Hello faithful readers. I apologize for the long break between entries, however with the holidays upon me I had no time to write. Though it may seem otherwise, I do things other than teach.

The last week has brought me to the point in the year that I enjoy most- the month long unit about the United States Constitution. In this unit I travel from the Constitutional Convention and what the document meant to our founding fathers all the way to present – day America and what the Constitution means to us today. As my students will find out over the course of the unit, our government hasn’t changed much. In fact, by the end of the month we’ll be calling the Constitution our living document. My classes and I bring the Constitution to life in more ways than one.

To begin our study of the Constitution we write a eulogy for the Articles of Confederation. By truly reflecting on our first government’s “death” we can understand the “life” of our current system and how it came to be. Students are asked to personify the Articles of Confederation and celebrate its (few) accomplishments and determine its cause of death (weakness).

After reflecting on the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the students go back in time. Basically, they are assigned a state to research and then become delegates of that state for a week-long Constitutional Convention. Students are given no background information and they do not do any reading about origins the U.S. Constitution prior to the “Consitutional Convention”. This is an exercise in historical exploration and should come only from their prior knowledge of the US in 1787. To begin, students are asked to do three things that will help them identify with and make arguments for their assigned states:

1. Find the total population of their state in 1790 (we use 1790 because this is the first US census).
2. Find the slave population of their state in 1790.
3. Find out what products their state produces/grows in 1790.

Students truly delve into their role, as do I. My role in all of this is George Washington, the leader of the Constitutional Convention. Students are asked to act with decorum at all times during our meetings. To know that we are in the past and to identify which role they need to play (either themselves or the state they represent) I wear two hats. To signify that we are in present-day, I wear a green baseball cap. When we are in 1787, I wear a tri-corner hat. In 1787 I insist that students address me as General Washington and that they address each other by their state name. During debates on different issues, students have to use their state information to make the proper argument for their state. The issues discussed are as follows:

• Should the meeting be in secret or should we tell the public? (If you recall, the actual Constitutional Convention did not allow the public or the press to know what was happening.)
• Should we throw out the Articles of Confederation or simply revise them?
• How should the number of representatives per state in Congress be determined?
• How should slaves be counted toward the total population of the state?
• Should the executive have any power?

Granted, there were many more questions discussed in Congress and many more details hammered out, but these five points were chosen as the main points of discussion in our “real – life” convention. Students discuss the points together as a delegation, call questions to a vote, and vote how they think they should (or their state would have). Nine times out of ten, students will vote the same way as the founding fathers did some 200 years ago. They are, however, allowed the freedom of voting differently and are not punished for doing so. Occasionally I will ask a student before class to think about certain things as a prompt but I never “give them the answer”. For example, before our discussion about representation in Congress I ask Virginia and New Jersey to consider their populations before making a proposal. This typically leads to ideas similar to the actual Virginia and New Jersey plans.

After each question is voted upon I put my green hat back on and discuss the actual happenings of history. We discuss similarities in their arguments during their debates, differences in their arguments during their debates, and we use graphic organizers to chart factual information. All class debates, however, are journaled in their notebooks. Every student has a comparison of their thoughts as well as the real events in history in their notebook.

Not only is this a fun class, but it allows for exploration and reflection among the students. They are shocked to find out how accurately they portray history simply by knowing about the problems of the Articles of Confederation and by being Americans.