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Discover the debate that surrounded the Constitution before it became the law of the land. Excerpts from Federalist 84 and Anti-Federalist 46 offer insight into both sides of the…
View the Constitution from the perspective of its foundational principles. Consider the Founders' intentions and the Constitution itself as you discover how the constitutional…
Learn how the Constitution has changed over time and what methods created those changes. Analyze specific examples of change including amendments, Supreme Court decisions, and…
Jump into the big debate over the Bill of Rights, and see how the Federalists and Anti-Federalists battled over the fate of the U.S. Constitution. Where did the idea come from? How…
This lesson plan teaches the fundamentals of Supreme Court Justice nominations and helps students understand the politics behind the nominations. It challenges students to cut…
Kick off this project-based unit by asking students to examine what it means to make change in the world. Students think about why people are motivated to advocate for change, what…
Do your students breeze through internet search results, easily weeding out irrelevant results and finding exactly what they need? No? This step offers a detailed look at how to…
In this step, students read and annotate the sources they identified in Step 2. The lesson discusses investigative reading and offers strategies for staying organized when faced…
No issue exists in a vacuum, so in this step, students examine the factors that contribute to the circumstances surrounding their issue to gain a deeper understanding of the issue…
In this step, students figure out who’s got a stake in their issue. They learn what stakeholders are and how to identify them, as well as why the power of numbers is important and…
Armed with information and a deep understanding of their issue, students shift into action mode in this step by writing an action plan for “moving the needle” on their issue.
Students take a “step” back in Step 7 and identify gaps in their information: What pieces of the puzzle are still missing? What information is important to have before going on? To…
To get support for an issue, you have to be able to talk about it—and in this step, students learn how to do that effectively. By developing and practicing both an elevator speech…
In this step, students get creative by developing “swag” to promote their cause. They learn principles of effective attention-grabbing that they apply to their own swag designs,…
In the culminating lesson, students learn how to design and deliver an effective slide presentation to gather support for their issue, create a 5-minute presentation targeted to a…
Meet your PALS—Power, Authority, Legitimacy, and Sovereignty! In this lesson, students are introduced to these characteristics of government and consider how…
Trace how philosophers throughout history have envisioned the ideal government. Explore ideas from Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau and more in this new high school lesson.
You bet we do! What economic, political, and social factors led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence and American Revolution? Find out what caused the colonies to…
What was the new nation's first stab at a written constitution? Why the Articles of Confederation, of course! Find out about America's first written rules and how they eventually…
Welcome to the Constitutional Convention! In this lesson, students learn how delegates met at the Convention with different ideas and came out of the Convention with a compromise…
Lesson Plan