Second Grade – Unit 1 – Civics and Government May 2014 Alternate Unit updated with Discovery Education Resources

Standards:2.C&G.1 Understand the purpose of governments2.C&G.1.1 Explain government services and their value to the community (libraries, schools, parks, etc.).2.C&G.1.2 Explain how governments establish order, provide security and create laws to manage conflict.2.C&G.2 Understand the roles and responsibilities of citizens.2.C&G.2.1 Exemplify characteristics of good citizenship through historical figures and everyday citizens2.C&G.2.2 Explain why it is important for citizens to participate in their community.2.C.1.3 Exemplify respect and appropriate social skills needed for working with diverse groups

Essential Question:

What are the roles and responsibilities of government?

What are characteristics of good citizenship?

Standards Guiding Questions

Day Activity - planning for one activity per dayFormal and informal assessment should occur throughout the unit.

Resources

2C&G.1.1What do we need to understand about our essential question?

1 Put Essential Questions on chart paper to refer to through out the unit.

Read aloud the essential questions to students, sharing descriptions and definitions of key words in the questions.

Depending on your student’s background knowledge, generate word wall words from questions. (Best practice is not to exceed 10 words on wall at a time.) Possible words include roles, responsibilities, government, citizenship. Throughout unit as words come up, add them to list such as community and citizen. Use different informal opportunities to interact with word wall during unit. For example, Guess My Word or Word Bingo.

After reading and thinking aloud about the questions, have students turn and talk to a partner about what they think they might know in response to the questions.

Listen to student discussions and add a few ideas to each chart, sharing with students that we’ll be adding more to our chart from our learning in this unit.

Chart paper

Vocabulary definitions/descriptions attached.

What are classroom jobs?

1-2 Background buildingIntroduce the idea of classroom jobs. Offer students and opportunity to “Stop and Jot” writing in response to the question; Why do we have jobs? Allow students to add to their list with a partner or table group.

Have students help establish classroom jobs list (skip this step if already established). Using the application, have students apply for a specific job.

See attached job application (will need to tally results for day 4)

What is a government job?

3 Government jobsDefine what a government job is (helps the community, paid for by the community).

Watch the Discovery Ed video clips. Have students discuss with partner or table

Discovery Ed video clipsPublic Schools and Parks (2:09m)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/

group what they learned after each of the clips.(

continued on next page)Chart a list of government helpers (note: might help to differentiate from non-government community helpers with the idea of not paying for their services. You don’t pay a firefighter when they get your cat out of the tree. You do pay the veterinarian when you bring in your cat for a check-up).

Add any new understandings from discussion to Essential Question Chart - What are the roles and responsibilities of government?

player/view/assetGuid/B353BE74-91FC-4AA2-B45D-CAF2C90C98EF

Government Services (1:51m)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/B353BE74-91FC-4AA2-B45D-CAF2C90C98EFList of government helpers (save for day 4)

4 Refer back to the classroom jobs. Display (possible document camera, SmartBoard, power point slide) tally chart of results. Have students ‘read’ the chart and share with a partner or table group what they notice. Students might notice which jobs were more popular or weren’t applied for at all.

Continue student partner or group conversations with the question: What might happen if unpopular jobs weren’t filled?

End discussion with assigning each student a classroom job. Have them draw a picture and write 1-2 sentences about why this job is important and what might happen if no one did this job.

Relate classroom jobs to government jobs – what could some consequences be for unfilled government jobs? Some possible ideas; Long wait time for services, less times available to access service (library, DMV), dangerous (less firemen or police)

Allow students choice of job from chart. One way to do this is have students put their top three choices on a sticky note and you put the top choice on a separate paper and determine groups. Students can work individually or in small groups of 2 or 3 and present information on government job together.

Tally chart of job results from day 2

Why are government jobs valuable?

5-6 Students create presentation. If in small group, students can each take one of the questions to share with class.

