Constitutional Law Honors (#2106468) 

Clarification 1: Students will identify grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence in terms of due process of law, individual rights, natural rights, popular sovereignty and social contract.

Clarification 2: Students will explain national sovereignty, natural law, self-evident truth, equality of all persons, due process of law, limited government, popular sovereignty, and unalienable rights of life, liberty and property as they relate to Enlightenment ideas in the Declaration of Independence.

Clarification 3: Students will recognize that national sovereignty, due process of law, natural law, self-evident truth, equality of all persons, limited government, popular sovereignty, and unalienable rights of life, liberty and property form the philosophical foundation of our government.

Clarification 1: Students will recognize that the Federalist Papers argued for a federal system of government, separation of powers and a representative form of government that is accountable to its citizens.

Clarification 2: Students will analyze Federalist and Anti-Federalist arguments concerning ratification of the U.S. Constitution and inclusion of a bill of rights.

Clarification 1: Students will differentiate among the documents and determine how each one was individually significant to the founding of the United States.

Clarification 2: Students will evaluate how the documents are connected to one another.

Clarification 3: Documents include, but are not limited to, the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Federalist Papers (e.g., No. 10. No. 14, No. 31, No. 39, No. 51) and the U.S. Constitution.

Clarification 4: Students will identify key individuals who contributed to the founding documents (e.g., Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, George Mason).

Clarification 1: Students will explain how the structure and function of the U.S. government reflects these political principles.

Clarification 2: Students will differentiate between republicanism and democracy, and discuss how the United States reflects both.

Clarification 3: Students will describe compromises made during the Constitutional Convention (e.g., the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise, the Electoral College).

Clarification 1: Students will examine situations when individuals’ rights have been restricted for the public good (e.g., limits on speech or rationing of goods during wartime, enactment of the Patriot Act).

Clarification 2: Students will analyze how environmental and financial policies place limitations on citizens and private industry for the public good.

Clarification 3: Students will explain different services provided by local, state and national governments to citizens to ensure their rights are protected (e.g., social services, law enforcement, defense, emergency response).

Clarification 1: Students will explain how different groups of people (e.g., African Americans, immigrants, Native Americans, women) had their civil rights expanded through legislative action (e.g., Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act), executive action (e.g., Truman’s desegregation of the army, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation) and the courts (e.g., Brown v. Board of Education; In re Gault).

Clarification 2: Students will explain the role founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, had on setting precedent for the future granting of rights.

Clarification 1: Students will identify legal methods that citizens can use to promote social and political change (e.g., voting, peaceful protests, petitioning, demonstrations, contacting government offices).

Clarification 2: Students will identify historical examples of citizens achieving or preventing political and social change through civic engagement (e.g., the Abolitionist Movement).

Clarification 1: Students will compare the reporting on the same political event or issue from multiple perspectives.

Clarification 2: Students will identify various forms of propaganda (e.g., plain folks, glittering generalities, testimonial, fear, logical fallacies).

Clarification 3: Students will discuss the historical impact of political communication on American political process and public opinion.

Clarification 4: Examples of political communication may include, but are not limited to, political cartoons, propaganda, campaign advertisements, political speeches, bumper stickers, blogs, press and social media.

Clarification 1: Students will objectively discuss current public issues in Florida and use both the U.S. and Florida Constitutions to justify pro and con positions.

Clarification 2: Students will examine the relationship and responsibilities of both the state and national governments regarding these public issues.

Clarification 3: Students will analyze public policy solutions related to local, state and national issues.

Clarification 1: Students will analyze historic examples of governing systems (e.g., communism and totalitarianism) and actions that conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy (e.g., Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution, Stalin and the Soviet System, Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, Nicolás Maduro and the Chavismo movement).

Clarification 2: Students will identify how authoritarian regimes victimize their citizens through restricting individual rights resulting in poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence, and suppression of speech.

Clarification 3: Students will analyze how the principles of checks and balances, consent of the governed, democracy, due process of law, federalism, individual rights, limited government, representative government, republicanism, rule of law and separation of powers contribute to the nation’s longevity and its ability to overcome challenges, and distinguish the United States’ constitutional republic from authoritarian and totalitarian nations.

Clarification 1: Students will identify the individual rights protected by the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and other constitutional amendments.

