Celebrating Constitution Day

Hello AHTC teachers!

Constitution Day is September 17th, and while that seems like that should be a far off date, it is actually rapidly approaching! Constitution Day, also known as Citizenship Day, is observed nationally to commemorate the principles and practices protected and provided for in the Constitution. It commemorates the day the delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 met for the last time to sign the document they had created.

The theme of Constitution Day 2010 is jury service, something in which every American citizen has both the duty and privilege of participating.

If you are still looking for Constitution Day activities for your classrooms, look no further! The five websites highlighted below have numerous resources and activities intended for use in the classroom.

Your first stop is the National Constitution Center's Constitution Day Website. In the resources section, the website has games and lesson plan ideas broken out into elementary, middle school and high school sections. In the elementary section, there are short biographies of 55 Founding Fathers and an interactive Bill of Rights game. The middle school section features ideas on turning your classroom into a town hall debate on the Constitution and Constitution Newswire, which provides daily news about our founding document, demonstrating the Constitution's relevance to what's happening today. The high school level lessons features lesson plans designed to highlight civic knowledge, active citizenship, and democratic deliberation. In addition, the National Constitution contains a downloadable text of the Constitution, video of a naturalization ceremony and an opportunity to take the naturalization test for yourself, as well as full texts of all of the founding documents of the United States, starting with the Magna Carta and continuing through the Reconstruction Amendments.

Next, I recommend that you head to ConstitutionFacts.com . Constitution Facts also has the full text of the Constitution available (as well as the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.) Constitution Facts has a section about Constitution Day 2010, which contains a Tool Kit full of crossword puzzles, interactive quizzes, dates to remember and a glossary of terms. However, the entire website is a useful tool, with biographies, articles, overviews and important dates for America's founding documents and the Supreme Court. In addition, it has collections of interesting facts about the Constitution and fun quizzes about which Founding Father you would vote for or about the Articles of Confederation.

Thirdly, head to the National Archives's website about Observing Constitution Day. As part of their "Teaching With Documents" series, the archives has put together a series of activities using primary sources. Although most of the activities are aimed at the secondary level, the last link on the page takes you to a U.S. Constitution Workshop which is suitable for grades 4-12. The other lessons include a simulation of the experiences of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and a lesson about the ratification of the Constitution.

The American Bar Association Division for Public Education has put together a very impressive website of resources for Constitution Day. The lesson plans are broken into categories, including "Constitutional Rights," "Representation, Voting and Elections," and "Introduction to Rules, Laws and Government." There are lesson plans available for all grade levels. In addition, the website has a section on interactive games and quizzes and a section of Conversation Starters, which are short, easily read text or images that are meant to illuminate issues, explore areas of conflict and encourage dialogue. Accompanying each starter is a set of focus questions designed to open discussion about the topic and related issues. These Conversation Starters deal with issues such as "The Advice and Consent of the Senate," "War Powers" and "Separation of Powers."

The Federal Courts also have a website of resources for Constitution Day, and these are the resources that best fit the Constitution Day 2010 theme of jury service. Containing videos of the Supreme Court discussing jury duty, a student podcast on jury duty and a variety of other resources, this website is an excellent way of introducing the 2010 theme to your Constitution Day activities.

Lastly, don't forget to check out the AHTC website for lesson plans by your fellow AHTC teachers! In the Lesson Plans section, under Founding Era Lesson Plans, you can find lesson plans on the Constitution, Citizenship and on the Articles of Confederation, so make sure to check those out!

Please enjoy these resources and if you have any other suggestions or want to highlight what you did in your classrooms, please feel free to leave a comment here or on the AHTC Facebook page.

Enjoy Constitution Day 2010!

The Disability Rights Movement

As a follow up to this Summer's exploration of the Civil Rights movement, the National Museum of American History has an online exhibit that explores the Disability Rights Movement. Although it is not heavy on background information, the website has a great collections of photographs and photographs of artifacts with some audio and video supplements. It's an interesting way to spend some time!

NMAH: The Disability Rights Movement

2010 Civil Rights Summer Institute

One of the most fun parts about planning for the Civil Rights Summer Institute was the incredible amount of resources out there. When we were choosing books, videos, websites, and even presenters, we had a wide enough selection that we were really able to tailor our choices to what we thought was best suited to the week. We had the amazing luck to find teachers, community members and members of our own team who could contribute fantastic information, background and personal perspective to the week.

