2014-15 U.S. History 8
Performance Task Sem. 1
Writing Task:
Your school newspaper is running a series of articles discussing the Bill of Rights. You
have been assigned the task of writing an expository piece on the First Amendment.
Your composition will explain the rights protected by the First Amendment and discuss
how those rights have been challenged during the course of United States History.
Directions for beginning:
As part of your research for the article you have found several resources. After you have
reviewed these sources, you will answer some questions about them. Briefly scan the
sources and questions. Then, go back and reread the sources in more detail, so that you
are able to answer the questions and write the expository piece for your school paper.
Here are some research questions. Your answers to these questions will be scored and
ideally will help you think about what to include in your composition. As you examine
the sources, annotate them so you are prepared to answer these questions.
Questions: Part 1
1. What rights are protected by the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution?
2. Provide two pieces of evidence from the sources you just read, that demonstrate
when American citizens’ rights were limited. Be sure to include the title or the
number for the source for each piece of evidence that you provide.
3. Provide one example of how citizens were or would be punished for breaking a
law or policy while exercising what they believed were their First Amendment
rights. Be sure to include the title or the number for the source for each piece of
evidence that you provide.
4. Provide two pieces of evidence from the sources you just read that demonstrate
how Americans have defended their First Amendment rights.
Source #1: First Amendment to the United States Constitution
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for
a redress of grievances.
Source #2: Excerpt from the Sedition Act passed by Congress in 1798.
SEC. 2. And be it farther enacted, That if any person shall write, print, utter or
publish, … or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing,
uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings
against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the
United States, or the President of the United States, … then such person, being
thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof,
shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by
imprisonment not exceeding two years.
Source #3: Excerpt from Virginia Resolution December 24, 1798
Background: In response to the passage of the Sedition Act by Congress, the Virginia
legislature passed a resolution arguing against the law.
That the General Assembly does particularly protest against the palpable and
alarming infractions of the Constitution, in the two late cases of the "Alien and
Sedition Acts" passed at the last session of Congress; the first of which exercises a
power no where delegated to the federal government, and which by uniting legislative
and judicial powers to those of executive, subverts the general principles of free
government; as well as the particular organization, and positive provisions of the
federal constitution; and the other of which acts, exercises in like manner, a power not
delegated by the constitution, but on the contrary, expressly and positively forbidden
by one of the amendments thereto; a power, which more than any other, ought to
produce universal alarm, because it is levelled against that right of freely examining
public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people
thereon, which has ever been justly deemed, the only effectual guardian of every
other right.
palpable: real/ subvert: threaten/ thereto: to that point just mentioned/ thereon: of a place
Source #4: Excerpt from 5 Supreme Court Cases Every Teen Should Know Junior
Scholastic September 15, 2008 adapted by Bryan Brown from the article by Tom Jacobs
in the New York Times Upfront
In 1965, Mary Beth Tinker, 13, her older brother, and a friend wore black armbands
with peace signs to their schools in Des Moines, Iowa. The armbands were a form of
protest against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. When school officials told the
students to remove their armbands, they refused and were suspended. The students
sued the school district. They claimed that the suspensions violated the First
Amendment to the Constitution.
Source #5: Majority Opinion (7-2), Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969
Background: In 1969 the case of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District went
to the Supreme Court. This excerpt represents the majority opinion.
It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights
to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. ...The problem posed by
the present case does not relate to regulation of the length of skirts or the type of
clothing, to hair style, or deportment. It does not concern aggressive, disruptive action
or even group demonstrations. Our problem involves direct, primary First
Amendment rights akin to “pure speech.” If a regulation were adopted by school
officials forbidding discussion of the Vietnam conflict, or the expression by any
student of opposition to it anywhere on school property except as part of a prescribed
classroom exercise, it would be obvious that the regulation would violate the
constitutional rights of students, at least if it could not be justified by a showing that
the students’ activities would materially and substantially disrupt the work and
discipline of the school. In the circumstances of the present case, the prohibition of
the silent, passive “witness of the armbands,” as one of the children called it, is no
less offensive to the Constitution’s guarantees.
Part 2
Write an expository composition that clearly explains the rights guaranteed under the First
Amendment. Be sure to include the following:
-
one example, from the documents, that demonstrates how the right of freedom of
speech has been supported
-
one example, from the documents, that demonstrates how the right of freedom of
speech has been restricted