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Lesson Plan Design
Subject: Govt

Grade:

12

Candidates Name: Nicole Pivaro

Site Supervisor: Todd Coe___

Lesson Topic: The Electoral College___________

ID # _____023090088____________

NU Supervisor _____Marilyn Gavin____________________

1. Introduction: (Identify Grade Level K12 Academic Content Standard(s), rationale, focus learner, create bridges from past
learning, behavior expectations)
.
Grade 12

Rationale:
Students have just wrapped up a lesson on differences between

Standard 12.6.6: Analyze trends in voter turnout; the

causes and effects of reapportionment and redistricting, with
special attention to spatial districting and the rights of
minorities; and the function of the Electoral College.

authoritarian and democratic rule- and it is election day. Free

elections in the USA can be related to the rights and privileges of
living in a democratic nation and the election is a relevant,
current events topic for a high school government class.
Understanding the electoral college is part of CA standard 12.6.6.

While we use the word reform today, it is your personal

decision if our voting system is fair or not. If we lived in a
totalitarian nation could we have this discussion? Living in
the USA, we have the right to question and change our
systems of government.

2. Learner Outcome(s)/Objective(s): (What will students learn from this lesson? How will you measure mastery of the
outcome?)
SWBAT explain the functioning of the electoral college as
evidenced by a class vote & group reform plan

Rationale:
To understand the function of the electoral college, students will
view a short video, participate in a simulated election using the
electoral college as the deciding factor and then in small groups,
decide if they wish to reform the voting system or not. Writing a
suggested reform and explaining how they would enact it will show
me if they had grasp on the current procedures through reading,
video viewing and group discussion or if this content needs to be
re-taught.

3.
Pre-Assessment Activity: (Determine students abilities to achieve the Learner Outcome and prescribe
instruction accordingly. Consider: linguistic background, academic language abilities, content knowledge, cultural and health
considerations, interests and aspirations, physical development, social development, emotional development. )

Rationale:

What do we know about the voting process, why do people

make these negative comments? Can you remember
anything from our movie yesterday?

These questions connect yesterdays content with todays topic and

get students thinking about the voting process and different
opinions theyve heard growing up.

4. Differentiation, Adaptation & Accommodation Strategies: (Based on the pre-assessments, modify Learning Activities
based on learner characteristics to meet the needs of ELL & special needs students, highly achieving students and low achieving
students)

Video visual aid- youtube TED talk,

breaking down the electoral college

Think/Pair/Share

Time Keeper Job

Index cards to randomize class

participation

Voting simulation for kinetic/social learners

Textbook walkthrough on doc cam

Modeling thought process and answer for

final product

Group work

Rationale:
The video provides a breakdown of the electoral college with
animation and simple language, so students can keep interest while
viewing
Opportunities for think/pair/share prompts help social learners and
give ELL students the chance to practice speaking without being put
on the spot
Ive offered the job of time keeper to students who are easily
distracted to keep them engaged
Index cards are used to randomly call on students to remove any
subconscious bias the teacher may hold
A voting simulation is used so students who learn by doing
actually cast their vote and see the results with application of the
electoral college to determine final results
Textbook walk-throughs highlight the key areas of reading and help
low-level or ELL students determine where to focus their attention
Modeling expectations helps all student succeed by providing a
clear example of a fully formed answer and modeling the thought
process out loud helps guide students through the problem solving
process
Group helps social learners and benefits all students by exposing
them to new ideas and perspectives and provides practice for
verbally explaining their own thoughts

5. Resources: (Identify materials needed for this lesson accounting for varying degrees of skill level)

Government textbook
Projector
Internet
Doc cam

Rationale:
Internet, projector and doc cam are needed to display the Google
Slides presentation of the daily activities and to project an image of
the textbook

6. Learning Activities: Explicit Teacher Instruction - (Explain, Model, Demonstrate, Check for Understanding)

Review of DLT
Verbal warm-up
Video summary
Class vote

Rationale:
Students write down the DLT to set purpose to the days learning
and create a log of activities for future reference

A verbal warm-up is done to bridge previous content to the days

Check for Understanding:
video recap- think pair share

new subject. A class vote is done so students can fully participate

in the voting process and see how their vote was or was not
affected by the electoral college.

After the video, a quick think/pair/share is done to clear up any

misconceptions and remind students of key points from the video
7. Guided Practice/ Collaborative Practice (Check for understanding and provide feedback and re-teaching)
Students form groups and study pages 379-384 of their
textbook
they will work together to submit the following items:

1 pro of the electoral college system

A 1 sentence summary of the 3 major

defects of the electoral college

A suggested change to the election

process & how it would be carried out

The reasoning behind your change

Rationale:
Simulation and collaboration keep students engaged and have
been shown to help students retain knowledge and add meaning
to their class experiences.
I will float from group to group to ask open-ended questions to
monitor progress and while I am counting votes I will display a
suggestions slide for students to reference if they become stuck
at a point during group work. This slide helps them self-regulate
instead of immediately seeking an adult for assistance.

Check for Understanding:

Float from group to group
Job suggestion slide for those who are feeling stuck

8. Independent Practice: (Provide practice that supports the learning outcome. Note: Independent activities are assigned
assuming that students understand the concept well enough to work on their own.)
HW: Find and read previous election result maps, make a

Rationale:

prediction for this years swing states

Students apply their new understanding of the electoral college to

previous elections by viewing poll result maps. They will look at

Check for Understanding:

Are we looking at the popular vote or the electoral college

this years swing states and make a prediction for the upcoming
votes based off previous results.

vote?

9. Assessment and Evaluation: (Describe how you will assess and/or evaluate the students learning. Describe differentiating
assessment strategies you will use for ELL, special needs students, highly achieving students and low achieving students.)

Rationale:
Group notes and reform plan

I am collecting the group notes and reform plan as the main form
of assessment because students will need to identify something
they want to change about the electoral college. If students make
a suggestion that is already in place, I can deduce that they did
not fully grasp how the electoral college works. If students are
able to suggest a reform and explain why they want it and how
they are going to implement it, I will be able to tell they
understand the electoral college process and how other parts of

this process would be affected by a single change. I am collecting

all group notes to hold students individually accountable.

10. Closure: (Describe how students will reflect on what they have learned.)

Students share their groups reform and reasoning with the

Rationale:

class

Sharing results outloud permits students to hear various ideas and

points of view and to self-check for understanding. If their group
produced an answer that was very different from the rest of what
the class did, students can determine if their idea was unique or if
their group misunderstood instructions. It also gives the teacher
the opportunity to correct misconceptions before the end of class.

11. Lesson Reflection/Assessment: (Collect student learning data to determine: What went well? What needs to be changed?
Were learning outcomes met? What activities will you add, change, modify in the future? What can be done to follow up on the
learning from this lesson? Who needs additional help? Who needs enrichment or higher level work?)

Revised: 5-8-08
Note: An electronic copy of the Lesson Plan Design may be found on the Nu-Fast website:
http://www.nu-fast.com . Links: SOE TED TED 629 Student Portfolio