Foundations of Democracy

• Primary sources such as Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Federalist Papers, Anti-Federalist Papers, etc.

• Primary sources: selections from Jean-Jacues Rousseau, Montesquieu, etc.

• English Petition of Rights

• English Bill of Rights

• U.S. Supreme Court case: Marbury vs. Madison (1803)

• U.S. Constitution: Bill of Rights and Articles IV-VII

• Simulation: Constitutional Convention Reenactment

• Rewrite the preamble to the Constitution to reflect present day concerns and purposes

• Identify one amendment that should be added today

• Debate the ratification of the Constitution from the perspective of the federalists and anti-federalists.

The Political Process, Voting, and the Media

• Project Citizen/ We the People

• Kids Voting

• Weekly discussion of current events

• Community service learning opportunities

• Maintain political journal of news articles (local, state, national)

• Register students to vote

• Explore ways to increase voter turnout

• Trace the development of an issue through interest groups and the media

• Interview various persons about why they do or do not participate in the political process

Legislative Branch

• U.S. Constitution – Article 1

• 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

• Fantasy Congress: Congress members earn points as they do in Fantasy Football

• Board game: How a Bill Becomes a Law

• Match various implied power to their expressed powers

• Trace the fate of particular legislation at various levels of government

• Simulations: write legislation, caucuses, conference committees, etc.

• Write to a legislator regarding a specific issue or concern. • The Congressional timeline: 1933 – Present (http://www.congressionaltimeline.org)

• Center on Congress at Indiana University (www.congress.indiana.edu)

• Committee simulation (www.congresslink.org lessons)

• Caucus simulation (www.house.gov/forbes/newsroom).

• Budget Hero (www.marketplace.org)

• C-SPAN

• Congressional newspaper (www.thehill.com)

• Lesson plans/games for learning civics (www.icivics.org)

Executive Branch

• U.S. Constitution: 22nd and 25th Amendments

• Executive Order 9066 (1942)

• War Powers Resolution

• Analysis of political cartoon to understand contemporary issues

• Library of Congress (www.loc.gov)

• C-SPAN

• Research one president and have students look at the various ways he used his powers

• Compare and contrast the various leadership styles of past presidents

• View past presidents fulfilling various roles using C-SPAN clips

• Use interactive website of the Electoral College to predict the next election

• Identify the fewest number of states that a candidate must capture in order to win the Electoral College

• View and analyze the State of the Union Address

• Simulation: If the Electoral College vote is a tie, how will the House of Representatives vote?

• View the poll ratings for various presidents.

• Identify the characteristics that make for a great leader.

• Use of presidential tapes from the national archives.

• PollyVote Election Forecasting (www.pollyvote.com)

• iCivics teaching materials (www.icivics.org)

• Library of Congress lesson plans and resources (www.loc.gov)

Judicial Branch

• Research a member of the U.S. or Alaska Supreme Court

• View a clip of a Supreme Court appointment hearing

• View a portion of a televised State Supreme Court case

• U.S. Constitution: Article III

• Visit a court and meet with a local judge

• Explore the jury system by looking at death penalty cases: Mendez; 12 Angry Men, film (1957), etc.

• Guess how the Supreme Court will rule on upcoming cases using SCOTUS (www.supremecourtus.gov).

Civil Right and Civil Liberties

• Photo analysis depiction of key events in the Civil Rights Movement

• Mock trial of a key case: Gatz, Johnson, Bollinger, Vernonia, etc.

• U.S. Constitution: 5th and 14th Amendments

• The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• U.S. Supreme Court case: Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

• Simple Justice: Brown vs. Board of Education: PBS American Experience film series

• U.S. Supreme Court case: Gibbons vs. Ogden (1824)

• Controversy in the classroom: Diana Hess

• Constitutional Rights Foundation (http://crf-usa.org)

• The Oyez Project (www.oyez.org).