The Week That Was In 505

Saturday night I began to feel weird. Sunday I felt even worse. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go to school Monday. It’s rare for me to get super sick, but it seems to be happening more frequently the last few years. Rather than being concerned for myself, I was more concerned how I would begin the Constitution unit being absent from school.

I thought about it, and decided the separation of powers would be the best way to go. Most students are familiar with branches of government, and I had a self-paced choice board. I reviewed the choice board and made a few slight changes. I replaced the Quizlet link with a WordWall link, I changed the Quizizz links, and I replaced the EdPuzzle link from last year with a new video.

Normally, I don’t like to begin the Constitution unit with the Separation of Powers, but it was the best option. With Thanksgiving break, typical school interruptions, and my absences this unit on the Constitution seems to be disjointed, piecemealed together, and rushed. I’m not liking it so far.

I need to slow down a bit and build in more review opportunities. However, I have 2 more weeks before winter break begins. (Last year I had 4 weeks for this unit) I also need to focus more on vocabulary. As a result, I’m currently stuck on:

1. Do I slow down by adding more gamified review opportunities and vocabulary review? – Doing this means the unit will not be finished before winter break. Our winter break lasts 17 days this year and that’s a loooong time and will affect their 2nd scores on the citizenship test.
2. Maintain my pace? – I do build in review opportunities with Fast and Curious, and I can get this unit finished by winter break. Most students will probably do well on the citizenship test when I give it again.

I think too much.

Monday – Separation of Powers Choice Board

Tuesday – Separation of Powers Choice Board

Wednesday – Separation of Powers

Thursday – Checks and Balances Breakout (Created by Dominic Helmstetter)

Friday – Choice Day – What Do You Need?

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

The easiest way to begin the Constitution unit, with my absence, was with the Separation of Powers choice board. I created this choice board last with intentional activities for multiple processing styles. The choice board includes different activities such as Frayer, create an infographic, concept sort, EdPuzzle, etc.

Last year’s version had a Quizlet, but I changed this to a WordWall. If you haven’t checked out WordWall, please check it out. I pay, out of pocket, for certain edtech tools (Gimkit, Blooket, Screencastify) and WordWall was instantly added to the list. This site can be used to turn content into review games. It also contains many premade games in the community. Since I already had a concept sort, I created a Separation of Powers game where students wager points before they know each question. They LOVED it.

With all of the activities, students had multiple ways to learn about the different branches of government. They had multiple ways to create learning artifacts they could use to design a superhero as the application activity.

The choice board also contains clear learning goals and an application activity. The learning goals are:

1. I can identify characteristics and powers of the executive branch
2. I can identify characteristics and powers of the legislative branch
3. I can identify characteristics and powers of the judicial branch
4. I can explain why we have separation of powers
5. I can create a representation of a branch of government through superhero

The application activity if one of my favorites during the year. I have the students choose a branch of government and turn it into a superhero. While I was out, they could draw a superhero and upload the picture to an action hero template from EMC2Learning. However, when I returned, instructed the students to do the activity on paper. Here are some superhero drawings:

Thursday

I followed up separation of powers with checks and balances. However, I needed something to get the students collaborating, communicating, and moving. With many lessons, I can easily think of something: CyberSandwich, lecture, some sort of a Gimkit assessment, etc… I needed something new.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I think too much. I came in Thursday morning fully prepared to lecture and do a Gimkit. Then I remembered my friend, Dominic Helmstetter, has amazing government lessons that he does with his freshman class.

I opened up Twitter and found this amazing escape room that Dominic put together. The escape room had some review material, guided notes on checks and balances, a built in assessment, and four locks to solve on with a Google form.

I honestly couldn’t figure out the locks early on Thursday morning, so I made copies of all the files and reworked it for my class. I ended up creating a a 3 step process escape room. Here is what I changed/added:

1. Iron Chef Review – I took the branches of government review material and deleted the information. I turned it into an Iron Chef. Students worked in groups of 2 or 3 to complete the branches of government Iron Chef. Students had to complete their slides, with my approval, before I gave them the clues/notes sheets on checks and balances. This Iron Chef served as a review for Monday and Tuesday’s separation of powers choice board. If students understood the material, the Iron Chef was easy to complete and wouldn’t hold them back from escaping within 40 minutes. Groups that understood separation of powers finished their Iron Chef slides in under 10 minutes.
2. Clues/Notes Sheet – The clues/notes sheet is a fill in the blank sheet that paired with a checks and balances chart. I changed some of the blanks to fill in on the sheet. The blanks that students filled in actd as the Google form lock answers.
3. Assessment – The assessment contained questions relating to the branches of government as well as checks and balances situations. I had to change some of the wording for the questions. This was a nice assessment option to check for student understanding. At the end of the assessment the students got 4 words to unscramble. These words helped unlock one of the four locks on the Google Form.
4. Lockbox – I have a 3 digit lockbox that students were competing to unlock. If they successfully unlocked all four locks on the Google Form, I gave them a question to unlock the lock box. The question was, “How many total senators and representative make up Congress?” The lockbox code was 535.

When students came into class on Thursday morning, I gave brief directions and gave the students 40 minutes to escape/or breakout. They had a ton of fun. They were communicating, collaborating, engaged, and moving. I love breakouts!

Friday

Friday I was out again taking care of my family. Due to me being out for three days this week, students were ALL OVER the place in terms of work completion and understanding. I needed something to address all those needs. So, I stayed up late on Thursday night creating a Google Doc titled, Decide Where Are You and What You Need.

This doc had 4 parts/choices to it:

1. I need to finish the superhero drawing from lesson 4.1 as well as some other missing work.
2. I’m confused about Checks and Balances and need to learn more. (Choice Board inspired by Amanda Sandoval)
3. I understand Checks and Balances but want to explore how it applies to the real world. (Thick Slide news article summary)
4. I understand Checks and Balances, but I want to learn more about the importance of limited government. (Limited Government lesson created by Amanda Sandoval)

Each part contained a directions video and links for the assignments. Did students take advantage of the options? I have no clue and will know more on Monday. Until then, my beloved Bengals play the Chiefs on Sunday – Who Dey baby!!