Constitution Day Lesson & Resources

I just presented a lesson for Constitution Day yesterday and thought I'd share here too. The lesson meets the Constitution Day federal requirement and integrates Common Core State Standards as well. Feel free to download and modify to your needs or send your students here.

Constitution Day Lesson Resources 2012 Presentation Site

Here's what you will find:
Two Prezis (PPT updated for the 21st century) that I used to show teachers and one for use in the classroom. The Prezi is open, so that you may copy and modify it to meet your needs.

Prezi Basics handouts. There are two options: a double sided pamphlet and a five page document that I encountered online. You may wish to print the pamphlet out for the students and link the 5 pager online for students to refer to.

Prezi storyboard word document. This has a text option if you want to create your own or have the studnets create one.

Zipped folder image resources. There are multiple folders with a variety of images for you to use and/or share with your students. I've found having a collection of images ready for the students saves time when we are in a computer lab time crunch.

We the People- intro video from the Heritage Foundation

Four possible options for student extension activities

Resource links for student extension activities. The Interactive COnstitution fron the National Constitution Center is great.

Constitution Day Lesson Resources 2012 Presentation Site

2012 Election Resources

It's election season again! If your students are like mine, they have lots of questions regarding the election. Often , I get questions about how do I know what I am? Which candidate? With so much to cover in the curriculum, it's hard to take time out to discuss the 2012 election outside of a government class...but there are ways. September 17th, Constitution Day, is a great time to talk about Article II and the Electoral College. Also, this could be used to talk about the election in that context and how things have changed from the Founding Era.

The election was just one of many hot topics this weekend at the county Constitution Day workshop. A few colleagues and awesome teachers asked me if I knew of quizzes students could take. But of course! However they were linked school. This is the inspiration for this posting. Below I have linked three online quizzes you can use with your students to see where they fit on the political spectrum by candidate, party, and more. Click on thequiz name/link and enjoy!

I Side With 

Students can take an election quiz with questions regarding social, environmental, economic, domestic policy, healthcare, foreign policy, immigration, and science issues. The quiz will let you know how well you match up with the presidential candidates, California voters, and American Voters. Also, it will give you a percentage of how you side with the Democratic, Green, Republican, and Libertarian Parties.

Party Match Quiz  

Students can take a quiz based on questions relating to individual rights, domestic issues, economic issues, and defense issues. It will let you know how the user ranks in agreement with the political parties and political leaders by personal and economic percentages.

Where do you fit?- PEW Political Quiz 

Answer 12 questions that were part of a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, and find out where you fit on the partisan political spectrum. You can also compare results to how you compare with others by age, sex, race, religion and candidate.