Teacher: Wymore/ Martinez/ Chacon

Date: February
22nd/ 23rd
School: Blevins M.S.
Content Area: Social Studies
Title: Legislative Branch
Lesson #: 7 of 11
Co-Teaching Strategy: Station Teaching

Grade Level: 8

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:

Social Studies Standard:
Civics 1.1: Analyze and practice rights, roles and responsibilities of citizens; Analyze elements
of continuity and change in the United States government and the role of citizens over time.
d. Evaluate the result of various strategies for political change over time.
F. Examine ways citizens may effectively voice opinions, monitor government and bring
about change nationally.
Inquiry Questions:
Why do people create governments and laws?
What makes each house of Congress distinct?
What is the purpose of having a bicameral Congress?

Concepts and skills students master:

Synthesizing a secondary source (Senator Bios)
Activating background knowledge (Students sharing Senate fact sheets + House of Rep intro
questions)
How does Congress work together to pass laws (House of Representatives simulation, How a
bill becomes a law computer game)
Evidence Outcomes: (Knowledge/ Skills, Lesson Objectives)
Every student will be able to:
1. I understand how the House of Representatives functions in the legislative branch.
2. I can explain the steps of how a bill is passed in Congress becoming a law and why it is
an example of compromise between the Senate and House of Representatives.
3. I understand the role the Senate plays in the Legislative Branch.
Assessment of Evidence Outcomes: (How will you assess the selected lesson objectives
(general explanation, you will go into more detail at the end of the lesson plan)
Senate Fact Sheet
House of Rep background questions
Committee results + post committee questions
How a bill becomes a law questions and game completion

Planned Lesson Activities

Activity Name

The Legislative Branch Stations

Approx. Time

1 hour and 15 minutes (20 min stations)

Anticipatory Set

Learning Target 31
RAP 31: How a Bill Becomes a Law School House Rock Zaption
1. Where do ideas for bills come from?
2. What happens if a bill dies in committee?
3. What part of Congress needs to pass a bill?
4. What makes a bill become a law?
5. What is it called if a bill does not become a law?

Teaching/
Presentation:
(Select the most
appropriate teaching
model.)
-direct instruction
-presentation model
-concept teaching
-cooperative
learning
-inquiry

Includes: Input, Modeling and Checking for Understanding

1.
Input: RAP about how a bill becomes a law
2.
Modeling: Zaption: Debrief the video
3.
Checking for Understanding:
Senate: Starring the Senate fact sheet questions the
students already know. Debriefing the fact sheet after students share
information. Students can name their senators and how to use their
senators through the worksheet
House of Representatives: Completion of background
knowledge questions. Mark-Ups of bills assigned to committees.
Post-committee debrief questions. Students can identify the job and
usefulness of committees.
Bill process: Time required to work through game with
encouragement/ encouragement to work through parts of the game.
4.
Questioning Strategies: Remembering: Senate factual
questions i.e. How many senators are there? Understanding: Which
plan, the NJ or VA plan, applies to the Senate, why? Applying: What
is a scenario in which your Senator could be of use? Analyzing: How
does Congress work together to pass laws?

Teaching Strategy:
Guided Practice
&
Differentiation

Senate: Students will fill out a Senate fact sheet using prior
knowledge, they will star the answers they already knew then ask
their peers to help fill in the rest of the sheet. Well then debrief to be
sure the students have the information needed. Students will then
learn about their Colorado senators and share the information with a
partner. Well then go over ways in which are Senators can help us.
House of Representatives: Students will answer background
knowledge oriented questions about the House of reps. Any question
they cant answer will be marked and corrected. Following the few
short questions, the students will complete a mock committee markup where they will make their own amendments to a proposed bill.
The students will complete the station by answering a number of
debriefing questions about committees.
How a Bill becomes a law
Pre-Game Review Questions- Go over with students.
1. Congress has two parts. What are they, and what is the
difference between them? Senate/HOR(2/state; based on

population)
2. What is a bill? (Idea for a law)
3. What power does the president have in the lawmaking
process? (veto or signing it becoming a law)
Teaching Strategy:
(Independent
Practice)

