PROJECT TEACH

-LESSON PLAN OUTLINE-

TEACHER: Dave Armstrong

SCHOOL DISTRICT: Corry

LESSON SUBJECT: Constitution

GRADE LEVEL: 8

TEACHING TIME: one block

LESSON OBJECTIVES

BIG IDEAS: Origins of the principles and ideals found within the Constitution

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: What nations and past cultures did we get ideas from?

In what ways is the English government similar to and different from our own?

PA STATE STANDARDS: 5.1- E Analyze documents and ideals that shape U.S. government.

8.3 A-Analyze political contributions of individuals and groups.

STUDENTS WILL KNOW… / STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO…
What nations influenced our constitution and how.
Definitions of the following terms used in the readings. Liberty, order, justice, republic, civic virtue, checks and balances. / Explain how the Greeks and Romans influenced the U.S. Constitution.
Compare and contrast the English government with our own.

PROCEDURAL SUMMARY

MATERIALS: Worksheets and a dictionary. Our Constitution and Our English Heritage with accompanying Venn diagram

ANTICIPATORY SET: Ask students offer ideas on aspects of government and symbols they think are clearly American and which items may have been borrowed from others.

ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Students will be asked for responses on what they already know about the Greeks or Romans or English government. Prior to asking students will be given a moment to converse with someone near them for ideas.

PROCEDURE:

I.  Assign the reading of Our Constitution

a.  Complete the questions on the back

b.  Cover the answers to those questions as a class

II.  Assign Our English Heritage

a.  Pair up students

b.  Have them complete the Venn-Diagram with teacher assistance

c.  Cover the responses to the questions as a class

CLOSURE ACTIVITY: A. Summarize main points as a class emphasizing that we have many items such as the five principles of the Constitution that are unique to our beginnings but that we have also adapted many ideas from the English, Greek and Roman governments as well.

B. Optional-find pictures of the U.S. and English governments in operation. These may show the similarities or differences that are brought out in the aforementioned readings. Pictures may come from the internet or magazines, such as National Geographic, that the teacher must acquire.

OUR CONSTITUTION

The Constitution of the United States is the law of the land. It has evolved from centuries of trial and error by different nations and cultures. Perhaps the nations most influencing its form were the Greek and Roman republics and our “mother” country England. The purpose of a constitution is to bring liberty, order and justice to its people and while no nation has done these perfectly the American constitution has, for over 200 years, helped our government form a “more perfect union”.

The Constitution does its work through the rule of law. This requires all the people, even the president, to follow and obey the laws not just do as they please. In other words there is a particular method, or order in how things can be done in society. The freedoms, or liberties, our constitution provides are ordered liberties. One does not have the right to do whatever they want at any time or they risk becoming part of the justice system (courts and corrections). In a state of nature, where there would be no government or rules, anyone could do as they please. Eventually, the strongest and perhaps most disobedient individual would take away the rights of all other people. Because of this we have government. The United States is a republic because we elect our leaders. Those people elected to lead are known as representatives. In exchange for being given the power to lead they are, amongst other things, expected to protect our rights. Political leaders have been given our trust that they will do their job and not take advantage of the power entrusted to them. Those who do this well are said to have political or civic virtue. However, from time to time some politicians do abuse their power. The men who wrote the Constitution knew this to be possible and so they included a series of checks, or controls, on the power of each branch of government. In this way we can get closer to achieving the “more perfect union”.

The three items mentioned in the previous paragraph (republicanism, political or civic virtue and checks and balances) all came from the Romans. Democracy itself is a Greek idea but true democracy will not work with large groups because it requires direct involvement by all people. It is impractical to think that every adult in the United States can give enough time to be part of the government. This is why we elect representatives to govern us.

A constitution alone, even if well written, will not provide a good government. It must be followed by a large majority of the people, carefully changed when needed and be written such that government officials cannot get away with major violations. Has the United States constitution done those things? Consider that the U.S. is one of the younger nations on earth yet our constitution is among the oldest on the planet. Things done well last! How did the “Founding Fathers” in 1787 come up with a document that has provided such a good framework for our national laws? You read earlier that the Greeks and Romans had their contributions. Still, the majority of both our cultural background and government has evolved from Great Britain (England). Your next reading will explore how.

