Many Americans struggle with understanding the language and subsequent interpretation of the Constitution, especially when it come to the rights encapsulated in the First Amendment. While many Americans can agree that speech should be protected, there are disagreements over when, where, and how speech can be limited or restricted. This lesson encourages students to examine their own assumptions and to deepen their understanding of current, accepted interpretations of speech rights under the First Amendment including when and where speech is protected and/or limited. It should reinforce the robustness of the First Amendment protections of speech.

The First Amendment holds some of our biggest rights as American citizens. Nick reviews them for us!

TRANSCRIPT
"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America."

Our constitution sounds pretty good to me. Nothing to change there, right? Wrong. Even the founding fathers knew they couldn't make a perfect guide for running the country. Enter amendments. An amendment is any improvements, revisions, or corrections to the Constitution. There are currently 20-plus amendments to the Constitution, but I want to focus on the first one. It provides some of our most important rights.

The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." So within the First Amendment, we've got these five protected rights. Freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assembly, and the right to petition the government. Let's take a look at these a little closer.

Freedom of religion was super important to the founding fathers. It's one of the reasons they came to America in the first place. They wanted to escape other countries where they were forced to follow a specific religion. Because of the First Amendment you can now practice any religion or no religion at all. The freedom of speech and assembly can be grouped together. They basically mean we can express our own opinions. We're allowed to speak out and get together in groups to express our ideas. Of course, there are some exceptions. For example, you can't tell lies about people, or they could try to sue you for it.

That idea of telling the truth leads me to the next protection which is super important for folks who work in the news like me, the freedom of the press. It means journalists are allowed to report on what's going on without fear that the government might get upset and stop them from doing their work. In some countries without the freedom of the press like China, journalists are only allowed to report what the government wants. As you can imagine, if the government makes a mistake or isn't treating people fairly, they aren't going to want the news to tell people about it.

Finally the right to petition the government empowers citizens to address their leaders directly if they're concerned about actions or issues. You may have heard about people writing their Senators, governor's or other politicians to share their opinions or express concern. The First Amendment aimed to set Americans apart from other countries and governments that impose stiff rules and regulations over their citizens or punish them for speaking out. It's all about letting our country stay by the people and for the people. As the country grows and changes so do the needs of the Constitution. It's not stuck in the 1700s. It's a living, breathing part of our democracy.

This lesson is designed to introduce students to the Constitution. It can be used as a one-day lesson to fulfill the Constitution Day requirement or as a means to begin a conversation about the framers of the Constitution. It has been carefully designed to highlight the three spheres of civic education as detailed by the National Constitution Center; that is, the lesson includes civic knowledge, active citizenship, and democratic deliberation.

The Founders’ Library refers to the prior knowledge the Founding Fathers brought to the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Students will examine these ideas and use them to analyze the Constitution and Bill of Rights. At the same time, students will be considering ideas and information that relate to their own lives.

Students will finish the lesson by considering the idea of prior knowledge. Each student will be asked to think of books, music, movies, or television shows that impact ideas about the United States. The combination of personal experience and the critical examination of the Constitution will allow the students to have a deeper understanding of the creative imagination that was necessary to write and debate the Constitution of the United States

This lesson is designed for one forty-five minute high school class period. It does not have to be limited to the social studies classroom, but can be completed in a variety of settings from a small seminar to a traditional humanities classroom.

This lesson builds student understanding of the relationships between the United States’ founding documents by comparing and contrasting the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Using a close reading guide, students will explore the key concepts in Jeffrey Rosen and David Rubenstein’s “Constituting Liberty: From the Declaration to the Bill of Rights,” accessible on the Interactive Constitution at constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution.

Your students can more fully explore the U.S. Constitution’s history and what it means today with the new Interactive Constitution, where scholars of different perspectives discuss what they agree upon, and what they disagree about. These experts were selected with the guidance of leaders of two prominent constitutional law organizations—The American Constitution Society and The Federalist Society. This project is sponsored by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

Please note that the link in the lesson plan for “Constituting Liberty: From the Declaration to the Bill of Rights” is rather difficult to locate, but is available here: https://constitutioncenter.org/media/files/13_Exhibition_Pamphlet.pdf.

This lesson will focus on freedom of assembly, as found in the First Amendment. Students will consider the importance of the right to assemble and protest by analyzing cases where First Amendment rights were in question. Using the case National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, students will consider if the government is ever allowed to control the ability to express ideas in public because viewpoints are controversial, offensive, or painful. Students will use primary sources and Supreme Court cases to consider whether the courts made the correct decision in the National Socialist Party v. Skokie case. Students will be able to form an opinion on the essential question: Is the government ever justified to restrict the freedom to assemble?

