Journey Through History

To help students learn what is in the Bill of Rights and why it’s important, I have students work in groups and I tell them that they can only keep 5 of the 10 amendments.  In the left column of this worksheet, they must paraphrase what is in each amendment.  Then, they must discuss with their group and come to a consensus about which 5 they can keep and use the right column for their rationale.  Once groups have finished, I usually make a chart on the board with one column for each group and check off which amendments each group would keep.  Then, I lead a discussion about why each group made the choices they did.  It usually leads to some interesting debates.  In the end, the students come to the conclusion that I of course wanted them to all along—that they’re ALL important!