It is the duty of every American citizen to know and understand the documents that are the basis of our country.  Many profess to understand the documents, but few people truly do.  This activity will be a semester course, where students will do an in-depth study of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights.  The students will not only read the actual documents and analyze what they mean, but learn and understand the history behind them so it is clear why the Founders wrote the documents the way they did and why they added various provisions they did.  

The course will be divided between the three documents starting with the Declaration of Independence (3-4 meetings), then the Constitution (5 meetings) and the Bill of Rights (2-3 meetings).  The students will be reading the documents and dissecting them for a better understanding.  The documents were written in the 18th Century, so reading them is difficult for many teenagers.  I will ensure they understand what they read as long as they are willing to struggle with the text.  


Week 1: Philosophies of the Founders and introduction of the Declaration

Week 2: Causes of the Revolution and the Declaration

Week 3: Finish up Declaration

Week 4: Why created Constitution--Failures of Articles of Confederation

Week 5:  Arguments for and against the Constitution--Federalist and Anti-Federalist.

Week 6:  Major Concepts in the Constitution

Week 7: Role of slavery in forming the Constitution

Week 8: Tie up Constitution (Final Articles)

Week 9:  Origins of the Bill of Rights from other documents

Week 10: Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment