This lesson will be used on the second day of class to introduce the purpose for government.  There is also a survey for the students to take about the top 10 achievements of the U.S. government in the last 75 years.  There is also a powerpoint going over the first half of the key concepts in AP Government as well as a google forms quiz to give in the last 5 minutes of class.

Using Project GLAD strategies, students will be able to analyze the foundations and development of American government in terms of principles and values. 

Using an inquiry based approach, Michigan high school students will learn about the foundations of American government by studying the Constitution and exploring how it works today.

The Founders did not create our system of government out of thin air. They were well-read and lived at a time when many new ideas about government were being developed. They took their inspiration from the ideas of a variety of thinkers, but each of the following had a distinct influence on what government in the United States would become: Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau.

Helpful video to add onto a unit about the Legislative Branch or about Elections, Political Parties, and Interest Groups

This short activity helps students compare two drafts of the Preamble to the United States Constitution. It contains scaffolds for low-level readers.

The purpose of this lesson is to help students identify and evaluate possible causes of revolution by examining the causes of the American Revolution. In this lesson, students will be analyzing and evaluating the tensions over power and authority between the British government and the British colonists. Students will be investigating the world and recognizing perspectives by evaluating the disagreements between the British colonists and the British government . They will also be communicating ideas by analyzing colonial and British documents and describing the tensions between the British government and British colonists. Students will reading primary source documents, thinking about the authors and content of the documents, discussing these ideas with group members, and evaluating these ideas in a written response. This lesson was developed by Dorothy Kerby as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

The purpose of this lesson is to help students research and investigate the world by looking at revolutions around the world and governments created as a result. In this 2 day lesson, students will look at revolutions in other parts of the world and compare and contrast them to the American Revolution. Students will examine causes of the French Revolution and will compare the types of governments that were overthrown and the new governments that were created to replace the old. Students will compare and contrast the Declaration of Independence (U.S.) and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (France). Students will also create presentations depicting other revolutions around the world and how similar/different they are to the American Revolution and the French Revolution. This lesson was developed by Dorothy Kerby as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

The purpose of this lesson is to help students gain a deeper understanding of how the United States government was formed, and the people/ideas that influenced the founding documents of the nation. In this lesson, students will evaluate the importance of the Articles of Confederation and identify the weaknesses that caused the delegates at the Constitutional Convention to create a new governing document. Students will be recognizing perspectives and communicating ideas about the Articles of Confederation. This lesson will consist of teacher facilitated notes and discussion opportunities that will prompt group and classroom conversation. This lesson was developed by Dorothy Kerby as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

The purpose of this lesson is to help students gain a deeper understanding of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights which contains their rights as citizens or future citizens of the United States of America. In this multi-day lesson, students will analyze the U.S. Constitution and discuss the many compromises that took place at the Constitutional Convention. They will inspect the 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and choose one that they feel is most important and defend their choice in a written response. Students will be recognizing perspectives, communicating ideas, and taking action by analyzing the U.S. Constitution and choosing an amendment that is most important to them and writing a letter to a future generation of adolescents to explain and defend their chosen amendment. This lesson was developed by Dorothy Kerby as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

The purpose of this lesson is to help students gain a deeper understanding of the Declaration of Independence and perspectives of the founding fathers as they constructed this document . In this lesson, students will read and analyze the Declaration of Independence, while evaluating the impact it had on the American Revolution. To guide students in their analysis, each group will be assigned a specific task while analyzing the Declaration of Independence. Students will be recoznizing perspectives as they read and analyze the ideas put forth in the Declaration of Independence and other contributing theories that impacted the document. Students wil also be communicating ideas as they work in groups to discuss the components of the Declaration of Independence. This lesson was developed by Dorothy Kerby as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

This two-day lesson centers around a project that is designed to help students demonstrate knowledge of the key concepts and issues that they learned in this unit of study. They will be comparing and contrasting laws passed in the United States and South Africa regarding segregation and apartheid, respectively.This lesson was developed by Carolin Bethea-Brown as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

In this two-day lesson, students will analyze the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as laws passed at the state and federal levels that were used to systematically deny African Americans of their constitutional rights. Throughout the lesson students will draw comparisons between laws made in the United States with laws made by the apartheid government of South Africa.This lesson was developed by Caroline Bethea-Brown as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

This lesson is to be conducted over a two-day (90 minute block schedule) period. The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the role the federal government played in overturning laws that systematically undermined the 14th and 15th Amendments. During this process students will gain a better understanding of federalism, checks and balances, and judicial review. In addition, they will have the opportunity to compare and contrast laws passed in the United States with laws passed by the South Africa's apartheid government.This lesson was developed by Caroline Bethea-Brown as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

WebQuest on the USA. This activity is for Middle/High School. This activity promotes studying demographics of cities and how to properly cite sources.

WebQuest on the USA. This activity is for Middle/High School. This activity promotes studying demographics of cities and how to properly cite sources. This activity also encourages studying about different aspects of United States and North Carolina state history, culture and government.