th
8 Grade CBA
Constitutional Issues
Name ______________________________
Teacher____________________________
Period _____________________________
DUE DATE __________________
1
CONTENT Objective:
 RESEARCH – IWBAT use a research question to form a clear position
on a Constitutional issue.
 WRITING – IWBAT analyze information to find strong evidence to
write a five or six paragraph essay based on a clear position.
LANGUAGE OBJECTIVE:
 RESEARCH – IWBAT use article databases and narrow internet
searches to find strong evidence to support a position on a
Constitutional issue.
 WRITING – IWBAT write a five or six paragraph essay using evidence
from research notes (introduction paragraph, 2-3 body paragraphs,
rebuttal paragraph, and conclusion paragraph).
ASSIGNMENT:
Citizens in a democracy have the right and responsibility to make informed decisions. You
will make an informed decision on a Constitutional issue after researching and discussing
different perspectives on this issue. In a research paper, you will:





State your position on a constitutional issue
Provide background on your constitutional issue
Provide strong evidence (quotes, paraphrases or summaries) to support your
position
Provide an argument against your position and explain its weaknesses supported
with credible evidence
All positions and arguments MUST have a correct in-text citation.
2
RESEARCH SOURCES NEEDED
AT LEAST THE FOLLOWING:



Encyclopedia (DO NOT QUOTE IN YOUR ESSAY, only paraphrase
for background information)
2 articles – found using eLibrary or other approved source
1 website or book
AND

United States Constitution Amendments (see page 19 for
citation)
ALL SOURCES USED IN YOUR ESSAY MUST BE
CITED BOTH IN IN-TEXT CITATIONS AND IN A
BIBLOGRAPHY OR WORK CITED PAGE
3
ISSUES
CIRCLE
a question from the list below that you are interested enough to
research and write about:
RESEACH QUESTIONS
1. Should there be limits on what kinds of guns citizens of the
United States can own?
2. Should the United States have the death penalty as a
punishment for crimes?
3. Should students be required to salute the American flag
and recite the Pledge of Allegiance?
4. Should teachers and administrators be allowed to search
lockers of students?
What do you think the answer to your question is right now?
4
RESEARCH SOURCES
Encyclopedia
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
background research
ONLY, DO NOT QUOTE in
o
o
bookshelves in the library
wikipedia.org
encyclopedia.com
Dimmitt Home page &
o
Catalog http://library.rentonschools.us
quote, paraphrase or summarize
take two column notes from these sources,
RELIABLE RESEARCH
your essay
o
World Book Online
click the
“Catalog” tab
at the top of
the page look
for WebPath
o Login: rentonhome
o Password: student
http://www.worldbookonline.com
Britannica Online
http://school.eb.com/
o Login:rsd403
o Password:preview
eLibrary
http://www.elibrary.com/elibweb/elib/do/login
o
ProQuest
o
http://search.proquest.com/
Login:
dimmittms
Password:
student
SIRS
http://sks.sirs.com/
REMINDER: GOOGLE.com and Bing.com are search engines, NOT a
works cited!!!
5
What is a Reliable Source?
A reliable source is a source that you trust. You can double-check its accuracy and you’re sure that the
author is an expert on the subject. Reliable sources include:





Articles and text that DO NOT include the author’s opinion or personal point of view.
Research books from the Library
Websites from a major news or media source (CNN, BBC, etc.)
An article written by someone who is an expert
Websites that end in “.gov”. These are government sponsored sites and can be trusted to provide
reliable information.
Watch out for…

Google – Search result order based on popularity, not quality. May need to look onto the 2nd page
of results to find what you need.

Wikipedia – cannot verify author or accuracy of information; great for getting ideas, but not a
reliable source to cite. However, it often does list helpful sources at the end of articles.

Ask.com and Answers.com – unless you can verify that the author is an EXPERT in the subject,
this is not a reliable source of information. (Bob from Sacramento is probably not an expert on the
causes of the Vietnam War!)