As part of the Bill of Rights, freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution, but it is not defined by it. That task is left up to the people through a representative government that makes the laws and a judicial system that interprets and applies the laws to resolve disputes. When people bring their First Amendment challenges into the court system and decisions are made, principles get established that help define the boundaries of free speech for everyone.

While most Americans believe there should be some limits to free expression, there is much disagreement about what constitutes speech and where those limits should be. Consequently, freedom of speech ends up being our most contested right.

In this lesson, based on the Annenberg Classroom video “A Conversation on the Constitution: Freedom of Speech,” students gain insight into the many challenges involved in defining and protecting free speech. They also learn about principles that come from Supreme Court decisions and case law that are applied to define the limits for us today.

Students will investigate the legal language defining their freedom of speech rights. Participants will analyze landmark Supreme Court cases that define students’ freedom of speech, and then examine a recent challenge, Hawk and McDonaldMartinez v. Easton Areas School District (2013)—otherwise known as the I Heart Boobies case. To guide thinking, students will apply the IRAC case analysis technique and then will write majority and dissenting opinions as Supreme Court Justices.

Website description: What exactly is the ideal government? Let some of history's leading philosophers give you their take. In this government philosophy lesson, students explore how philosophers have explained the relationship between people and their governments and examine how those ideas influenced America's founding documents.

Website Description:
What's the relationship between government and power? And how do the concepts of authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty influence that relationship? In this lesson, students are introduced to these key characteristics of government, consider how governments establish and maintain them, and analyze government forms to determine if and how each characteristic exists.

Student Learning Objectives:
*Explain how governments get their power, authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty
* Analyze governments for key characteristics
* Describe the relationships power, authority, legitimacy, and sovereignty share
* Consider a government’s legitimacy

This lesson is the second part of the History's Mysteries unit, "What Makes a Good Leader?" In this lesson, students will study different situations that forced George Washington to learn leadership skills. By using George Washington as an example, students will learn that an important leadership skill is to ask for help. Using George Washington as an example, students will think of other leaders who displayed different types of leadership skills.
This lesson is part of a unit containing the following lessons:
Grade 1: Unit 2 History Mystery 1: WHAT MAKES SOMEONE A GOOD LEADER?
Grade 1: Unit 2 History Mystery 3: DO GOOD LEADERS ALWAYS DO GOOD THINGS?

This lesson is the third and final part of the History's Mysteries unit, "What Makes a Good Leader?" In this lesson, students explore that leaders often make complex decisions and don’t always display positive leadership traits. While learning about George Washington’s use of slave labor throughout his life, students realize that even leaders are rarely perfect and can make poor decisions. This difficult topic is displayed in through the use of images and pictures and discussed in vocabulary appropriate for young learners.
This lesson is part of a unit containing the following lessons:
Grade 1: Unit 2 History Mystery 1: WHAT MAKES SOMEONE A GOOD LEADER?
Grade 1: Unit 2 History Mystery 2: WHAT MADE PEOPLE THINK GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD BE A GOOD LEADER?

In this lesson, students will learn about some elements of Native sovereignty. They will learn what a Native nation is and why sovereignty is so important to a nation. The lesson focuses on why nations need land, why history is important, and how shared culture is also part of sovereignty. The lesson focuses on Native nations today because it is important to talk about Native nations today to break stereotypes that Native people only existed in the past.
This lesson is part of a Unit that includes the following lessons:
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 1: WHAT IS NATIVE SOVEREIGNTY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 2: WHAT CAN DIFFERENT MAPS TELL US ABOUT NATIVE SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIVE LAND?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 3: WHAT STRATEGIES TO NATIVE NATIONS USE TO PROTECT THEIR SOVEREIGNTY DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1)?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 4: WHAT STRATEGIES TO NATIVE NATIONS USE TO PROTECT THEIR SOVEREIGNTY DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (2)?

In this lesson, students will look at 3 maps to learn about where the ancestral tribal lands of four Native nations are located. The four nations are the Iroquois Confederacy (made of 5 nations), the Cherokee Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, and the Western Abenaki nation. Students will label all four groups on three different maps and as they look at each map they will consider how the land is represented on the map and how that might impact how people understand Native land and Native sovereignty.
This lesson is part of a Unit that includes the following lessons:
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 1: WHAT IS NATIVE SOVEREIGNTY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 2: WHAT CAN DIFFERENT MAPS TELL US ABOUT NATIVE SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIVE LAND?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 3: WHAT STRATEGIES TO NATIVE NATIONS USE TO PROTECT THEIR SOVEREIGNTY DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1)?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 4: WHAT STRATEGIES TO NATIVE NATIONS USE TO PROTECT THEIR SOVEREIGNTY DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (2)?

