COOPERATIVE LEARNING LESSON

LESSON PLAN Grade: 11 th Subject: Virginia/US History SOL: VUS.5c, examining the significance of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in the framing of the Bill of Rights. Objective: The student will explore the importance of the Virginia Declaration or Rights, and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom in the creation of the Bill of Rights by working with a group to interpret each document.

INTRODUCTION Write the names of three documents on the board: Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, and the Bill of Rights. Ask them what sort of ideas might be discussed in these documents based on their titles. Separate the class into three groups and give each group copies of a different document. Assign someone in the group to be the secretary, one person to make sure everyone understands the material, and one person to read the document aloud to the rest of the group

THE LESSON Have them read their document and then write down what they think are the key points from the document (they must also put their names and the name of the document at the top of the paper). Be sure to inform them that any one of them could be called on to discuss what the group came up with so they need to make sure everyone understands the content of the document. Have them move their desks in a way that they can all see each other and tell them to encourage everyone to contribute to the activity to show that they understand what is being said and to ask questions of their group if there is something they don’t understand.

LESSON CONT. Once they have finished, have the students rotate their notes. They will read over another group’s notes and then add to the notes by writing down any similarities between the two documents. Students will continue to rotate notes until their original paper has gotten back to them. The teacher will walk around the classroom both to observe the work and provide help where needed. Call on one student from each group randomly and ask them to discuss what points their group took from their assigned document and how it related to any of the other documents. At the end, have each group rate how well their group worked together as wells listing what their strengths and weaknesses were.