Identifying Author’s Purpose of websites
o What do we know about this site?
o Is this website trying to sell a product?
o Does this website have an agenda?

How to determine usefulness and point of view from search results page
o Sometimes just looking at the name of the website will give clues about the Author’s
Purpose. (example: when searching “controversy over marijuana legalization” a website
called “freepotnow.com” should give some immediate clues)
6
45% of grade
45% of grade
SEE PAGE 23
10% of grade
Work Cited
Bibliography Page
ORGANIZATION
CONTENT
Constitutional Issues CBA Rubric
4
3
2
1
“WOW, you got
me thinking”
“You said it, I got
it”
“I’ve got
questions”
“HUH?”
Thesis with strongly
stated position on a
Constitutional issue,
backed up with
reliable evidence from
your research that
connects back to your
thesis
 Strong thesis and
correct background
information.
 Strong quotes,
paraphrases, or
summaries with
lead-in, and
explained
immediately
 Rebuttal with
evidence to disclaim
 Strong conclusion
paragraph.
 Correct MLA In-text
citations
Thesis with clearly
stated position on a
Constitutional issue,
backed up with
reliable evidence
from your research
that connects back to
your thesis
 Clear thesis and
correct background
information.
 Clear quotes,
paraphrases, or
summaries with
lead-in, and
explained
immediately
 Rebuttal with
evidence to
disclaim
 Clear conclusion
paragraph.
 In-text citations
Correct MLA Work
Cited Page
Work Cited page
7
Position or evidence
unclear or not
reliable
No clear position, or
no evidence
 Unclear thesis
and/or incorrect
background
information.
 Unclear quotes,
paraphrases, or
summaries with
lead-in, and/or
unclear
explanations
 Unclear rebuttal
and/or evidence to
disclaim
 Unclear conclusion
paragraph
 Misleading In-text
citations
 No thesis and
incorrect
background
information.
 Confusing quotes,
paraphrases, or
summaries with no
lead-in, not
explained
immediately
 No rebuttal with
evidence to disclaim
 No conclusion
paragraph.
 No in-text citations
Confusing Work Cited
Page
No Work Cited Page
EXAMPLE 1 – ESSAY
Life sometimes goes wrong under the best of circumstances, but what if you spend your days in a
hospital bed slowly suffocating to death as cancer eats away at your body? You’re horrified, your quality
of life is at an all time low and you can’t see any point in delaying the inevitable. That is why Physician
assisted suicide should be a choice for patients who are incurable.
Physician assisted suicide (PAS) should be legal in cases that involve unbearable suffering or pain.
PAS is not the same as euthanasia, as many people think. According to Wesley (2), PAS is when the
patient requests to be put to death while euthanasia is when a physician or loved one makes and carries
out the decision on his or her own.
The first euthanasia bill was drafted in Ohio and failed in 1906. Since then, euthanasia and physician
assisted suicide have become a major debatable topic. In 1994 Oregon passed the “Death with Dignity”
act which made Oregon the first and only state to legalize PAS (Phillips 3 ). By 1998 fourteen people had
died by PAS in Oregon. Yale Kamisar, an important political figure and presidential candidate even said,
“There can’t be a much more personal decision an individual makes than how to die and I think that is a
personal decision left to individuals, their physicians and families (1).”
Many people have moral and ethical issues about PAS and feel that death should come naturally and
not even the person suffering should have the power to end it any other way (Phillips 5). Some also
believe that “if a physician gives the person injections that they are committing murder (University of
Washington 1). Which is against the constitution and many personal ethics. One man, Dr. Jack
Kevorkian was arrested for 2nd degree murder for helping a man suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis) bring his life to an end (Kamisar 2).
“The vast majority of both patients and the general public believe, as I do, that PAS is sensible in
certain cases when death is inevitable and the patient is going through immense pain and suffering.”
(University of Washington) However, when individual physicians were surveyed, most agreed with the
general public, “Large organizations such as the AMO are generally against the use of PAS for all cases.”
(University of Washington 1). With this being said, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness, which is
what our fore fathers fought for is being threatened with this school of thought.
The Supreme Court has wisely decided to allow, rather than stifle, public debate on physician-assisted
suicide. In a long-awaited ruling on June 26 involving two cases — Washington State v. Glucksberg and
New York v. Quill — the Court held that there was no such constitutional right under either the due
process or equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. While the concurring opinion of Justice John
