CIVICS Β· AMERICAN GOVERNMENT Β· UNIT 3
The Constitution Unit Plan
Everything you need for an engaging, student-driven unit on the Constitution in Civics or American Government, with easy-to-follow lesson plans for every day.
Unit 3 Overview
How was the Constitution built?
This is the third unit in my Civics and American Government curriculum, and it's the one the rest of the year builds on. Students start with the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, step inside the Constitutional Convention, and then dig into the document itself.
Along the way, they create their own class constitution, simulate the compromises of the Convention, analyze each article, propose a new amendment, debate as Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and look at federalism through a Supreme Court case. It even wraps up with a lesson built around songs from Hamilton.
You can buy every resource for this unit here, or join Students of History to immediately access every lesson online, along with every other unit in the course.
Day-by-Day Flow
How the unit runs
The unit plan guide includes lesson plans for every day, so you always know which resource to use and how. Here's how the unit moves from start to finish.
The Articles of Confederation
A PowerPoint with guided notes covers the Articles and why they fell short. Students analyze their weaknesses through a worksheet, debate, or digital notebook page, then start creating a class constitution in groups.
The Constitutional Convention
Pop-up figures introduce the delegates, and groups finish a class constitution that can serve as your classroom rules all year. Then a party-planning simulation shows how frustrating compromise can be before students read about the Convention's compromises.
Analyzing the Constitution
Students break down the Preamble, build the structure of the Constitution with building blocks or a notebook page, and dig into the actual text with a scavenger hunt or articles chart.
Amending the Constitution
A PowerPoint walks through the amendment process and well-known amendments. Students look at the failed Equal Rights Amendment and write a proposal for what the next amendment should be.
Ratification & the Bill of Rights
Students compare Federalists and Anti-Federalists using the Federalist Papers and Brutus letters. Then groups create posters on each amendment in the Bill of Rights and apply them to real scenarios.
Federalism, Hamilton & Review
Students sort federal and state powers and rule on US v. Lopez, then annotate songs from Hamilton the Musical. A Jeopardy-style review game and a School House Rock lip sync battle lead into the test.
What's Included
Everything you need, ready to teach
Every resource comes in both print and digital formats, plus a unit plan guide with lesson ideas for each day and links to videos and online resources.
- An Escape the Constitutional Convention activity
- A Constitution Google Drive digital notebook
- An interactive notebook for the Constitution
- A class constitution group project
- Constitution and Constitutional Convention PowerPoint lessons
- A compromises of the Constitutional Convention reading
- A comparing plans of the Constitutional Convention activity
- A Bill of Rights scenarios analysis worksheet
- A Constitution and Convention CLOZE vocabulary reading
- Federalist Papers 10 and 51 analysis worksheets
- A Founding Fathers "magic portrait" PowerPoint
- Constitutional Convention pop-up figures
- An Alexander Hamilton lesson plan built around the musical
- A Constitutional Convention study guide and unit packet
- Articles of Confederation resources and a Jeopardy-style review game
- An editable unit test
Teacher Reviews
What teachers say about this unit
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βThis resource made teaching the Constitution so seamless. It covered everything my students needed to know and is very well thought out. I also love the ideas for optional videos and movies throughout the lessons.β
Andrea T.Teacher
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βHighly recommend, excellent resource. The content is accurate, accessible, and aligned with educational standards, making it an excellent resource for middle and high school classrooms.β
Joshua L.Teacher
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βStudents of History Unit Bundles are incredibly helpful to planning a unit! They can be used with no prep if you wanted to! Very thorough including PPTs, worksheets, review, tests, etc.!β
Miss V.Teacher
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βMy students loved this! They were all engaged and actively participating in all the activities. It also saved me SO much time! Thank you so much!β
Katie S.Teacher
Two ways to get this unit
If you just need this unit, you can buy it once and keep it forever. If you teach the whole course, a subscription gets you this unit plus every other Civics and Government unit, so you never have to plan from scratch again.
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The complete Unit 3 bundle.
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- Every resource and lesson plan for Unit 3
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See the rest of the course
This is unit 3 of 11 in my complete Civics and American Government curriculum.
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