"The Constitution vs. The Articles of Confederation"
Overview
To ensure and enhance student understanding of concepts related to the Constitution and Articles of Confederation, specifically students will be able to:
- Explain the larger ideas of federalism vs. anti-federalism or states’ rights, and how those ideas feed into people’s overall political beliefs.
- Identify and explain the various branches of the federal government, the obstacles that had been faced under the Articles of Confederation, and how this new federalist/republican model of government grew out of those difficulties.
- Identify and explain the various powers delegated to the states versus federal government in both documents, what changed, and why.
"The Constitution vs. The Articles of Confederation"
This lesson uses documents, a chart and discussion questions for students to learn and think about both The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution. Resources linked within the lesson for teachers include readings about both sides and Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists.
Objective
The following linked Resources are meant more fo teachers to gain background knowledge and additional information before starting the lesson.
Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
To ensure and enhance student understanding of concepts related to the Constitution and Articles of Confederation, specifically students will be able to:
- Explain the larger ideas of federalism vs. anti-federalism or states’ rights, and how those ideas feed into people’s overall political beliefs.
- Identify and explain the various branches of the federal government, the obstacles that had been faced under the Articles of Confederation, and how this new federalist/republican model of government grew out of those difficulties.
- Identify and explain the various powers delegated to the states versus federal government in both documents, what changed, and why.
Activities
Compare and contrast the two documents using this CHART and the linked resources below. Similarities? Differences?
- Think about the beliefs of our political parties today. Who would be more likely to support the Articles vs. the Constitution and why?
- Pick one of the documents and pretend you are either a Federalist or an Anti-Federalist and write a 1-2 paragraph speech to give in support of your position.
- Assign half the class to the Constitution and the other half to the Articles and have them debate the following issues: taxes, interstate commerce, role of the executive (should there even be one?), judiciary (should there be federal courts?), and representation at the federal level
- A comparative analysis between our Constitution and system of government and another industrialized country. How does, for instance, a parliamentary democracy compare to our republican system? Should we scrap our system and adopt theirs? This could be a writing assignment, a teacher-led discussion, a class debate with more student-to-student interaction, or some combination thereof.