The Bill of Rights contains positive and negative rights. The right to bear arms that is in the Second Amendment is considered to be a negative right.
This site provides the text of all the amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The first ten are the Bill of Rights.
Lesson from the National Humanities Center explores the doubts, concerns, and misgivings surrounding the development of the Bill of Rights. Primary or secondary sources, text analysis and Close reading strategies, background notes, and vocabulary section.
Seven sections of primary resource materials with introductory notes, classroom discussion questions, and supplemental links on the questions, discussion and debate over the U.S. Constitution.
American Government is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of the single-semester American government course. This title includes innovative features designed to enhance student learning, including Insider Perspective features and a Get Connected Module that shows students how they can get engaged in the political process. The book provides an important opportunity for students to learn the core concepts of American government and understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them. American Government includes updated information on the 2016 presidential election.Senior Contributing AuthorsGlen Krutz (Content Lead), University of OklahomaSylvie Waskiewicz, PhD (Lead Editor)
Text and full descriptive summary of the 5th Amendment to the Constitution. Reference accompanied by links to related material including, video, timeline, and news sources.
Text and summary of the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Site includes a timeline as well as a link to a second timeline that has hyperlinks to additional information.
Video [29:01] published ca. 1974 on the American rifle and its historical role in keeping America free.
Yale's School of Law provides the text of the ten original amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.
An interactive experience with the Bill of Rights. The Our Documents group allows you to view a copy of the original Bill of Rights. There is a brief information section along with links to larger images, a typed transcript, and downloadable PDF (Adobe) files.
Free lesson plans concerning the Bill of Rights and the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Included are lessons on important news stories occurring today, as well as lessons on famous Americans and how they executed their rights.
This site contains a complete transcription of The Bill of Rights, along with zoomable graphics of the original handwritten text. It also includes information about the historical context of the document, links to more constitutional amendments, and much more.
Excellent site offered from the Constitutional Rights Foundation and dedicated to "educating tomorrow's citizens." Many great links and activities are available.
This collection uses primary sources to explore the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.
In this unit, students will take a look at the historical vision of the American Dream as put together by our Founding Fathers. They will be asked: How, if at all, has this dream changed? Is this dream your dream? First students will participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing for his or her vision of the American Dream, and then they will write an argument laying out and defending their personal view of what the American Dream should be.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Students read and annotate closely one of the documents that they feel expresses the American Dream.
Students participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing his or her vision of the American Dream.
Students write a paper, taking into consideration the different points of view in the documents read, answering the question “What is the American Dream now?”
Students write their own argument describing and defending their vision of what the American Dream should be.
GUIDING QUESTIONS
These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.
What has been the historical vision of the American Dream?
What should the American Dream be? (What should we as individuals and as a nation aspire to?)
How would women, former slaves, and other disenfranchised groups living during the time these documents were written respond to them?
BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read
During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.