In this mystery, students will look at primary and secondary sources from the four Native nations we have been studying: Haudenosaunee/Iroquois, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Western Abenaki. They will match their five different strategy cards with the primary and secondary sources. After reading each source, students will determine which strategy that nation used to protect their land and sovereignty during the American Revolution. After each source, students will read a brief summary that will give more information about the strategies used. Student handouts will allow students to mark up the primary and secondary sources, pick a strategy and then explain their reasoning.
This lesson is part of a Unit that includes the following lessons:
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 1: WHAT IS NATIVE SOVEREIGNTY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 2: WHAT CAN DIFFERENT MAPS TELL US ABOUT NATIVE SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIVE LAND?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 3: WHAT STRATEGIES TO NATIVE NATIONS USE TO PROTECT THEIR SOVEREIGNTY DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1)?
Grade 3 Unit 2 History Mystery 4: WHAT STRATEGIES TO NATIVE NATIONS USE TO PROTECT THEIR SOVEREIGNTY DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (2)?

: In this lesson, students will learn about how “freedom of speech” is applied in schools. Students will begin by brainstorming the meaning of “free speech” from prior lessons and then brainstorming about how they think speech might be limited in schools. Then students will learn about speech rights in school by completing a reading and watching a short video. For the activity, students will look at school-based scenarios and decide whether or not they think a school could limit student speech.’
This lesson is part of a Unit that includes the following lessons:
Grade 5 History Mystery 1: WHAT IS "FREE SPEECH" AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Grade 5 History Mystery 2: DOES "FREE SPEECH" MEAN I CAN SAY WHATEVER I WANT?
Grade 5 History Mystery 3:WHAT CAN I SAY IN SCHOOL?

In this mystery, students will learn the meaning of “due process”, where due process rights are in the Constitution, and the history of where American due process rights came from. Students will begin by figuring out the meaning of the term. They will then examine the Bill of Rights and create Due Process Amendment Cards that they will use for this and additional mysteries in this unit. Students will sort the due process rights in the 4th-8th Amendments into the categories before, during and after trial. The will end the mystery by learning about the history of due process including the Magna Carta and due process rights in colonial America.
This lesson is part of a Unit that includes the following lessons:
Grade 5 Unit 3 History Mystery 1: WHAT IS "DUE PROCESS" AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Grade 5 Unit 3 History Mystery 2: HOW AND WHY DO PEOPLE FIGHT FOR DUE PROCESS RIGHTS?
Grade 5 Unit 3 History Mystery 3: DO STUDENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN SCHOOL?

In this mystery, students will learn about three due process champions through the History Mystery questions “Why and how do people fight for due process rights?” The mystery begins by helping students understand what it means to fight for rights and how a person might petition for their rights. Then the mystery takes students through three due process champion stories of John Peter Zenger, Fred Korematsu, and Clarence Gideon. Each story starts with an introduction reading and video. Then students work in groups to investigate a primary source or sources related to each story with the guidance of an investigation packet. Each story helps students answer the history mystery question.
This lesson is part of a Unit that includes the following lessons:
Grade 5 Unit 3 History Mystery 1: WHAT IS "DUE PROCESS" AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Grade 5 Unit 3 History Mystery 2: HOW AND WHY DO PEOPLE FIGHT FOR DUE PROCESS RIGHTS?
Grade 5 Unit 3 History Mystery 3: DO STUDENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN SCHOOL?

Controversial issues are complex topics that are grounded in conflicting values or opinions and can result in emotional reactions and public dispute. Schools may avoid difficult issues that could bring forth feelings of fear, confusion, or anger. Addressing these issues, however, can motivate students to learn and make relevant connections to their local and global communities. For students to become active and engaged citizens, they will need civil discourse and reasoning skills, as well as tolerance, empathy, compassion, and an interest in civic knowledge.

This series of classroom activities were written to support educators who use the 2022 video series "Elections 101" from the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC).

"Helping at the Polls" helps students answer the questions "What are ways I can civically participate in my community?" and "How do we hold elections in my community?". Teachers will use the videos "A Day at the Polls" and "Election Security" from the WEC to build a recruitment brochure, poster, or other media to encourage people to volunteer as pollworkers.

High school teachers and students will be able to learn how a student can work as a poll worker during an election.