Paul Stevens suggested that the Supreme Court could subsequently revisit the issue as a matter of
constitutional law, the thrust of these two opinions is to hold that it is an issue for the states and the
public to decide (Wesley 2).
8
Taylor 1
Works Cited
Jefferson, Thomas. “Declaration of Independence” 1776.
Kamisar, Yale. "The reasons so many people support physician-assisted suicide - and why these reasons
are not convincing.." Issues in Law & Medicine 12. (1996):113-131. eLibrary. Web. 04 Mar.
2010.
Madison, James. “Bill of Rights” 1791.
Phillips, S.. (2010). Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Natural Law Ethics Approach. Ethics &
Medicine, 26(1), 55. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from Platinum Full Text Periodicals. (Document
ID: 1950198811).
University of Washington. “Physician-Assisted Suicide.”
http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/pas.html. accessed on 04/30/1007.
Wesley, Patricia. "The Case Against Assisted Suicide: For the Right to End-of-Life Care." Suicide & Life
- Threatening Behavior 4(2002):451. eLibrary. Web. 04 Mar. 2010.
9
EXAMPLE 2 – ESSAY
“Everywhere in the U.S. at least 100,000 students bring guns to school (Davis 1).” You may think that
school officials checking your lockers for drugs and weapons is wrong, but what happens when someone is your
schools randomly draws out a gun and points it at you? Would you feel bad about going against your
administrations? According to the fourth amendment, “U.S. citizens have a right to object any random search and
seizure by anyone unless obtained a warrant by a judge (Madison 1).” This rule may protect school officials from
searching your locker, but it really doesn’t since the school has a duty to care for the whole student body.
First of all, in schools at least a couple of people do drugs or have weapons and to be exact, “More
Americans were killed by hand guns during 1990-1992 then in the Viet-Nam War (Davis 1),” a war that lasted
over 10 years. To lower this number teachers have to look out for suspicious behavior of students and do locker
searches. Even though they may not be able to do locker search of students locker protected by the fourth
amendment, it may not cover all circumstances. For example, when a teacher catches you smoking week or
smoking in general on school property, they can check through your locker and belongings to see if you have
anything like that hidden there. But before some checks your locker it has to be a reasonable suspicious of caught
in the act to have t be searched.
Next, in the U.S. there have been many drug sweeps in schools, especially high schools for drugs that
students are doing. In an article it states that, “police officers went charging into the schools hallway yelling and
taking their guns out on more than 100 students, mostly on African American Students (Essex 1).” With this quote
it looks like police officers or generally anyone searching for drugs grabs attention to African Americans when
having to do with a drug sweep. With drug sweeps in the U.S., the U.S. Supreme Court said that, “it is legal for
student searchers, when it all depends on reasonableness search under all circumstances (Essex 1),” saying that it
has to meet a requirement of doing when it is to be a reasonable search. Drug sweeps are told to be a way to stop
students from drugs at school and everywhere else.
Lastly, searching student lockers for drugs or weapons not only applied to society rules, but also school
rules. According to most schools, school lockers are property of the school and rented to the students to put their
school item in, not drugs or weapons. “Public schools have an important rule that it is their duty to care for all
students (Anonymous 1).” By caring for all students they have to check students lockers (if suspicious) to find
anything illegal. Even though it is their personal property and embarrassing that student, if a school official finds
something. It’s embarrassing only one student, but protecting hundreds of other students from harm.
You may think that going through personal belongings of students in their locker is unfair to them, but
going through a locker to search for drugs or weapons has nothing to do with trying to embarrass that student, or to
reveal anything about them.
You also may think that the fourth amendment helps you from getting searched if you have them, but it
really doesn’t since according to a different part of the constitution it is constitutional. “Fact, that if someone has a
legitimate and reasonable expectation of privacy, does not necessarily mean that all searches are unconstitutional
(Murphy 1).” If you think that privacy is way more important than safety then think about this. Would you rather
be embarrassed emotionally or dead physically and never be healed again?
