Young scholars investigate the eight phrases that comprise the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution to determine its principles and purpose. Their own Constitutional Convention is convened to craft a preamble for their school's governance.

Think about the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence with your budding historians. They analyze the importance of historical documents by examining several famous documents, and then they complete activities that check...

Learners make a poster. In this values lesson, students read the Preamble to the Constitution and discuss the core democratic values that are found there and in the Declaration of Independence. Learners are each assigned a core...

Students examine the concept that the constitutional government guarantees that our government is not all-powerful and analyze the purposes of our government that are listed in the Preamble. They assess that equality under the law and...

Students examine the work of the United Nations. In this United Nations lesson, students listen to their instructor present a lecture regarding the history of the United Nations. Students respond to discussion questions...

Young readers apply decoding strategies to identify unknown words. In this reading lesson, they read the Preamble and practice using decoding strategies. Small groups rotate to five charts that have questions regarding the Constitution...

Middle schoolers use the Preamble to the Constitution as the central resource, to consider the concept of justice in the United States, from past times to the present. Thoughtful questions are posed and helpful hand-outs provided.

Ben Franklin was the only American to sign The Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and the US Constitution. An interesting resource explores his role in the latter by comparing the US...

What if you had no choice but to leave everything behind and seek asylum elsewhere? Do countries have an obligation to accept refugees? To gain an understanding of the complexity of the issues of refugee rights, class members first...

Students examine the Declaration of Independence. In this colonial America lesson, students read literature regarding the document as well as excerpts of the document itself. Students also perform a Reader's Theatre script based on the...

Young scholars identify and describe the key terms as they relate to the Legislative Branch. Students describe how members of Congress are selected, how laws are created, and two of the limits on powers of Congress.

Fifth graders examine the effects of 9/11 on two guarantees in the Preamble of the Constitution, the preservation of liberty and the establishment of common security. They examine how our personal liberties been affected by the 9/11...

It's 1943, and Jewish people in Denmark are in hiding from the Nazis. What protection can the United States offer them? By examining the Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights, scholars consider the protections afforded to those...

Fifth graders read the preamble of the U.S. and Florida Constitutions. They discuss vocabulary definitions surrounding the concept of citizenship. They discuss and write about the rights and responsibilities of citizens and apply their...

Students discuss the United States Preamble and Constitution. In this United States government instructional activity, students discuss the differences between rights and privileges and construct a chart that lists some of our rights as...

Scholars examine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and analyze the ideas in the preamble. Readers define new vocabulary words, listen to a Masterful Reading, answer questions in pairs, participate in a jigsaw discussion, and...

Third graders learn the responsibility of citizenship and learn facts about a state they choose to research.

Students understand the purpose of the judicial branch of government. In this judiciary lesson, students participate in exercises to understand how the court system works. Students complete activity sheets to develop understanding of...

Students analyze several documents as they research the Revolutionary War. They evaluate documents and examine them for bias and perspective. They use their research to write monologues from the point of view of a famous Revolutionary...

Students gain historical background on the Civil War era from textbooks, encyclopedias, or supplemental material. Assign at least two photographs for each student to analyze using the Photograph Analysis Worksheet which is imbedded in...

Young scholars research the major events of the Vietnam War and construct a timeline. They do the same with the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson or the 1960's. They act as an advisor to President Johnson to recommend a course of action...

Sixth graders discover details about the 3 branches of government. In this primary source analysis instructional activity, 6th graders examine documents and images from the Library of Congress to investigate the structure of the U.S....

Students explore the process of writing our Constitution through an interactive program. They are to put themselves in the place of the statesmen and predict how they felt at the time. They compare the founding fathers.

New to the socratic seminar format? Check out a resource that not only provides the rationale for the procedure and step-by-step directions, but also provides a list of suggested topics, rules and model statements.