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Four Corners Instructions:- Go to the corner of the room that matches your feelings on the following statement
- Discuss your rationale with the others in that corner and write down your group’s main argument
- One person will share out from each corner
- Record the ideas of those in the other corners in the graphic organizer below
All Americans are equally free
Strongly Agree:
Agree:
Disagree:
Strongly Disagree: / All people in America, regardless of sex, race, immigration status, or (dis)ability deserve access to the rights protected in the Bill of Rights
Strongly Agree:
Agree:
Disagree:
Strongly Disagree:
The government is mostly designed to protect the rights of the majority of people
Strongly Agree:
Agree:
Disagree:
Strongly Disagree: / There are times when Americas might have to give up some of their rights to protect the nation
Strongly Agree:
Agree:
Disagree:
Strongly Disagree:
Gallery Walk Instructions
- Select a station to view first (no more than 5 people per station)
- You will have 5 minutes to view the material at your station and answer the questions
- The material from each section is included at the end of this worksheet
- If you do not complete some questions in class, please complete them at home
Station #1 – The Founding Father Quote Analysis
- What does Jefferson say limits liberty?
- Does this make liberty different from freedom in your opinion?
- What does Hamilton mean when he says, “Oblige it [the government] to control itself”? Why might this be difficult?
- How could Adam’s idea that a democracy, “Wastes, exhausts, and murders itself,” have helped to lead the Founders toward establishing a republic rather than a direct democracy?
- Does the Washington quote surprise you? Why or why not?
- What is your interpretation of Franklin’s description of democracy? Do you think this idea had any impact on the creation of the Bill of Rights?
Station #2 – Mike Lester “Electoral College” Cartoon & Steve Stark “Turkey Wants the Electoral College” Cartoon
- What do you think “flyover states” are?
- What states are represented and how does Lester convey his feelings about them with imagery?
- What does the see-saw/balance symbolize?
- What is the purpose of the Electoral College in Lester’s opinion? What does the popular vote do?
- Why does Stark use a turkey?
- Is the placement of the two speech bubbles significant? Why or why not?
- What point is Stark’s question trying to make? How does Stark feel about the Electoral College?
Station #4 – “The Troubling Reason the Electoral College Exists” Video from Time
- Is the Electoral College a physical place?
- Why did the Founders establish it as the organization that elects our executive?
- When was the direct election of Senators established?
- Why do the Democrats want to get rid of the Electoral College?
- Would you vote in favor or against Barbara Boxer’s constitutional amendment to allow direct election of the president? Should direction election of the president be a right?
Station #5 – Excerpt from “Two Treatises on Government” by John Locke
- Why do citizens give up the “law of nature” in a civil society?
- When does civil society exist?
- Why does the common man always have a say in a civil society? What does Locke mean when he write that decisions, “made for himself by his representative” are the decisions of the people?
- Why does the legislative branch exist? Why does the executive exist?
Station #6 – Images of the Founding Fathers Analysis
- Were the Founders rich or poor? What evidence in the images proves this?
- Were the Founders educated or uneducated men? What evidence in the images proves this?
- Were the Founders seeking liberty for all inhabitants of America? What evidence in the images proves this?
- What do these images tell us about the character of the Founders?
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How Free Are We?
Are All American’s Rights Protected Equally?
Jigsaw Instructions:- Find all your Home Group by finding all classmates with the same highlighter color at the top left corner of this page
- Read the guiding questions for this activity together, ensuring that all members of the group understand what the goal of the reading is
- Find your Expert Group by finding all classmates with the same number at the top left corner of this page
- You will have five minutes to read your article independently and begin fill in the graphic organizer to answer the guiding questions
- Then, you will discuss the article and the answers to the guiding questions with your Expert groups for 10 minutes
- Go back to your Home Group and be prepared to share your findings with your classmates
- Discuss the guiding questions as a group and ensure that all members have their graphic organizers completed
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How Free Are We?
Are All American’s Rights Protected Equally?
Guiding Questions / Wealth “Affluenza” / Sex “Birth Control” / LGBT “Transgender” / Race “Incarceration” / Religion “Hate Crimes”What is the main idea of the article?
What are 2-3 important details from the article?
Which group/groups of people are discussed in this article?
Do all groups mentioned in the article have equal access to “essential rights”?
If no, whose rights are being violated? Whose rights are being protected?
Is protecting the rights of all involved possible?
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Close Reading Instructions- Read the article below once
- Underline important ideas
- Box any words you are unsure of the meaning of
- Note any questions or comments in the margin on the right
- You will be asked to read several times to answer questions with evidence from the text
Testing the Constitution: An Essay by Pat Morrison
Patt Morrison
Photo: Los Angeles Times
Sept. 25, 2001-- It wasn't a test, this underhanded mass murder, this most death-dealing day on American soil since we massacred ourselves in the Civil War.
This was an actual emergency, a siege on the nation and its temples of money and might.
Yet what happened on September 11th is very much a test, not for today or tomorrow or even next week, while the sounds of funeral bagpipes reach our ears and Americans at our best, generous, and recklessly brave.
No, this test is for the duller months to come, when heroism requires other virtues. Those days will test how much Americans truly believe in America.
