Celebrate—and Teach—Constitutional Literacy This Constitution Day

Many argue that students aren't being taught enough about the Constitution and its counterparts and are therefore growing up to be uninformed adults. September 17th is Constitution day, so pay it some special attention with this list of suggestions from Education World.

Create an iCivics Account

iCivics was created by Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to make it easy for teachers to access quality materials regarding civics education. Creating an account is free and simple and has hundreds of resources, many of which are strictly focused on learning The Constitution.

The resources span from lesson plans to curriculum units to web quests and more.

Learn how to sign up here. 

Tie the Constitution Into More Than U.S. History

Christian Garcia, President of Garcia Publishing Company, has given some examples of how the Constitution can tie into a wide variety of history courses. For your reference, here are some of his suggestions:

"State Social Studies standards that are outside the realm of U.S. History and Government courses also provide opportunities for students to study the U.S Constitution. These standards offer the opportunity for comparative studies of the U.S. Constitution:

• in World History courses that delve into the development of ancient codes of law;

• in European History courses that trace the revolutionary fervor of France and the writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man;

• in African History courses that follow the independence movements on the continent;

• in political science courses that outline the advance of socialism and communism in Eastern Europe and Asia

If you teach these subjects, don't forget to tie the Constitution into your unit.

Read more here. 

Use Testimonies from People Who are Passionate

In order to get students inspired in learning about the constitution, hearing from others with a passion and appreciation for the documents helps.

For the Washington Post, Tim Donner discusses how the Constitution has inspired his life as it similarly guides the country.

"The principles embedded in the Constitution, and stated so eloquently in the Federalist Papers, work. We know that not just because of its accounting for human nature, but because of results ... Guided by this blueprint, America rose from a colonial backwater to the greatest nation in the history of the world." 

Use his essay as a hand-out to inspire your students here. 

Take the Constitution Challenge

A good way to test students' knowledge as well as engaging them is having them partake in the Constitution Challenge.

The 25-question long challenge takes between 5-10 minutes and can be against individuals or against teams. In other words, the challenge can be between students, students in groups, or even entire classrooms.

Get started here.

Please share additional resources you may have in the comments below.

Compiled by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

09/11/2015