Week 6: Three Branches, One Government
Why Power Is Divided
Last week we learned that the Constitution is the highest set of rules in the country — and that the Bill of Rights protects individual freedoms.
But the Constitution also answers another critical question:
How should the government be organized?
The answer the founders chose was to split the government into three separate branches, each with its own job. No single branch can do everything alone.
This week we explore why power is divided and how each branch works.
The big idea:
When no one person or group has all the power, it's much harder for anyone to abuse it.
- You do not need to teach every bullet on the page. Use the learning goal and one or two activities for the session you are teaching today.
- If time is short, teach one guided session well and leave the rest for later. The lessons are designed to stretch across the week.
- The independent session works best after the learner has already explored the main idea with you once.
Teacher Preparation
- Prepare a whiteboard or paper for drawing a three-branch diagram.
- Bookmark Ben's Guide: Branches of Government for optional exploration.
- Have examples ready of each branch in action (a law being proposed, a president signing something, a court making a decision).
- Prepare a visual timer for sessions.
Avoid making this a memorization exercise. The goal is for the student to understand why power is divided, not just what each branch is called. Use analogies and real examples to keep it concrete.
Guided Session 1
Who Does What?
Learning Goal
By the end of this session, the student can:
- identify the three branches of government and their primary jobs
- analyze why each branch has a different role
- compare the three branches using concrete examples
Activities
1. The Three Jobs (5 minutes)
Ask:
"If you were running a country, what jobs would need to be done?"
Guide the discussion toward three essential tasks:
- Making the rules (laws)
- Carrying out the rules (enforcing and managing)
- Settling disagreements about the rules (judging what's fair)
Explain:
"The Constitution assigns each of these jobs to a different part of the government. These are called the three branches."
2. Meet the Branches (12 minutes)
Remember the island community from Week 2? Your islanders had to figure out who makes the rules, who enforces them, and who settles arguments. The United States answered that same question by creating three separate branches.
| Branch | Job | Who's In It | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legislative (Congress) | Makes the laws | Senators and Representatives | Capitol Building |
| Executive | Carries out the laws | President and their team | White House |
| Judicial | Interprets the laws and settles disputes | Judges and the Supreme Court | Courthouses |
For each branch, give a simple example:
- Legislative: Congress votes on whether to create a new national park.
- Executive: The President signs the law and tells government agencies to build the park.
- Judicial: If someone sues because the park is on their land, a court decides what's fair.
Courts handle two main types of cases: civil cases (disputes between people or organizations — like the park example above) and criminal cases (when someone is accused of breaking a law). In most trials, a group of ordinary citizens called a jury listens to both sides and decides the outcome. One of the most important principles in American courts is that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty — the government must prove its case. This is the legal standard, though in practice, people without access to good legal representation sometimes face different outcomes. You'll learn much more about courts in the Bonus Module: Understanding Courts.
3. The School Analogy (8 minutes)
Make it relatable:
| Government Branch | School Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Legislative (makes rules) | School board decides the rules |
| Executive (carries out rules) | Principal enforces the rules |
| Judicial (interprets rules) | A teacher or mediator decides who's right in a dispute |
Ask:
"What would happen if the principal could also make the rules AND decide who's right in every disagreement?"
Help the student see: Giving one person all three jobs is dangerous.
Reflection Questions
- "Why did the founders split government into three branches instead of giving one person all the power?"
- "Which branch do you think has the hardest job? Why?"
- "How is the three-branch system similar to how your school is organized?"
Guided Session 2
Why Not Just One Leader?
Learning Goal
By the end of this session, the student can:
- evaluate the risks of concentrating all power in one person or group
- justify why separated powers protect citizens better than a single authority
- create a simple diagram showing how the three branches interact
Activities
1. The One-Person Thought Experiment (10 minutes)
Ask:
"What if one person could make all the laws, enforce all the laws, AND decide who is right or wrong?"
This builds on what we explored in Week 2: when one person on the island tried to control everything, it wasn't fair to the others. Now imagine that at the scale of an entire country.
Let the student think about what could go wrong.
Prompt with questions:
- Could that person make a law that benefits only themselves?
- Could they punish people who disagree with them?
- Could they change the rules whenever they want?
Explain:
"Throughout history, when one person or one group has had all the power, the result is almost always the same: the people with the least power get treated the worst."
This is exactly why the founders split the government into three branches.
2. Real Examples (Simplified) (10 minutes)
Share simple examples of the branches working:
Example 1: Congress passes a law saying schools must provide free lunch.
- The President signs it and tells the Department of Education to carry it out.
- If a school says "we won't do it," a court can decide whether they have to.
Example 2: The President wants to create a new federal agency to protect national parks.
- Congress has to approve the funding.
- If someone believes the agency's rules violate their rights, they can challenge it in court.
Ask:
"In both examples, does any one branch get to decide everything alone?"
The answer is no — and that's the point.
