Flipped Learning

Flipped learning allows the students to do some exploring on their own. In a flipped activity, the students do some work outside of the classroom to prepare for the lessons they will do in class. My flipped activity will give them a introduction to government through the famous School House Rock songs and videos. These songs are timeless and have provided students with fun and easy way to remember the most important information about our government. Once in class, they will take what they have learned from School House Rock and expand on that through vocabulary notes, followed closely by an activity that will inform them about major laws and important people who currently work or have worked in the United States' government.


Virginia Standard of Learning: Civics 3.10

Pre-assessment: Students will take a "quiz." I will stress that this not for a grade but that I just want to see how much they know. They will answer the questions below in class before we begin the lessons for this SOL.

Post-assessment: Students will be given the same quiz. This time, it will be for a grade with the expectation that they will receive higher scores. Once students have taken this quiz and mastered the material, we will move on to the material in Civics SOL 3.11 and 3.12 (outlined above). They will then take a final unit exam over all three portions of the Civics SOL, including questions similar to the ones on this post-assessment quiz.

Outside-of-Class Activity:. Students will watch the following School House Rock videos and answer the questions on the worksheet provided for homework. This assignment includes both comprehension questions and critical thinking questions. (If students do not have access to the internet at home, they can speak with me to work out an arrangement for the assignment.) 

• Video 1: I'm Just a Bill
• Video 2:  The Preamble 
• Video 3: The Three Branches of Government

In-Class Activity: Students will share what they learned during their outside-of-class activity and then receive important notes about the basic topics (see the fill-in-black notes page for their interactive notebook below). Then, students will be put into groups of 2 or 3. Each group will be assigned a different person to research who worked in government. Some of the people assigned could include: President Barack Obama, President Ronald Reagan, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Senator John McCain, Senator (and Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton, and Justice Thurgood Marshall. (Current government officials will be selected only if they have held their office for more than four years.) Using a list of pre-approved websites with information about these important people and our classroom tool for evaluating online sources, students will research their person and answer the questions on the worksheet below about that person's role in the government and important laws they created. They will then share what they have learned with their classmates.