Lesson Plan for Senior Government at Four County Career Center This unit is basically on Special Interest groups and how they interact with the government, but an assignment at the end has the students selecting a group or a problem and presenting solutions in Movie Maker.

Newly Revised Social Studies Content Standards for ohio 2010 American Government Standards: #2 – Political parties, interest groups and the media provide opportunities for civic involvement through various means #3 – Issues can be analyzed through the critical use of information from public records, surveys, research data and policy positions of advocacy groups.

Assumptions When we start this unit, we have already spent considerable time on political parties and all of their functions This unit will spend sometime on learning the basics on special interest groups But there will also be a fair amount of analysis of information and forming a project of their own

Day #1 – Blogging and brainstorming Students will make their own blog on http://www.wordpress.com . After the blog is created they will post on their blog what they think are some of our biggest problems are today either on a local or national level (this can include global warming, unemployment, war, famine, school funding issues etc). In another post they are to put specific people or groups that need help or they would like to help (such as people with cancer, poor people, people not getting paid what they deserve, abused children, military veterans, teachers, etc.) Then each student will look at other students blogs and comment on their posts paying special attention to who had similar concerns as theirs.

Day #2 Discussion and notes Discuss as a whole group what topics and groups came up yesterday. And ask why. We will then take notes on Special Interest Groups. Notes will be delivered in a guided notes format where the students fill in the blank on their laptop and save them on their laptop to DROPBOX. Students will also have the option to use guided notes on paper, but will be encouraged to use the computer. There are several terms about 15 of them, and most are new terms.

Day #3 Practicing Vocabulary Students will go to http://www.quizlet.com this is a website where you can make digital flash cards to student Students will watch tutorial video and then set up their free account on quizlet.com Students will then create their digital flash cards and save them The rest of class they will access the games and activities on the website to help them practice and learn their vocabulary.

Day #4 and Day #5 Day #4 the students are going to be researching what specific special interest groups are out there and who they serve and how they process works Website is http://www.twyman-whitney.com/americancitizen/links/lobbies.htm There is a worksheet in which they will answer various questions on Special Interest groups Day #5 the students will be watching a Discovery Streaming video on how special interest groups and Congress interact with each other They will watch the video during one class period They will then do a whole class quiz on the video which we will do on Smartboard Notebook.

Day #6 We will have an assessment on the Smartboard Notebook today. There will be 4-5 slides on matching vocabulary and some click and reveal questions Then there will be a 10 question quiz using the Student Response System (Clickers) Discussion will follow and a preview of the upcoming project.

Day #7 Begin introduction of Special Interest Groups Project Students will be put into groups based on what topic they choose (3 in a group) Project involves picking a group or a problem that they can help make better or give them advantages in some way. They will present this information in 1 of 4 ways PowerPoint Prezi Voice Thread Movie Maker Voice Thread and Prezi will be introduced in class. Movie maker was introduced in another class.

Days #8-#10 Each group will get a rubric to know what is expected of them. Items to be included Group or problem What specific things do they need help with How can you help them – especially helping them through the government in some way Need to include a poll of some sort that you will give in class using a website such as www.surveymonkey.com or another survey site. You will take the results and put them into chart form What are desired results? What do you hope to accomplish?

Days #11-#13 Students will present their presentations to the class using the technology they choose.