Clarification 2: Students will describe the role of the Supreme Court in further defining the safeguards and limits of constitutional rights.

Clarification 1: Students will explain why Article I of the U.S. Constitution established a bicameral legislative body and how the House of Representatives functions differently from the Senate.

Clarification 2: Students will identify the methods for determining the number of members in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Clarification 3: Students will identify and describe the “enumerated powers” delegated to Congress (e.g., assess taxes, borrow money, declare war, make laws).

Clarification 4: Students will analyze the role of the legislative branch in terms of its relationship with the judicial and executive branch of the government.

Clarification 5: Students will describe constitutional amendments that changed the role of Congress from its original description in Article I of the U.S. Constitution (i.e., 10th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 27th Amendments).

Clarification 1: Students will explain the qualifications one must have to seek the office of president and the process of presidential elections.

Clarification 2: Students will explain different presidential responsibilities outlined in Article II (e.g., receiving foreign heads of state, delivering the State of the Union address, carrying out faithful execution of the law).

Clarification 3: Students will examine the role of the executive branch in terms of its relationship with the judicial and legislative branches of the government.

Clarification 4: Students will describe constitutional amendments (i.e., 12th, 20th, 22nd and 25th) that have changed the role of the executive branch from its original description in Article II.

Clarification 5: Students will describe the impeachment process.

Clarification 1: Students will identify independent regulatory agencies (e.g., Federal Communications Commission, Federal Election Commission, National Labor Relations Board) and explain their purpose and effect.

Clarification 2: Students will describe the advantages and disadvantages of delegating power to independent regulatory agencies.

Clarification 1: Students will identify powers that are expressed in the U.S. Constitution to Congress (e.g., coin money, declare war, assess taxes, citizenship).

Clarification 2: Students will identify that expressed powers are also known as enumerated powers found in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.

Clarification 3: Students will analyze the role of the “general welfare clause” and “necessary and proper clause” in granting Congress implied powers.

Clarification 4: Students will describe examples of concurrent powers as those powers shared by both state and national governments (e.g., build roads, tax citizens, make laws).

Clarification 5: Students will explain how reserved powers define issues as matters for the people or the state governments.

Clarification 6: Students will compare the roles of expressed, implied, concurrent and reserved powers in United States’ federalism.

Clarification 1: Students will examine the role of district courts, the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court in the judicial review process.

Clarification 2: Students will explain the relationship between the concept of judicial review and the language of the Supremacy Clause in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.

Clarification 1: Students will compare the ways state and federal judges are appointed compared to other elected officials.

Clarification 2: Students will distinguish the qualifications needed for a judge at the state or federal level versus other elected officials.

Clarification 3: Students will compare the decision-making process of judges compared to other political figures.

Clarification 1: Students will identify examples of the powers reserved and shared among state and the national governments in the American federal system of government.

Clarification 2: Students will examine the role the Great Compromise had on the eventual establishment of a federal system of fifty equal states.

Clarification 3: Students will explain specific rights that are granted to the states in the language of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments (e.g., 10th Amendment, defense and extradition).

Clarification 4: Students will analyze how states have challenged the national government regarding states’ rights (e.g., Civil War, the New Deal, No Child Left Behind, Affordable Health Care Act, Civil Rights Movement).

Clarification 1: Students will explain the role of the U.S. Constitution in interpreting law at the state and national levels.

Clarification 2: Students will explain the process used by judges at the state and national levels when making a decision or writing summary opinions.

Clarification 3: Students will incorporate language from the U.S. Constitution or court briefs to justify a legal decision when interpreting state or national law.

• Cultivate a community of growth mindset learners. 
• Foster perseverance in students by choosing tasks that are challenging. 
• Develop students’ ability to analyze and problem solve. 
• Recognize students’ effort when solving challenging problems.

• Help students make connections between concepts and representations.
• Provide opportunities for students to use manipulatives when investigating concepts.
• Guide students from concrete to pictorial to abstract representations as understanding progresses.
• Show students that various representations can have different purposes and can be useful in different situations. 

• Provide students with the flexibility to solve problems by selecting a procedure that allows them to solve efficiently and accurately.
• Offer multiple opportunities for students to practice efficient and generalizable methods.
• Provide opportunities for students to reflect on the method they used and determine if a more efficient method could have been used. 