(1) Explain the government job and responsibilities,(2) Why is this job important to me? Community?(3) What would happen if no one did the job?

Use the government job paper to capture ideas and present findings through choice of media (some ideas possible power point slide, Discovery Ed Board Builder, poster).

Government job paperList of government jobs from day 2

Assessment 7 Mini-speeches about government jobs (use papers to guide speeches) Rubric for speech

Model how to respond to a presentation with positive feedback and how to ask clarifying questions with first group, then move to classroom student feedback and clarifying questions.

2C&G.1.2 Why do we have laws? How are they created? What are consequences of not having laws? How are laws enforced?

8 Background buildingShow video clip “Rules Are All Right”

Have students turn and talk to partner or table group about video clip with the guiding question, “Why are rules important?” Capture ideas of safety rules and order/functionality rules.

Then ask, Why do we have classroom rules?Optional video clip – “No Rules” (This is an older clip of classroom “dream” sequence, if the classroom didn’t have rules. Silly, funny clip.)

What happens when rules aren’t followed?

Relate classroom rules to government rules (laws).o How are they alike/different? Possible use of Venn to capture ideas.o Do rules (laws) change? (i.e., We didn’t have rules for iPads in schools five

years ago but now we do.)

“Rules are All Right” (3:25m)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/764EC057-8798-438F-90B0-DC455C0FF957

“No Rules” (2:29m)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/764EC057-8798-438F-90B0-DC455C0FF957

Why do we have laws? How are they created? What are consequences of not having laws? How are laws enforced?

9 Remind students of our Essential Question, What are the roles and responsibilities of our government?” Have students think of this question as they watch the following video clips.Begin with video, “What is Government?” Have students respond in writing to the essential question after this clip, then turn and talk to partner to add to ideas. (It would be interesting to see if students notice how the posted classroom rules in the video clip have evolved since the filming of this clip. i.e., honoring collaboration vs. work quietly)

Repeat writing and discussion after each short clip to build knowledge and understanding. Second clip, “Three Branches” and final clip “The Legislative Branch”.

Add new understandings to Essential Question chart.

“What is Government?” (2:13m)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/search?Ntt=this+is+our+government

“Three Branches” (1:03m)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/search?Ntt=this+is+our+government

“The Legislative Branch” (1:14m)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/search?Ntt=this+is+our+government

10 Begin lesson with review of learnings of roles and responsibilities of government. Then ask, what about our roles and responsibilities of being a good citizen? (This might be a good time to add to word wall.) Have students turn and talk about possible connections from government to people (citizen). Capture a few ideas on new Essential Question Anchor chart - What are characteristics of good citizenship?

“A Good Citizen” (4:21m)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/9A0C4E3C-0E99-477A-824B-A2CAA4E225FC

(What do good citiztens do? What do they need to know?)

Let’s watch a video and pay attention to anything we can add to our chart about good citizenship.

11 Let’s look at historical figures and everyday heroes. Collect information on a chart showing how the person demonstrated good citizenship, contributed to his/her community and what character traits he or she demonstrated.ORTeacher Choice (Create): Have students explore with Discovery Education Assignment Builder different historical characters and everyday heroes. See links attached for possible sites.

Sample organizer for collecting information attached. Or use your own collection tool.

12 CitizenshipReview the chart you have created. Ask students to draw conclusions based on what they’ve learned about what makes a good citizen and why it is important to participate in your community.

Using 4-2-1 strategy, students will summarize key ideas from exploration of key individuals. Have students write 4 characteristics that they noticed from their chart. Then meet with another student to compare ideas and narrow down to 2 ideas from their list that they think are most important. Finally, meet with another group of two people to select 1 big idea from their learnings.

Groups share out. Capture big ideas from classroom work on Essential Question Anchor Chart for What are characteristics of good citizenship?

Completed organizational Chart of Citizens

13 Students will use their personal narratives as a focal point to create a scrapbook page showing why they are good citizens. Collect pages to create a class book. Can be published digitally or on paper. If time allows, students can share their pages with the class.

