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Possible Activities and Lesson Plans
Activity One
Each student will choose one of the ten Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to
the Constitution). They will get a copy of their amendment as it appears in the Constitution.
They will gather information on what their amendment means and how it protects the citizens
of the United States.
Activity Two
Students with similar amendments will meet to discuss and exchange information and ideas
(i.e. all students working on the first amendment will meet and exchange information and
ideas on what they have gathered, and so on). Students are to discuss how this amendment,
created over 200 years, ago affects our life today.
Activity Three
Each student will create a commemorative stamp to honor their Right or amendment.
Their stamp must include:
*an attractive graph that is related to your amendment.
*the letters USA, and the price of the stamp.
*your initials (hidden somewhere in the stamp).
This activity can be coordinated with the art teacher. Emphasis
should be place on creating a piece of art that will transfer to digital media. That
means the art work must be clear and clean with strong colors and outlines to help define
the items in the picture.
Activity Four
Each student will write a rough draft using a workprocessor consisting of three
paragraphs
*The first paragraph will be a copy, exact wording, of your amendment as written
in the Constitution.
*The second paragraph will tell what this amendment means. You are to put it
into your own words. You are to give an example/s of how this amendment affects or can
affect our life today.
*The third paragraph will explain how your commemorative stamp represents your
amendment.
Activity Five (optional)
Each student will record a sound bite that will tell something about their commemorative
stamp. If the project will be made into a HyperCard stack, the
record feature is incorporated into the program. If the project will be placed into WWW
format, then sound bites will have to be recorded using another program.
*The sound bite will be 10 seconds or less.
*The sound bite will be edited to remove unwanted noises.
*The sound bite must be clear and easy to understand in content and sound quality
Activity Six
(Optional/This can also be a culminating activity)
Have groups of students work on a Bill of Rights for students at school.
Be sure to emphasize the responsibilities that go along with the Right. Have them present
their list of Rights to the class. As a whole class decide on a few that could be
presented to the Student Council. Be sure to tell what each Right is and how it will
affect the students' lives at school. State what responsibility each student has in
connection with each Right.
Activity Seven (optional)
Each student will create a multimedia product that will include their text, digitized
art work and sound bite.
Summative Performance Assessment
The student's completed essay and commemorative stamp should reflect:
1) understanding of the amendment as stated in the Constitution.
2) in the student's words and art, how this amendment affects
our life today.
3) understanding the connection of rights and responsibilities associated with
the Bill of Rights.
Scoring Rubric for the three paragraph essay
4 points
The essay consist of three paragraph that have all the required elements.
*The first paragraph will be an copy of the exact wording of your amendment as written
in the Constitution.
*The second paragraph will tell what this amendment means. You are to put it
into your own words. You are to give an example/s of how this amendment affects our life
today.
*The third paragraph will explain how your commemorative stamp represent the
amendment.The essay is written in complete sentences with correct spelling,
grammar and punctuation. All information
is accurate, understanding is evident,and it is easy to read and understand.
3 points
The essay consist of three paragraph that have all the required elements.
*The first paragraph will be an copy of the exact wording of your amendment as
written in the Constitution.
*The second paragraph will tell what this amendment means. You are to
put it into your own words. You are to give an example/s o how this amendment affects
our life today.
*The third paragraph will explain how your commemorative stamp represent the amendment.
The essay has some minor errors in sentence structure, and spelling. All information
is accurate and understanding is evident, but it is not easy to read.
2 points
The essay consist of three paragraph that have some of the required
elements missing, but the information present is accurate. It is not easy to follow.
1 point
The essay is missing various required elements. Some of the information is not
accurate. It is not easy to follow.
Scoring Rubric for the commemorative stamp
4 points The commemorative stamp has all the required elements.
*an attractive graph that is related to your amendment.
*the letters USA, and the price of the stamp.
*your initials (hidden somewhere in the stamp).
It relates the meaning of the amendment in a clear and attractive manner.
The graphic is clear and clean with strong colors and outlines to help define the items
in the picture so that the graphic can be digitized successfully.
3 points The commemorative stamp has all the required elements.
*an attractive graph that is related to your Right.
*the letters USA, and the price of the stamp.
*your initials (hidden somewhere in the stamp).
It relates the meaning of the amendment or Right in a clear and attractive manner,
but the graphic cannot be digitized successfully. It may need work on making it clear
and clean with strong colors and outlines to help define the items in the picture.
2 points The commemorative stamp has most of the required elements. It relates limited
understanding of the amendment. It may need work on making it clear and clean
with strong colors and outlines to help define the items in the picture.
1 points The commemorative stamp has some of the required elements. It relates limited
understanding of the amendment. It needs work on making it clear and clean
with strong colors and outlines to help define the items in the picture.
Differentiation
Assignment of individual topic for project should reflect students strengths and areas of need.
Resources provided should reflect the area of needs and strengths of each students. Time allocation, varied human resources, peer tutoring, exchange of services among students, and other possible accommodations should be considered whenever possible.
Leadership opportunities should be provided to allow for students that can carry the additional burden of coordination of a group discussion and being a mentor to others who may be needing some help, along with the responsibility of their project.
The degree of complexity of graphics can vary greatly depending on the strength of your students' skills, the resources in the school, and the extent to which you choose to incorporate multimedia tools such as a scanner, QuickTake camera, and/or video capture, and multimedia authoring via HyperCard, HyperStudio, HTML for WWW, etc.