Constitutions

 

For our theme unit on citizenship and government, the students were tasked with creating a country and then later writing a national constitution to outline their chosen type of government, laws, and rights and responsibilities of their citizens. I think I was being a bit unrealistic about what a big project this would be for my students, but they did really well overall. We studied different forms of government and looked up constitutions from around the world to get familiar with the structure and organization before we drafted ours. After several revisions and lots of peer-editing (and what feels like a thousand years), we were ready for publishing. YAY! This part was, by far, the most fun we had with this project. We took sheets of white cardstock and dyed them with tea, burned the edges to make them look old and authentic, and then practiced our best penmanship to create our finished product.

If I had this to do over, I would have scrapped it all together because of the level of difficulty. Concepts like political ideology are a bit too advanced for my students. I feel like they learned a lot about the role of government in a country, but aside from that, this was a disaster. So, if you’re thinking about doing something similar, I recommend that you simplify as much as possible. Here’s a photo of one of the final products. If you want a sample constitution, send me a message and I’ll email it to you. Enjoy your weekend!