Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| We the Kids: The Preamble of the Constitution: Reader's Theater Patriotism: | This is lesson #6 in the text unit series for We the Kids by David Catrow. Students will have already read or heard the entire text. Students will explain how citizens demonstrate patriotism after doing independent research on the computer. Students will begin by reviewing ways citizens demonstrate patriotism. Students will work in groups to research Constitution Day, making a connection between this patriotic holiday and the U.S. Constitution. In small groups, students will use their research to write a Reader’s Theater script, explaining ways citizens demonstrate patriotism, why it is important to recognize the patriotic holiday, Constitution Day, and the history behind the holiday as it relates to the U.S. Constitution. Students can read and act out the play as an extension activity.
This unit will help students develop the meaning of the Preamble as part of the Constitution of the United States and its direct effect on their daily lives. Students will engage in various activities such as debating parts of the Preamble and complete a play interpreting patriotism. Throughout the unit, students will have to identify and interpret vocabulary, analyze the provided text, and demonstrate an understanding of the Preamble by providing relevant details. The teacher’s role in this unit will be to support their students' knowledge of the Preamble by facilitating research, reviewing student writing, and work.
This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource. |
| Landmark Supreme Court Cases Wrap It Up Part 3: | This is lesson 3 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and 7th Grade ELA. In this lesson, students will be continuing to review 9 Landmark Supreme Court cases with an opening activity requiring the students to examine the court cases and pick out key academic vocabulary. At this point, students should be ready for a final review which is a matching game. Students will match the court cases, amendments, and key academic vocabulary terms to their descriptions or definitions. This activity can be played multiple times to ensure mastery of the standards. |
| Landmark Supreme Court Cases…Wrap it up! Part 2: | This is lesson 2 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and 7th Grade ELA. In this lesson students will be continuing to review 9 Landmark Supreme Court cases with an interactive PowerPoint with primary source quotes that allow students to determine the cases discussed in each of the quotes. Students will then work through an activity (Think, Write, Pair, Share) to compare and contrast two court cases that they think had the most significant impact on society. |
| Landmark Supreme Court Cases…Wrap it up! Part 1: | This is lesson 1 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and 7th Grade ELA. In this lesson, students will be reviewing 9 Landmark Supreme Court cases with an interactive PowerPoint. Students will take guided notes while recognizing the constitutional principles and individual rights in these cases and how they have impacted society. Academic vocabulary will be integrated into the lesson with a culminating key academic vocab activity. |
| The Florida State Senate: Who They Are, What They Do, and How To Contact Them: | This lesson will allow the students to identify Florida’s Senators and their contributions to Florida. Students will recognize that Florida has a representative government and that citizens can communicate with elected officials via letter, email, and social media. Students will write an expository text about how Florida’s Senators work for the people. |
| Civic Virtues: | In this lesson plan, students will identify examples of civics virtues and explain why citizens should demonstrate civility, cooperation, volunteerism, and other civic virtues. Students will participate in a tableau movement activity to review and practice the information on civic virtues. |
| I Am the Greatest-Athenian Leadership: | This lesson will be taught during the Ancient Greece unit. While the lesson teaches about the civic accomplishments of Solon, Cleisthenes, Themistocles, and Pericles, students are asked to go one step further by selecting the most influential leader and justifying their selections. |
| Researching Athenian Democracy: Part 3: | In the third part of this four-part lesson, student groups will collaborate to present a multimedia presentation based on their previous research on the influence of Athenian democracy and its government principles. Students will then reflect on their learning and their collaboration. In the final part of this lesson, students will deliver their presentation to the class and demonstrate their learning individually by responding to a writing prompt. |
| The Great Landmark Debate: | The purpose of this lesson is for the students to recognize Mount Rushmore and the Washington Monument as man-made landmarks that are symbols of the United States. The students will write an opinion piece about which landmark, Mount Rushmore or the Washington Monument, most represents the United States. |
| Researching Rome’s Republic: Part 3: | In the third part of this four-part lesson, student groups will collaborate to present a multimedia presentation based on their previous research on the influence of the Roman Republic and its government principles. Students will take notes on others’ topics when they are not presenting. Students will then reflect on their learning and their collaboration. In the final part of this lesson, students will demonstrate their learning individually by responding to a writing prompt. |
| Greece or Rome? You Choose!: | In this lesson, students will review and evaluate what has been taught about the democratic concepts and governments of Greece and Rome in preparation for a Philosophical Chairs discussion. During this discussion, students will be tasked with deciding which civilization had the greatest influence on the United States’ constitutional republic. |
| Do You Know Your Rights?: | In this lesson, students will be analyze, describe and explain the meaning and purpose of each amendment in the Bill of Rights and how the Bill of Rights affects citizens and the government. |
| Do you know the difference? U.S Constitution vs. FL Constitutions of 1838 and 1868: | In this lesson, students will be able to evaluate and explain how the Fl Constitution of 1838 was amended in 1868 to conform to the US Constitution in terms of citizenship, equal protection, and male suffrage.
