, and the role of citizens in a democracy using the Anticipation Guide strategy and the provided United States Government Anticipation Guide. Return to the Anticipation Guide as a formative assessment during instruction.

Launch Task 

Conduct a Seed Discussion using suggestions from the lesson, What is a Republican Government, published by the Center for Civic Education. Assign roles and ask students to correct any misconceptions they may have. Continue to ask students to contribute a “seed” for the next stage of their discussion, offering suggestions for future lines of inquiry related to American government. 

Instructional Strategies 

• Suggested strategies for reinforcing the Social Studies Practices.

• Correlations to Social Studies Practices of the Oklahoma Academic Standards.

Objective Analysis and Instructional Resources 

Analysis for each grade-level's content standards and learning objectives is provided in a manner to support deep understanding of goals and expectations for the teacher and student. Following each Objective Analysis are links to Instructional Resources providing recommendations for lesson ideas, inquiry-based tasks, primary and secondary resources. 

Collaborative Engagement Ideas

• Who Rules the Land
  A 5E lesson from the Oklahoma Curriculum Frameworks Writers, encourages students to consider the meaning of tribal sovereignty and contemporary issues related to tribal governments, the services they provide, and their relationship with state and national governments. 

• Sharing and Trading Across Cultures
  An Inquiry Design Model lesson from the C3 Teachers which challenges students to consider the importance of trade and interchange of ideas between cultures and world communities.

• Citizen Me and Students Engage
  Inquiry-based lessons from ICivics which focus on the way citizens can identify and address local problems or issues in a dmocracy through simulated civic engagement activities. 

• Mock Election

         A student-centered simulation from ICivics, which engages students in understanding the roles of citizens, political parties, candidates, and campaigns in the

         selection of government officials.  

Following each Objective Analysis are links to Instructional Resources providing recommendations for lesson ideas, inquiry-based tasks, primary and secondary sources. 

Evidence of Learning: Formative Assessment Ideas

• Assess students’ understanding of civic responsibility by asking students to consider the quotation, “A nation behaves well if it treats natural resources as assets for the next generation” (President Theodore Roosevelt).  Ask students to restate Roosevelt’s thoughts in their own words and describe an example of how citizens can fulfil their responsibilities to the environment. (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.1)

• Assess students’ understanding of the role of citizens, referencing  information from the passage, Our Country: Our Rights and Responsibilities. Ask students to list examples of rights versus duties on a t-chart. Conclude the assessment by asking student pairs to discuss their shared understandings using the Think, Write, Pair, Share strategy, and develop a one-paragraph response to the question “How do our rights as citizens depend on our duties?” (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.1)  FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PROBE

•  Measure student understanding of the principles of representative democracies by using a sample multiple-choice question and identify the major characteristics of republics. (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.1)  

•  Assess students’ understanding of the purpose of government and a written Constitution by asking them to refer to goals described in the Preamble (provided in text and audio by the National Archives or the United States Courts).  Ask students to note their conclusions on a  HAPPY graphic organizer. (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.2)

• Evaluate students' learning of the three branches of government and responsibilities of government officials elected to appointed in each branch, as outlined in the Constitution. Ask students to compare the structure of the three branches to the same structure in our state government. Ask students to compare diagrams of the three branches and their powers to demonstrate their understandings. (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.2) FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PROBE

• Measure student understandings of how national leaders and branches of government address issues related to conservation of natural resources. Ask students to consider recycling efforts, as they use a Three Branches graphic organizer to explain actions each branch of government can take to solve problems of waste management. (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.2) 

•  Assess students’ understanding of the levels of local, state, and national government and how the three branches of government are organized at such levels. Ask students to demonstrate their learning by completing the Our Governments chart, using a provided word bank. (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.2) FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PROBE

• Evaluate students' comprehension of the concept of federalism by matching examples of service, assistance, and responsibilities exercised by levels of local, state, and national government. (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.2) FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PROBE

•  Following student learning about tribal governments, using such resources as The American Indian in Today’s America, assess students’ understanding of the concept of self-government. Ask students to demonstrate their knowledge by creating Frayer-model vocabulary cards for the term “sovereignty.” (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.2) 

• Assess students’ understanding of citizens’ stewardship toward the environment. Using their own knowledge and information from the article Plastic Pollution: What’s the Problem, ask students to compose a brief Letter to the Editor, noting their conclusions to the question, “How can we better care for the environment?” (Oklahoma Academic Standard 4.1.3) 

Unit Closure Idea 

Global You, an extended inquiry and simulation from iCivics, asks students to analyze how an imaginary country’s decisions about its resources can affect neighboring regions. Encourage students to identify ways that citizens can think about environment impact on broader terms and develop their global citizenship skills. 

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