Website Description:
When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they didn’t pull their ideas out of thin air. They created a government based on a set of fundamental principles carefully designed to guarantee liberty. This lesson lets students look at the Constitution from the perspective of its foundational principles. Students make direct connections between these principles, the Founders’ intentions, and the Constitution itself, and they learn why the constitutional principles are critical to a free society.

Student Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
*Analyze the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution
*Identify relationships among popular sovereignty, consent of the governed, limited government, rule of law, federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances
*Describe how these principles are incorporated into the Constitution
*Explain the concerns that led the Founders to value these principles

This DBQuest activity has students explore and analyze George Washington's cover letter to the Constitution, which served as an introduction and kick off for the nations's Constitution. Washington's cover letter gives background to the process of creating our Constitution but is also persuasive to its intended audience.

Instructor Notes: Teachers can assign this content to their students in iCivics account and then Clicking the Assign button on this activity. Teachers will then have the option to add a Class into iCivics OR Sync a roster from Google Classroom. This will allow teachers to see student's responses. There are also Downloadable Resources available to support this learning activity.

In this simulation, students will run a county and make decisions that affect the success of their county. Constituents in the simulation pose problems for studenst to determine if they should solve and which department inthe county should be responsible.

Instructor Notes: Teachers can assign this content to their students in iCivics account and then Clicking the Assign button on this activity. Teachers will then have the option to add a Class into iCivics OR Sync a roster from Google Classroom. This will allow teachers to see student's responses. There are also Downloadable Resources available to support this learning activity.

Students will explain how the first 10 amendments to the Constitution protect individual liberties and limit the power of the government and evaluate the impact of the Bill of Rights on Americans’ everyday lives.

Students will examine grievances from the Founding Fathers and explore the historic development of the Declaration of Independence.

Freedom of speech or the press did not exist in the colonies before the Constitution. British subjects were under the authority of the king, and the king punished dissenters. The king also controlled the press and censored content before it was published. After the colonists fought and won independence from England, the rules were changed when the Constitution was written.

Remembering the king’s actions, the Framers designed a government with three branches and a system of checks and balances to prevent the abuse of power. They also made the federal government responsible for protecting individual liberties and accountable to a separate, but all powerful group, the People.

Thomas Jefferson viewed the press as the “only safeguard for public liberty” and an informed citizenry as “the best army” for the task. Freedom of the press was seen as vital for protecting democracy so the Framers linked it to speech and included both in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law … abridging freedom of speech, or of the press…”

Experience not only made its mark on the Constitution, but it also affected judicial interpretations that followed. In World War I, the Supreme Court upheld government actions against people in the interest of national security. Over the next 200 years, the Court would continue to grapple with freedom of expression issues in wartime. All the while, a watchful press would keep the public informed and debate alive. In 1971, the Supreme Court reaffirmed freedom of the press even in the midst of a war by allowing the publication of the Pentagon Papers. It had come full circle in its views.

This lesson is based on the Annenberg Classroom video that explores the evolution of the free press doctrine, Freedom of the Press: New York Times v. United States

Website Description:
Take a close look at the structure of Athenian democracy and how it influenced the U.S. government. In this lesson, students explore the democratic ideals and practices of the ancient Greeks and search for evidence of them in the U.S. Constitution.

Student Learning Objectives:
* Identify political institutions and principles in ancient Athenian democracy
* Explain the organization of Athenian democracy and the importance of citizenship
* Analyze the purpose, strengths, and shortcomings in the rules and structure of Athenian democracy
* Discover aspects of Athenian democracy found in the U.S. Constitution

Website Description:
In Do I Have a Right? students run their own firm of lawyers specializing in constitutional law. They decide if potential clients have a right, match them with the best lawyer, and win their case. The more clients you serve and the more cases you win, and the faster your law firm grows!

Do I Have Right? includes:
*Full edition or a Bill of Rights edition
*Option to play in English language or Spanish language
*Option to hear or mute English voiceover, music, and/or sound effects

Website Description:
Make your students’ gameplay more meaningful by using our constitutional rights activity and assessment set designed specifically for Do I Have a Right?. This easy-to-use Extension Pack helps you give context and purpose to the game, as well as reinforce and assess the game concepts. That means deeper learning for students and best practices around game-centered learning for you! Extension Packs require PowerPoint and are designed for use with projectors or interactive whiteboards.

This Extension Pack now includes English language learner (ELL) supports. We've included tips and practice that help make differentiated instruction a breeze. Best of all, new instructional scaffolds now mean this lesson is adaptable for a wide range of learners!

Student Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to...
*Describe the arguments for and against listing people’s rights in the Constitution (Bill of Rights).
*Identify key rights granted by the Bill of Rights and the 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and 26th Amendments
*Recall the specific amendment that guarantees a particular right
*Recognize complaints not involving constitutional rights

In its first constitutional challenge to the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a case brought by a Chinese immigrant, not an American citizen.

