We the People


 

 

photos courtesy of Dave Liggett

We the People

About We the People

We the People...The Cit­i­zen and the Con­sti­tu­tion is an in­struc­tional pro­gram for High School and Middle School students which teaches the his­tory and prin­ci­ples of the Amer­i­can con­sti­tu­tional democ­racy while enhancing students' understanding of government. Students discover the contemporary relevance of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights at the same time. The program is based on materials developed by the Center for Civic Education and is nationally acclaimed by educators. We the People is aligned to the Ohio Learning Standards for So­cial Stud­ies and Eng­lish Lan­guage Arts.

We the People has a built-in authentic performance assessment: simulated congressional hearings. The simulated hearings allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles. Students will have the opportunity to evaluate, take, and defend positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues.

Format of Simulated Congressional Hearings

  • Students act as expert witnesses and "testify" their constitutional knowledge in the format of simulated congressional hearings. A volunteer judging panel- comprised of constitutional scholars, attorneys, and policymakers- evaluate students' responses. 

Preparation

  • A class is divided into six groups, based on the six units of the curriculum.  Each group has 3-6 students, depending on the size of the class
  • Each group works collaboratively to prepare answers to all the questions for the unit.
  • Students review materials in the We the People textbook and research other materials, preparing a four-minute response to the question for each unit and to get ready to answer follow up questions related to the initial question.

Hearing (10 minutes per question)

  • Groups of students orally respond to questions for four minutes (notes can be used)
  • The judging panel asks students follow-up questions and students respond (no notes allowed) for six minutes.
  • The judging panel members assess the prepared oral presentation and the responses to the follow-up questions using a scoring rubric.

 

 

For more information and details about We the People program, please contact Ryan Suskey (rsuskey@oclre.org) or call (614) 485-3506


Textbooks

We the Peo­ple text­books are avail­able for the el­e­men­tary, mid­dle, and high school lev­els to aid in the teach­ing of the cur­ricu­lum.  Visit store.civiced.org for the full se­lec­tion of books avail­able, in­clud­ing or­der­ing en­tire class sets of text­books.

The We the Peo­ple text­book is also avail­able in mul­ti­ple dig­i­tal for­mats, in­clud­ing an en­hanced e-book.  Visit www.civiced.org/resources/publications/ebooks to learn more.  For ad­di­tional in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing print or e-books, con­tact the Cen­ter for Civic Ed­u­ca­tion at (818) 591-9321

 


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