Sample pageRubric

2.C.1.3 Exemplify respect and appropriate social skills needed for working with

Why do we have laws? How are they created? What are consequences of not having laws? How are laws

14 Read Aloud: “The Giant Jam Sandwich” or show video clip of story or use another book that shows a community working together to solve a problem.

Decide on an imaginary classroom problem (there aren’t enough pencils, the classroom library is a disaster, people aren’t cleaning up after snack, etc.)

Split the class into small groups. Each group should come up with and record a solution to the problem on the “Solving a Community Issue” page.

The following lessons were adapted from http://oaklandk12-public.rubiconatlas.org/With 2nd grade unit http://tinyurl.com/kgbad6m

“The Giant Jam Sandwich”(4:03m): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiv4AbrRsww

diverse groups

enforced? All groups should be working to solve the same problem. Have each group share its solution to the problem. (Hopefully there will be multiple solutions!) As a class, record the solutions and the pros/cons of each solution on the “Evaluating an Issue” worksheet.

The culture objective is embedded in student work throughout.

15 Referring back to book, The Giant Jam Sandwich, explain how the citizens in the story agreed on a way to solve their wasp problem. Tell students that this doesn’t always happen in a community (refer to the classroom discussion you just had.) Explain that when people can’t agree on how to solve a problem, it becomes an issue. The teacher explains that a public issue is a problem that affects the community as a whole and one in which people disagree on the solution.

The following is close reading and gathering of information to understand issue and multiple perspectives.

Next, the teacher does a shared reading a short scenario describing a community problem relating to dogs. Students should each have an individual copy of the scenario. The teacher guides an examination the issue and analysis of a pictograph. Model and think aloud a close reading of the scenario. First notice and annotate the parts of the scenario that are facts – several citizens have complained, mayor reported that some people have 15 dogs. What do you think about the facts? Have students turn and talk.

What do you notice? What do you think? What do you wonder?

Then, notice the people quoted in the scenario. How do they feel about dogs in their community? (different perspectives) What do students think? Wonder?

Then, highlight the verbs used to describe the issue. How might the author of this scenario feel about the issue?

Then analyze the pictograph of complaints. What do you notice? Think? Wonder?

See scenario attached to unit.

Why do we have laws? How are they created? What are consequences

16 Review scenario from day before and model thinking through decision-making model to understand the issue more deeply. Have students work in small groups to create possible solutions for the dog issue in Boyton, NC to then share with class.

As the groups share their solutions, students identify positive and negative consequences of each alternative using a decision making model.

Display decision-making model graphic (attached).

of not having laws? How are laws enforced?

Some possible ideas - is it the number of dogs or the owners care of their dogs? Leash laws? Fenced yards? Barking and or noise of many dogs? Safety and care?Possible extended thinking and conversation might be had around the question, “What do we think the ‘real’ issue is for the town?”

17 The scenario continues as the teacher explains that the town council of the community is considering passing a law limiting the number of dogs a person can own. Students explore the question, “Should the town council pass a law limiting the number of dogs a person can own?”

Students who agree with the proposal line up on one side of the room and those who disagree with the proposal line up on the other side of the room.

Each side of the room brainstorms reasons that support their position and shares them with the other side. Students then briefly explore the connection between core democratic values and public issues. Individual rights vs. the common good.

2.C&G.1.2 Assessment 18-19

Student Assignment: Decide whether the town council should or should not pass a law that would limit the number of dogs a person can own. Write a complete paragraph that clearly states and supports your position with details.

Final Wrap Up 20 Revisit Essential Question – What are the roles and responsibilities of government? What are characteristics of good citizenship?

Optional Final Writing Assignment - Class Scrapbook.

Please note many websites require Adobe Acrobat Reader to open documents. Please make sure you have it loaded on your laptop.