Sources

McClellan, James. Liberty, Order and Justice. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Inc., 2000.

OUR CONSTITUTION QUESTIONS

1.  Define the following in your notebook. Liberty, order, justice, republic, political or civic virtue, checks and balances.

2.  What other nations did we get ideas for our constitution from?

3.  The rule of law applies to everyone in the United States. Can you think of people, in other nations, that might be “above the law”? How might the government or even life in those nations be different from ours?

4.  Why is protecting the rights of any one person tough to do?

5.  Do we have direct democracy in the United States? Give an explanation to defend your position.

OUR ENGLISH HERITAGE

When the Constitutional Convention took place in 1787 we were a twelve year old nation on the brink of decline. The men who attended the Convention knew we had problems with our first constitution (Articles of Confederation) but weren’t in agreement how to fix the problem. Where did they look for solutions? Partially they looked at the recent philosophers that we will study later. They also observed ideas from the Greek and Roman empires where they found republicanism and checks and balances. However, both those cultures had good ideas incorrectly applied. In the end it was England, the same nation they had separated from just a few years before, that most contributed to our present form of government. Read the following paragraphs to see which characteristics apply to both our government and England’s and which are forms used only by one or the other.

You have previously read that the Constitution of the United States is the law of the land. This one document sets out the laws of the nation and our form of government. England does not have just one constitution. Instead their law of the land comes from a collection of various items. The main one of these is the Magna Carta, followed by the English Bill of Rights and volumes of common law decisions. We will talk more later about the Magna Carta. Both nations have a Bill of Rights. Ours is not a separate document, like England’s, but an amendment or addition to our constitution. Among some of the similarities in them are the following;

Innocent until proven guilty

Use of a jury in civil trials and

Not being required to testify against oneself.

Both nations operate under the rule of law which means no man, not even the president or king, can do whatever he pleases. Anyone who violates the law is subject to its consequences. This is not true in nations with a dictator. Both nations also rely heavily on common law. You may have heard of a case or seen a TV program where a lawyer sites a previous decision in a case similar to the one he is on. Pointing out how we have handled past similar cases prevents arbitrary or differing decisions. Thus all areas of the nation handle the case in a “common” manner.

Finally, what about the actual form of the government? For starters, we kept state governments. This was a new concept, no other nation had them, called federalism. Since then other countries have copied this idea as a way to prevent the federal government from becoming too powerful. Both nations have a two-house legislature. The U.S. has the Congress with a House of Representatives and a Senate while England’s Parliament has the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Both our House of Representatives and their House of Lords are elected for two year terms and all money bills start in these houses. Note, I said elected. This idea wasn’t new in 1787 but it was still in its infancy. The king, unlike the president, is not elected nor is a member of the House of Lords who gains his or her position through inheritance. In addition, our president has a good deal of power and influence whereas the King/Queen of England is today a figurehead used for ceremony. The British equivalent of our president is the Prime Minister who, unlike the President, is a member of the legislature. Finally, because both have constitutions and elect representatives they are called constitutional republics.

You can see by now that much of our government and law are patterned after the British. But it’s not just our government that we inherited from England. Many of our customs, language and literature are also English in origin. You cannot be a true American, no matter what your nationality or skin color, without some understanding of the English contributions to our nation.

Source

Kirk, Russell. America’s British Culture. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1993.

ACTIVITY

With a partner and using information from the reading create Venn-Diagram showing similarities and differences between the English government and the United States government. Use the following directions for a neat, complete paper.

1.  Use the paper provided with the diagram on it.

2.  Write small to be sure everything fits.

3.  Put each item under the previous entry. Do not leave much space so everything will fit.

4.  Write clear, clean entries.

5.  Put items common only to the U.S. on the top, those common only to England on the bottom and items common of both in the middle.

6.  Each person should have a copy.

7.  Include all possible examples.

OUR ENGLISH HERITAGE VENN-DIAGRAM