3 Branches of Government Checks and Balances Unit - Activities Projects & DBQ

Explore the 3 Branches of Government with a critical lens, everything from the text of Articles I, II, and III and checks and balances to current members of Congress, the Cabinet, and the Supreme Court in this inquiry-driven, source-based PBL unit that asks, "How democratic is America's government really?"

This unit covers:

• Expressed and implied powers of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of the federal government
• Perspectives on representative democracy
• Current members of Congress, the Cabinet, and the Supreme Court
• Demographic comparison of Congress & the US
• Presidential approval rating
• Current Supreme Court case docket
• Interview & Narrative Essay Project
• End-of-Unit DBQ-Style Essay

Check out the Preview for a detailed look at this compelling unit!

This unit comes in two formats: print PDF and digital Google files.

Greatness is being an engaged and contributing member of our democracy.

Only about 25% of Millennials can name one (just one!) of their Senators; it lowers to 18% for those under 24 and even less for those of color. You don’t want to know the number for naming one's Representative.

Even more alarming--33% of all Americans cannot name a single branch of government.

Don’t let your students be on the wrong side of these abysmal statistics in our representative democracy by making your teaching stick beyond the unit test with these visceral and relevant activities and projects.

This year, let's leave the textbook behind and take students straight to the real world with primary sources, news articles, data graphs, web-based research, and student-created teaching tools to make their learning memorable.

The strength of an inquiry unit like this is your ability to immediately make abstract concepts into intriguing and relevant lessons: each activity builds towards the unit's driving question with its own focused question and has students conducting their own interviews to hear another person's perspective.

This unit can be done well in anywhere from 6-8 weeks, based on the combination of activities you select!

Included in this complete unit:

Overview

• Teacher Unit Overview with general notes, links, standards, and a pacing guide
• Daily Lesson Plans with step-by-step details, planning, and lesson takeaway notes
• Detailed Answer Keys for each activity
• Instructional Slide Deck 60 slides to support activities and essay writing
• Student Unit Review and Skills handouts with self-checking questions and "I Can..." statements
• Student Unit Notes sheet for building deep and nuanced mastery of concepts over the course of the unit using powerful graphic organizersers
• Student Skill Handouts that include Analyzing News Media Sources, Analyzing Political Cartoons, Deciding a Precise Position, Constructing a Thesis, Including Evidence

Student Activities

• Unit Hook: brainstorm, then examine the most effective ways to speak up to your representatives from a political insider
• Three Branches Comparison Chart and Checks & Balances Flowchart: build on these reference notes throughout the whole unit
• The Legislative Branch: closely read Article I, listen to two engaging podcasts, create a gallery walk of posters for members of Congress, collaborate card sort to learn how bills become a law, and compare Congress's demographics against America's
• The Executive Branch: closely read Article II, listen to two engaging podcasts, create a gallery walk of posters for members of the Cabinet, simulate the Electoral College, and analyze and compare Presidential job approval rating numbers from past and present
• The Judicial Branch: closely read Article III, listen to two engaging podcasts, create a gallery walk of posters for members of the Supreme Court, and analyze cases on the current docket
• Political Cartoon & News Media Analysis: blank forms tailored to each branch to use with your own current events media sources

2 Summative Assessments

• End-of-Unit Essay support your students with a collaborative brainstorm review activity, detailed instructions, outline template, sentence stems, and rubrics, that encapsulates their complete understanding by arguing their answer to the not-so-simple question, “How democratic is America's government really?”
• Interview Narrative Essay Project after guiding students through thoughtful analysis, prepare them to interview a community member about their thoughts on how well America's government is working, capturing the experience in a narrative essay (plus thank you note!) with step-by-step how-to guides and forms

Note to Homeschoolers

Though the included teacher lesson plans are written to fully support a traditional classroom teacher, this resource is also a great fit for your teenage homeschooler:

• the inquiry, thematic structure of this unit is driven by critical thinking, reading, and writing skills and a central high-interest question
• a wide ability range can easily access the rich variety of sources utilized in this unit,
• your student’s voice is central to each activity, through talking out their learning, maximizing the one-on-one
• most activities can be completed independently and aren’t solely reliant on group or whole-class work
• all utilized sources are free and easily obtainable; either included or accessible online (links provided)
• this unit is independent of a textbook, though one could be used for greater background knowledge
• any one activity can easily be left out to customize for your student’s skill level or personal interest

Looking for more Civics inquiry units?

• Foundations of American Democracy examine the principles and values on which our government is founded
• Voting & Elections Unit explore a variety of voting issues; universal for any upcoming election
• Three Branches Unit contrast how the federal government works in theory and in practice
• Constitutional Rights Unit determine exactly how our rights translate into daily American life

Want to browse the full curriculum?

Civics & American Government course bundle teach this inquiry-driven and project-based semester course with confidence!

This listing is for one license for regular, non-commercial classroom use by a single teacher only. Commercial use like online teaching (ex. Outschool) or sharing with other teachers (ex. shared drive, in a Facebook group, in a professional development training) is strictly prohibited.

By purchasing a license to this resource, you have access to all future updates at no cost, available under “My Purchases." Multiple and transferable licenses are available for purchase. PDF files are uneditable, other files have editing abilities, unless otherwise stated. All files are protected under federal copyright laws.