Vocabulary Word Definitiongovernment The group of people that has power to make laws and important decisions for a community, state, or nationcommunity A particular area where a group of people live or a group of people who have the same interests.rule A direction that guides behavior or action.

law Any one rule that a government makes and that people must follow.citizen A person who is a member of a country because of being born there or being accepted as a member by law.citizenship The rights of being a citizen.

responsible Expected to take care of particular things or to perform certain duties.

responsibility Something that a person is responsible for; duty.

issue A subject that is important to people and that people are talking about.

Name ____________________________________________

Explain my Job:

My job is important because _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________. If no one did my job, then _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Government Job Speech Rubric2.C&G.1 Understand the purpose of governments.SL2.1a – Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).SL2.6 - Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.

Assignment: Students will write and present a short speech telling why their assigned government job is important to the community.

4 3 2 1Student speaks clearly and in complete, complex sentences.

Presents multiple, well thought out reasons to support his or her argument.

Student speaks clearly and in complete sentences.

Presents at least two solid reasons supporting his or her argument.

Student speaks clearly and in complete sentences.

Presents at least one solid reason supporting his or her argument.

Student mumbles or does not use complete sentences.

Presents no reasons for his or her argument, or the reasons presented are weak or based on opinion.

Example – Police OfficerMy job is a police officer. Some of my job includes making sure that people are following laws and answering emergency calls for help. Being a police officer is important because I help people. I make sure people are safe and that they follow the rules. If no one did my job, the community might be unsafe. Everyone would do whatever they wanted and people or property might be hurt.

My job is a police officer. Some of my job includes making sure that people are following laws and answering emergency calls for help. My job is important because I make sure people are safe. If no one did my job, people might break the law or get hurt.

My job is a police officer. My job is important because I make sure people are safe. If no one did my job there wouldn’t be police officers.

My job is important because it’s cool. If no one did my job, then it would be bad.

Solving A Community Issue

Group Members: ______________________________

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

Our solution is…______________________________

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

We think this is a good solution because…__________

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

Evaluating An Issue

Group

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

Community Members Complain About Dogs

BOYTON, NORTH CAROLINA - People of this small town seem to have a dog problem on their hands. Several citizens are complaining about the large number of dogs some people in Boyton own. They say the dogs bark all the time. They also complain that many get loose and wander the streets.

“There’s too many dogs in this town,” said Bob Brown. “They are running all over the place.”

“A lot of us love having lots of dogs,” says Mary Peterson. “They keep us company and are part of our family.”

The mayor of Boyton has reported that some people own as many as fifteen dogs.

At a recent Town Council meeting, angry citizens told the mayor and council that they had better do something about the dog problem.

Dog Complaints in the Last Year

People with 4

or more dogs

People with 3 dogs

People with 2 dogs

People with 1 dog

Number of Complaints

= 2 complaints

Describe the public issue.

Explore different viewpoints on the public issue.

Make a decision based on your information.

Write your decision and give a reason.

Name_____________________________

Town Council Considering New Dog Law BOYTON, NORTH CAROLINA - The Town Council is considering passing a new law that would limit the number of dogs a family can own. If the council passes the law a family could not own more than four dogs.

Taking a Position - Assessment

Should the town of Boyton, NC pass a law limiting the number of dogs a person can own?Assignment: Decide whether the town council should or should not pass a law that would limit the number of dogs a person can own. Write a complete paragraph that clearly states and supports your position with details.

Objectives:2.C&G.2 Understand the roles and responsibilities of citizens.

SL2.6 Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification

W2.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.

L2.1a

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. Use collective nouns (e.g., group).

Level 4 Level 3 Level 2 Level 1Writes a complete paragraph or paragraphs that clearly state a position in relation to roles and responsibilities of citizens.

Includes relevant details that support the position taken with connections to common good versus individual rights.

Writes a complete paragraph or paragraphs that clearly state a position in relation to roles and responsibilities of citizens.

Includes multiple details that support the position taken with connections to common good versus individual rights.

