Lesson Plan

Lesson: Intro Into Civil Rights and Informal Amendments

Class: Government

Length: 55 Minutes

Standards/Enduring Understanding:

C – 4.2.3 Using the Fourteenth Amendment, describe the impact of the doctrine of
incorporation, due process of law, and equal protection of law on the articulation and
extension of rights.

C – 4.2.2 Explain how significant historical events, including but not limited to the suffrage
movements and the civil rights movements, resulted in changes to the interpretation of and
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Objectives:
1. Students will be able to detail how the fourteenth amendment provides the ability for the
process of incorporation.
2. Students will be able to decipher how historical events influenced our interpretation of
amendments.

Central Questions:

1. What is the difference between civil rights and civil liberties?

2. Are amendments the only way to set and interpret the law?

Context Within Chapter:

For today’s lesson, we are right in the middle of our chapter on civil liberties and rights. Today
is about finishing up learning about the Bill of Rights, and turning our attention to civil rights
and different types of civil rights movements. For today, our focus will be on understanding the
14th amendment and how the equal protection clause, because these concepts need to be
understood in order to be capable of understanding the significance of the civil rights
movements, which we will focus more on in the following days.

Materials:

● Bill Of Rights Slides

● Letter From A Birmingham Jail Online Activity
Structure of my lesson:

1. Warm-Up (5 Mins)
a. Give students 3-4 minutes to think about/discuss their ideas.
b. Ask 1 or 2 students to share their thoughts before moving on.
2. 9th and 10th Amendments Notes (EMC) (3-5 Mins)
a. Slides 88-90
3. Right To Privacy Short Discussion (LGD) (5-10 Mins)
a. Present the questions one at a time, and give the students 1-2 minutes to think and
quietly discuss each question.
b. Have the students share in the large group setting following every question.
4. Informal Amendments/14th Amendment Notes (EMC) (10-15 Mins)
a. Slides 92-99
b. Gideon V Wainwright example for selective incorporation
c. Lunchroom example for “De Jure v. De Facto Segregation”
5. Letter From A Birmingham Jail (15-20 Mins)
a. Will be posted on google classroom
b. Check in with students as they work and answer questions as they continue along.
c. Let students know that the purpose of this assignment is to use the time to learn
more about the motivations behind the civil rights movement, as we will focus on
it more in depth later in the week.
6. Bill Of Rights Short Review (5 Mins) (IA)
a. Present each of the first 10 amendments to the students and have them volunteer
to detail each one.
b. Their quiz tomorrow is just matching the first 10 amendments.

Activities Purpose:

● Right to privacy short discussion is intended to create a discussion around the student’s
personal feelings about the right to privacy, and help push them towards seeing how
some rights are informally protected even if not explicitly stated.
● The Letter From A Birmingham Jail Assignment is intended to provide students with
some historical background information on the civil rights movement, so they have more
insight and critical thinking before we move towards focusing more on the individual
movements.

Adaptations/Modifications:

● Guided notes have already been given to the students to help them with organizing their
notes as they listen to lecture. We do not want the students to focus more on organization
of notes than focusing on the actual content and concepts.

Assessments:
● The short review at the end of the class period is an informal assessment to see how the
students are understanding the Bill of Rights, before the formal assessment that they will
complete during tomorrow’s lesson.