All About the Bill of Rights

Source

For our last social studies lesson, my students learned all about the bill of rights. For this lesson we focused on these standards:

5.1.16 Describe the origins and drafting of the Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791

5.2.5 Describe and give examples of individual rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

We began the lesson by telling our students that my colleague and I had been discussing our cooperating teachers rules and realized we didn't totally agree with them and decided to come up with our own rules for social studies class. We passed out our new rules and told the students that the rules would be in affect until 2:00 when social studies class is over. Some of the rules benefited the students and some of the rules didn't. Some of the students were VERY happy with the rules and some of the students didn't particularly like what we came up with for them. 

In all actuality we only let the new rules be in affect for 5-7 minutes before bringing the class back together to discuss how they felt about these rules. Some students, like I mentioned earlier were very happy with the rules while some thought the rules were unfair. We connected these feelings to how some of the colonist felt when the constitution was written and how the Bill of Rights was needed to give everyone personal rights and freedoms. Again, we tried to connect the abstract concept in social studies to our student real life. The students came away from this activity with a personal connection to the concept of the Bill of Rights.

After the students discussed their opinions we watched a video a group of students had made detailing the Bill of Rights and putting it to the tune of Taylor Swifts hit song "Shake it Off". 

 The students really enjoyed this video, and it helped them make connections to the Bill of Rights when we discussed it in more detail in the next part of our lesson.

After the video we went through the Bill of Rights in kid friendly language, and the students were instructed to write down a phrase that reminded them of each amendment or to draw a picture. This helped the students gain an even deeper understanding of the amendments. It was so funny when we talked about the right to bear arms. Some of the students jumped right in and started drawing weapons other students looked around unsure and asked if it was okay to draw a weapon.  The principal came in and was looking at the students work and all I could think of was the weapons on their papers, but it all turned out fine. If nothing else they got a mental picture of what that amendment and right is all about.

To end the lesson the students wrote thank you letters to the founding fathers, thanking them for their most cherished right. In the end I think the students grasped the concept we were trying to teach them and gained an understanding of the Bill of Rights and personal freedoms.

I really enjoyed teaching these social studies lessons, and social studies has become one of my favorite subjects to teach.