Yick Wo believed city ordinances had been unfairly applied to him, so he challenged their constitutionality under the equal protection clause, and took his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Initiated by the Chinese in San Francisco, the precedent-setting case expanded the interpretation of the equal protection clause to include both citizens and noncitizens alike. It also established foundational principles of law.

In Yick Wo v. Hopkins, the Court ruled that “an administration of a municipal ordinance . . . violates the Constitution . . . if it makes arbitrary and unjust discriminations founded on differences of race . . . ” “The guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment extend to “all persons within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, without regard to differences of race, or color, or of nationality.” ” . . . the equal protection of the laws is a pledge of the protection of equal laws.”

In this lesson, based on the Annenberg Classroom video “Yick Wo and the Equal Protection Clause,” students explore the cause-and-effect relationships between historical events and the development of constitutional principles that protect the rights of all people in America today. The words inscribed on the U.S. Supreme Court building are a reminder of that protection: “Equal Justice Under Law.”

Overview: This simulation game has students be the President for a day. In that role, they will be challenged with creating an agenda, making decisions about bills, delegating bills to the appropriate department so they can become laws, handling international diplomacy situations, and commanding the military.

Instructor Notes: Teachers can assign this content to their students through their iCivics account and then Clicking the Assign button on this activity. Teachers will then have the option to add a Class into iCivics OR Sync a roster from Google Classroom. This will allow teachers to see student's responses. There are also Downloadable Resources available to support this learning activity.

Students watch a video in which teens reflect on the concept of fake news, and then discuss their own experiences with misinformation.

Website description: Learn how America's love-hate relationship with Great Britain's government showed up in the way the Founder's designed America's government. In this lesson, students take a close look at British influence on American government by examining representation, voting, checks and balances, and the concept of a bill of rights as they learn about Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the British monarchy.

Website Description:
In this federalism lesson plan, students learn where the federal government gets its power and that government power in the United States is split between states and the federal government. They learn about express and implied powers, distinguish between federal powers and those reserved to the states (as well as shared powers), and contrast the federalist system of government with other choices the Founders might have made. We suggest teaching our lesson "State Power: Got a Reservation? back-to-back with this lesson.

Student Learning objectives
Students will be able to...
*Define federalism and explain the division of power between states and the federal government.
*Identify expressed, implied, reserved, and concurrent powers.
*Explain the significance of the Supremacy Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause.
*Describe the ongoing tension between federal and state power.
*Compare and contrast federal, confederal, and unitary forms of government.
*Identify the strengths and weaknesses of federalism.

Website Description:
It’s easy to forget how much drama surrounded the Constitution before it became the law of the land. The ratification debate between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists gives us insight into the ideas behind both sides and a better understanding of how our government developed in its early years. Students will analyze parts of Federalist 84 and Anti-Federalist 46. We also provide a template so you can bring in additional excerpts as your state standards require.

Student Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to:
*Identify the arguments used by the Federalists and Anti-Federalists during the ratification debate
*Analyze excerpts from the Federalist Papers (#84) and Anti-Federalist Papers (#46)
*Describe the importance of the Bill of Rights in the ratification debate

Students explore the Founding Era legacies of assembly and petition and how those legacies informed the creation of
these often-overlooked aspects of the First Amendment. They will complete a close reading activity to compare and
contrast ideas presented in the Interactive Constitution and describe the ways these rights have been interpreted by
the Court and used by citizens at various points throughout U.S. history. They will evaluate the constitutionality of
assembly and petition rights in the modern era through an in-class, civil dialogue addressing questions about time,
place, and manner restrictions; counter-protests; protests on college campuses; and other relevant assembly and
petition questions

When James Madison set out to write the First Amendment, he was careful to include protections against the
national establishment of religion. The framers had experienced a world in which the church ran the government
and did not want to repeat that experience. The issue of government established religion is still relevant in our
country today. In this lesson, students will learn about the establishment clause and will examine four major
issues that center around it.

The First Amendment has two clauses related to religion, specifically preventing the establishment of religion and the
ability to freely exercise religious beliefs. The goal of this lesson is for students to gain a deeper understanding of the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. They will do this by understanding the history of the clause, as well as
the relevant Supreme Court cases that will help students interpret how this clause has been applied. Students will also
use scholarly essays and the text of the U.S. Constitution to evaluate current issues and cases that involve the Establishment Clause

Many Americans do not fully understand the history and text of the First Amendment, even if the rights enshrined within
are used every day. While many Americans, like much of the founding generation, can agree that freedom of the press should be protected, there are disagreements over when, why, and how freedom of the press may be limited. This lesson encourages students to examine their own assumptions and to deepen their understanding of the currently accepted interpretation of freedom of the press under the First Amendment

Many Americans struggle to understand the Constitution, especially the rights included in the First Amendment. While
many Americans, like many in the Founding generation, can agree that freedom of the press should be protected, there
are disagreements over when, why, and how freedom of the press may be limited. This lesson encourages students to
examine their own assumptions and to deepen their understanding of current accepted interpretation of freedom of the
press under the First Amendment.