Lesson: Indian Tribe Constitution Scavenger Hunt

By:  Laura Oyen, Battle Creek Middle School

Course:  American History or American Indian History:  Grades 7-8

# Days:   1-2 (50 minute class period.)

Standards:  Government & Citizenship

§         The student will describe the relationships the U.S. has with other nations in the world.

§         Students understand other government systems in the world.

Content and Habits of Thinking:

§         Students will examine Constitutions of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Lower Sioux Indian Community and the United States of America.

§         Students will explore similarities and differences between the three Constitutions.

§         Students will compare governmental structure and individual rights between the three nations.

Guiding Questions:

• Can you be a citizen of more than one nation?
• How do the different Constitutions describe relationships between one another?

Lesson Sequence and Instructional Strategies:

Warm-Up:

Think, Pair, Share. 

§         Have the students look at the two posted guiding questions.  Have them jot down a quick answer to the questions and their reason for their answer.

§         Have 2-4 students get together and discuss their answers and then have a short class sharing of their comments/opinions.

Assignment:

            Scavenger Hunt Worksheet

§         Hand out the worksheet and copies of the constitutions to the students.  Working in groups of 3 students will read/scan the three constitutions.  Each team will need only one copy of each constitution. (You may use a portion of the constitution that you would like the students to address with the scavenger hunt to tailor the assignment to your needs.)

§         As a group they will find the information for each question and record it on their worksheet.  One student will be responsible for each constitution and finding the information in that primary source document. 

§         If a student has trouble finding the information they will look to their teammates first to find the answer before asking for assistance.

§         Students may need to look up definitions of words they do not know.

§         Students will compare their results document in the space provided.

§         You may choose to answer the questions for the United States Constitution as a whole class exercise/debrief.

Closure:

§         Complete the lesson with a group discussion debrief.  Review the guiding questions as a part of this discussion.

§         Pose the question: “If you were creating your own government what type of Constitution would you create?”

Assessment:

§         Student worksheet completion and discussion participation.

§         Possible extension assessments:  Have students write paragraph answers to the guiding questions as homework.  Write the definitions of two words that they need to look up during the assignment.

Materials/Resources:

Copies of the following:

§         U.S. Constitution

§         Constitution of the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Minnesota

http://doc.narf.org/nill/Constitutions/lsconstitution/lsconst.htm#preamble

§         Revised Constitution and Bylaws of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota

http://thorpe.ou.edu/constitution/chippewa/index.html

Scavenger Hunt Worksheet

            Guiding Questions Posted

Comments:

This lesson can be used as an activity for “Constitution Day.”

This lesson focuses compare and contrast skills by looking as similarities and differences in three nations constitutions.  The lesson also focuses Native American tribes as independent Nations.

Teachers may use other tribe constitutions based on the membership of their students.

This exercise may be difficult for struggling readers, as a modification you can limit the sections the students need to look at and limit the amount of information they are required to enter in the space provided.

I usually print the last two pages, the worksheet in Landscape mode.