Political Philosophers Lesson Plan

Geneva College
Beaver Falls, PA
Lesson Plan Format
Name: __Ryan Marchione ______________________Date:___Sept. 21st & 22nd_________
Subject: ____Honors Law_____________________Grade Level: _____12______________
I. Topic and General Goal
Historical Foundations of American Government
To discuss the earliest origins of Democracy.
II. Reference to PA or Common Core Standards
P.A. Content:
Standard - 5.1.12.B Employ historical examples and political philosophy to evaluate the
major arguments advanced for the necessity of government.
Common Core:
Standard - CC.8.5.11-12.B Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or

secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among
the key details and ideas.
Standard - CC.8.6.11-12.C Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
III. Lesson Objectives - Objectives must be written using observable verbs
TSWBAT compare and contrast the theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau on
government and the Social Contract.
IV. Materials
Chromebook to access online textbook, powerpoint, and online live stream.
V. A. Introduction
I will introduce the lesson by having the students informally answer a discussion question
about where they think Democracy came from.
B. Lesson Development (Activities, Procedures)
1. Students will be introduced to the section by thinking about where the idea of democracy
comes from.
2. I will go over a brief PowerPoint that details the less important information of the section.
3. After the PowerPoint presentation, I will see if the class has any questions.
4. I will then divide the class into three groups and assign them one of Hobbes, Locke, or
Rousseau.
5. I will have them research their assigned political philosophers views and thoughts about
the role of government and the Social Contract on their own for the next class period.
6. I will instruct the students to write one paragraph discussing their assigned philosophers
views about government, the Social Contract, and to give an example of how they see
their assigned philosophers views played out in real life politics for the next class period.
7. The students will have the remainder of class to work on the assignment and I will be
available online for the remainder of the class in case students have questions.
END DAY ONE
1. On the second day, I will have the students for each group take turns discussing what
they wrote about including the political views on government by each philosopher and
their views on the Social Contract.
2. I will then ask the students what evidence they see of their political philosophers views
on government and the social contract playing out in today’s world.
3. I will conclude the lesson by asking the students some discussion questions about the
material covered in the section and I will have the students go on to Schoology and
answer the prompt regarding the lesson for that day. They will have until the end of the
day to do this.
C. Evidence of Differentiated Instruction (Content, process, Products, or

Learning Environment)
Content- The content will be differentiated by me delivering the content in a variety of ways
such as: Students reading on their own, and by me discussing the material with them
through my PowerPoint.
Process-The students will be given a variety of opportunities to demonstrate their mastery of

the concept. They will get to write about their findings and will be able to discuss their
findings in the following class period.
Products- The students will be able to work on their own or will be able to work with others
assigned to their same philosopher during the remaining class period and outside of class.
Additionally, the students will be able to reach out to me for help if they are struggling with
the assignment.
D. Closure (Summary)
I will conclude the lesson in two ways. I will ask a few closing questions that will make the
students apply what they've learned to the current government in the U.S. I will also assign the
students an exit slip. They will have to go on Schoology and answer the discussion question
posted which is: List one interesting thing that you learned from the discussion and readings in
class from the last two days.
VI. Assessment/Evaluation
The students will be assessed formally based on the paragraph that they write and informally
through their discussion of the material.
VII. Modifications and/or Accommodations
Students with special needs will benefit from having the information presented multiple ways,
and will benefit from having multiple tiers of information presented to them such as formally
getting the content from me, reading on their own, and hearing other ideas presented by their
classmates.
VIII. Self-Evaluation
Overall, for this being my first lesson I thought it went well. I think that there were some things
that I did well, and some things that could have been better.
I think that my presentation of the content was good, because it seemed as if the students
understood what I was saying, and they didn’t ask for any clarification on anything. I also think
that I did a good job of presenting the material in multiple ways between assigning the students
to read the section before class, having a PowerPoint and discussing the main ideas and
concepts of the section, and building in an assignment that allowed for the students to get even
more familiar with the material.
As far as things that didn't go as well, I think I could have slowed down a little in my delivery of
the content, I also could have done a better job of providing more examples to relate the
material to the students in a way that would make it easier for them to understand. Also, I was
getting ahead of myself at the beginning and I was so focused on announcing the schedule for
the upcoming week, that I forgot to introduce myself to the class since it was my first time
teaching them. Finally, during the class discussion on the second day of the lesson, I should
have prepared some questions on my own to lead the discussion, I assumed that the students
would lead the discussion, but I had to end up leading it, and guiding them towards what I
wanted them to say, so I wasn't as prepared for that as I should have been.
Cooperating Teacher Approval _________________________________________________

Political Philosophers Lesson Plan

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Political Philosophers Lesson Plan

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Political Philosophers Lesson Plan

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Geneva College

Lesson Plan Format

Name: Ryan Marchione __________________Date:_Sept. 21st & 22nd_________

Subject: Honors Law_______________Grade Level: _12____________

I. Topic and General Goal

Historical Foundations of American Government

To discuss the earliest origins of Democracy.

II. Reference to PA or Common Core Standards

Standard - CC.8.5.11-12.B Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or

III. Lesson Objectives - Objectives must be written using observable verbs

Chromebook to access online textbook, powerpoint, and online live stream.

B. Lesson Development (Activities, Procedures)

END DAY ONE

C. Evidence of Differentiated Instruction (Content, process, Products, or

Process-The students will be given a variety of opportunities to demonstrate their mastery of

VII. Modifications and/or Accommodations

Cooperating Teacher Approval _________________________________________________

You might also like