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Constitution Day

This website is a resource of the SBM Law Related Education & Public Outreach Committee.

Timeline

    Timeline: A State Bar of Michigan Guide for Bar Associations and Individual Lawyers

Constitution Day 2011

Photos from 2011 Events

     
         
     
         
     

    Cooley Law School student Brian Laik fields questions on the 14th Amendment from 8th grade students at Clague Middle School in Ann Arbor.

     

    In Grand Rapids, Cooley Law School Associate Professor Devin Schindler, as Patrick Henry, and Cooley Adjunct Professor Gary Mitchell as John Adams, get into the spirit and apparel of the Constitution Day festivities.

         
     

    From left, Brigadier General Michael C. H. McDaniel, Thomas M. Cooley Law School; FaCheryl Dixon, Black Law Students Association; James Springer, American Constitution Society; Alana Glass, Career & Professional Development, Thomas M. Cooley Law School; Neil MacCullum, Collins Einhorn Farrell & Ulanoff PC; Judge Michael Warren, 6th Circuit Court, Patriot Week co-founder; William Allen, American Constitution Society; Aubrey Biache, Federalist Society; Daniel Levy, Michigan Department of Civil Rights; Saeed Khan, lecturer, Near Eastern Studies, Wayne State University.

     

    Professor William Wagner presents insights on early American statesmen during his Constitution Day presentation at Cooley Law School in Lansing.


    More News

Constitution Day Websites and Descriptions

    American Bar Association, Division for Public Education, “Conversations on the Constitution”

      This site encourages classroom discussions and debate about the meaning of some of the Constitution’s concepts and clauses, using a conversation starter, resources, and closing the conversation format. Topics include separation of powers, advice and consent of the Senate, establishment of religion, and unreasonable search and seizure. Free copies of the Constitution can be downloaded from this site.

    National Constitution Center

      Materials are directed to educators, students, and community leaders, and include lesson plans and curriculum standards for several constitutional topics. The featured program is “I Signed the Constitution,” designed for Americans to affirm their rights and responsibilities as citizens and learn more about their constitution. Classroom materials include lesson plans for middle and high school, and teach to a variety of learning styles, including visual spatial and visual linguistic models. Resources for the popular “Street Law” program are included in the community leader link.

    Bill of Rights Institute

      The Bill of Rights Institute is a non-profit organization that develops programs and curriculums designed to teach students about how our nation was founded and what it means to be an American citizen. This website contains various educational materials for educators to use when teaching constitutional principles that define our nation.

    Center for Civic Education

      The Center for Civic Education, in collaboration with the American Association of School Administrators, has prepared lessons for kindergarten through twelfth grade. Elementary lesson topics include authority, limited government, and the ideas in the Preamble. Secondary lessons include federalism, establishment of the executive and judicial branches, and the drafting of the Bill of Rights. The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to fostering the development of informed, responsible participation in civic life by citizens committed to the values and principles fundamental to American constitutional democracy.

    Constitutional Rights Foundation

      This site provides free online lessons suitable for kindergarten, grades 1-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12, and links to help educators design their own Constitution Day program. Sites include a link to download a Constitution Day Implementation Guide. The Constitutional Rights Foundation seeks to instill in our nation's youth a deeper understanding of citizenship through values expressed in our Constitution and its Bill of Rights and to educate young people to become active and responsible.

Michigan Specific Resources

    Korematsu v. U.S. Government—Defining Moments from the Past with Lessons for a Post 9/11 World

      Available through Michigan Government Television, this package presents curriculum materials dealing with the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, with the U. S. Supreme Court case of Korematsu v U. S. Government, and with the dissenting opinion in that case of Michigan’s Frank Murphy, a U. S. Supreme Court justice, former Detroit mayor, and Michigan governor. The materials target standards and benchmarks in the Michigan Curriculum Framework in government, history, and technology, and tell the story of Murphy and Fred Korematsu, a second generation Japanese American who was working as a welder in the San Francisco shipyards when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Their lives crossed because of the involuntary interment of Japanese Americans in camps following the Pearl Harbor attack and the resulting Supreme Court case that bears Korematsu’s name.

      Written in conjunction with a State Bar of Michigan Legal Milestone presentation, and with funding from the Michigan State Bar Foundation, the materials include a video, script, case, and student and teacher materials. The Lesson Plan Extension offers a perspective through the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the due process clauses of the 5th.

    Washtenaw County Bar Association Public Service Committee

      Lawyer in the Classroom Activity Guide designed for the Washtenaw County Bar Association Public Service Committee.

      • 6th Grade—Sixth Amendment guarantee of an impartial jury for criminal defendants
      • 7th Grade—First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
      • 8th Grade—Fourteenth Amendment guarantee to equal protection under the law

    Genesee Intermediate School District

      This page on the Genesee Intermediate School District website was compiled as the result of an exhaustive search for resources to help teachers. Links connect to a variety of sites and resources, including: National Archives Teaching with Documents: Observing Constitution Day, the Bill of Rights Institute Constitution Day Page, U.S. Courts Constitution Day Resources, Federal Department of Education Constitution Day Resources, to name a few.

    Michigan Supreme Court Learning Center

    Educating for Everyday Democracy: The Jury Process PDF

      This new curriculum is designed to educate high school students about the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the critical importance of the jury process in our system of justice. The curriculum is a suitable classroom activity any time during the school year, but is particularly appropriate for Constitution Day observances. Developed by the Michigan Center for Civic Education, award winning educator Wayne Bentley, and the State Bar of Michigan, the curriculum explains how jury service and diverse jury pools help guarantee due process, equal protection of the laws, individual rights, and justice in a democracy. The curriculum can be adapted for a variety of situations—a 90- minute classroom lesson, an assembly program, or an in-depth, day-long presentation. An appendix contains various other lessons that can be used in conjunction with this program. View the Jury Process brochure PDF

Photos from 2010 Events

    Photos are courtesy of Frank Weir, Washtenaw County Legal News.

     
    Federal Magistrate Judge for the  United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Virginia Morgan, third from the left, visited Scarlett Middle School in Washtenaw County. Also pictured are, l-r, student teacher Chelsea Raupp, teacher Joan Grissing, Magistrate Judge Morgan, attorney Suellyn Scarnecchia, and Jessica Sprovtsoff, law clerk for Magistrate Judge Morgan.   SBM Commissioner Lori Buiteweg taught several classes at Tappan Middle School on Constitution Day. Here, she speaks with a student in Pat Hueter’s sixth grade classroom.
         
     
    Attorney Betina Schlossberg visited Clague Middle School in Washtenaw County.   Ashwin Patel, president of the Washtenaw County Bar Association, poses with Rusty Fuller, seventh grade teacher at Slauson Middle School in Washtenaw County.
         
     
    Attorney Drew McGuinness visits Tappan Middle School, seventh grade, teacher was Priscilla Bates.   Attorney Stephanie Benedict at Slauson Middle School.
         
     
    Sixth grade Clague Middle School teacher Eula Eaddy welcomed attorney Andy Muth.   Attorney Rose Peruski visits Tappan Middle School in Washtenaw County.
         
     
    Federal Magistrate Judge Virginia Morgan discusses the constitution with sixth grade students at Scarlett Middle School in Washtenaw County.   Clague Middle School sixth grade teacher Julie Donnelly welcomes attorneys Leah Tremonti and Betina Schlossberg.

Sample Press Release

    Use this sample press release to advertise your Constitution Day activities.

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