Know Your Rights

Use the attached Lesson Slides to guide the lesson. Begin by displaying slide 2 and introduce the title of the lesson to students. Transition through slides 3–4 and introduce the essential questions and learning objectives.

Move to slide 5 and pass out one copy of the attached Alien Takeover handout to each student. Explain to students that an alien nation has colonized Earth and the class has received a letter from an alien representative. Read the following letter aloud:

Greetings Earthling,

Due to the recent demise of your country and our subsequent takeover, you are now under our control. Under your past government’s rule, you were allowed certain “rights” that we are not willing to recognize. However, we are a just society. We will acknowledge and enforce two of the rights outlined in the first ten amendments of your Constitution (the Bill of Rights). It is up to you as a society to decide which two rights you will keep. This decision will be made by majority rule. You have little time to make your decision, so make haste!

Sincerely,

Zee-bo-dee-ba, Representative from Planet X

After reading the letter, draw students’ attention to the list of rights below the letter. Each statement briefly summarizes one of the amendments in the Bill of Rights. Instruct students to work independently to rank the rights based on which ones are most valuable to them. Explain that students should rank the amendments from one to ten, with one being the most valuable and ten being the least valuable.

Once students have finished ranking the amendments, display slide 6. Pass out two sticky notes to each student and introduce the Sticky Bars strategy. Ask students to write one of their two most valuable amendments on each sticky note along with an explanation of why they value that amendment. Tell them that they should write the amendment number small so they have room for their explanation.

As students complete their sticky notes, invite them to place each sticky note above the number of the amendment it represents. Have students place their sticky notes above each other in a column above each number to create a bar graph.

Display slide 7 and point out which two amendments are most valuable to the whole class. You may choose to point out other interesting parts of the graph, like which amendment was least valued. Ask students to consider why the majority of the class chose certain amendments. Facilitate a class discussion on the topic that lasts no longer than ten minutes.

Tell students to set aside their handouts in a safe space like a folder or other dedicated location. They will return to the handouts during the Evaluate portion of the lesson.