“At least 40 students are killed or hurt with a gun every day (Anonymous 1).” For the safety of everyone
there are locker searches, drug seeps, and school officials to suspect anything bad. These three things have been
ways to stop illegal actions happening on school property. To me and a lot of people out in schools think that
safety is more important than privacy. Safety vs. privacy has a lot of people thinking which one is better, with
safety it’s sort of like living life when dealing with guns but with privacy its sort of like death because you can’t
protect yourself. Overall, safety is way more important than privacy for a student.
10
Mai 1
WORKS CITED
Anonymous. Vietnam War. Digital History, 24 May 2010. Web. 24 May 2010.
<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?H HID=519>."Vietnam War
1945-1960." The History Place. The History Place. Web.20 May 2010.
<http://www.historyplace.com/
unitedstates/vietnam/index 1945.html#gen>.
Murphy, John. ExBBC NEWS." BBC NEWS | News Front Page. BBC. Web. 20 May 2010.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/asia_pac/05/
vietnam_war/html/introduction.stm>.
Brigham, Professor Robert K. "Battlefield:Vietnam | History." PBS. PBS. Web. 20 May 2010.
<http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/
history/index.html>.
Lawson, Don. The War In Vietnam. New York: F. Watts, 1981. Print.
Madison, James. “U.S. Constitution” 1789.
11
C.B.A. Persuasive Essay
Writing Plan
Guidelines
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Catchy Opening Sentence:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
My opening sentence
includes one of the
following attention
grabbers:
 Anecdote
 Question
 Interesting fact
_______________________________________________________________
My Position Statement/Thesis:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
The topic and my
position are clearly
stated.
_______________________________________________________________
Connection to the Constitution:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
I have stated how my
issue connects to the
Constitution (what
amendment and why).
_______________________________________________________________
Connection to individual rights/common good:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2: My Second Strongest Argument
Statement of Argument:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
My Evidence or Reasons and where they came from (sources):
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
12
I addressed how my
stance is fair for
individual rights and the
common good.
I cite my sources and use
at least one of the
following strategies in
my paragraph to support
my argument:
 Facts
 Statistics
 Anecdotes
 Expert statement
 Examples
One piece of evidence
must be from the US
Constitution.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Paragraph 3: My Weakest Argument
Statement of Argument:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
My Evidence or Reasons and where they came from (sources):
_______________________________________________________________
I cite my sources and use
at least one of the
following strategies in
my paragraph to support
my argument:
 Facts
 Statistics
 Anecdotes
 Expert statement
 Examples
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
One piece of evidence
must be from the US
Constitution.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Paragraph 4: Counterarguments and Rebuttals
Statement of Counterargument:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
My Rebuttal(s):
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
My Evidence or Reasons and where they came from (sources):
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
I stated my strongest
argument against my
topic (counterargument)
and offered an
appropriate rebuttal.
I cited my sources and
used at least one of the
following strategies in
my paragraph to support
my argument:
 Facts
 Statistics
 Anecdotes
 Expert statement
 Examples
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
13
One piece of evidence
must be from the US
Constitution.
Paragraph 5: My Strongest Argument
Statement of Argument:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
My Evidence or Reasons and where they came from (sources):
_______________________________________________________________
I address at least one of
my opponents
arguments and use at
least one of the
following strategies to
prove my rebuttal:
 Facts
 Statistics
 Anecdotes
 Expert statement
 Examples
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Paragraph 6: My Conclusion
Restatement of my position:
_______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Call to Action:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Closing Sentence:
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
14
I restate the main idea
and include a “call to
action” (asking the
reader to do something
or make something
happen)