Emojis are taking over the world, and the U.S. Constitution is no exception. Kevin McCraney is the We the Future Contest’s winner for Best Grad School Short Film. He gives us positive and negative aspects of the Constitution. He also asks: “Should robots participate in our society with the same rights as people?” Kevin’s use of emojis and his intriguing questions will keep your students’ attention and generate more discussion than one class period allows.
‘Speech Is More Than Speaking’
“Speech Is More Than Speaking” is a We The Future Contest winner for Best Short Film by Jacob VanDerwerken. What is Freedom of Speech if you cannot speak? Using American Sign Language, Jacob VanDerwerken explains the First Amendment’s Freedom of Speech is not just verbal language. This video is a discussion starter for students and adults.
How to Have a Civil Civic Conversation
Filmed on a Constituting America Winner Mentor Trip, five young ladies share their thoughts on how to agree to disagree and how to have a discussion and still remain friends. Through personal experience these students have learned a lifelong lesson. Enjoy learning their lessons while you discuss yours. When watching you will see each person’s name, title and number. The number is their age. The title is the contest area they won in the We the Future contest. Check out the website for the contest information. Who knows maybe soon you will see your talent on the Civics Renewal Network and Constituting America!
Enumerated and Implied Powers of Congress
This lesson has students learn about the concepts of enumerated and implied powers of Congress and explore real life examples of these powers. Students will use C-SPAN’s Constitution Clips resources to summarize the specific enumerated powers and identify the additional powers of Congress implied by them. This lesson works well in classes with one-to-one devices or could be adapted to fit a flipped classroom.
The Red Scare and McCarthyism
This lesson provides an overview of events such as the Rosenberg trials, blacklisting in Hollywood and the rise and decline of McCarthyism. Students will use information gathered from short C-SPAN video clips to summarize the government’s actions during that time and evaluate the appropriateness of these actions.
Constitution Clips
C-SPAN’s Constitution Clips makes the U.S. Constitution come alive by providing teachers and students with video clips from C-SPAN’s Video Library of the Constitution in action.
From Suffragist Sashes to Antiwar Armbands
In a 19th Amendment video, produced by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts for use in classrooms, courtrooms, and the distance-learning space, an unlikely connection is made between two rights activists from different eras. Suffragette Virginia Minor and Vietnam war protester Mary Beth Tinker were separated by 100 years, but their passions came together in the legal history of the nation and of St. Louis, where they each worked through the courts to make social change. Both cases were decided – with different outcomes – by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Ethics in America II
Eminent leaders explore hypothetical ethical dilemmas in this video series for college and high school classrooms and adult leaders.
Ethics in America
Build moral reasoning by examining ethical dilemmas in this video series, which uses the Socratic method to build analytical skills and examine ethical questions. The programs aim to sharpen moral reasoning without favoring a particular position by exploring ethical dilemmas in legal, political, medical, corporate, and military arenas. Panelists include Antonin Scalia, Faye Wattleton, and Peter Jennings.
Habeas Corpus: The Guantanamo Cases
One of our oldest human rights, habeas corpus safeguards individual freedom by preventing unlawful or arbitrary imprisonment. This documentary examines habeas corpus and the separation of powers in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as the Supreme Court tried to strike a balance between the president’s duty to protect the nation and the constitutional protection of civil liberties in four major Guantanamo Bay cases: Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Rasul v. Bush, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and Boumediene v. Bush.
Closed captions available in English and Spanish.