Educational Materials  |   There Ought to be a Law Website

Prior Knowledge-The Bill of Rights-Second Amendment

Before launching the first part of this unit, it will important for you to have an idea of the prior knowledge of your students regarding the addition of the Bill of Rights to the US Constitution and specifically, the need for the Second Amendment. Begin with the literacy strategy, Think Pair Share to have them reflect with a partner. Give them the question:

What do you know about the Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment that gives citizens the right to bear arms?

This activity will give you insight into their background knowledge. This unit would best be launched after students have studied the Revolutionary War and the writing of the Constitution, but if they have studied it in the past, it will also be appropriate.

When the partners have had ample time to discuss the question, continue with the round robin strategy and have all contribute to the conversation. This should be recorded either on chart paper or in a Noteshare Notebook connected to a LCD projector. This will be the beginning of the learning process and the students can embed this Noteshare page into their group Notebooks for later reference.

Without Noteshare, chart the responses and save it for later reflection.

Responses will vary and there may be comments that are not accurate. Chart the responses anyway and when others question them, make a note that the comment will need to be confirmed. This controversy often sparks interest and curiosity leading to a stronger desire to know more about the topic. This is a brainstorming session, so all comments should be recorded. When you have charted all responses, have them come up with categories for the responses. They may have a personal category, a legal category, a historical category etc. This process of categorizing will be helpful as they study the material yet to come.