Group Constitution:

Cooperative Learning Activity

 

Class:

19th Century American History-Proficiency Review

Block Schedule

 

Objectives:

  1. Students will analyze why government is important.
  2. Students will understand why the United States has a Constitution and what that Constitution does for American citizens.
  3. Students will apply what they have learned about the Constitution to make a Constitution for their group.

 

Materials:

  1. American Journeys textbook
  2. makers and construction paper
  3. Discussion questions

 

Activities:

  1. Have students take ten minutes to answer the following discussion questions: Why do we have government and what does the United States Constitution do for the American people? (See attachment)

 

  1. Have a classroom discussion about the government and what they do for citizens.  Make sure that students write down information that is discussed.  Also, make sure that students are seeing that the government provides military protection both at home and abroad and supplies social services.

 

  1. After class discussion, put students into groups of four.  In their groups, students should create a list of items that they feel should be covered in a constitution.  The list needs to have at least ten items.  Groups should have 15 minutes to complete.

 

  1. Discuss as a class items that groups have their lists.  Each group member should be taking notes on the discussion.  Once all groups have shared their ideas, each group needs to discuss what is most important to them and write their own constitution.  They should write their final draft on a piece of construction paper using markers.

 

  1. Once group have completed their constitutions and have had them checked by the teacher, they should turn to page 230 in their history textbooks.  They should put a check mark next to each item in their constitution that appears in the United States Constitution.

 

Homework:

Student Reflection on the Group Constitution

 

Discussion Questions: Group Constitution

 

  1. Why do we have government? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

  1. What does the United States Constitution do for American citizens? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Student Reflection on the Group Constitution

 

Directions: Write a full-page response to the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.

 

Reflect on your group’s constitution and discuss if you feel it included enough items. Also, reflect on your group’s progress.  Do you think that your group did a good job?  Why?  Did your group work well together?  Why or why not?  Was your group on task or did you only do what was necessary to finish the assignment?  Did all members of the group participate in group discussions?  Why or why not?