Teacher: Wymore/ Martinez/ Chacon

Date: Feb. 10/11/12

School: Blevins Middle School
Content Area: Social Studies
Title: Slavery in the Declaration of Independence
Lesson #: 5 of 11

Grade Level: 8

Content Standard(s) addressed by this lesson:

H: 1.1 Develop an understanding of how people view, construct and interpret history; Formulate
appropriate hypotheses about United States history based on a variety of historical sources and
perspectives.
a. Use and interpret documents and other relevant primary and secondary sources pertaining to
United States history from multiple perspectives.
H: 1.2 Analyze key historical periods and patterns of change over time within and across nations
and cultures; The historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas and themes from the origins of the
American Revolution through Reconstruction and their relationships with one another.
F. Analyze ideas that are critical to the understanding of American history and give
examples of the ideals involved in major events and movements.
C: 4.1 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.
E. Analyze primary sources supporting democratic freedoms and the founding of our
government. Documents to include are: Declaration of Independence.

Inquiry Questions:
Why do people create government and laws?
What role does the issue of slavery play in the Declaration of Independence?
What role did compromise play in deciding to keep the issue of slavery in the Constitution?

Concepts and skills students master:

Self-Direction Understanding social studies requires a productive disposition, curiosity and
self-direction. This involves monitoring and assessing ones thinking and persisting to search
for patterns, relationships, cause and effect, and an understanding of the events and people
throughout time.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning Social studies is a discipline grounded in critical thinking
and reasoning. Doing history, geography, civics and economics involves recognizing patterns
and relationships across time and space. Social studies provide the structure that makes it
possible to describe patterns that exist in nature and society.

Evidence Outcomes:

Every student will be able to:

1. I can build background knowledge of slavery terms and construct a timeline of

slavery.
2. I can explain why the Founding Fathers kept slavery in the Constitution and some
chief compromises about slavery.

Assessment of Evidence Outcomes:

Learning target reflection
RAP: Background information on understanding of slavery
Primary/secondary source analysis SHEGG handout

Planned Lesson Activities

Activity Name

Slavery in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution

Approx. Time

1 hour 15 minutes

Anticipatory Set

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

Students will type in todays learning targets

RAP: What is your background knowledge about slavery in
the history of our country? Write at least 3 things
Down. We will share out our collective initial understanding of
slavery before beginning our lesson on the origins of slavery in
our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

Includes: Input, Modeling and Checking for Understanding

1.
Input: the first activity we will be looking at slavery terms
used in the Constitution. Students will be given a worksheet with
the terms and definitions already provided from the teacher. They
will have to rephrase the vocabulary definition and draw a visual
representation of the term. Then they will read a description of the
event regarding slavery and determine importance by giving it a
title and short description for a timeline which will be led by the
teacher..
2.
Modeling: We will be doing a play about how slavery was

-cooperative
learning
-inquiry

dealt with in the constitution, answering a few questions and then

applying it to our knowledge about Federalist and Anti Federalist
political parties. After this we will be completing a
primary/secondary source activity analyzing how slavery was dealt
with in the Declaration of Independence then how it was dealt with
in the Constitution and why it was kept in even though there was
some opposition. These activities will be completed through
teacher modeling over the doc cam and independent student work
with the lead teacher monitoring for understanding.
3.
Checking for Understanding:
Asking guiding questions while circulating for understanding.
Term images/Timeline construction
Graphic organizer
Reflection of learning targets
4.
Questioning Strategies: Remember: What prior knowledge
can you recall about slavery? Understanding: Paraphrase the
terms used in place of slave in the Constitution. Applying:
Illustrate the terms used in place of slave in the Constitution.
Analyzing: Can you explain why slavery was kept in the
Constitution despite opposition towards slavery during the time of
the ratification of the Constitution? Evaluating: Do you feel the way
the issue of slavery was dealt with in the Constitution was ethical?
Why/why not? Creating: Construct a timeline of slavery in
American history.

Teaching Strategy:
Guided Practice
&
Differentiation

Then the first activity we will be looking at slavery terms by

drawing visuals to help them make the connection to the term.
Then they will read a description of the event regarding slavery
and determine importance by giving it a title and short description
for a timeline. Then we will be doing a play about how slavery
was dealt with in the constitution, answering a few questions and
then applying it to our knowledge about Federalist and Anti
Federalist political parties. After this we will be completing a
primary/secondary source activity analyzing how slavery was dealt
with in the Declaration of Independence then how it was dealt with
in the Constitution and why it was kept in even though there was
some opposition.

