June 16, 1999	American Government:
Focus: the Bill of Rights	

I.	Introduction
overall lesson objectives
• the State framework describes this course as “the culmination of the civic literacy strand that prepares students to vote, to reflect on the responsibilities of citizenship and to participate in community activities.
• having said this, move focus to:
a. 	How did Americans learn to deal with their mistrust of authority and government from colonial times.
b.	Has this viewpoint changed? Has it’s expression changed?
c.	Does this connect in anyway to being a citizen and a voter?
d.	What rights do we have as citizens?

II.	What is a Right and what is a Privilege?
Objectives: to understand how a Right is defined in our country and what the basis of this definition is.

activity 1: 
• ask this question of the class and begin listing the statements on the board

RIGHT: 
In a legal sense, a right is anything guaranteed by the Constitution and its Amendments, as interpreted by the Supreme Court. Rights are essentially our birthrights as a US citizen. They must not only be demanded, but also understood, nurtured and protected.

PRIVILEGE: 
A privilege can be taken away, altered, and may differ from State to State and community to community. A privilege is usually at the will and whimsy of someone else.

General Discussion:
Lead the discussion into Americans original and current distrust of authority and government;
reason for the 
	checks and balances
	Bill of Rights

III. 	Objective: to use handouts as a means of discussing and focusing on the differences between R and P, noting that a Right usually has a specific part of the Constitution or Amendments associated with it.

	Activity 2: Jigsaw
Break students into groups of 4
• hand out “Sybil Liberty” sheets
• Assign particular sheets to each group: Privacy, Expression, Equality
• Have team divide up reading into 4 parts each, w/ one person to a part;
• read your part and review with the group 
• reassign students so that each group has at least one rep from each ‘sheet’

IV 		Objective: to use the Jeopardy game to consider and/or research the questions, prior to the game

Activity 3: Practice R & P Jeopardy Game  [use new teams]
• Hand out the game topics and procedures for review
• Examples of R and P: do a practice set together
• Have the teams review the statements and their answers, in writing

Activity 4: Play the game
• put up Jeopardy Cards “A – O while the students are reading, talking Begin Jeopardy Game
	use roll of dice to select a team [6 is dealers choice]
	let team pick speaker, then rotate around
	 go through the statements; connect to readings
	other teams may challenge the completeness of the answers