Empowering Global Citizens

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America.

The students should make a chart with the purposes of the government
on one side and the purposes of the school and the classroom on the
other side, using the preamble and the school’s mission statement as a
guide.

The teacher should lead the class in the writing of a similar thesis and a mis—

sion statement for the classroom.

The articles of the Constitution describe and list the responsibilities and
limit the power of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of govern—
ment. The teacher should quickly lead the class in a discussion of the articles
of the Constitution.

After the discussion, the class can be assigned reading from The History of
US 300/6 4: The New Nation 1789—1850. The reading should focus on the

Constitution, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton.

Extension of the Activity

Learning Through Dilemmas

The teacher should split the class into three groups: the legislative branch,
the judicial branch, and the executive branch. (See the role—play activity in
6.6.2.) The teacher should then present each group with a dilemma, and the
group should review their articles of the Constitution to determine what is
constitutional. For example, the dilemma could be that an eighteen—year—old
from Illinois would like to run for election in the House of Representatives
as a representative of California.

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