If whoever did this can force us to become like them, to become fearful and vengeful ... if "better safe than sorry" becomes the national motto ... if the land of the free becomes the home of the military checkpoint and the national ID card, then we fail the test.
One day soon, people with the best of intentions will say that any security trumps any civil liberty. And people with the darkest of intentions will gleefully ride their coattails.
Already we make compromises every day, bartering liberties for security. We let the government keep some of its doing secret from us. The FBI's Carnivore program can read virtually anyone's e-mail. Video monitors watch us buy bread and underwear. We submit to scans and searches to get on a plane, walk into a courtroom and even some school rooms.
The test now underway is what the Constitution itself is made of -- whether it is only parchment, or something stronger, something terror-proof, and fear-proof.
For my money, the most inspiring public figure I encountered on September 11th was not in Washington, D.C., but in Los Angeles.
Harry Pregerson is 77 years old, a man of that "greatest generation," a Marine wounded on Okinawa, a federal judge whose conscience, he has said, is forged out of "the Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights, the Boy Scout oath, and the Marine Corps Hymn."
His court is the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a grand old converted hotel on the lip of the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena. With courts and government buildings closing down across the nation on September 11th, Pregerson's court, with all its dry, plodding routines of justice, stayed open for business. "We can't let terrorists shut us down," Pregerson said. In the name of America, Harry Pregerson would not be stampeded into locking the door on what America is meant to be about.
Notes on the Text:
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John Oliver “Police Militarization” Video- Read through the questions below with your partner
- Watch the video with the full class
- Discuss the questions with your partner
- Join another pair and discuss your answers to the questions
- Have your classmates seen evidence of police militarization? If yes, list 1-3 examples.
- Does police militarization make us safer?
- Are our rights inhibited by police militarization? If yes, which ones are violated?
- Should the police be militarized? Use evidence from your or your classmate’s personal experiences and/or from the video.
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Breaking Boundaries Instructions:- Read through the questions below
- Listen to your classmates’ stories and participate honestly
- Do not write during the activity
- After all questions are asked and answered, answer the questions below
- What is America to the people who learn in this classroom?
- Which aspects of America that people love were most important to you? Who else were these important to?
- Which aspects of America that made your classmates angry or upset were most important to you? Who else were these important to?
- How have rights been violated for the people in this classroom?
- How have rights/people been protected for the people in this classroom?
- What were you most surprised by?
- Why are our personal stories important pieces of evidence in answering the question, “How free are we?”
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Socratic Seminar Preparation Instructions:- Read through the questions below
- Answer each question in your own words
- Provide two pieces of evidence that justify your answer to the question (for full credit, please provide one from the materials we looked at over the week and one from your or a classmate’s personal experience)
- Identify potential counter or alternate arguments to the question
Question / Answer / Evidence #1 / Evidence #2 / Counter/Alternate Arguments
Are liberty and freedom different?
Who was America
designed for?
What rights do we need to fight for the most?
Whose rights are protected/who has most access to their rights?
Should the Electoral College be abolished?
Should the Supreme Court judges be elected rather than appointed?
Does the government trust the citizens of the United States?
Why don’t we have full freedom to do what we want?
Were the Founders noble men?
Are all Americans equally free?
Have we given up too much freedom for too little security?
Are our lives valid sources of knowledge about freedoms?
Is the line, “This land was made for you and me” applicable to our lives?
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Socratic Seminar Instructions:- Read through the questions below
- Answer each question in your own words
- Provide two pieces of evidence that justify your answer to the question (for full credit, please provide one from the materials we looked at over the week and one from your or a classmate’s personal experience)
- Identify potential counter or alternate arguments to the question
Socratic Seminar OBSERVATION Form
Your Name:______Person you are observing:______
Directions: Each time your partner does one of the following, put a check in the box.
Speaks in discussion:
Provides evidence from research to justify their conclusion:
Provides evidence from their or another person’s personal experience to justify their conclusion:
Asks a question (either new or clarifying):
Agrees with or adds to another speaker’s ideas:
Provides a counter or alternate argument to another speaker’s ideas:
Talks over or interrupts another speaker:
Provides an argument that is off-topic:
AFTER the discussion: What is the most interesting thing your partner said?
______
AFTER the discussion: What issue would you like to have discussed more?
______
AFTER the discussion: Did you provide questions or comments to your partner? If yes, what did you give them to add to the discussion and why?
______
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Written Argument & Reflection- Please answer the following questions in at least two paragraphs, one answering the essential question of this unit and the other reflecting on the experience
- Your response should be about 1-1.5 pages if you decide to type it and 2-2.5 pages if you decide to handwrite it
- Please cite at least three (3) pieces of evidence justifying your answer to the essential question
- At least one (1) should come from the material we reviewed in class and one (1) should come from the either your personal experience or the experience of one of your classmates
- If you decide to conduct independent research to answer the question, please cite your source at the end of your essay
- Questions
- Essential Question: America is often called “the land of the free”. To what extent are all Americans free and able to enjoy the protections guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States?
- Reflection Questions: What pieces of evidence were the most compelling to you? How did you organize your thinking for the Socratic Seminar? What was your most important/best argument during the Socratic Seminar? What was the best argument that someone else made? What biases did you bring into this unit of study? Did you incorporate someone else’s argument into your argument – explain if yes?
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