Introduction to the First Amendment
Grade Level: Middle
Overview:Students will inductively discover the First Amendment by reading and analyzing newspapers. They will discuss various circumstances involving the First Amendment, and so understand that in certain instances – libel, publication of national secrets, etc. – there is a limit to the freedoms expressed in the First Amendment.
Time Needed: 1 class period
Objectives
During your session, students will:
- Inductively discover the First Amendment in action through newspaper reading.
- Get an overview of the Bill of Rights.
Materials Needed:
Classroom set of newspapers
Classroom set of Bill of Rights (or a way to project the text)
Procedure
- Hand out the national and local sections of the daily paper.
- Ask students to use a colored pen or marker and cross out any articles in these two sections of the paper that contain criticism of government, government leaders or government policies and/or any that contain proposed changes of official people or positions.
- Discuss articles and any questions or “borderline” articles that students marked.
- Discuss with students:
- How interesting and/or informative would the newspaper be if all of the marked articles were missing?
- Have you ever known of anyone personally damaged—emotionally, professionally or financially—by something printed in the newspaper? Did this change your opinion of “freedom of the press?”
- Is freedom of the press absolute? You may wish to discuss questions of libel, free press/fair trial, publication of national secrets.
- Is the press—and the television/radio news—less “free” in some communities in the United States than others?
- Use a cartoon or another news article to illustrate that there are other significant constitutional amendments beyond the familiar First Amendment.
- Distribute or display to students a copy of the Bill of Rights.
- Review with them and/or have them find in the dictionary any unfamiliar words, i.e., “abridging,” “redress,” “grievances.”
- Allow students to choose one of the first ten amendments and find articles in the newspaper that relate to “their” amendment. Allow them to go to other issues of the newspaper or news magazines to find relevant articles, if necessary.
The strategy is adapted from an article in Update on Law-Related Education , Vol. 11, No. 1, published by the American Bar Association. It was taken from the Utah Law-Related Education Elementary Lesson Plan Book , and is reprinted with the permission of the Utah Law-Related Education Program
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, National Council for the Social Studies