CIVICS Β· AMERICAN GOVERNMENT Β· UNIT 9
Civil Liberties & Civil Rights Unit Plan
Everything you need for an engaging, student-driven unit on civil liberties and civil rights in Civics or American Government, with easy-to-follow lesson plans for every day.
Unit 9 Overview
How far do our freedoms go?
This is the ninth unit in my Civics and American Government curriculum. Students revisit topics they've seen all year, but this time they go deeper into the cases, events, and laws that define our civil liberties and civil rights, and the moments when those rights have been challenged.
Along the way, students learn the difference between civil liberties and civil rights, take a Civil Rights Road Trip, analyze laws that limited Americans' freedoms, weigh the Patriot Act's balance between safety and privacy, and research a civil liberties issue that matters to them today.
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.
Liberties vs. Rights
A PowerPoint with guided notes defines civil liberties and civil rights. Then a reading on incorporation leads to a great discussion question: which right is most fundamental to our liberty?
Cases & the Civil Rights Movement
Students work through readings on major civil liberties cases, then get a condensed overview of the Civil Rights Movement with a road trip activity and readings on cases like Loving v. Virginia.
Challenges to Civil Liberties
After the "Pigtail Ordinance" warm up, students move around the room analyzing eight laws and documents that limited civil liberties, then discuss which ones crossed the line.
9/11 and the Patriot Act
Students read about the Patriot Act from different perspectives, role play suspicious activity scenarios, and write an essay on whether it was necessary or went too far.
Charlottesville & Current Issues
Students analyze the debate over Confederate monuments and the court injunction before the Charlottesville rally. Then they research a current civil liberties issue for an argumentative paper or creative "unessay."
Review & Assessment
Quizlet sets, a review outline, and online review games lead into the editable assessment, or you can use the paper or unessay as the unit's assessment instead.
What's Included
Over 40 resources, 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.
- A complete unit guide packet students use throughout the unit
- A full set of digital notebook activities for Google Drive
- A civil liberties overview PowerPoint with guided notes
- A civil liberties reading, in print and editable versions
- A civil rights history chart and civil rights legislation interactive notebook page
- A Civil Rights Movement lesson and a "Civil Rights Road Trip" lesson
- A Loving v. Virginia lesson and a reading on the Supreme Court and civil rights
- A primary source analysis activity on the Amistad case
- Overview of civil liberties readings and a challenges to civil liberties lesson
- A "Pigtail Ordinance" activity
- A Patriot Act readings and notebook activity, a "Spying on the Homefront" video worksheet, and suspicious activity scenarios
- A lesson on Charlottesville and Confederate monuments, with secession primary sources
- An activity analyzing current ACLU issues
- A unit review outline, review activities, and an editable unit assessment with a Google Forms option
- 12 supplemental worksheets on topics from freedom of speech to Tinker v. Des Moines
Teacher Reviews
What teachers say about this unit
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βThis bundle is fantastic and thorough. We do a lot of things still paper pencil and having the option of both paper and digital is a life saver.β
Sarah M.Teacher
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βI found this resource as a great concluding unit for my government and civics course. This drew forward great discussions regarding individual rights and how "fair" things were.β
Emily T.Teacher
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βMy students loved this because it helped them complete the unit and made the material easier to understand.β
Angela L.Teacher
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βGreat engaging resource. Easy to use within the classroom. Great resources to help move the unit along.β
Michael D.Teacher
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βEasy to use no prep unit for my government students.β
Brooke B.Teacher
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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 9 bundle.
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- Every resource and lesson plan for Unit 9
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See the rest of the course
This is unit 9 of 11 in my complete Civics and American Government curriculum.
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