Constitution Day Resources from CSPAN

[Frank W. Baker]

Constitution Day Resources

C-SPAN Classroom has many FREE and exciting resources for you on Constitution day this Friday! On September 17, 1787 the delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document they had created. Every year, on the anniversary of this date (observed on Friday, September 16 this year)
students all around the country observe the holiday by studying and learning about the U.S. Constitution.

C-SPAN Classroom resources include "Constitution Clips," an educational tool that makes the Constitution come alive through short C-SPAN video clips that feature Presidents, Congressmen, Judges, and historians discussing specific aspects of the Constitution. The videos are linked directly from the text of the Constitution for easy navigation and access. From "We the People" to the Twenty-Seventh amendment, we have it covered!

The Constitution Clips section also includes a tutorial on how a teacher has successfully implemented them in his classroom, a lesson plan in which students search for new clips using C-SPAN's Video Library, a dramatic reading of the Constitution, and a 18 minute Constitution Vignette with discussion questions. ll of these are excellent tools in teaching your students the importance of
the Constitution throughout history and today.

Constitution Day is also an excellent opportunity for you to launch StudentCam, C-SPAN's annual documentary competition, to your students. This year's theme, The Constitution and You: Select any provision of the U.S. Constitution and create a video illustrating why it's important to you" lends itself perfectly to the day, and you can use resources from the StudentCam website or the Constitution Clips to help the students understand the theme.

We hope you will also take advantage of the other FREE resources that C-SPAN Classroom offers, such as Timely Teachable Videos, Lesson Plans and Handouts, Congressional Chronicle, the Video Library, Interactive Supreme Court Tmeline, and our NING page where you can discuss ideas with fellow educators.

If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail] or call at 1-800-523-7586.