Goodbye, Bill Of Rights!

Students will enact a scene demonstrating life without one of the first ten amendments. Students will be put into groups of three or four and assigned a specific amendment to research.

A lesson plan for grade 10 Social Studies

By Greg Simmons

Learn more

• The Bill of Rights: A Brief History The American Civil Liberties Union website provides an abbreviated history of the Bill of Rights and its importance to democracy.

Related pages

• "I Declare, I believe this document May Flower!": The learner will apply ideas of self-government as expressed in America's founding documents. To be used with/for SLD and other exceptional students.
• The five parts of the Fifth: This lesson will focus on the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution and its intent to provide due process to citizens. Students will engage in writing, discussion, cooperative learning, art, and theatrical activities in gaining an understanding of the Amendment and its concepts.
• The Bill of Rights and the U.S. Supreme Court: In this lesson, students work in groups and individually to understand how the Constitution/Bill of Rights is a living document and how Supreme Court decisions protect the rights of all Americans.

Related topics

• Learn more about Amendments, Bill of Rights, United States, civics, government, role playing, and social studies.

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Learning outcomes

By the end of this lesson the students should be able to:

• demonstrate an ability to recognize the Amendments included in the Bill of Rights.
• understand the importance of each of the Amendments in their lives.
• discuss the reasons why the States insisted upon a Bill of Rights before they agreed to the Constitution.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

6 days

Materials/resources

• Reference materials, such as encyclopedias
• Copies of the Bill of Rights
• Any materials available that may be useful for student presentations
• time in the media center for research

Technology resources

• TV/VCR (Optional for the presentations)
• access to the internet

Pre-activities

This unit should follow a discussion on the writing of the Constitution, and the subsequent insisting on a Bill of Rights by the states.

Activities

1. Students should have a working knowledge of the history of the Constitution and the writing of the Amendments/Bill of Rights.
2. Using your own methods, have students break into equal groups that will cover each of the Bill of Rights.
3. Distribute a copy of the Bill of Rights to each student.
4. Assign each group an Amendment, or set up some sort of way to give them a choice, but make sure that all are represented.
5. Tell the students that each group will create a skit in which they will act out a situation showing life without their assigned Amendment.
6. Explain to the class that they will have a week to complete their assignment.
7. For at least 2 days, have the library available for research.
8. Students should be encouraged to use a variety of materials.
9. Work with your media specialist to help students location materials with information about the Bill of Rights and assigned amendments. Supreme Court cases are a good source.
10. Have students prepare a one to two page report as a group to accompany the project.
11. Allow one day (90-minute class) for presentations.

Assessment

Give a grade for each student based on participation in the group. Give an overall grade to the group based on creativity, effort, substance, and the report.

Supplemental information

Comments

1. Make sure you let students know that you will be grading on creativity and effort, as well as substance.
2. Have students record what each student contributed to the project to make sure that each student works on it.
3. If you assign the project on a Monday you can give them a week to work on it, and have the weekend at the end if they want to get together to finish their project.
4. If you can, set up a couple of class periods in the library ask the media specialist to talk to your group about resources that they can use.