Constitution+and+Bill+of+Rights

**Constitution and Bill of Rights**

toc

=Bill of Rights= [Contributed by Nick Chauvenet]



Background
Unit Title- The Bill of Rights and Political Developments Early in the United States

Unit- This annotated resource library is intended to serve as a resource for a unit on the following topics


 * The creation of the Bill of Rights
 * Amendments to the Constitution
 * The implications of the Bill of Rights and Amendments today
 * Peaceful transfers of political power
 * Democrats versus Federalists
 * Early conflicts for the American Government

Grade- 9th grade United States History I (1763-1877). Designed as a semester course on block scheduling of 80 minute periods.

Length- 2 weeks- 9 lessons- one holiday during the first week in this case

Class make up- 23 students, 2/3 have IEPs

Massachusetts State Learning Standards- USI- 11-21

Resources
1) www.billofrights.com

This is a wonderful online resource that has the major primary documents of the early American government including the Bill of Rights. It also has the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and other past documents. Having the original text of the documents is something you can get anywhere, what separates this website from the others are the additional contextual questions and resources. The website is extremely user friendly and is all free of charge. I find it quite easy to navigate and use the supporting documents in many different ways depending on time constraints.

2) http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=209113

This is the History Channel’s website. This encyclopedia helps to define all the major actors in different times in American history. The website has many features including potential activities to do and ways to teach the about the different concepts and times. I think any history teacher who fails to use the History channel website at all is missing out. The video clips can also be helpful but as I mentioned later with the DVD set can be problematic trying to work off of the BPS computers.

3) http://www.americanrhetoric.com/newtop100speeches.htm

This website provides all the audio clips free of charge for some of the most important speeches in American history. This is a wonderful data base for modern political speeches. In this context implications and lasting impressions of the Bill of Rights are discussed in Martin Luther King Jr- speech # 15, President Lyndon Johnson- speech # 10, and Mary Terrell- speech # 44. These speeches outline how the Bill of Rights and the Civil War Amendments have failed to live up to their potential. These speeches can provide students with an audio as to what people during the Civil Rights Movement thought about the Bill of Rights and the accompanying Amendments.

4) http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/

This is PBS’ free website which provides a lot of background information as to who Thomas Jefferson really was. Visuals, activities, readings, and background information are all available here. The Sally Hemming controversy, Jefferson’s slaves and other issues in the life of Jefferson are outlined in a simple manner. The reading materials are easily accessible, requiring little background knowledge or high level vocabulary. The website is also a great resource for many other types of information on American history.

5) http://blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?cid=54

This website is free to access with the submission of an email address. This website provides resources to allow students to look at the same events in US history through a different perspective. Essays about the lives of African Americans from the early parts of American history allow for students to see what the Bill of Rights really meant to minorities at the turn of the 18th century. The website also provides students with access to many other issues that minorities faced throughout the beginning of the United States that is usually left out of the commonly used textbooks.

6) http://www.commondreams.org/

This free website allows students to see different ideas people from around the world have about their hope for democracy. The website is left leaning but talks about the promises of America and the hopes embodied in the Bill of Rights. Many of the articles on the website provide a modern perspective to ancient political issues such as the peaceful transfer of power and how that often fails in many third world countries. Students can gain experience in seeing how political issues evolve over time as countries try to establish themselves. Students can us the website or the readings to see how problems America had during its formation are many of the same issues that challenge new democracies today.

7) http://millercenter.org/

This website is the home for the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia (UVA). This website has a ton of great resources in regard to the formation of America as it is the focus of the program at UVA. The online reference source for the Presidents provides more than just a summary of their lives. Student can use this to take an in depth look at who the people were that ran the country and what their lasting legacies ended up being.

8) History Alive! Textbook.

Available as the classroom textbook for most BPS schools. If a different version is used, it is available through the other high schools. On the one hand I cannot believe I am listing this as it generally is pretty bad and is also an obvious resource. On the other hand, the images collected for the early American history era are really good and it can be overlooked. Not all good resources must be complicated and hard to find. I mainly use the textbook as a visual resource. The visuals in the Chapters on the Bill of Rights can be used hand in hand with Constitutional issue cases. The early American political system images are also quite helpful in outlining the differences between the Federalists and Democrats.

9) Washington and His Colleagues: A Chronicle of the Rise and Fall of Federalism by Henry Jones Ford.

The book is actually available totally online through http://www.gutenberg.org. This is a fictional account of George Washington’s great dilemmas and issues that he and the country faced after the Revolutionary War. The chapters tell different accounts in a somewhat fictional manner of how he hypothetically dealt with different challenges. The text is not as exciting as a fiction novel, nor does it create the character development many fiction books do, but it is decent in its approach and material. The reading level is fairly high, so it is probably best used as brief portions rather than trying to read the entire text.

10) Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

I have a Penguin Classics copy that was $4.50. You can obtain it from most libraries. The document is directly pertaining to the Constitution and why it needs to be supported but it can help students gain a background for the political issues at the time and why a Bill of Rights was necessary to get the Constitution passed and the country moving forward. The document convinced many to support the Constitution and work toward the Bill of Rights. The wording can be a bit difficult as it is original text so scaffolding is probably necessary if the text is not adapted ahead of time.

