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 3/2/17:
News Brief - Taylor
Review Constitution
Bill of Rights
The First Amendment

Homework: Read the blog! Prepare for Constitution test on Monday by studying the handout answers (as well as reviewing the philosophers and European influences)! Next news brief: Genevieve.

News Brief: Taylor started us off with this today, and shared about this story: NYTimes.com - Trump to Seek $54 Billion Increase in Military Spending. We discussed this for a while in class and also watched this 90 second recap of President Trump's address to Congress on Tuesday: CNN.com - Trump's Speech to Congress in 90 Seconds.

We also checked in for a bit about the upcoming weekend, before moving on.

Genevieve was selected for the next news brief.

Review Constitution: We continued looking at the Constitution packet I passed out last class, which had the Bill of Rights as a part of the last couple of pages. Please make sure to study the Constitution portion done for the test on Monday. 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 answer would be C.

Bill of Rights: As far as the Bill of Rights, 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:

The Daily Show
Daily Show Full Episodes,More Daily Show Videos,Comedy Central Full Episodes

Clearly, this is a more liberal perspective on the Bill of Rights. I think the video does a good job of going through many of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution!

The First Amendment: We ended by looking at how the First Amendment impacts students at school. With that, we went through this PowerPoint, as we discussed each case:

Google Drive - First Amendment Case Study PowerPoint

We looked at some specific examples of cases where students had questions about how far their rights go. We ended by looking at the famous "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case, which we will continue to discuss next class. Thanks, everyone!