The Constitution, Day 2 - Class Recap

Fireworks over Niagara Falls, in 2009. 

Hi everyone,

Thanks for continuing to work on getting to know the Constitution better! I know it may not be the most fun part of class, but it is so important for knowing the foundations of how our government works! Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed: 
Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.
Knowledge LT 5: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different branches of U.S. government.

Soundtrack: "Don't Speak" by No Doubt. Selected for today because we were talking about the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is partially about freedom of speech. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/30/16:
News Brief - Kira
The Constitution
The Bill of Rights
The First Amendment

Homework: Read the blog! Prepare for Constitution test next class by studying the handout answers! Next news brief: Sarah Beth.

News Brief: Today's article was brought in by Kira, who selected this story: CNN.com - Hoboken train crash: 1 dead, more than 100 injured. We discussed this recent story and how the United States government is related to investigating the causes of what happened. Thanks Kira! We also checked in about the upcoming weekend and Sarah Beth volunteered to do the next news brief.

The Constitution: We continued looking at the Constitution packet we started working on through Google Classroom and Kami last class, which had the Bill of Rights as a part of the last couple of pages (we will work on that section more next week - just focus on knowing the answers to the first two pages).

Please make sure to study the entire packet for the test next class. If you missed class the last two times, here it is to download and fill out by reading the Constitution:

Google Drive: Understanding the Constitution Handout

As I said, here's the reward for checking the blog: a (tough, because I did not specifically ask you this in class) question from the Constitution test:

All of the following are included in the Preamble to the Constitution EXCEPT _____________.
a. establish justice c. the pursuit of happiness
b. provide for the common defense d.  promote the general welfare

The Bill of Rights: The first ten amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights. To start this part of class, I showed this clip from The Daily Show, looking at what some people working for FOX News had to say in regards to the Bill of Rights and the Boston Marathon bomber.

We ran out of time after this, so we will come back to looking in depth at the Bill of Rights next class. See you then!