This document includes images of the 1791 Bill of Rights. Although 12 amendments were originally proposed, the 10 that were ratified became the Bill of Rights in 1791. They defined citizens' rights in relation to the newly established government under the Constitution.

This lesson builds upon prior knowledge of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights by asking students to think critically about the issues and philosophies central to both. Through investigation and debate, students are asked to question why certain rights were added to the Constitution and why others were not. Such a discussion will encourage students to synthesize multiple historical and contemporary perspectives about their rights to decide if, in today’s world, we need different rights, if our rights are complete the way they are, or if the existing ones need change.

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, adopted through ratification, are collectively referred to as the Bill of Rights. As the first nine outline fundamental guarantees to the citizenry and the tenth reserves some governmental powers to the state governments, the Bill of Rights establishes limitations on the scope of the federal government. In this lesson, students will explore the history of the Bill of Rights and the meaning of the amendments included in the document through videos and activities.

In this lesson, students will examine a copy of twelve possible amendments to the United States Constitution as originally sent to the states for their ratification in September of 1789. Students will debate and vote on which of these amendments they would ratify and compare their resulting “Bill of Rights” to the ten amendments ratified by ten states that have since been known by this name.

The purpose of this lesson is to investigate the Bill of Rights through the perspective of someone living during the ratification period. After exploring the historical perspective of the Bill of Rights through study of the Dissent of the Minority in Pennsylvania, students will be asked to apply the rights they learned about to their lives today and assess, critique, and solve problems based on the modern meaning of these rights. In doing so, students will develop a meaningful understanding of the amendments, in their original and their contemporary meanings. This understanding is essential to foster active, informed, and rational thinkers.

This resource from the National Constitution Center includes an introduction, big questions, recorded class sessions, briefing documents, slide decks, and worksheets about the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitutuion.

Rap song on the Bill of Rights, hosted by Smart Songs, an educational music group, creating songs about history, social studies, geography, and science---providing kids and teachers with content that makes learning fun. ABC News Los Angeles and The Boston Globe have described the group as the current version of Schoolhouse Rock.

Many lessons on U.S. history, world history, and government from BRIA, Teach Democracy's quarterly curricular magazine. We have published this tremendous resource since 1967, and we continually add to the archive. Latest issues are part of a new series, reflecting our recent name change from Constitutional Rights Foundation to Teach Democracy. Access to these resources require a free educator login.

In this lesson, students will learn about the individual rights that are included in the Bill of Rights and current issues relating to them. Students will use C-SPAN Classroom's Constitution Clips to explore what each of these rights mean and determine how these rights apply to current events in America. This lesson works well with classes with one-to-one devices or in flipped classrooms.

That possibility of things going a different way is called contingency. In this lesson, students learn about the contingencies involved in our major founding documents, especially the Bill of Rights! This article and activity are a product of Teach Democracy's partnership with the New York Public Library's Center for Educators & Schools. Access to this resource requires a free educator login.

This lesson relates to the westward movement in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Students analyze the role that gunfighters played in the settlement of the West and distinguish between their factual and fictional accounts using American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.

This resource is a free, downloadable audio file of short music clips to use for instruction.

This resource includes the sheet music, activity instructions, and audio files for "Bingo" from the Elementary Songbook.

This resource is a free, downloadable audio file of short music clips to use for instruction.

Students create BioBags, a collection of texts that mark special times in their lives. BioBags provide a way for students to share a variety of events and texts.

Bio Cube is a useful summarizing tool that helps students identify and list key elements about a person for a biography or autobiography.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, scientists discuss their attempts to grow human body parts in a jar.

Students interview other students, choose significant life events, rate them, graph them, and write about one or more, in this activity that integrates mathematical graphing with writing.

In this lesson students explore a number of sources to create a biographical timeline about a selected person. Students collaboratively research and resolve conflicting information they find during their investigation.

The Big6 is a six-stage model to help anyone solve problems or make decisions by using information. Students can use this model to guide them through the research process. This resource guides students through writing a biography book report.