The First Amendment - Class Recap

I happened to be in Washington D.C. in 2010 when President Obama's healthcare bill was advancing through Congress. There were a lot of angry protesters outside the Capitol, using their First Amendment rights!

Hi everyone,

We had some good discussions today, looking at the first amendment to the United States Constitution. We also began class with a quiz on the Constitution and philosophers. Here's what happened:

Learning Targets Addressed:

Communication LT 5: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Knowledge LT 1: I can demonstrate an understanding of the interplay between citizens and their governments.
Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.

Soundtrack: “Don't Speak" by No Doubt. Selected because today we talked about the First Amendment, which gives the freedom of speech as a right. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 2/23/15:
News Brief - Katlyn
Constitution Test
First Amendment
Second Amendment

Homework: Read the blog! Get your forecasting done! Next news brief: Aldo (Ella/Chris).
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News Brief: Katlyn brought in the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: ABCNews.com - Mall of America Heightens Security After al-Shabab Threat. This article addresses the Mall of America in Minnesota, which has a large population of Somali immigrants. This connection (along with the video posted online) has led to heightened security at malls around America. Aldo was selected next for the news brief.

Constitution Test: As promised! I hope that this went well for everyone. I will try to have them graded and entered later today. The first 10 questions were about the philosophy of U.S. Government and the second 10 questions were about the Constitution.

First Amendment:  To start this section, I handed out a worksheet that had a few questions about what students thought about different aspects of the First Amendment. For instance, should burning the US flag be allowed? We debated our answers as a class, which took most of the rest of the period, then did another worksheet (I know, there are a lot of them to begin the semester) about the aspects of the First Amendment. At one point, I was reminded of the issues surrounding the press reporting on my mom, which made me think to show this Congressional record, about my dad!

We ended by looking at Tinker v. Des Moines (we will go into detail with this next class). This is a famous U.S. Supreme Court case about freedom of speech at school. Ultimately, the justices decided 7-2 that the students protesting the Vietnam War by wearing armbands were within their rights to do so. A summary of the case can be found here.

That was it for the day! Lots to do next class! See you then!