Author Misty Heggeness highlighted the significance of Harry Burn as it relates to the 19th Amendment.
Bell Ringer: The Constitution of the United States Vignette
This 1950s classroom film depicts the problems that led to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, such as Shay’s Rebellion and confusing state currencies, and then dramatizes some of the major events of the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
2025-2026 Supreme Court Term Preview
The lesson opens with reflective questions that ask students to consider their knowledge of famous Supreme Court cases and rulings, the issues that the Court addressed last term and the last term’s impact, and potential issues that the Court may address during this term. Students then watch, analyze, and respond to an introductory video in which Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer talks about the process that the Supreme Court uses to select cases each term. Next, students engage in an activity where they choose to study three cases that will be argued in front of the Supreme Court during this term. Students will conduct additional self-guided research as needed to determine each case’s petitioner(s) and respondent(s), key issue(s), expected outcome, facts of the case, and question(s) before the court, presenting their findings to the class.
Bell Ringer: Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Legal Analysis and Originalism
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett talked about the different between original public meaning and original intent, the use of history in legal analysis, the legal analysis of unenumerated rights, and why she is an originalist.
Bell Ringer: Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the Shadow Docket
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett talked about the Court’s emergency docket, also known as the shadow docket. Justice Barrett spoke at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia with president & CEO Jeffrey Rosen.
The Great Debate on the Constitution
This resource pairs the text of the U.S. Constitution with the Federalist Papers.
AP U.S. Government and Politics Featured Resources Collection
This is a collection of lesson plans and bell ringers that support the AP U.S. Government and Politics course. They are organized by unit, include required Supreme Court cases as well as practice Free Response prompts and review resources.
Formation of State Constitutions
This lesson plan opens with reflective question that asks students to reflect the development of laws in the United States. Students then watch, analyze, and respond to an introductory video clip that details the goals of the writers of the first state constitutions. Next, students view for videos that provide historical background information, including uncertainty during the revolutionary era, what the colonists agreed upon, and how citizenship and society were viewed in the wake of the Enlightenment. Students then are assigned to study either Virginia’s, Pennsylvania’s, or Massachusetts’ first state constitution. After viewing the video clip for their assigned constitution, students then choose another first state constitution of choice and prepare a presentation comparing the two. The lesson concludes with a reflective video clip before students respond to a summative writing prompt.
Civic Online Reasoning for the Science Classroom
Scientific misinformation abounds online. Improve students’ ability to evaluate scientific information on the internet with these curricular materials. These lessons and tasks can be used in a variety of subject areas, but we’ve compiled this group of materials specifically for science educators because they present students with science-related sources.
Reading Like a Historian Lessons for K-5
With the support of the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) participants and in collaboration with Los Angeles Unified School District, the Digital Inquiry Group has developed 10 new Reading Like a Historian lessons for K-5 classrooms aligned to the themes and design principles of the EAD Roadmap.