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Teaching about the Constitution
While the law requiring lessons on the Constitution may be unpopular with
educators, many of us will still be expected to fulfill the new requirement.
The following resources provide options to talk about the Constitution in context,
as part of your literacy or composition instruction.
The Language Arts article "Exploring
the Literature of Fact: Linking Reading and Writing through Information Trade
Books" (E) suggests how
you can use nonfiction books to talk about the constitution or another social
studies subject while simultaneously improving students' understanding of expository
texts.
The Constitution guarantees U.S. citizens the
right to vote. Try the ReadWriteThink lesson Voting!
What’s It All About? (E), which
touches on the history of voting, voting as a civil right, and current elections
while asking students to explore the difference between fact and opinion.
The first amendment
to the Constitution establishes the right to freedom of speech for all American.
Explore the issues surrounding this right with the ReadWriteThink lesson Exploring
Free Speech and Persuasion with Nothing But The Truth (M).
In the ReadWriteThink lesson Freedom
of Speech and Automatic Language: Examining the Pledge of Allegiance (S),
students explore rote learning and their right to freedom of speech by examining
the Pledge of Allegiance from a historical and personal perspective.
For
a poetry-social studies connection, invite students to research the various
historical figures who have shaped and been effected by the Constitution
then write poems that focus on the figures they have explored. The Voices
from the Middle article "The
Biopoem: Connecting Language Arts and Social Studies
with Technology" (M-S) explains how!
For a more extended research project on the people who have shaped the constitution
and the history facts surrounding the document, check out the English Journal
article "Learning about Self and Others through Multigenre Research
Projects" (S), which describes a multigenre research project
students completed on a range of topics. The article describes an option
where students choose "a historical
event of high impact and write about it from the
character’s point of view, considering how it would
affect the character personally."
The College Composition and Communication article "Race, Literacy,
and the Value of Rights Rhetoric in Composition Studies" (C) situates
the theory of language rights in composition studies in a
brief history of rights rhetoric in the United States.
"'Persuasion Dwelt on Her Tongue': Female Civic Rhetoric in Early America" (C),
from College English, taps research in American studies to learn more
about rhetoric and writing instruction in post-Revolutionary America. While the
article's primary focus is women's schooling, the piece explores how the revolution
and the nation's founding documents changed women's civic rhetoric as well.
NOTE: Free access to journal articles mentioned in this Inbox is provided
for 21 days. After this free access period expires, articles are available
to journal subscribers only. This Inbox Idea was published 11-16-2004.
Initials in annotations indicate academic level of the resource (E=Elementary,
M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College, G=General).
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