The AHTC is fortunate enough to have such a large group of smart, willing teachers to draw from when we're looking for presenters, as evidenced by the lesson plans page of our website (www.americanhistoryteachers.org,) and during the Summer Institute four of them joined us to present. On Wednesday, Izona Burgess led a session about the milestones of the Civil Rights movement and its legacy, using the lens of her own childhood experiences. Renayee Westfield presented her lesson "An Introduction to African American Efforts in World War II" which unpacks the significance of African American war efforts and explores the racism they faced at home and overseas. On Friday, Amos Lee presented his lesson "Race Riots and Reality." Amos's lesson looks at Jim Crow laws and race riots in Illinois, and then involves the students in primary source analysis, using interviews taken by the State Commission to Investigate Living Conditions of the Urban Colored Population, which looked into the economic, cultural, health and living conditions of the "urban colored" population in Illinois in the early 1940s.


In addition, Friday saw Mary Anne Jusko presenting her lesson "From Barbershops in Champaign, IL to Bus Boycotts in Montgomery, AL: All's Not Fair in 1954-1955 America." Mary Anne's lesson focused on bringing the general term Civil Rights home to her students by focusing on events here in Champaign Urbana.Using an amazing set of primary sources, Mary Anne's lesson looks at the local efforts to de-segregate campus barbershops.


On Wednesday, we were also joined by Terry Townsend, a community member who spoke about his experiences with the Civil Rights movement. His session " An Overview of the Civil Rights and Opportunity Movement and its Relationship to the National Movement" drew from his decades of experience working locally to improve race relations. He brought the Community Reinvestment Act to the attention of community leaders, which resulted in banks increasing their efforts to make loans to African Americans. He also served as a Housing Commissioner for 10 years.

The week was further enhanced by sessions led by Superintendent of the Urbana School District Dr. Preston Williams Jr, Ed.D and AHTC Activities Coordinator Jennifer Bredemeier. Dr. Williams presented on the process of desegregation in Urbana schools and its legacy for the district today.

Jennifer Bredemeier drew upon her masters degree in Human Resources for her Friday session "Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Discrimination in Employment." Title VII outlaws discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and her presentation discussed law cases that were key in interpreting that law and determining the different types of employment discrimination covered under that section.


Our last presenter of the week was Urbana Free Library Librarian Carol Inskeep. Carol is a frequent AHTC presenter and a crowd favorite. Her book lists cover a large range of ages and are an amazing resource for teachers as they are lesson planning. Carol presented both on Wednesday and Friday, providing the group with a very extensive list of children's books, graphic novels, young adult books and documentaries that covered the Civil Rights movement. As always, the teachers were captivated by the sections of the books that Carol read out-loud.


Thanks to all of you for presenting! You were a huge part of what made this week a success.

2010 Civil Rights Summer Institute Overview

Last week the AHTC Summer Institute on the Civil Rights movement brought together ninety teachers and twenty members of the community with professors, speakers, local presenters to remember, analyze, and discuss the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and its legacy.The AHTC was very honored to be joined by members of the community, including members of the local NAACP, president of local NAACP, Rev. Jerome Chambers, president of the Ministerial Alliance of Champaign-Urbana & Vicinity, Reverend Doctor Evelyn Underwood and former Dean of Minority Student Affairs, Michael Jeffries. In addition, several members of the Urbana School District administration, Superintendent Preston Williams, Assistant Superintendent Don Owen, Assistant Superintendent Gayle Jeffries and Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jean Korder, attended many of the days of the institute.

Starting off the week, eminent scholar, Patricia Sullivan gave a keynote speech on the history of the NAACP. She was followed by Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, Barry Bradford, a Chicago high school teacher who helped to reopen and successfully prosecute the forty-year old murder of three civil rights workers, Bobby Seale and Julian Bond. This amazing roster was supplemented by a presentation by Dr. Preston Williams, teacher presentations, presentations by local activists and a resource presentation by local librarian Carol Inskeep. Three movies and two documentaries were screened for the teaches and they were given over 20 books and magazines for their collections of Civil Rights resources. Overall, it was an amazing week, and we thank all of your for your participation and support.


Patricia Sullivan lectures in UMS 1520.



Ilyasah Shabazz with Jamila Appleby.



Teachers enjoy the displays provided by community organizations.




Barry Bradford addresses the crowd.




Bobby Seale signs a copy of his book for Priscilla Kron.



Bobby Seale warns elementary teacher Laura Martin that his book contains cursing and is not suitable for her classroom.



Julian Bond and Greg Chew discuss the 1968 Democratic Convention.

Stay tuned for more posts describing the Summer Institute and the wonderful presentations that rounded out our week.