General Information

The Bill of Rights is a document that has much relevance to the average student, even more so than the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution.  This instructional toolkit focuses on the Bill of Rights: its origins, its meaning, and its relevance to students of today.  These lessons use primary source analysis, student discussion, and analysis of current events to help students understand and appreciate the Bill of Rights. 

A variety of children's fiction is available for students or teacher to read ahead of time or concurrently with this unit.  The Book Links article, “Discovering the Bill of Rights through Fiction,” in the February/March 2001 issue gives many books that demonstrate situations where rights have been challenged.

Standards Tapestry

To gain an appreciation of the Bill of Rights, students need to discover from where the rights evolved (SS 5.2.2) using a variety of primary sources (SS 5.1.22), what the actual Bill of Rights says (SS 5.2.6), and how the rights are demonstrated in everyday life.  They also need to relate their rights to their responsibilities and duties as citizens and members of a community (SS 5.2.9).  Protecting those rights also means monitoring their government and society in general, expressing their views in a constructive way (SS 5.2.10).

Assessment Rationale

Assessment will take place through a variety of activities: Writing, role playing, and examination of current events.

Humanities-rich Resources

Type (book link, etc.)	Name	URL (if any)	Annotation (can include description and notes on how to use.
Link	Our Documents	http://ourdocuments.gov	National Archives list of 100 most important documents
Links	Ask Me What's Great About America	http://www.teacherdesktop.org http://www.in.gov/judiciary/education/	An excellent lesson plan from Indiana Bar Assn. to help students appreciate the need for the Bill of Rights
Link	The United States Constitution	http://www.memory.loc.gov/	Transcription of legislators' reasons for needing a bill of rights
Link	Letters of John and Abigail Adams	http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/	Provides links to letters regarding women's rights
Link	Mayflower Compact	http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/	Transcript of Mayflower Compact
Link	Mass. Body of Liberties	http://www.constitution.org/	Transcripted excerpts
Link	Penn. Charter of Privileges	http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/	Transcript
Link	Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom	http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/	Explanation and transcript of document
Link	Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom	http://www.lva.lib.va.us/	Image of original document
Link	The First Amendment:  What's Fair in a Free Country?	http://edsitement.neh.gov/	Lesson plan that focuses on the first amendment
Link	The Bill of Rights lessons from National Endowment of the Humanities	http://edsitement.neh.gov/	Search “History and Social Studies” subject catalogue to find a variety of lesson plans on the Bill of Rights
Link	National Archives Experience: The Charters of Freedom	http://www.archives.gov/	Gives background information about the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
Link	The Virginia Declaration of Rights	http://www.archives.gov/	Transcript of document and discussion of its relevance
Link	Mercy Otis Warren comments on Constitution	http://www.samizdat.com/	Her writings telling why she doesn't like the Constitution
Book		Schwartz, Rebecca Spears. Story of the Constitution. #201 Amawalk, NY: Jackdaw Publications, 1998.	Useful pieces include reproductions of original documents like Broadside of the U.S. Constitution; Proposal for a Bill of Rights, 1789; and Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 1776.
Magazine article	Bibliography of children's fiction related to the Bill of Rights	Elleman, Barbara; “Discovering the Bill of Rights through Fiction,” Book Links. February/March, 2001	Excellent bibliography of children's literature that relate to the Bill of Rights
Link	Three Centuries of Broadsides	http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml/pehome.html	A collection from the Library of Congress showing broadsides that were published in America.

Instructional Day	Description
Day 1	What Rights Are Important? Students analyze primary documents and discuss what rights were important to people before the Bill of Rights was written.
Day 2	What Rights Are Important? Part 2
Day 3	What Does the Bill of Rights Say? Students read the Bill of Rights and discuss what the 10 amendments mean in real life.
Day 4	Skits Students perform short skits that demonstrate a situation demonstrating an amendment in action.
Day 5	Our Bill of Rights in Action Students examine newspapers and magazines to identify any news of the day relating to any of the 10 amendments.
Day 6	What Responsibilities Do Citizens Have In Order to Preserve Their Rights? Students identify what citizens should be doing to ensure that their rights are protected.
Day 7	How Can I Make a Difference in What my Government Does? Students read a teacher-selected current news article and write a letter to the editor or congressman stating their opinion on the matter.
Day 8	Our Classroom Bill of Rights Students work together to write a list of rights that are important to have in the classroom for both students and teachers alike.
Day 9	Follow-up (if needed)