11) The Declaration of Independence and Other Great Documents of American History edited by John Grafton.

Similar to Common Sense this resource can be purchased for relatively little or can be rented from the local library. I like this specific text because it gives even more original documents than the bill of rights website. Lots of background information surrounding the Bill of Rights and the issues in early America with the Presidential Addresses of Washington and Jefferson. These speeches give the students a chance to work with the text of the time first hand and contemplate the issues following the passage of the Bill of Rights. Like the previous resource, some scaffolding or rewording of text is necessary here as the rhetoric can be quite challenging.

12) Jefferson in Power: The Death Struggle of the Federalists by Claude G. Powers.

This is available online for less than $3. Do not buy a new copy, they are quite expensive and many used copies are available. The book is fairly high level in regard to reading level but is a great resource for understanding the beliefs of the Federalists and Democrats around the election of 1800 which is usually hard to find. The readings provide opportunities to take out excerpts to look at certain pieces pertinent to the election of 1800.

13) America: Classics That Help Define the Nation edited by the Modern Library.

This is available for purchase mainly at Amazon and Borders. I was unable to find it in the library searches I conducted so purchase might be required, should be under $10. This resource is wonderful for documents throughout American history, not just early establishment quandaries. This is a great resource for people who do not have the time to edit the original documents or scaffold the readings in the previous sources but would still like their students to gain some original perspective. The original speech and writings are edited to ease the understanding for lower level readers. Potentially a good resource for differentiation when used in conjunction with the original documents located in the previously mentioned resources.

14) Constitutional Law for a Changing America: Rights, Liberties, and Justice by Lee Epstein and Thomas G. Walker.

This book can be purchased but is fairly expensive, in the $40 dollar range. A much better bet is to check the library. The Boston Public Library has a copy as did some other libraries when I checked. This is a great resource for students to see how the Bill of Rights is applied today. Students can read about different cases which have defined just what freedoms the Bill of Rights gave and what limits they have. The text has original opinions from the justices of the Supreme Court but also provides summaries and background information to help with understanding. The images in the book are also wonderful and can be used irrespectively of the book if it is so desired.

15) Leading Cases in Constitutional Law: A Compact Casebook for a Short Course by Jesse H Choper, Richard H Fallon, Jr., and Yale Kamisar.

This resource is a higher level version of the previous text. This has longer versions of judicial decisions and important Bill of Rights cases without as much background and summary text. The book contains no visuals. This is a higher level text than the previous one and should be used through scaffolding carefully. A great challenge for higher level readers when use to differentiate with the previous text. 16) The Dynamic Constitution: An Introduction to American Constitutional Law by Richard H. Fallon, Jr.

This is available for purchase on all major websites for under $10. This book provides the background to Supreme Court cases and decisions through time dealing with the conflicts in the Bill of Rights and subsequent Amendments. The book does not contain any actual opinions from the justices. This is a great resource for wanting the students to grapple with the Amendments today without taking the time needed to read the actual opinions of the justices. The book is very efficiently organized so the readings can be separated easily without losing meaning. The organization allows you to quickly find what you are looking for the students to read without having them spend time on additional text you find less important.

17) Time Magazine. Special 1776 issue. Independence!

Actually published in 1976. This is available for viewing in some libraries and can be purchased on some websites. This is not an easy find but it is worth it! This fictional magazine has articles written as if it were in the time period. This helps students to take a perspective they rarely get. It is has many great individual articles and pictures. It does take some time to glace through. Usage of this resource is not quick or simple, but is wonderful. Students have liked comparing it in the past to current news articles in their style. It is a great way to develop student’s abilities to take perspectives and try to think about the viewpoints at the time. The fake advertisements in the magazine also provide some humor and additional learning opportunities for the ways media and technology have changed our lives through advertising.

18) Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen.

This is a class resource and should be something already purchased. The 5th chapter provides an idea of how racism has been a tradition in the context of America and how textbooks fail to confront it. This is a fairly challenging text for high school students but can be read with some assistance or scaffolding. It is a wonderful starting point as to why the textbook is not enough when looking at the history of America. Usage of portions of this chapter is a great way to introduce looking at history from multiple perspectives. Since this is a unit conducted early in the semester it is a perfect launching point for students to challenge their textbook and create questions they wanted answered.

19) The Presidents. (DVD) History Channel.

It is on sale now for under $20 online. This set is available for purchase and very helpful to looking at any time in American history. This DVD set provides students with a short look into the issues in the Presidents various terms. The segments are pretty short which is great as they present a lot of information without taking an entire class period. The DVD is organized in a way that you can just jump from President to President and even show just small portions of a Presidential term. The audio coupled with the visual has always been well received in the past by my students. The segments are short enough that they can be watched without having concentration issues that come with full classroom length videos. Portions of the videos can be obtained from the History Channel website. However, be careful with assuming you can play a video off the website in BPS as often times it is disallowed due to filters.