Bill of Rights Lesson Plan: Government

Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Bill of Rights Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Bill of Rights, and supports the standard of identifying the fundamental rights of all citizens. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • What rights and freedoms are important to you? Why do you think so?
  • Why is protecting people’s rights important for society?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Bill of Rights topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Have students read one of the Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Bill of Rights Challenge and Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about the Bill of Rights while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a documentary about the Bill of Rights that explains why it’s important for the U.S. Constitution to be amendable.
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying and explaining the civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
  • Creative Coding: Code a digital museum exhibit featuring artifacts and symbols to represent each of the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights.
  • Primary Source Activity: Examine a 1789 document, then cite details to answer the accompanying questions.

More to Explore 

Time Zone X: Bill of Rights: Place historical events in chronological order in this interactive timeline game.

U.S. Government Unit: Continue to build understanding around the laws and systems that govern the U.S. by exploring more BrainPOP social studies topics.

Do I Have a Right?: ​​Identify legal rights and the amendments that protect them in this simulation game. 

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Related:

    Filed as:  6-8, 9-12, Bill of Rights, BrainPOP, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.2, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2