The position is not clearly stated

Includes limited or off-topic details to describe actions, thoughts and feelings

Uses some simple

Paragraph does not state a position

Does not add any details

No adjectives or adjectives do not make sense

Strategically uses multiple meaningful adjectives

Sentences are complex, complete and correct

Strategically uses multiple meaningful adjectives

Sentences are complex, complete and correct

adjectives

Sentences are incomplete or contain multiple errors

Sentences make the story difficult to read

Executive Branch

Legislative Branch

Judicial Branch

The Executive Branch makes sure the laws are obeyed.

Country Leader – PresidentState Leader – GovernorCity Leader – Mayor

The president of the United States is Barack Obama.The governor of North Carolina is Pat McCrory.The mayor of Raleigh is Nancy McFarlane.

The Legislative Branch makes the laws for the citizens. People are elected into offices to speak for everyone.

Country– Congress is made up of Senators and House of Representatives members elected from all over the country. Make federal laws.State– Congress (like country) elected from one state. Make state laws.City– City Council members elected from the people who live in that city.

The Judicial Branch is made up of the court system.

Country – Supreme CourtState – State CourtCity – City Court

A judge helps to decide if the law was broken and how to give a consequence for the person who broke the law.

Suggested links to people who demonstrate good citizenship:

TrustworthinessNelson Mandella http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/24FBBF6A-6820-4F51-BD5C-ED0F8DA5DA15 (video clips)

Respect

ResponsibilityChad Pregracke http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/11/29/cnnheroes-chad-pregracke-intv.cnn.html

FairnessYash Gupta http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/05/health/cnnheroes-gupta-glasses/Thurgood Marshall http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/289FBFE7-FDE2-4572-A162-04E50C99511A (video clip)http://www.biography.com/people/thurgood-marshall-9400241#awesm=~oC50hYyOX6JXu4 (information and video clip)

Caring

Florence Nightingale http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/C32686DA-ECAF-4A2F-BC2F-8DA26D4CA35C (full video)Nicholas Lowinger http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/26/us/cnnheroes-lowinger-homeless-shoes/index.html

CitizenshipPaul Revere http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/colonial/revere/index.shtml

(general information)http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/732BFB97-5CEB-48D5-9952-ABBA962EB24C (video clip)

General Links:CNN Heroes http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/

Good Character list http://www.ccschoolagendas.com/people_new.html

Children’s Peace Prize http://childrenspeaceprize.org/Home.aspx

Everyday Heroes http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/7everydayhero

Everyday Heroes http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/community/everyday-hero.html

Assignment: Create and share a scrapbook page either digital (i.e., Voice Thread) or paper with a personal narrative that demonstrates how you show good citizenship include examples from your life.

Your scrapbook page should include:

A title on the top of the page that includes your name Your completed personal narrative including multiple examples of roles and

responsibilities of good citizenship with personal examples from your life that could include family members.

Photographs, drawings, clip art or other “artistic” representations A labeled diagram

Objectives:2.C and G.2 Understand the roles and responsibilities of citizens.2.C.1.3 Exemplify respect and appropriate social skills needed for working with diverse groups

SL2.6

Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification

SL2.1a

Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).

L2.1a Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. Use collective nouns (e.g., group).

L2.3a Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. Compare formal and informal uses of English.

RI 2.7

Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.

4 3 2 1Scrapbook page contains required elements with evaluation of importance of good citizenship to a community.

The scrapbook page is organized neatly and demonstrates command of grammar and usage conventions.

Scrapbook page contains required elements with relationship of good citizenship to a community. Appropriate citizenship qualities are included. The scrapbook page is organized neatly and demonstrates command of grammar and usage conventions.

Scrapbook page contains most of the required elements, including appropriate citizenship qualities. The scrapbook page is organized neatly. There are a few spelling mistakes.

Scrapbook page is missing multiple elements and does not address the appropriate qualities of god citizenship. The scrapbook page is messy with multiple spelling mistakes.

Suggested Book Resources: