The Pennsylvania Bar Association, through generous funding from the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, is again this year offering pocket-sized United States Constitutions and Bill O'Rights Constitution character stickers to Pennsylvania schools. These resources are available at no cost, while supplies last. Click above for ordering information.
Grades 7-12, Time 60-80 minutes (split between two class periods)
This lesson includes the history of presidential inaugurations, their constitutional connections, and provides students with the opportunity to learn about previous inaugurations and their significance in order to use that information to actively predict, and participate in the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama in a fun and exciting way.
This research and deliberation activity is designed to encourage students to look at the issue of affirmative action from a variety of perspectives and then to find political, social and economic measures to address the issues of fairness and inequality. The objective is for your students to evaluate multiple perspectives on the issues and determine what can be done to find common ground between those who believe the Constitution is color-blind and those who believe it to be color-conscious.
This lesson is designed to show the process of perfecting the union through changes made to the Constitution and through the powers delegated to each branch of government by the Constitution. The lesson encourages student deliberation on race in America by familiarizing students with President-Elect Obama's speech, entitled A More Perfect Union, given in Philadelphia in March 2008.
This lesson uses the student advocacy kit 26 to encourage students to think critically and collectively to develop action plans to solve community problems. 26 provides opportunities for studentsto examine the ways in which they can become change agents and active citizens within their schools and communities. Students are asked to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their action plans and to consider whether their goals were realized. Practice in the civic skill of collaborative problem-solving is provided when students work in groups, brainstorm and create a plan of action to solve their chosen community problem.
Students gain an understanding of why it is important to vote. They learn about the struggle for voting rights in the United States, and strategize ways to get the public to the polls on Election Day.
Students learn about the history, selection, and workings of the Electoral College. Students create a table or graph of the United States and the number of Electoral College votes each state is allotted, discussing how this affects each state's influence in the election.
