Lesson Title: “"The Bill of Rights”" and the United States Today

By: Jessie Tensmeyer, Teacher Consultant, Wasatch Range Writing Project 

Burning Question: Can students see the effects of  The Bill of Rights in the U.S. today? How does The Bill of Rights affect them? Why is it important to recognize the role of the bill of rights in our lives? 

Objectives:
  • Students will be able to identify what rights are protected by The Bill of Rights.
  • Students will be able to both recognize and explain when the rights identified in The Bill of Rights are protected or violated (in their own lives and in current events).
  • Students will illustrate why they think any one of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution is important by creating and presenting a persuasive speech.
  • Students will utilize Monroe’s Motivated Sequence in writing their speeches to make their speeches persuasive 

Context:

Because this lesson discusses inalienable rights, The Bill of Rights, the power of persuasion, current events, and asks students to write speeches, it could be used in a variety of classes: history, civics, debate, current events, speech, English, etc.

(A note about The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation: it is important to point out to students that as this text gives examples of applications of the amendments in the Bill of Rights it uses contemporary examples, not examples from the time when the Bill of Rights was written. Furthermore, it, like any text, reflects the perceptions of the author.)

Materials:
  • The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation, by Jonathan Hennessey
  • Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights, introduction and notes by Jack N. Rakove and/or a copy of the Bill of Rights for each student.
  • A document camera (if possible)
  • Notes on Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

Time Span:  Approximately three 90 minute class period 

Procedures: 

  • Ask students what rights they think everyone ought to have. Create a list on the board as they name different rights. Chances are, almost everything they list will be a right from The Bill of Rights. Explain that the students believe these rights are inalienable rights, rights that are not alien to us or, in other words, rights that we have just by being human. Explain to students that the founders of our country also felt that we have inalienable rights and that those rights needed to be protected by our government. Because of this, they changed the original constitution and added a bill of rights in order to limit the power of the national government to deny those rights. Be sure students know that The Bill of Rights protects rights, does not grant them.
  • Explain to students that there was no language protecting inalienable rights in the original 1787 Constitution.
  • Read out loud to your students pages 88-118 of The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation. If possible, use a document camera to show the book as you are reading so students can all see the pictures and follow along in the book with you. Before reading the explanation of each amendment, read or have a student read that amendment. Answer questions students may have about the amendments. NOTE- It takes approximately 45 minutes to read The Bill of Rights and this section of The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation out loud. Because that is quite a long time to spend on the same activity, you may want to split the reading in half and do it over two days or possibly only cover one or two amendments over the several days.
  • Discuss the importance of  The Bill of Rights in today’s society. Ask students where they have seen examples of the rights listed being protected or violated.
  • Homework: Assign each student one of the amendments (may want to split some, such as #1, into sections). Do not assign #3, #9, or #10 as these would be much more difficult to use for this assignment. (Amendment #3 is clearly about colonial issues. Amendment #9 declares that the rights listed previously are not the only rights humans have. Amendment 10 is not about inalienable rights, but is about sovereign power.) Ask students to bring back a current event for the following day that is somehow tied to their assigned amendment and the rights listed in that amendment. The current event may show that right being protected, it may show when that right has been violated and the consequences of the violation, it may show something that someone was able to do because he/she has that right, etc.
  • When students return the next day, have each student share their current event and how it is connected to The Bill of Rights. Discuss the current events and the role that The Bill of Rights plays in our society. Ask the students what the United States would be like if we didn’t have these rights protected. Discuss their answers. Explain to students that in order to include a bill of rights with the Constitution, many delegates had to meet to discuss what rights ought to be included. They did not all agree on all of the rights that they wanted to have written in the Constitution. Because of this, the different delegates needed to present their opinions in a persuasive manner so that they could get other delegates to agree with them.
  • Introduce students to Monroe’s Motivated Sequence (see notes at the end of the lesson). May want to provide guided notes or have students take their own notes on the five steps.
  • Have each student choose one amendment or one right that they feel is especially important (may need to assign or find some other way to be sure that all students do not pick #1 which is a list of several rights). Assign students to imagine that that right had not been included in The Bill of Rights and that they are delegates who are trying to persuade their fellow delegates that the right they have chosen needs to be included. Assign students to write a persuasive speech (using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence) that is designed to convince their classmates (fellow delegates) to add a certain right to The Bill of Rights.
  • Have each student suggest a right they think humans have but which is not specifically listed. Access to education? Privacy? Safety?
  • Give students time in class to write their speeches. (NOTE: although this lesson plan could be adjusted to create time for students to edit and create several drafts of this speech, at this point time has not been allowed for this to be a multi-draft assignment.) After sufficient time has been given (may go into the next day) have students present their speeches in small groups. Then, have a few students present their speeches to the whole class.

Extensions:  

  • Divide students into groups. Have groups act out different parts of The Bill of Rights.
  • When discussing Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, show some commercials and have students point out each of the five steps within the commercial. Infomercials work great.
  • Have students create their own commercials using Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.
  • Make the persuasive speech a multi-draft assignment. Have students memorize their speeches and present them to the class. Turn it into a contest with a prize for the person with the most persuasive speech.
  • Instead of a persuasive speech, use The Bill of Rights as a springboard for students to write a persuasive essay.
  • In addition to looking up current events, have students look up an event from U.S. History that shows an inalienable right being violated. Discussion- are inalienable rights always protected? Why or why not?
  • Using the discussion of inalienable rights, connect this lesson a novel unit (for a variety of novels) where rights play a vital role.
  • Have students have debates about including the different rights presented by the persuasive speeches. Assign sides so that students are forced to look at both sides of the issue and recognize what some of the arguments may be that those in favor of including a bill of rights would have had to face.

 Rationale: 

Most students feel very strongly that they have rights and that those rights need to be protected, which is exactly how students should feel. However, many students do not truly understand what rights our Constitution explicitly protects. This lesson is designed to help students understand what their rights are and where they can see evidence of those rights in their own lives. It is designed to help students be aware of when their rights are being protected or violated. Furthermore, it is designed to help students understand why many of the founders fought to have a bill of rights included in the constitution and to help students imagine what it would be like to be one of the founders who needed to persuade others that a certain right needed to be included in the bill of rights.  

Resources: 
  • Hennessey, Jonathan. The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation. New York: Hill and Wang, 2008.
  • “"Persuasive Speaking/Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.”" Mike Berry’s Website. 2011. San Juan Unified School District. Web. 18 July 2011. http://www.sanjuan.edu/webpages/mikeberry
  • "The Bill of Rights: As Ratified by the States," in  Rakove, Jack N., ed. Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2006.
  • The Bill of Rights Institute maintains an archive of court cases significant in defining and protecting inalienable rights: http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/page.aspx?pid=469
  • The ACLU of Rhode Island maintains a list of court cases involving student rights:  http://www.riaclu.org/CourtCases/StudentsRightsFeatured.html