Goals:
To give students an understanding of the function of the Constitution and the government of the United States.
Objectives:
Students should be able to describe the functions of the three branches of government. Students should be able to talk about the relation of government and the Constitution.
Vocabulary :
Amendment
Congress
Delegates
Judicia
Legislator
The Senate
Articles
Compromise
Executive
The House of Representatives
State Government
Bill of Rights
The Constitution
Federal Government
Legislative
Section
Checks and Balances
Judge
Background Information
In order to understand how and where the laws in the United States are created it is necessary to study the institutions instrumental in the process. Above all other institutions is the Federal Government with its three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The Constitution is the law of these branches of government. They check and balance each other so as to ensure that not one of them gets stronger than the other. It is a little bit messy but it ensures the stability of the government and the well-being of the people.
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Each of these branches has powers and they work under the Constitution.
Legislative Branch:
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It is composed of a Senate and the House of representatives: the Senate has 100 members, two from each state; the House has 435 members elected from states according to population.
Power:
—Makes the law
—Congress can borrow money -Congress can tax
—Approves Presidents choices for government -Coins money
—Impeachment of officials
—Regulates trade
—Makes war, approves treaties and raise an army
—Vetoes the President
Executive Branch:
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The President is in charge of the Executive Branch and of its Departments: State, Justice, Education, Energy, Commerce, Treasury, Transportation, Health and Human Services, Housing, Agriculture, Labor, Interior, and Defense.
Powers of the President:
—Appoints officials
—Makes treaties
—Enforces laws
—Pardons people Vetoes laws
—Chief of armed forces
Supreme Court:
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This branch of government has eleven courts of appeal and 93 district courts.
Powers:
—Explains laws and the Constitution and handles cases involving federal law.
—Can declare the President or a law unconstitutional.
The Constitution of the United States has seven articles and 26 amendments. The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights. Final ratification of the Bill of Rights took place in 1791. They were introduced by congressman of Virginia, James Madison in 1789, in order to ensure the harmony within the Union. Some states did not ratify the Constitution on the grounds that it lacked a Bill of Rights. This Bill of rights was ratified in order to protect the liberties of the people.
Procedure:
This information is introduced to the students throughout the school year. Even when we think students have read and written sufficiently, there is never enough. This means that we have to make the material interesting. If possible, teachers should spend a few minutes reading selections from cases, or from the Constitution in a casual way. Students could become experts in certain areas of study. These experts could introduce a lesson, or part of a lesson, on a regular basis. They could deliver essays in their field of knowledge. Gradually all students become experts, and accordingly, the dynamics of the class is set in motion.
In our classroom students have a journal where they write daily on different themes. Some of these themes have to do with the language of the law. Whiting about the law will develop language sense. This is only one type of writing exercise. There are several kinds of writing exercises: creative, fictional, theatrical, scientific, letter form, etc.
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Activity:
Students act as legislators who are discussing the introduction of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution. After reviewing the history of the absence of children’s rights in the making of our society, they have chosen to introduce a children’s rights amendment.” They had highlighted cases such as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
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They had brought to light the success of the Seattle school children in abolishing corporal punishment from public education in Washington State.
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But what they really search for is citizenship in the Constitution.
Activity:
Let’s think about the rights of children in the Constitution. When the delegates where in the process of writing the Constitution they came with a compromise, in balancing the power among the states, Congress was to have the House of Representatives and the Senate.
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The House is based on population and in the Senate, all states have the same number of senators.
If this was the case, then, what happened with the vote of the slaves? “ m e southern states wanted to count their slaves as people. Of course, the slaves could not vote, but women and children were counted as people, and they couldn’t vote, either.”
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In this activity we have a number of problems to think about.
—There were 600,000 black Americans in the Country. 10% were in the North. How many were in the South?
—Black Americans could not vote, but if they could, what do you think they would have voted on? Could you actually do things like that with a vote? What do you think children could change if they could vote?
—The delegates reached a compromise. “Slaves would be counted as three-fifths, in other words five slaves would count as three whites.’’
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What do you feel about this situation in history?
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At present, children are counted also, but they don’t vote. How do you feel about this? Do you remember what the children in Washington State did with corporal punishment? What would you do in order to achieve the right for children to vote? What would be in the best interests of the children? Let’s have a court day and settle the issue!
—In the number of black Americans in the South, how many do you estimate were children?
—If black Americans were 20% of the population, how many people were there in the United States?
—How many black Americans were there in Connecticut? Is there a percentage increase in the country? In the state? How would a graph showing these data look like?
—How would you compare the rights of black American children and white American children then? And now? How about Puerto Rican children? Do they have Representatives or Senators in Congress? What are their rights as children? What do you think the rights of Maria B. are, if any, in light of the fact that Puerto Rico is not an official state, and that Congress does not have delegates from Puerto Rico as the other states do?
—How about Native American children? Anybody...? Do you think that traditional “cowboy” movies are in the best interests of the Native American children?
A last observation on language: the original Constitution did not use the words “slave,” or “slavery.”
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Our Constitution is mostly written in clear and beautiful English.
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This passage tells us, among other things, that we could actually have a beautiful language about an ugly reality.
Activity:
In Gomez v. Gomez, were the constitutional rights of the plaintiff violated. How would you apply an interpretation of Amendment VIII (1791) of the Constitution? “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.” Was the opinion and discretion of the judge in the best interests of the children? Could constitutional law be applied in a case of family law? Cases where family litigations are involved follow rulings based on the discretion of the judge. The judge bases his or her opinion on common law. This means, in the rulings of cases before the case being treated. Judges also listen carefully to the recommendation of family relations, witnesses, and all parties involved. What would you have done if you would have been the judge in Gomez v. Gomez?
Assessment:
Students are assessed by their performance during a trial or a court procedure. There could be several components of assessment. Writing is one way of assessment. Reading is another. Also, a performance assessment list should be designed in accordance with the personality of the class, and the particular subject matter. For example:
Task Performance Assessment List: A day in court
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|
Element
|
%
|
Student
|
Teacher
|
Total
|
|
|
|
Evaluation
|
Evaluation
|
|
Argument
|
10%
|
_____
|
_____
|
_____
|
|
Language
|
25%
|
_____
|
_____
|
_____
|
|
Common Sense
|
25%
|
_____
|
_____
|
_____
|
|
Research
|
10%
|
_____
|
_____
|
_____
|
|
Preparation
|
10%
|
_____
|
_____
|
_____
|
|
Clarity
|
0%
|
_____
|
_____
|
_____
|
|
Knowledge of law
|
10%
|
_____
|
_____
|
_____
|
|
Extra Credit
|
5%
|
_____
|
_____
|
_____
|
Field Trips:
Students should have a field trip to City Hall. Take students to chat, if possible, with legislators of the State. Some schools arrange for field trips to Washington!
