Lesson Plan
Bill of Rights
Kathy Case and Crystal Thompson
Get to Know Your Bill of Rights
Time – 2 or 3 60 minute periods
Grade 6
Keene Mill Elem.
PART 1
Essential Learning – The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States
of America provide a written guarantee of individual rights (e.g., freedom of speech,
freedom of religion).
Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL): SOL USI.7 – The student will demonstrate
knowledge of the challenges faced by the new nation by
b) identifying the basic principles of the new government established by the
Constitution of the United States of America and the Bill of Rights.
Fairfax County Program of Studies (POS) – Standards 1 and 3
1. The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis,
including the ability to: a. identify and interpret primary and secondary source
documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States
history to 1877; b. make connections between the past and the present; c.
identifying the basic principles of the new government established by the
Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights;
3.
Students know, understand, and explain the importance of the political and
civic beliefs, values and principles that support and maintain American
constitutional democracy; and understand the workings of their own and other
political systems.
National History Standards –
Chronological Thinking – developing a beginning sense of historical time – past,
present, and future in order to identify the temporal sequence in which events occurred,
measure calendar time, interpret and create time lines, and explain patterns of historical
continuity and change. (In this lesson, students will identify the sequence of events by
creating a human time line of specific events.)
Historical Comprehension – including the ability to listen to and read historical
stories and narratives with understanding, to identify the basic elements of the narrative
or story structure (the characters, situation, sequence of events, their causes, and their
outcomes); and to develop the ability to describe the past through the eyes and
experiences of those who were there, as revealed through their literature, art, artifacts,
and other records of their time. (Students will listen to a narrative about the events
leading to the passage of the Bill of Rights and will be able to identify key players and
proceedings.)
Historical Research Capabilities – including the ability to formulate historical
questions from encounters with historical document, artifacts, photos, visits to historical
sites, and eyewitness accounts; to acquire information concerning the historical time and
place where the artifact, document or other record was created; and to construct a
historical narrative or story concerning it. (Students will read and interpret a primary
source documents.)
Historical issues – analysis and decision-making – including the ability to identify
problems that people confronted in historical literature, the local community, and the
state; to analyze the various points of view of people caught up in these situations; to
evaluate alternative proposals for dealing with the problem(s); and to analyze whether the
decisions reached or the actions taken were good ones and [explain] why. (Students will
determine different points of views on the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the
Constitution.)
Learning Strategies –
Habits of Mind - #1 – Understand the significance of the past to their own lives,
both private and public, and to their society.
Habit of Mind - # 10 – Recognize the importance of individuals who have made a
difference in history, and the significance of personal character for both good and ill.
Reader’s Theater
Connection to TAH Grant –
Content: Founding Documents – using primary sources to relate past to present
Pedagogy: Use of primary sources, cooperative groups
PART II
Assessment: Students will be assessed on their understanding of the Bill of Rights by
presenting their understanding of them in a Reader’s Theater format.
Instructional Strategies:
List the following events on sentence strips:
First Continental Congress meets
Second Continental Congress meets
Declaration of Independence
Congress adopts Articles of Confederation
Constitutional Convention adopts a new Constitution
The Constitution is ratified by three-quarters of the states and becomes law
George Washington is elected President
James Madison writes the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of
Rights
As a class, discuss the order of the events by using children holding the sentence strips
and put them in the correct order
Reinforce idea that the Bill of Rights was not a part of the Constitution when it was
ratified
Read aloud from Book 3 of A History of US (by Joy Hakim) – Chapter 42 (If You Can
Keep It). Discuss why some people felt it was necessary and others thought it was not
necessary. Record answers on board to go back to after student presentations of Bill of
Rights and discuss which group(s) the students feel they would have identified with.
(This would be the culminating activity.)
Divide the class into five groups and give each group a section of The Debates in the
Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution [Elliot's Debates,
Volume 3]Wednesday, June 25, 1788. (This section should be the part that says where
each state falls in relation to adopting the Constitution.) Each group should complete the
diagram (attached) putting the state in the right column. Come back together as a class
and discuss why the Bill of Rights was needed.
Divide the students into groups of two and have them prepare and present the Bill of
Rights to the class in a Reader’s Theater format. Each group should cover all ten
amendments to demonstrate understanding of each amendment.
Materials/Resources to be Used:
Copies of the Bill of Rights
Hakim, Joy; A History of US, Book 3
Library of Congress, American Memories website.
Elliott’s Debates, Wednesday, June 25, 1788.
http://memories.loc.gov.
Differentiation
This lesson could be differentiated for GT students in several ways. The first way would
be to add dates to the timeline activity and have students match both the events and the
date of the event. Another way to differentiate for GT students would be by varying the
discussion in the small group. GT students could be given more of the Elliott’s Debate
document rather than just the state’s position part. They could also be assigned an
amendment to research why that particular amendment was needed, how it affects
citizens today, and draw a political cartoon that shows the affect of the amendment.
This lesson could be differentiated for ESOL and students with special needs by having
the teacher annotate the materials or used modified editions as needed for comprehension
by the these students.
Attachments
Graphic Organizer – The Constitution; Grading Rubric for Bill of Rights Reader’s
Theater; A History of Us – “If You Can Keep It”; Elliott’s Debate (from Library of
Congress, American Memories)
Annotated Biblioraphy
Viola, Herman J, Why We Remember, Constitution Handbook