Website Description:
Are your students experts on U.S. citizenship? Put their knowledge to the test with Sortify: U.S. Citizenship, an original BrainPOP game made by BrainPOP with iCivics.
Share Sortify: U.S. Citizenship with your students using the “Share” button above. You must be logged in to access. This new feature allows teachers to assign Sortify outside of iCivics using learning management systems like Google Classroom, Edmodo, and more.

Student Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to...
*Recognize and recall rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens
*Identify active ways in which citizens can participate in government and contribute to the common good
*Relate like terms and concepts by deducing shared relationships

This section contains reproducible copies of primary documents from the holdings of the National Archives of the United States, teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government and cross-curricular connections.

This is a self-service online workshop for teachers who use primary documents to help students see the impact and ongoing relevance of the Constitution. It requires little advance preparation and provides everything needed, including a vocabulary list, document analysis worksheets, and historical documents -- John Marshall's Supreme Court nomination (1801), proclamation to New Orleans (1803), Lincoln's telegram to Grant (1864), Johnson oath photo (1963), and more.

" In this course we examine the relationship between public policy and urban design through readings, discussions, presentations, and papers. We also analyze the ways in which policies shape cities, and investigate how governments implement urban design. Students gain a critical understanding of both the complex system of governance within which urban design occurs and the effective tools available for creative intervention."

Students will examine public policy and an editorial to build evidence and reasoning to bring to the 'town hall' meeting about lowering the voting age to 16.

In this episode, children are introduced to Congress. To connect with primary grade students’ existing knowledge, they discover how a member of Congress is part of two communities- their home community that they serve, and the community of Congress.

Students analyze primary sources to explore how Congresswoman Patsy Mink began in her home community and traveled to a join a new community in Washington, DC where she worked in Congress.

Children observe the details of a photograph of Congresswoman Mink in Hawaii (See). Working with in-game character Ella, students generate and test hypotheses based on evidence, figuring out how Congresswoman Mink traveled from Hawaii to the Capitol (Think). Children explore the structure of the Capitol building and conclude the episode by reflecting on how other members of Congress represent different communities around the country (Wonder).

This lesson explains the steps taken by the First Congress to name a president and vice president, to provide funding for the new government, to draft a bill of rights, and to organize the executive and judicial branches. When you complete this lesson, you should be able to explain how the Constitution provides an outline of the federal government’s organization and that details are added by the government itself. You should also be able to explain how the First Congress used the Constitution to name a president and vice president and raise revenue to fund the new government. You should be able to describe how Congress has organized the executive branch and how it has expanded. In addition, you should be able to describe how the Judiciary Act established the federal court system.

We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution
In this lesson you will discuss some important questions about the responsibilities of citizens. You must develop your own answers to these questions. We hope this lesson will help you develop good answers.

This lesson introduces students to the concepts of natural rights and the social contract as they act like Enlightenment thinkers discussing the origins and necessity of governments.

We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution

This lesson introduces you to some of the basic ideas which were of great importance to the Founders. They used these ideas when they developed our government. You will learn why they thought we need a government in the first place. You will also learn how they believed governments should be created and what they ought to do.

Terms: Natural rights, Philosopher, Government, absolute power, state of nature, consent, social compact or social contract

Website Explanation:
Students take a look at two political thinkers that spent a lot of time trying to answer the question, "Why Government?" - Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. This lesson combines our Influence Library entries on Hobbes and Locke and adds activities that ask students to compare and contrast Hobbes and Locke and to think about how these philosophers influenced those that followed in their footsteps.

This lesson plan looks at the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, features historical documents about woman suffrage, and a script that the National Archives commissioned about the decades long struggle for a woman's right to vote. The site includes teaching activities and a list of related websites.

Website Description:
(This lesson was formerly "Bill of Rights: You Mean I've Got Rights?") Students learn about the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and other important constitutional amendments. First they consider what rights they believe are important, then they read and analyze the real text of each amendment. This lesson also helps students analyze the impact that the Bill of Rights has on their daily lives. Completing this lesson prepares students to play the game Do I Have a Right?
Got a 1:1 classroom? Download fillable PDF versions of this lesson's materials.

Student Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to…
*Describe the circumstances and debate that led to the Bill of Rights.
*Compare and contrast the positions of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists as to the Bill of Rights.
*Identify the rights granted by the Bill of Rights and key later amendments.
*Categorize rights in the Bill of Rights as individual freedoms, protection from government power, or rights of the accused.
*Predict what might happen if key rights were missing from the Constitution.