Unit Overview

About the Project

About Teaching Matters
 
Teaching Matters is a non-profit professional development organization that partners with educators to improve public schools. We use technology in the classroom to prepare teachers and their students for 21st century learning and achievement.  To learn about our programs, please visit www.teachingmatters.org. 

About the Voices and Choices Series

Voices and Choices: Constitution Today is part of a three-unit series exploring the role of civics and active citizenship in a democracy. The units are designed to complement sixth, seventh, and eighth grade middle school curricula in social studies. The sixth grade unit, Democracy in Ancient Greece, focuses on democracy and citizenship within the context of the western world’s first democracy in ancient Athens. The seventh grade unit, Constitution Today, focuses on current issues of public debate relating to the Constitution of the United States. The eighth grade unit, The Evolution of Civil Rights, focuses on the expansion of civil rights and democracy throughout US history. For more information, please contact the Voices and Choices project manager, John Clemente, at (212) 870-3505 or jclemente@teachingmatters.org.

Professional Development

A series of interactive workshops and ongoing professional development are available to provide educators with the skills necessary to teach the unit and customize it to meet specific learning objectives.

Workshop attendees gain hands-on experience using the web-based content management system that contains lesson plans, lesson visuals, handouts, communication tools (including class weblogs and discussion boards) and other resources. Workshops also focus on the theoretical underpinnings of the unit, information literacy, and technology related to the unit.

For more information about professional development offered by Teaching Matters, please contact Jane Condliffe at jcondliffe@teachingmatters.org.

Technology and Social Studies

The teacher’s guide for Voices and Choices: Constitution Today resides in a web-based content management system. The content management system includes all teacher resources and lesson plans. Using the web-based content management system, teachers can communicate with each other through email, weblogs, and discussion boards. Teachers can also set up their own class weblog where they can monitor their students’ understanding of the unit. Most importantly, the content management system gives teachers easy access to the following:

  • Eighteen lessons
  • Assessment strategies for each lesson
  • Strategies for using technology
  • Tips for differentiated instruction and classroom set up
  • State and city standards
  • Animated conversation starters
  • Web-based guides called e-tutorials
  • Classroom visuals
  • Teacher narrative
  • Online glossary of terms
  • Printable handouts
  • Resources for further study
  • City-wide discussion boards
  • Weblogs for ongoing dialogue and assessment
  • Student website with step-by-step instructions

The content management system provides “print-friendly” versions of the entire unit including all 18 lesson plans, handouts, and additional resources. The “tech” in Social Studies and Technology gives teachers and students state-of-the-art tools to conduct historical research, analyze and debate current events, and explore participatory democracy.

Unit Design

Backward Design: The Grant Wiggins Model

Voices and Choices: Constitution Today is a unit that follows the Backward Design model. Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe outline the Backward Design method for planning units in their book Understanding by Design. Backward Design emphasizes the importance of planning the outcomes of a unit before planning the activities in a unit. Wiggins and McTighe also explain the concept of Enduring Understandings. Enduring Understandings are big ideas that will benefit students outside the classroom and for years to come. A unit should impart students with an Enduring Understanding. Essential Questions deal with topics and ideas that need to be uncovered by students throughout the course of the unit. Essential Questions should be meaningful and should be asked continually throughout the unit.

Stage 1: Desired Results

Enduring Understandings (Big Ideas):

  • Citizens can improve their communities and country if they participate in their government and exercise their rights and responsibilities.
  • Citizenship requires the ability to probe ideas and assumptions, ask and answer good questions, take a skeptical attitude towards questionable arguments, evaluate evidence, formulate conclusions, and develop and refine participatory skills.
  • To be active participants in the world around us, it is important to understand the past and how it connects to the present. Throughout history the development of governments, and particularly democratic governments, has had a direct correlation with participatory citizenship.
Essential Questions:
  • How do Americans voice their perspectives on important issues of public debate?
  • What skills must citizens have to effectively participate in their democracy?
  • How do we balance the rights and freedoms of individuals and the needs of society?
Key Knowledge:
  • The purpose of government as outlined by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
  • The purpose and scope of the Bill of Rights
  • The connection between the Bill of Rights and current issues of public debate
  • The tension between individual rights and the welfare of the public
  • The separation of power into three branches of the federal government
  • The importance of checks and balances in our government
  • How a bill becomes a law and the role of the citizen in that process
  • Current government representatives
  • Where to find accurate sources of information on current issues

Key Skills:

  • Internet research and information literacy skills
  • Note-taking and organizational skills
  • Distinguishing between fact and opinion
  • Evaluating evidence from online sources
  • Recognizing bias and points of view in informational and editorial sources 
  • How to locate and contact legislators
  • Writing persuasive essays
  • Group consensus building and collaboration
  • Oral presentation skills
  • Basic PowerPoint technology skills

Stage 2: Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:

  • Students will share their understanding of issues of public debate in classroom discussions, on class weblogs and city-wide discussion boards.
  • Students will research current issues of public debate through news sources and online media, outline their opinions, highlight their research and develop persuasive letters based on their evidence.
  • Students will work collaboratively to develop and deliver a persuasive oral presentation supported by a visual multimedia presentation.

Other Evidence:  

  • Students will post their understanding of current issues of public debate to a class weblog.
  • Students will generate research questions and notes on web-based research materials.
  • Students will use the Internet to locate and select appropriate online sources based on certain criteria.  
  • Students will apply knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights to a current issue in the news.
  • Students will informally present the history of issues in current public debate.

Stage 3: Learning Plan

Lesson Activities:

Step 1: Choose an Issue

Students will read an introduction to six important issues involving their community and share their opinions. Students will also learn the six steps in the Constitution Today unit. Working in groups, students will identify ways that our government presently carries out the tasks described in the Preamble to the Constitution. Students will discuss various scenarios invoving current issues and the freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights.

Step 2: Explore Perspectives

Students will demonstrate their understanding of their issues by writing definitions of them. Students will  take notes on the history of their issue to gain historical perspective. The class will learn how to create research questions that will help them conduct deeper research on their issues.

Step 3: Conduct Research

The class will identify and examine the bias that occurs in many news sources. The class will explore tools for conducting effective Internet research. Working in groups, students will compare their research notes. Students will present information and two views on their issues to the class. The class will learn about the different branches that comprise the federal government. Students will learn about the importance of taking action on their issues.

Step 4: Take Action

Students will organize their research notes and form opinions on the issues they researched. Students will use graphic organizers to help them write and revise drafts of a persuasive letter to a local representative in government.

Step 5: Build Consensus

Students will work in groups and collaborate to create oral presentations for the Town Meeting. Students will learn how to create multimedia presentations using PowerPoint. Students will cite the sources that they used and work together to complete their presentations.

Step 6: Present Your Views

Students will learn about the importance of public speaking in a democracy. Students will present their views to the class, school officials, and community leaders. Students will learn about the ways to influence policy decisions made by our government today and will work in groups to create an action plan for the issues they studied.