Students will also evaluate the impact of the Reconstruction Era amendments. |
| Patriots or Loyalists: Which side would you choose?: | This lesson guides students through understanding the difference between a Patriot and a Loyalist during the colonial period and the start of the Revolutionary War. Students will be given a side to defend in a constructive conversation after reading several passages and reviewing a point/counterpoint document. |
| Trial Process and Role of Juries: | In this lesson plan, students will describe the trial process and role of juries in the administration of justice at both state and federal levels. Students will act out a Mock Trial and answer questions based on the process shown during the play. |
| Over There: America Prepares for War: | This lesson will be part of the World War I unit. Students will analyze George M. Cohan’s song, “Over There” to evaluate how he used propaganda techniques to gather support for the nation’s entry into WWI. It will also demonstrate how one individual can influence public policy and how the song helped boost morale and prepare the people for war. |
| Civic Virtue in Their Own Words: Interviewing Leading Americans of the Antebellum Period: | In this lesson plan, students will explore the lives of citizens and leaders from the Colonial period through Reconstruction in order to analyze the role of civic virtue in broader American society during the antebellum period. |
| Analyzing the Reconstruction Amendments: | In this lesson plan, students will learn about the Reconstruction era voting rights amendments that expanded civic participation. Students will read and analyze the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments culminating in a closing discussion. |
| Florida’s Representative Government: | In this lesson plan, students will utilize direct instruction, guided-inquiry, and the internet to recognize that Florida has a representative government, identify their state representatives, and to explain elected representatives' authority to perform the duties and activities of their job in a representative form of government. |
| U.S. Participation in International Organizations: | In this lesson plan, students will learn about different international organizations in which the United States plays a role. Students will use different methods of media and communication to investigate benefits and drawbacks of international participation and persuade their classmates about impacts on the United States gained from participation in these international organizations. |
| America's Roman Roots: | In this lesson plan, students will view and anaylze an image of Cicero giving an address to the Roman Senators using teacher led questions. Students will divide into groups to research the influences that Rome had on the creation of America’s constitutional republic. Finally, students will share their findings to the class through short presentations. |
| U.S. Citizenship: Law of Blood and Law of Soil: | In this lesson plan, students will explain the difference between the law of blood and law of soil with respect to U.S. citizenship. Students will then practice their understanding with scenarios to identify the law of blood or law of soil. |
| The Class Decides: | In this lesson, students will work together in small groups to discuss ideas for a topic that will be voted on at the end of the lesson using responsible decision making. |
| The Great Debate Part 2: | In this lesson plan, students will engage in small group debates on the issues raised by the ratification debate centered on the U.S. Constitution. After the individual close-reads are completed the students will be grouped with one or more students who read another document that also expanded on their given position. The groups will then use the given organizers to prepare their debate points and to track their debate progress. The lesson will conclude with the group writing a consensus statement as to which arguments best answered the debate focus question. |
| Independent Regulatory Agency Interactions: | In this lesson plan, students will explore the interactions between the branches of the government, independent regulatory agencies, the American people, and industry. |
| Predation on Trial: | In this lesson plan, students will apply knowledge of roles and relationships in an ecosystem to develop a defense strategy in an imaginary trial where a panther is being prosecuted for predation of deer. They will explore the roles of various consumers in an ecosystem, their places in a food web, and the impact of limiting factors on populations (and vice-versa). Along the way, students will compare the rule of nature to the rule of law that people live by and consider the importance of the 6th Amendment in protecting the rights of citizens in the United States. |
| Creating Visual Aids for Informative Speaking: | In this lesson plan intended for the debate classroom, students will brainstorm creative ideas for digital visual enhancements to an Informative Speaking speech. Students will also create and share a practice digital board. |
| Who Are The People in Your Neighborhood? Finding Your Elected Officials: | In this lesson, students will use the U.S. Constitution and their web searching skills to determine the constitutional qualifications for office, term length, authority, duties, activities, compensation, and names of elected officials for Florida and their district. |
| Pete's Brand New Shoes: | Pete the Cat wants a new pair of shoes and needs the students' help selecting the right ones for him. Students will work with a team to select the best shoes for Pete. Students will use symbols to compare the costs of shoes within 100. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Where Should I Go to College? : | Students will create and use data displays to determine which college is the right fit for him or her / for hypothetical students. They will justify the data displays they selected, present this information to classmates and write an essay justifying their choice. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| We Learned About the Challenger: | This series includes four parts focused on the Challenger explosion. Students will read President Reagan’s address to the nation presented on the evening of the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion in January 1986. Students will then analyze the speech and determine which relevant details support Reagan’s central idea. Additionally, students will complete close reading activities individually, with partners, and in small groups as they prepare to draft an expository essay outlining the relevant details that support Reagan’s central idea. |
| Pack It Up: | Students use geometry formulas to solve a fruit growing company's dilemma of packing fruit into crates of varying dimensions. Students calculate the volume of the crates and the volume of the given fruit when given certain numerical facts about the fruit and the crates. Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom. |
| Copyright in the Workplace: | Using the case study, Internet Con, students will present an analysis of the ethics and copyright rules of employees downloading music or videos for business purposes. |
