
Step 2: Teach Lesson
Introduce students to the Bill of Rights by watching the video in Step 1 then ask the following questions to guide the discussion.
What is the Bill of Rights? What does it consist of? Which document is it part of?
What is an amendment?
What are examples of important rights and freedoms that Americans have because of the Bill of Rights?
What are examples of other rights and freedoms that Americans have?
What are examples of rights and freedoms that Americans do not have?
2. Distribute the handout Decoding The Bill of Rights so that students understand exactly which rights are protected by which
amendments. This handout includes both the original language in the Bill of Rights (preamble and ten amendments) and
parenthetical translations in language that younger students will more easily understand. Ask the following questions to guide a
discussion about this handout:
Which of the ten amendments are familiar to you? How did you first learn about them? Why do you think they were familiar to you?
Which of the ten amendments are new to you? Why do you think you are less familiar with these amendments?
Are any of the ten amendments confusing to you? If so, what questions do you have about them? \
Why do you think it is important that Americans have these rights and freedoms?
3. Assign the student one of the ten amendments to the Constitution and research their amendment. They need to know why the
amendment was important for the time, how it protects citizens and how it applies to our current needs.
4.The student is given the the task of creating a poster for their amendment. Their poster needs to advertise (explain) the
amendment in their own vocabulary and relate the amendment to their life.