Teacher: Burton
Room #: G103
Lesson # in unit: 1
Period (s): 7
Topic: Bureaucracy
Social Studies Lesson Objective and Assessment:
By the end of class the student will be able to:


Describe what the Federal Bureaucracy is and what it does.
Analyze the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the Federal Bureaucracy.
NCSS Thematic Standards
√
√
√
√
Culture and Cultural Diversity
Power, Authority, and Governance
Time, Continuity, and Change
Production, Distribution, and Consumption
People, Places, and Environments
Science, Technology, and Society
Individual Development and Identity
Global Connections
Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Civic Ideals and Practices
Supporting Diverse Learners
Rephrasing and repetition will be used to help students understand. Students will be using a guided
notes sheet to focus their attention. Pictures will be included in the PowerPoint of real people as well as characters they know to create
meaning for them. Videos at the end are short and simple. Students will not have to share.
Strategies/Activities Selected: A PowerPoint will be used to teach the powers and roles of the President. Throughout the PowerPoint
students will be asked questions. At the end we will close with a discussion on the effectiveness of bureaucracies by using recent news
examples of bureaucracies at work.
Methods for Instruction
Use of Materials
Use of Technology
√ Class/Group Discussion
Teacher Modeling/Demo.
Teacher Manual pg #
Cell Phone
Cooperative Learning
Journal writing
√ Student Text pg #
PollEverywhere.com
√ Small Group
Role Play
429
CPS Clickers
Guided Practice
Hands-on
Picture Books
Elmo Document Camera
√ Lecture or Direct
Inquiry Learning
More Activities That
Software
Instruction
Game
Teach
Student Computers
Bookwork (Reading)
Simulation/Role Playing
Handouts:
Teacher Computer w/LCD
√ Question/Answer
Independent Learning
Manipulative
√ Video Clips/DVD : CNN Linked
Learning Stations
Other
Maps
in PPT
Artifacts
Website
Related Equipment:
√ Other: PowerPoint
Other:
Adapted materials
Lesson Agenda
Warm up: How will you support students in accessing prior knowledge, personal, real world and/or cultural connections?
Definition: “What does the word Bureaucracy mean?” I know that students may not be familiar with this word and this topic is very
abstract and difficult to understand even for me. I want to start by just breaking down the word outside the realm of political science and
then move into what it means in government. I will also use the image of a pyramid or a triangle to represent to hierarchical nature
of the governmental bureaucracy. This will give the students some kind of visual representation of what we are talking about.
Transitioning and Stating Objectives:


Describe what the Federal Bureaucracy is and what it does.
Analyze the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the Federal Bureaucracy.
Transition to Instruction: What support strategies will you use to scaffold students learning so they meet or exceed targeted?
PowerPoint discussing the Federal Bureaucracy with questioning throughout. Visuals and connections to the other branches of
government will be made in order to help the students build comprehension on a difficult topic. The Bureaucracy is broken into three
groups: the Executive office of the President, the Executive Departments and the Independent Agencies. We will go over these broadly
as well as examples and look at the list of them provided in the book. Students will be able to connect with the first two because of their
familiarity with the television show The West Wing. We will also discuss why the Independent Agencies needed to be independent. The
students need a better understanding of what the independent agencies are and what makes them independent in order to understand
why they need to be independent. We ended with a discussion of the Civil Service, another very abstract idea. This part would be made
better with pictures and very concrete examples of who makes up the Civil Service.
Transition Guided Practice:
Students will watch news clips of stories about bureaucracies at work. Students will be asked to move to different areas of the room if
they agree or disagree that the bureaucracy was effective. Students were asked to give thumbs up/thumbs down on if the agree or
disagree that the bureaucracy was effective. Overall this discussion will end in looking at if bureaucracies as a whole are effective. I
will restate students’ ideas. This not only ensures that everyone can hear what was said, but also allows everyone to hear it one more
time.
Transition to Independent Practice and Conferencing:
N/A
Transition to Wrap up/Closing: How will you engage students in self-assessment and/or reflection on key concept?
Exit slips: “Overall, is the Federal Bureaucracy an effective organization?”
Daily Assessment How do you know your
students met your lesson objective(s) and to
what degree?
Bloom’s Taxonomy
√ knowledge
comprehension
application
√ analysis
synthesis
evaluation
Formative:
√ Class discussion
CPS clickers
Email teacher
Entrance/Exit slip
Teacher Observe
Listened to conversations
Quiz
√ Thumbs up, neutral, or down
Homework check
Video quiz
Voting
Whiteboard Check
Other
Summative:
√ Test
Project
Report
Presentation
Final Exam
Other
Additional Teacher Preparation:
Copy:
Locate: PowerPoint for Bureaucracy.
Daily Reflection This would be a section at the end for the teacher to note any strengths or weaknesses of the plan. What are next the
steps for students and how will you get them there? What worked well?
Going into this lesson I knew I was going to need something that would make Bureaucracy matter to the students. As someone who loves
Social Studies, I find Bureaucracy to be a drag. For the most part, I thought the PowerPoint went well. I was able to connect the
Bureaucracy to something else that all the students are familiar with: The West Wing. Some parts were difficult because I was talking
about very abstract ideas and trying to make them concrete for my students. The worst part of the lesson was when I tried to use
examples from Mr. Grismore that I thought I understood, but I got nervous and I botched them. I think the students could tell and I lost
some credibility. The best part of the lesson came at the end when we looked at real life examples of Bureaucracy in action. I found short
news stories of Bureaucracies and asked students if they thought the bureaucracy in question was effective or not. These discussions
were the best I have been a part of so far at Pike. I was really happy to be a part of them. I had to do very little facilitating and students
were able to argue for both sides in many cases. One thing that I should have done better is to restate what students said so that everyone
can hear what is being said and just for more repetition.
Today I only taught 6th period and Mr. Grismore taught 7th. It was interesting to see him teach after me rather than me teaching after him
or me teaching both. He barely reads anything off of the PowerPoint instead he mostly says a lot of other related information. I don’t like
to teach with PowerPoint because I think people just read off of the slides, but Mr. Grismore doesn’t do this. I am not good at this, so it is
hard for me to use PowerPoints like he does. I took notes of his lecture and had almost another whole page of notes from just what he
said that wasn’t on the slides.
Blue Highlighting illustrates what is seen in the video.
Bold illustrates where I changed something that I added during the lesson.
Italics illustrate what I would change for next time.