3. Draw the Three Branches (8 minutes)
Together, draw a diagram showing the three branches:
The Constitution
/ | \
Legislative Executive Judicial
(Makes) (Carries (Judges)
out)
For each branch, write:
- Its main job
- Who leads it
- One thing it cannot do alone
This diagram becomes a reference for next week's lessons on checks and balances.
Reflection Questions
- "What specific danger does the three-branch system prevent?"
- "Why is it important that no branch can act alone?"
- "If you were designing a government from scratch, would you use three branches? Why or why not?"
Independent Session
Branch Explorer
Instruction
Create a Three Branches Poster or explainer that shows how the U.S. government is organized.
Your poster should include:
- The name of each branch and its main job.
- Who leads each branch (at least one key role).
- One real-world example of each branch in action.
- A title and a sentence explaining why power is divided.
You can draw it, write it, or combine both. Make it clear enough that someone who doesn't know about the branches could learn from your poster.
Skills Reinforced
- identifying the three branches and their roles
- analyzing why separation of powers matters
- communicating civic concepts clearly through visual or written explanation
- connecting government structure to real-world examples
Setup
- large paper or poster board
- markers, crayons, or colored pencils
- notes from today's sessions
- visual timer
- Legislative branch — The part of government that makes the laws (Congress).
- Executive branch — The part of government that carries out the laws (led by the President).
- Judicial branch — The part of government that interprets the laws and settles disagreements (the courts).
- Congress — The group of elected people (Senators and Representatives) who write and vote on laws.
- President — The leader of the executive branch who signs or vetoes laws and manages the government.
- Supreme Court — The highest court in the country, where judges make final decisions about what the law means.
The U.S. government is split into three parts so no one person or group has all the power. One part makes the laws, one part carries them out, and one part decides if the laws are fair. It's like having three teammates who each have a different job — they have to work together, and no one can take over.
Check for Understanding
- What are the three branches of government and what does each one do?
- Why did the founders choose to split power into three branches instead of giving it all to one person?
- Can you think of a real-world example where each branch does its job?
- How is dividing government power similar to how jobs are divided at a school?
Core vs. Stretch
Core:
- Name the three branches and describe each one's main job in your own words.
- Explain why separating power is important using the school analogy or another example.
- Create a simple poster or diagram that shows how the three branches are organized.
Stretch:
- Research one branch in more detail and present three facts about it that weren't covered in the lesson.
- Explain what could go wrong if two branches were combined into one. Give a specific example.
- Find out who currently leads each branch (the President, the Speaker of the House, and the Chief Justice) and describe one thing each has done recently.
Adapting for Different Ages
- Lean heavily on the school analogy: school board = legislative, principal = executive, mediator = judicial. Work through all activities using this comparison first.
- For the independent session, choose the "Three Branches Poster" — drawing and labeling is the best output at this age.
- Simplify Key Vocabulary to three terms: the names of the branches and what each does.
- After introducing the branches, ask: "Who currently leads each branch?" Have them look it up and write one sentence about each leader's role.
- In the One-Person Thought Experiment, ask them to write a short paragraph: "What specific rights could be at risk if one person controlled all three branches?"
- Preview checks and balances (Week 8): "If the President proposes something Congress disagrees with, what happens?"
🔍 Civic Inquiry Spotlight: Who Said That?
Continue building the inquiry habit from Week 5. This week's focus: distinguishing official roles from opinions.
When you hear a claim about what the government does — for example, "The President can make any law he wants" — practice the routine:
- What is the claim? "The President can make any law."
- What evidence supports it? Actually, the Constitution says Congress makes laws. The President signs or vetoes them.
- Where does this come from? Is someone stating a fact about how the system works, or stating their opinion about how it should work?
- How could I check? Look at the Constitution or a reliable government reference like Ben's Guide.
Key distinction this week: An official source (like the Constitution, a government website, or a court ruling) tells you how the system actually works. An opinion tells you how someone thinks it should work. Both matter — but they're different.
Offline Option
Draw the three-branch diagram on a whiteboard or large sheet of paper. Use the school analogy (school board = legislative, principal = executive, teacher/mediator = judicial) as your main teaching tool — it requires no technology. For the independent session, the Three Branches Poster can be created entirely with paper and markers. If you want an extra activity, have the learner act out a short skit where three people each play one branch and show how they do their jobs.
Local Adaptation Note
- Ask: "Who is the mayor of our town or city? Which branch of government is that most like?"
- Look up your local city council or town board — that's the legislative branch at the local level. How many members does it have?
- Discuss: "Does your school have something like three branches? Who makes the rules, who enforces them, and who settles disagreements?"
- Don't try to teach every detail of each branch. Kids don't need to know how many senators there are or how Supreme Court justices are confirmed — not yet. Focus on the core idea: power is divided so no one person or group can control everything.
- Use the school analogy early and often. It is the most reliable way to make the concept click for this age group.
- If students ask about specific people in government, keep answers brief and nonpartisan. The goal is understanding the structure, not the personalities.
- Some kids may ask "which branch is the most powerful?" That's a great discussion question with no single right answer — lean into it.