Constitution Webquest
Task:
It's September 17, 1787, the final draft of the United States Constitution has just been sent to congress and will now be sent to the states to be ratified.
Your job as an employee of your home state newspaper (pick one of the states existing in 1787*) is to provide news to the public about the important event that has just taken place. You must communicate this information to your readers!
* States to choose from are:
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Georgia, New Hampshire or Rhode Island.
Process:
Working in small groups, these are the items that are to be covered in your newspaper.
1. What is the U.S. Constitution? Summarize and explain this to your readers.
2. What does the Constitution do for the citizens of the United States? What about slaves?
3. Write a short biography on the delegate(s) from your state. Did your delegate(s) play an important role in the writing of the constitution?
Your newspaper must contain headlines, illustrations and text in columns and must be at least 2-4 pages in length.
Remember that all the people in this group must work together to create your final product and students will be graded individually and as a group.
Don't forget to cite your sources (APA format), Wikipedia is a good place to start, but is unacceptable as a source for your newspaper.
Some points to ponder:
What are the Articles of Confederation and why did they fail? How did the Constitution address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
What three government bodies did the constitution create and how do they work together?
What are articles? What do the articles in the constitution say?
What events led to the writing of the constitution (this would be considered background information)?
Why is the constitution called a "living document"?
What six principles is the constitution based on (define and explain importance in text) PPT From Class
Does your state support ratification? Why or why not?
Resources:
The Constitution Center http://www.constitutioncenter.org
Constitution Resources from the U.S. Department of Education http://www.free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=19&res_feature_request=1
Read the U.S. Constitution http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
A Roadmap to the U.S. Constitution http://library.thinkquest.org/11572/
Questions and Answers Pertaining To the Constitution http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_q_and_a.html
Archiving Early America, see a sample of an Early American newspaper (Pages from the Past) http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/constitution/index.html
Charters of Freedom http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/charters.html
Framers of the Constitution http://www.usconstitution.net/constframe.html
Conclusion:
Congratulations! You've successfully completed this webquest on the United States Constitution! Just a few more things.....
Double check your newspaper format, is the spelling correct? Do you have all the information included you'd like your readers to know? Do your explanations make sense?
Share your newspaper with your classmates. What did you learn from your classmates you didn't already know?
It's September 17, 1787, the final draft of the United States Constitution has just been sent to congress and will now be sent to the states to be ratified.
Your job as an employee of your home state newspaper (pick one of the states existing in 1787*) is to provide news to the public about the important event that has just taken place. You must communicate this information to your readers!
* States to choose from are:
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Georgia, New Hampshire or Rhode Island.
Process:
Working in small groups, these are the items that are to be covered in your newspaper.
1. What is the U.S. Constitution? Summarize and explain this to your readers.
2. What does the Constitution do for the citizens of the United States? What about slaves?
3. Write a short biography on the delegate(s) from your state. Did your delegate(s) play an important role in the writing of the constitution?
Your newspaper must contain headlines, illustrations and text in columns and must be at least 2-4 pages in length.
Remember that all the people in this group must work together to create your final product and students will be graded individually and as a group.
Don't forget to cite your sources (APA format), Wikipedia is a good place to start, but is unacceptable as a source for your newspaper.
Some points to ponder:
What are the Articles of Confederation and why did they fail? How did the Constitution address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
What three government bodies did the constitution create and how do they work together?
What are articles? What do the articles in the constitution say?
What events led to the writing of the constitution (this would be considered background information)?
Why is the constitution called a "living document"?
What six principles is the constitution based on (define and explain importance in text) PPT From Class
Does your state support ratification? Why or why not?
Resources:
The Constitution Center http://www.constitutioncenter.org
Constitution Resources from the U.S. Department of Education http://www.free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=19&res_feature_request=1
Read the U.S. Constitution http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
A Roadmap to the U.S. Constitution http://library.thinkquest.org/11572/
Questions and Answers Pertaining To the Constitution http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_q_and_a.html
Archiving Early America, see a sample of an Early American newspaper (Pages from the Past) http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/constitution/index.html
Charters of Freedom http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/charters.html
Framers of the Constitution http://www.usconstitution.net/constframe.html
Conclusion:
Congratulations! You've successfully completed this webquest on the United States Constitution! Just a few more things.....
Double check your newspaper format, is the spelling correct? Do you have all the information included you'd like your readers to know? Do your explanations make sense?
Share your newspaper with your classmates. What did you learn from your classmates you didn't already know?