Major Concepts:

Suggested Activity:

This lesson is the first in which students are to use previous knowledge in the construction of new knowledge through authentic role playing. It is assumed that the students who used the middle school CROSSROADS curriculum are fairly well grounded in those major features of the Constitution relating to this lesson; that is, the powers of Congress and the executive. If not, it will be necessary to include a lesson on those features.

1. Begin this lesson by summarizing the previous lesson's objectives. Note especially the following:
   1. Eighteenth-century thought about politics and government was quite different from modern political thought.

   2. Americans in 1787 shared many ideas about what government should be like and also disagreed on some.

   3. American political leaders in 1787 were willing (to varying degrees) to set aside differences in an effort to forge a governmental structure for a new nation.

2. See "Mock Constitutional Conventions for High School Students" in Schechter and Bernstein's New York and the Bicentennial for the procedure for conducting a mock convention.

3. Following the conclusion of the "Convention," have students return to their "expert" groups from Lesson Three and convene to debate whether to ratify or reject the proposed Constitution. Students should use their original position paper, juxtaposed to the "Convention" deliberations in their discussions whether to ratify or not.