ETE 335

Elementary Social Studies Lesson

deBonos Thinking Hats

ETE 335

Elementary Social Studies Lesson

deBonos Thinking Hats
Amy Grasso
United States History
Grade 4
US Constitution

ETE 335

Elementary Social Studies Lesson

deBonos Thinking Hats
Goals:
Will identify different parts of the Constitution
Will know date, location, and people involved in the
Constitution

Objectives:
Students will be able to identify the purpose of the US
Constitution
Students will be able to identify important dates and
people

ETE 335

Elementary Social Studies Lesson

deBonos Thinking Hats
Rationale:
The United States Constitution is what our country is founded on.
In order to understand what happens in our country, it is important
to know where and who it all came from.

Standards:
State Illinois Common Core or Learning Standards
SS.IS.5.3-5: Develop claims using evidence from multiple sources
to answer essential questions.
SS.H.1.4: Explain connections among historical contexts and why
individuals and groups differed in their perspectives during the
same historical period.

National NCSS Themes

Time, Continuity, and Change
Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Power, Authority, and Governance
Civic Ideals and Practices

Objective

Objective
Students will be given the resources to conduct their own

research on the US Constitution. Their goal is to collect at

least 10 facts about the Constitution, the more the obsolete,
the better. The goal is for each person to present a different
fact about the Constitution to the class. Students are to
record these facts in their notebook and present a fact to the
class that hasnt been presented yet. Anything about the
Constitution, who signed it, or where it occurred is fair game.

Intuitive

Intuitive
Students will assume the role of one of the people who
signed the US Constitution and write a paragraph about how
they viewed it. This should include emotions, thoughts,
hesitations, disagreements, or anything else they think they
would have thought while signing this document. OR
students can choose to write a letter to the future United
States from that time period with advice, emotions, warnings,
etc. These paragraphs should be detailed, in depth,
insightful, and display knowledge of the subject.

Positive/Strength
s

Positive/Strength
In groups, students will research and
teach the rest of
s
the class how the Constitution has positively impacted
our country. Each group will choose a topic covered in
the Constitution and that will be the foundation of their
assignment. Each group will have a different topic.
Students will be graded on participation, knowledge,
contributions, and presentation.

Negatives/Weaknes
ses

Negatives/Weaknes
ses
Each student will be given a point in
history when the US

Constitution was challenged. They will be responsible for

knowing the Who/What/Where/When/Why/How of the problem
and how it was handled. How does the Constitution fit into all
of this? Students can turn in their findings in any format,
handout, brochure, powerpoint, video, paper, etc.

Creative

Creative
Students will write their own Constitution about how their
house should be governed, however, it must make everyone
in the house happy. It should include the needs of everyone
and keep everyone in mind. This should be written out by
hand neatly and include rules, rights, and everything else the
Constitution includes. When they finished writing the
Constitution, they must get the signatures of everyone in
their household showing that they approve of the
Constitution that was written.

Thinking About
Thinking

Thinking About
This activity is to follow the Thinking
last assignment where students

create their own Constitution. There will be a class

discussion on how easy or hard it was to create a set of rules
that was good for everyone and benefitted everyone. Why did
you have difficulty? What helped and what didnt? How did
you try and please everyone? Did you take yourself into
consideration? Facilitate discussion but try and have it be
student-led. Eventually ask if how they felt is how the others
felt while writing the Constitutions. Make connections.

ETE 335

Elementary Social Studies Lesson

deBonos Thinking Hats
Visual Learning, Assessment, and Online
Resources:
Assessment:
1. Assessments will follow each of the
individual activities, however each of the
activities led into the Creating your own
Constitution . This will be the end of unit
project and will be the sum or majority of the
grades for that unit.

Online Resources:
1. http://del.icio.us/grassoamy27/Constitution