Current Events
Subject: Social Studies Topic: Citizenship
Grade Level: 7th Expected Time: 1 1/2 hours
could be split into 2 lesson
Unit Essential Questions:
1. What makes a person a good citizen
2. How should we decide who can become a citizen?
Guiding Questions:
VI. Power authority and governance
VII. Production Distribution and Consumption
IX. Global Connections
X. Civic Ideals and Practices
MMSD Grade 7 Social Studies Standards:
Behavioral Sciences:
9. Explain how most issues encountered in social studies are complex, need thoughtful analysis, and may lack simple solutions. (P) (6-3, 8-8) Multiple perspectives
Political science
3. Identify major forms of government found in countries of the world and compare and contrast responsibilities and rights within each. (S-P) (6-2, 6-3, 8-1, 8-3, 8-5, 8-6) Democracy, so how can we change immigration or citizenship.
Economics
5. Explain how physical geography, specialization, demography, and
trade influence the way people earn income. (P) (6-1, 8-3)
UW-Madison Teacher Education Standards:
Standard 13: Is a Reflective Practitioner
Lesson Objectives:
Students are in the midst of a unit about citizenship. This lesson is situated near the end. Previous to this lesson students have been studying, what citizenship is, who can become a citizen, and how citizenship is changing now. This lesson focusing on exposing students to the current immigration reform. This will help students conceptualize what it means to be citizens of a democracy. Students will explore how rules can be change in a democracy through legislation.
Lesson Opening:
Identifying the need for reform:
Students will do a free write journal for 3 minutes to process what they are thinking. There will be prompting questions on the board like, “does this make you excited, concerned or confused? What was the most difficult piece of information you learned today? Are you feeling safe and comfortable in this classroom right now?
Assessment:
Grade Level: 7th Expected Time: 1 1/2 hours
could be split into 2 lesson
Unit Essential Questions:
1. What makes a person a good citizen
2. How should we decide who can become a citizen?
Guiding Questions:
- Is citizenship changing now?
- Why do people from both parties want to fix the current immigration system?
VI. Power authority and governance
VII. Production Distribution and Consumption
IX. Global Connections
X. Civic Ideals and Practices
MMSD Grade 7 Social Studies Standards:
Behavioral Sciences:
9. Explain how most issues encountered in social studies are complex, need thoughtful analysis, and may lack simple solutions. (P) (6-3, 8-8) Multiple perspectives
Political science
3. Identify major forms of government found in countries of the world and compare and contrast responsibilities and rights within each. (S-P) (6-2, 6-3, 8-1, 8-3, 8-5, 8-6) Democracy, so how can we change immigration or citizenship.
Economics
5. Explain how physical geography, specialization, demography, and
trade influence the way people earn income. (P) (6-1, 8-3)
UW-Madison Teacher Education Standards:
Standard 13: Is a Reflective Practitioner
Lesson Objectives:
- SWBAT engage in their “media literacy” skills to analyze the messages in video clips.
- SWBAT engage in their “media literacy” skill by determining what the opposing opinion from the one expressed in the video is.
- SWBAT identify what bipartisan means and explain why the current reform is bipartisan.
- SWBAT explain why both parties want to reform the immigration system.
- SWBAT identify and define the 4 main points of the proposed immigration reform.
- Computer
- Projector
- Speakers
- How a bill becomes a law diagram
Students are in the midst of a unit about citizenship. This lesson is situated near the end. Previous to this lesson students have been studying, what citizenship is, who can become a citizen, and how citizenship is changing now. This lesson focusing on exposing students to the current immigration reform. This will help students conceptualize what it means to be citizens of a democracy. Students will explore how rules can be change in a democracy through legislation.
Lesson Opening:
Identifying the need for reform:
- Students will watch this video.
- They will brainstorm in table groups the messages this video is sending about the problems of the current immigration system.
- Have students brainstorm at tables other reasons the immigration system needs reform. “the other side” I will remind students as we list these reasons we need to be respectful of everyone, knowing we all have very different backgrounds and experiences that affect our personal position on the situation. I will also remind students for some of us this issue might be really personal, so the way we talk about it is very important.
- Borders aren’t secure people keep coming over
- People in the country who broke the law
- People who live here and don’t pay all the state taxes.
- Undocumented workers get paid less and thus take jobs that could go to American citizens.
- We will come back together as a class and share the lists that we came up with. This way I know there is a somewhat uniform understanding about the need for immigration reform
- Students will review how we can create change in our country because we are a democracy.
- I will remind students that one of the ways we create change is through laws. We will review this, image to remind themselves of the legislative process in our country.
- Students would watch the first 2 minutes of this video to get a brief overview of what the proposed bill would look like.
- Each table group would be given a netbook, and also one page of the slideshow displayed here,
- Each group would be responsible for reading the snippet about their slide and then researching it.
- Each group of students will present their slide to the class and explain what their slide means and how it affects the bill.
- Make sure to bring economics into the discussion about the other visas available for agricultural workers, discuss which states this will affect most and why.
Students will do a free write journal for 3 minutes to process what they are thinking. There will be prompting questions on the board like, “does this make you excited, concerned or confused? What was the most difficult piece of information you learned today? Are you feeling safe and comfortable in this classroom right now?
Assessment:
- I will assess students presentations with a presentation rubric.
- I will collect each table groups lists that they created in the lesson opening.