• Establish a culture in which students ask questions of the teacher and their peers, and error is an opportunity for learning.
• Create opportunities for students to discuss their thinking with peers.
• Select, sequence and present student work to advance and deepen understanding of correct and increasingly efficient methods.
• Develop students’ ability to justify methods and compare their responses to the responses of their peers. 

• Help students recognize the patterns in the world around them and connect these patterns to mathematical concepts.
• Support students to develop generalizations based on the similarities found among problems.
• Provide opportunities for students to create plans and procedures to solve problems.
• Develop students’ ability to construct relationships between their current understanding and more sophisticated ways of thinking.

• Have students estimate or predict solutions prior to solving.
• Prompt students to continually ask, “Does this solution make sense? How do you know?”
• Reinforce that students check their work as they progress within and after a task.
• Strengthen students’ ability to verify solutions through justifications. 

• Provide opportunities for students to create models, both concrete and abstract, and perform investigations.
• Challenge students to question the accuracy of their models and methods.
• Support students as they validate conclusions by comparing them to the given situation.
• Indicate how various concepts can be applied to other disciplines.

2-3 Students include relevant textual evidence in their written and oral communication. Students should name the text when they refer to it. In 3rd grade, students should use a combination of direct and indirect citations.

4-5 Students continue with previous skills and reference comments made by speakers and peers. Students cite texts that they’ve directly quoted, paraphrased, or used for information. When writing, students will use the form of citation dictated by the instructor or the style guide referenced by the instructor. 

6-8 Students continue with previous skills and use a style guide to create a proper citation.

9-12 Students continue with previous skills and should be aware of existing style guides and the ways in which they differ.

In grades 1-2, students build upon these skills by justifying what they are thinking. For example: “I think ________ because _______.” The collaborative conversations are becoming academic conversations.

In grades 3-12, students engage in academic conversations discussing claims and justifying their reasoning, refining and applying skills. Students build on ideas, propel the conversation, and support claims and counterclaims with evidence.

Clarification 1: Students will explain how the concept of citizenship in the United States has changed over the course of history (i.e., 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments).

Clarification 2: Students will compare birthright citizenship, permanent residency and naturalization in the United States.

Clarification 3: Students will differentiate the rights held by native-born citizens, permanent residents and naturalized citizens (e.g., running for public office).

Clarification 1: Students will identify historical examples of government-imposed restrictions on rights (e.g., suspension of habeas corpus, rationing during wartime and limitations on speech).

Clarification 2: Students will examine the rationale for government-imposed restrictions on rights (e.g., inciting a crime, campaign contributions, defamation, military secrets).

Clarification 1: Students will examine the role of the judicial branch in terms of its relationship with the legislative and executive branches of the government.

Clarification 2: Students will describe the role of the Supreme Court and lesser federal courts.

Clarification 3: Students will explain what Article III says about judicial tenure, appointment and salaries.

Clarification 4: Students will describe the powers delegated to the courts by Article III including, but not limited to, treason, jurisdiction and trial by jury.

Clarification 1: Students will describe what Article III of the U.S. Constitution states about the relationship between state and federal courts.

Clarification 2: Students will recognize the role of the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 in establishing the structure and jurisdiction of the federal court system.

Clarification 3: Students will contrast the differences among civil trials and criminal trials at the state level.

Clarification 4: Students will describe the relationship among the Supreme Court, federal appellate courts and federal district courts (e.g., Erie Doctrine, Rooker-Feldman Doctrine).

Clarification 1: Students will recognize landmark Supreme Court cases (e.g., Marbury v. Madison; McCulloch v. Maryland; Dred Scott v. Sandford; Plessy v. Ferguson; Brown v. Board of Education; Gideon v. Wainwright; Miranda v. Arizona; Korematsu v. United States; Mapp v. Ohio; In re Gault; United States v. Nixon; Regents of the University of California v. Bakke; Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier; District of Columbia v. Heller).

Clarification 2: Students will explain the foundational constitutional issues underlying landmark Supreme Court decisions related to the Bill of Rights and other amendments.

Clarification 3: Students will explain the outcomes of landmark Supreme Court cases related to the Bill of Rights and other amendments.