An Introduction to the First Amendment

Make a study of the First Amendment and its relationship to freedom. Pupils rewrite the amendment and discuss the central idea before focusing on a specific phrase. After discussing, class members write a journal entry about the included...

The Bill of Rights is an important part of the US Constitution. Have small groups translate the amendments into modern language and present their versions, as well as the original versions, to the class. In groups, learners also respond...

How did the Emancipation Proclamation lead to the Thirteenth Amendment? Middle schoolers analyze primary source documents including the text of the Emancipation Proclamation, political cartoons, photographs, and prints to understand the...

The fight to pass the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution that guaranteed women the right to vote was contentious and divisive. Many states refused to ratify the amendment, initially proposed in 1878. Class members examine documents...

Focusing on the judicial branch of government, the fourth instructional activity in this series explores the structure of the US courts system. Beginning with an engaging activity based on the short story The Lady or the Tiger,...

Does a public school have the right to restrict what t-shirts students wear? Discover what happened when this question was brought to the Supreme Court, and review other major cases in United States history involving judicial review....

Learners consider the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. They do this by viewing a seven-slide PowerPoint presentation the First Ammendment and the Bill of Rights. Once you have shown the presentation, hold a class discussion...

Students describe the contents of the First Amendment while telling about an example of speech that is protected by the Constitution and that which is not. They attempt to apply the First Amendment to situations that could occur in their...

Students develop a strategy for furthering the First Amendment interest and knowledge in the school through posters, school-wide announcements, speakers, contests and more during the rest of the school year. Student research about free...

What does "freedom of speech" mean to your class, especially in the context of Internet communications? In round-table discussion format, middle and high schoolers address the issues discussed in "State Legislatures Across U.S. Plan to...