U.S. Government Constitution Project
The entire project
is due at the beginning of your class period
(regardless
of attendance)
Monday, March 2nd.
Sample Article Pages | ||
Sample Page Layout | Sample Grading Rubric | Argumentative Essay Info |
Sample Page Template |
Objectives:
- Become familiar with the Constitution as a document and as a body of law.
- Gain a broader understanding of the applications of the United States Constitution in our lives today.
- Recognize and define constitutionality in our legal system today.
Project Requirements:
- You will collect twenty (20) articles from current news periodicals
such as: Newsweek, Time, Cincinnati Enquirer, USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or other newsweeklies, newspapers, journals, or foreign press. You will then need to relate all your articles to various locations within the Constitution.
[ It is important to note that not all newspaper and magazine articles pertain to the Constitution. Be especially attentive of news articles that are about State legislatures, executives/governors or courts (and thus not related to the federal Constitution). Civil rights cases are usually federal Constitution related even if they are tried in State courts. ]
The articles must be dated on January 1, 2020 or later.
Your collections will be graded on appropriateness of the articles to the section of the Constitution to which they are matched, the scope of your coverage of all parts of the Constitution (including the Amendments), and the breadth of the periodical sources you found. (It would be expected that you would utilize 3-5 different sources)
Guidelines for the Articles: (see Sample Layout)
- Each article may only be used once. (No Xeroxed copies, nor anything off the internet may be used)
- Highlight each article where it directly pertains to the portion of the Constitution to which you are referring.
- Each page must quote the portion of the Constitution which applies to that pages article.
- Each article must also be summarized briefly on the page.
- The source citation must be clearly labeled and cited in its entirety following MLA form (identified on the Media Center) Website)
Guidelines for each page:
- Use of word-processing is required for constitutional location, article summary, and constitutional quotation. If you choose to hand letter this portion of the project, you will need to be extremely attentive to neatness.
- Each page must be numbered.
- Organization
of Project (in this order)Title page (incl. Title of Project, Class, Name, and the date)
See sample Title Page
- Table of Contents
(Must include the following components in this order)
See sample Table of Contents
- Articles must be organized in ascending order according to their Constitutional "address"
- Constitutional "Address" of the article. For example, I,8,3 or VI,2 or Amendment 14.1.
- Title of the page
- Source (ex. name of newspaper or magazine)
- Page number (in Arabic numerals)
- Article Pages
(See sample Article Pages) Sample article pages will also be displayed in the Media Center.
- Argumentative Paper
(Must be typed)
- At the end of the project
- Be sure to use page numbers
Each student will be required to submit an article fully completed to make sure they are on the right track.
A due date will be given by each classroom teacher.The entire project is due at the beginning of your class period (or prior), regardless of attendance, on Monday, March 2nd.
If the project has not been turned in at that time, it will be considered late. If it is turned in late on Monday, it is considered 1 day late and you lose a letter grade. (5 minutes late will be considered a full day. In other words, bring it to class completed and stapled together etc.)
You will lose 2 full letter grades if it is turned in on Tuesday (after the beginning of your class period) and an additional letter grade for each additional school day that the project is late.
Satisfactory completion of this project is a
requirement in order to receive credit for this class.