Teaching Strategy:
(Independent
Practice)

This is new material but we have been studying the Constitution

for a few weeks now about the 3 branches of government, Articles
of Confederation and Federalist/Antifederalist viewpoints. A

lesson coming up in the coming weeks about the Judicial Branch

will have students read through three different Supreme Court
decisions regarding slavery and civil rights. These court cases will
be a refresher on the issue of slavery in the Constitution and how
concepts and laws change over time thanks to the framework
established in the Constitution of judicial review.

Closure

Students will reflect on the lessons learning targets and assess

their understanding of the learning targets.
Debrief questions, which are on the handouts, will be discussed at
the end of class. The debrief questions are:
1. Overall did these men realize that slavery was a problem?
2. Who didnt think it was a problem and why?
3. Who DID think it was a problem and why didn't they do anything to
abolish slavery?

Materials

Learning target/RAP slides

SHEGG handouts
Modified handouts
Constitution book for 3s modcog students
Timeline and terms handout
Play scripts for all students
Highlighted scripts for students with roles in the play

Accommodations
&
Modifications

To modify:Modcog students in 3S will read a book about the

Constitution with a para. Modified SHEGG worksheets for IEP
students
To extend: Students with good verbal/communication skills will be
chosen to have a role in the play along with student volunteers.
Roles are implicitly assigned by length/ vocabulary difficulty

Assessment

SHEGG worksheets
Debrief questions
Learning target reflections and self-assessments

Co-Teaching

Strategies
Purpose of lesson/State Standard Addressed:
H: 1.1 Develop an understanding of how people view, construct
and interpret history; Formulate appropriate hypotheses about
United States history based on a variety of historical sources and
perspectives.
b. Use and interpret documents and other relevant primary and
secondary sources pertaining to United States history from
multiple perspectives.
H: 1.2 Analyze key historical periods and patterns of change over
time within and across nations and cultures; The historical eras,
individuals, groups, ideas and themes from the origins of the
American Revolution through Reconstruction and their
relationships with one another.
F. Analyze ideas that are critical to the understanding of
American history and give examples of the ideals involved in
major events and movements.
C: 4.1 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.
E. Analyze primary sources supporting democratic
freedoms and the founding of our government. Documents to
include are: Declaration of Independence.
Co-Teaching strategy and Rationale: Supplemental teaching was
used for this lesson. While the material was taught through the
lead teacher; Sarah Goodfellow discussed the lessons content at
a differentiated level for modcod students in 3S. Ms. Goodfellow
read a book about the Constitution with these students and
worked through the slavery terms with these students.
Were there other co-teaching strategies used when implementing
the lesson? If so, why?
In classes with no modcog students one teach one observe was
used. Ms. Wymore lead the class through the lesson while Mr.
Martinez and Ms. Chacon observed for student engagement.
This strategy was used because it happened to be a lesson that
Ms. Wymore was being observed for.
Would you use this co-teaching strategy for this lesson again?
In a class with modcog students supplemental instruction works to

deliver the content at differentiated levels. Because of the ability

to have paras provide additional support to specific students, this
strategy would work well again.

Post Lesson Reflection

1. To what extent were lesson objectives achieved?
As Ive sain in previous reflections, I do not think SHEGG lessons are grade appropriate for the
eighth grade. They are designed as a ninth through twelfth lesson. When students work
through the SHEGG readings they are frustrated, disengaged and produce very little results.
However, when we did a play in class about the issue of slavery in the Constitutional
Convention students seemed engaged and were able to better grasp the information.

2. What changes, omissions, or additions to the lesson would you make if you
were to teach again?
If I were to teach this lesson again I would eliminate the SHEGG readings because
students do not connect with the lessons. I would keep the play and maybe have a
writing reflection following the play to make sure students took away from the play what
was intended. I would also place this lesson more towards the beginning of the unit
while were still studying the founding of our government versus the running of our
government but because of the timing of Gabbys observation there was nothing to be
done about the timing of this lesson.
What do you envision for the next lesson?
Our next three lessons are about the branches of government and do not
relate back to this lesson. However, in our next unit we will be addressing the
contributing factors to the outbreak of the Civil War. This lesson addresses
the first contributing factors and can be touched on again in the next unit.