The unit that my cooperating student teacher and I took charge of was

the constitution unit of a pre AP us history class. The constitution unit was an
11 lesson unit split into two distinct halves in order to adequately inform the
students on the subject matter both in the past and present. With these two
halves we hoped to accomplish the unit with one part dedicated to history
and the other part dedicated to civics. The unit spanned from the origins of
our original constitution until the addition of the bill of rights. Throughout the
unit we stressed the importance of compromise as an acting factor through
this time period. While we focused greatly on the constitution and the
government in the past, part of our unit dealt with the intricacies of how our
constitution set our government up and what that system looks like today.
One part dealt directly with detailing the origins of our government through
the political parties, ideals, and people whom created conflict and resolution
in the late 18th century. The second part of the unit informed the students on
how the constitution plays into our modern day government, such as the
establishment of the 3 branch system of government, our election process,
and the powers that each branch holds over the others, otherwise known as
checks and balances. The second half of the units goal was to work as a
quick snapshot of modern American civics.
The constitution unit is a direct sequel, both in our classroom and in
nature, to the revolution unit that we concluded within our first month of
student teaching. The revolution unit stopped with the Treaty of Paris, and we
picked up the constitution unit nearly right where we left off, with a lesson

that addressed the aftermath and issues that went hand in hand with an
American victory and their temporary constitution. In short, no other unit
would have made sequential sense to follow the U.S. revolution, as what else
but the creation of our government that has persisted into modern times
would follow our revolution chronologically and significantly. In terms of its
relevance to the content standards, the unit goals and learning targets we
established for the unit directly correlated with most if not all content
standards in place for 8th grade history and civics. While the lesson plans
attached to this work sample will detail the correlated standards, a snapshot
of our aligned goals can be clearly seen in our essential unit question Why
do people create government and laws? which directly correlates to the
civics standard the place of law in a constitutional system.
With luck, I began student teaching right before the start of the
constitution unit, and there are few other units that hold as much
significance and cultural relevance to American citizens as the constitution.
Globally, the constitution holds significance as without a stable blueprint for
our government the American presence that has been prominent since the
early 19th century would not have persisted. Along similar lines, there are
numerous countries that have mirrored both our revolution and constitutional
system. While we wont explore these other countries that used our
revolution as a template, the students will be informed enough on our
system that they will be able to draw parallels all the more easy when the
subject matter appears. Personally, as a U.S citizen it is important to

understand that no document in U.S. history rivals the significance of the

document that established a system of government and personal rights that
continually affect our lives in this country. That being said, it may not be
readily known to the students how much their lives are impacted by the
constitution. While we didnt go as in depth as a high school civics or
American government course might have gone, but we did aim to convey the
importance that there is not a person in the U.S. that the constitution does
not affect, both actively and passively.