Senate: This lesson is reinforcing and expanding on previously

taught material. The checks and balances taught in this lesson will be
reinforced in the Judicial branch lesson.
House of Representatives: This station provides a brief overview of
their background knowledge, and then introduces a concept that they
are unfamiliar with. Students will interact with the new concept
through a short group roleplay in which students will amend and pass
bills within a committee.
How a Bill becomes a law
LAW CRAFT GAME- Student play a representative or US Senator.
They choose an issue and select from a variety of amendments to
create a bill, while paying attention to how much support each
amendment has among other members. After passing the bill, the
player works to compromise with the other chamber-and if necessary,
the president- to create a bill signed into law or vetoed.
While playing the game number the events 1-7 in order of how a bill
is passed.
1. Senator or Representative takes on an issue from a
constituent
2. Goes to debate in the House or Senate- Craft your bill and
attach amendments
3. Passes Senate or House/ Vote- majority 51%
4. Goes to other chamber and must pass/Vote- majority 51%
5. Compromise by combining the senate and house bill
6. If vetoes Senate and House can override veto with vote
7. President signs or vetoes
Post-Game Questions
1. What was your law?
2. What is the lowest percentage of support a bill can receive
and still pass the House or Senate? How much support do
you need to override a Presidents veto?
3. What was your goal in your own house of Congress, before
the compromise process?
4. Why do you think the compromise process involves adding so
many amendments?
5. Was it difficult to stick with your chosen value? Did you have
to add an amendment that did not support your value? (i.e.,
Did YOU have to compromise?)
Value=
6. Why might the president veto a bill?
6. What do you think could happen if there was no compromise
process? No veto power?

Closure

Materials

Learning Target 31 Reflection

Senate: Who is your Senator and what is one power he has?
House of Representatives: What is the job of committees within the
House of Representatives?
How a Bill becomes a law
What are the steps of how a bill is passed in Congress becoming a
law? (at least 2 steps)
Why it is an example of compromise between the Senate and House
of Representatives?
Zaption video
Senate worksheet
House of Rep Worksheet + Committee
Laptops for game, LTs and RAP

Accommodations
&
Modifications

To modify:
House of Reps: Multiple choice background knowledge + debrief
questions.
Senate: Multiple choice Senate fact sheet
To extend: Ask students to think of multiple powers the Senate holds,
checks and balances.
What accommodations will need to be implemented and for what
students?
3S Lexi, Alaya, Collin~Sarah
How a Bill becomes a law: N/A

Assessment

How will you record the childs challenges and successes with this
activity?
Senate: Completion of the Senate fact sheet and Senator
biographies. Final assessment will cover the role of the Senate in
Congress.
House of Reps: Completion of the house of reps worksheet and
committee mark ups. Final assessment will cover the role of
committees within congress.
How a Bill becomes a law Completion of game questions

Co-Teaching
Strategies

Purpose of lesson/Standard Addressed: Civics 1.1: Analyze and

practice rights, roles and responsibilities of citizens; Analyze
elements of continuity and change in the United States government
and the role of citizens over time.
d. Evaluate the result of various strategies for political change
over time.
F. Examine ways citizens may effectively voice opinions,
monitor government and bring about change nationally.
Co-Teaching Strategy Identified/Rationale: We used station teaching
for this lesson. The reason we chose station teaching was because
the Legislative Branch is bicameral which worked perfectly for 2
teachers to teach in stations. We also wanted to cover how a bill

becomes a law in this lesson so adding in a third station with a third

teacher made for 3 distinct lesson on 3 separate pieces of
information about the Legislative Branch.
Were there other co-teaching strategies used when implementing the
lesson? If so, why?
We did not utilize any other co-teaching strategy during this lesson.
Would you use this co-teaching strategy for this lesson again?
We would certainly use this co-teaching strategy for the Legislative
Branch lesson again in the future. Breaking the lesson into two
separate station lessons really distinguishes the differences in the
two houses of Congress and further enforces the students
understanding of bicameralism.

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved? (Utilize assessment data to
justify your level of achievement) The legislative branch lesson, is by far the best lesson
that weve taught. The students were engaged at every station they spent time at, and
at teach branch they showed considerable comprehension of the subject matter. Many
students went above and beyond and completed their work and more at each station.
2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you
were to teach again? The lesson went smoothly, and there is nothing I would
change if I were to reteach this lesson.
3. What do you envision for the next lesson? (Continued practice, reteach content,
etc.) The students grasped this subject expertly, so were going to move onto the least
branch of the government for our next lesson.