1. Lesson 3
The Constitution and Bill of Rights
Objectives
1. Students will know what went into the new constitution and Bill of Rights.
2. Students will understand the importance of our constitution.
3. Students will be able to read and interpret written material.
Bellringer: What was the purpose of the Philadelphia Convention?
Guiding Questions
- What outside sources did the Framers use to inspire our constitution?
- What was a concern about having a strong national government and how did they remedy this?
1. Anticipatory Set (10 minutes)
- Discuss 3/5 Compromise
o What was it and what do you think about it?
- How does it look when the delegates who decided our individual rights made that
compromise?
2. Input (25 minutes)
- Committee of Detail wrote first draft of the Constitution
o Used Virginia Plan
- Had to eliminate ambiguities
- Committee postponed some decisions about the constitution, but completed some major
decisions
o 4 year presidency
o More powers to the President
- Committee of Style and Arrangement made final copy
o Stewart Morris wrote the preamble
- Washington signed it first
- The Constitution was then sent to the states to be ratified
o It was to be the “supreme law of the land”
o No state could make laws or take actions that went against the Constitution
o Final authority
 Settled disputes between states and national government
- Many ideas embedded in the Constitution came from the study of past European political
establishments
o Parliament of Britain
o Enlightenment
- John Locke and Montesquieu both called for separation of power

2. o Federalism; created a system in which power was divided between national and
state government
o National government was on top though
o National government could tax, regulate trade, control currency, raise an army, and
declare war
- Constitution divided the government into 3 branches
o Executive, legislative, and judicial
o Stated in the first 3 Articles
- Article I; Legislative
o Congress
o Law-making body
- Article II; Executive
o Headed by President
- Article III; Judicial
o “One supreme court” and other lower federal courts
- Series of checks, balances, and vetoes
- Delegates worried, however, without a list of individual rights the new, stronger national
government allotted by this constitution might abuse its power
o Created Bill of Rights
o 1st 10 Amendments of the Constitution
o Focused on personal freedoms
- Natural rights serving as limitations on national government
o Used English Bill of Rights as inspiration (1689)
o As well as Virginia Declaration of Rights and Locke’s Two Treatise on Government
3. Modeling (10 minutes)
- Watch video clip; http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46861641#46861641
- Read article
o BBC
o “Obama Healthcare Law Faces Key Supreme Court Test”
- How is this article related to what we have been studying?
- Do you think it’s unconstitutional?
- How is this related to the idea of a “Social Contract”?
4. Checking for Understanding (5 minutes)
- EXIT CARD
- What steps were taken to write our constitution?
5. Guided Practice (20 minutes)
- Read US Bill of Rights
- Discuss what each Article means
- In groups, decide what 3 rights to keep