Consitutional Debate
Sam Storlie
Minnesota BOT Standard: How People Create and Change Structures of Power, Authority, and
Governance
Minnesota BOT Understanding: b. The purpose of government and how its powers are acquired,
used, and justified.
Desired Results
Relevant Minnesota or Nat'l Content
Learning Objective: Key Understanding(s)
Standards: U.S. History
you intend students to obtain:
Standard 17. The divergence of colonial
interests from those of England led to
an independence movement that resulted in the
American Revolution and the Foundation of a
new nation based on ideals of self-government
and liberty. (revolution and a New Nation: 17541800) Benchmark 9.4.4.17.4 Analyze the
arguments about the organization and powers of
the federal government between 1783 and 1800,
including the debates over the Articles of
Confederation, the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights; explain the origins of the two-party
political system and significance of the election
of 1800. (Revolution and a New Nation: 17541800)
Students will describe and evaluate the major
achievements and problems of the
Confederation period, and analyze the debates
over the Articles of Confederation and the
revision of governmental institutions that
created the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of
Rights, and the interpretive function of the
Supreme Court.
Assessment Evidence
What do you want your students to know?
What do you want students to be able to do?
I want the students to know why the Articles of
Confederation failed. I also want them to
understand how the constitution was created
from many different perspectives, and how it is
composed of many different compromises
because of these differences in opinion on how
much power the federal/state governments
should have. The most notorious of these
opposing perspectives were that of Thomas
Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton, they didn't
agree on anything, these are the two
perspectives that I would teach from. The
Jefferson agrarian weak central government,
with the power belonging to the states. And the
Hamilton strong central government with the
country being focused on business and
industry. The students should also understand
how the Supreme Court is essential for the
balances of power in democracy.
On the last day of the lesson I want the students
to be able to take part in a class debate. In this
debate I would split them up randomly into two
sides, one side would be the Jeffersonian
Republicans, and the other side would be the
Hamilton Federalists. No matter what the
student's personal opinion is, they have to argue
for the side that they end up on. I want each
side to articulate and construct reasoned
arguments from diverse perspectives and frames
of reference. After the debate the students
should be able to draw their own conclusions
about the constitution and realize that although
Jefferson and Hamilton were complete
opposites, their contributions to the constitution
were very valuable. Also, taking part in a
debate will help them learn to respect other's
point of view.
Group Accountability (Formative)
Individual Accountability (Summative)
How will you check to see whether your class How will you check to see if individuals have
has met your learning objectives?
acquired the knowledge/skills you expected
them to learn?
I will check to see if the class has met the
learning objectives by what points they make in
the debate, and how well they connect key
terminology from the lesson, and if they're able
to understand that different opinions and
multiple perspectives are what made our
constitution/country great then, and how that
greatness continues today.
I will check to see if individuals have acquired
the knowledge/skills I expected them to learn
by observing how much they participate in the
debate, and how good the points they make
are. I will also give a short quiz at the end of
the lesson to make sure the students grasped the
concepts I intended them to.
Learning Plan
What key vocabulary/language will students How will you teach this key vocabulary to
need to know to meet the learning objective? enable students to meet the learning
objective?
These concepts will be the core of my entire
Constitutional Convention, alternative plans and lesson, everything presented will all lead back
to these terms.
compromises in drafting and approving the
Constitution; Federalist and Anti-Federalist
arguments and John Marshall's role in defining
the function and power of the Supreme Court
What is the Essential/Guiding Question(s) for How will you differentiate for all the
this Lesson? (It should correlate to your
learners (ELL, Sp. Ed., poverty, gifted, etc.)
learning objective.)
in your class?
Why did the Articles of Confederation fail, and Differentiation Options: questions, stems,
how did multiple perspectives/different opinions sentence frames, strategies, etc.
of our founding fathers shape our
constitution/government then, and now?
I will differentiate for all learners by keeping
things simple in my lesson, and allowing
students to come to a higher understanding and
a higher analysis when they are working
together in the debate. I think much of the
time students learn more from each other than
from the instructor, so my approach is centered
around students learning from each other.
Materials/Resources Required: History textbook, notebook, writing utensil(s), current event
article, and a Jefferson/Hamilton handout.
SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
Method/Strategy
Time Allotment
(What will you do? What do you expect students to do? Include set induction
and closing.)
I would start the lesson with a current event article that is about people in the First 10 minutes
government not agreeing about where the power lies in the government, I
will use this as a lead in to the founding of our country and our
constitution. This will show students that the debate over the power of
government has been going on since the founding of our country, and is still
not resolved to this day, and may not ever be.
I would give a lecture about the creation of the Articles of Confederation, the Next 30 minutes
failure of them. I would then go into explaining the constitutional convention,
and how what happened there was truly a revolution. I would also explain
how John Marshall set the precedent for how the Supreme Court was going
to be, and how because of the Supreme Court there is a balance of power in
our government.
I would give the students a hand out comparing and contrasting the
Last 10 minutes
viewpoints of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, and have them
start analyzing what two men's viewpoints mean, so they can prepare for the
debate the following day. This would also be their homework for that night,
preparing arguments for both sides since they don't know which side they
will be on the next day. Preparing for both sides should make the students be
open-minded, and allow them get a full understanding of why each man
believed what he did.
I would have the class already split up in two sides when they arrive, I would First 10 minutes
give them ten minutes to organize their viewpoints before the debate begins.
The students would debate why Jefferson's viewpoints were correct, and why Next 20-25
Hamilton's viewpoints were correct. After the debate, students should
minutes
understand that both Hamilton and Jefferson were very important in
composing the constitution. The students should also start to realize that
reasonable people can disagree, and disagreeing is not always a bad thing.
The students would take a ten point quiz over the lesson, and would be free
to leave when they were finished with it.
Last 15-20
minutes
I think this lesson will engage students in analysis of multiple perspectives for several
reasons. First, the debate of the power of the government has been around since our country
started, and has continued to be a debate throughout our history, so it will be easy for the
students to understand the multiple perspectives that they will be analyzing. Second, there really
is no right answer to this debate. I have been on the fence on this debate myself my entire life,
and I still am no closer to knowing what the "right" answer is. That makes it a good multiple
perspective topic, that makes the students think outside of the box. Last, it is a good multiple
perspective topic, because it combines two social studies strands; U.S. History, and Government
and Citizenship. I think that makes it an even better topic for multiple perspectives, because not
only do students look at it from multiple perspectives for a U.S. History view, they also look at
from a Government and Citizenship point of view without even realizing it. In a way you're
killing two birds with one stone.
The students will be looking at two different frames of reference, and two different
perspectives. These frames of reference and perspectives will be from the point of view of
Jefferson, and the point of view of Hamilton. By analyzing both frames of reference and both
perspectives, the students may choose one they agree with more, or may be even more on the
fence than they were before this multiple perspective lesson plan. That's why I think this is such
a great topic, because there will be no black and white answer as a result. However, the one
thing that all students should take away from this lesson is that reasonable people can disagree,
that disagreeing is not always a bad thing, and disagreeing forces us to be civil to each other so
we can achieve our common goals.