Welcome!The Freedom Museum established this Educator Forum so that middle and high school teachers can share ideas and insights relating to our latest seminar and lesson plan, both entitled
To Keep & Bear Arms: An Individual or Collective Right?This forum supplements the
To Keep & Bear Arms Web site where teachers can download our Second Amendment lesson plan and access related resources for the classroom. To learn more about other professional development opportunities, classroom resources and a school outreach program that will launch this fall, visit us at
FreedomMuseum.US.
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Have you used the To Keep & Bear Arms lesson in your classroom? Any tips you'd like to share?
2 comments:
These lessons worked great in my Current Events class, where the topic this unit is Violence in America. We began with watching part of "Bowling for Columbine" and some clips from a documentary on teen use of guns. For homework, the students used the worksheet asking them to think about the terms of the 2nd Am. The next day, they were divided into three groups and each group assigned one of the opinions in the materials to review and present to the class. After the presentations and filling in of the chart, we did several scenarios where students had to take a position regarding various levels of gun control by moving to a sign indicating levels of support or disagreement. For followup, they had to bring into class a current (last 3 mo.) print article relating to gun violence. This was much better than the usual gun debate!
I used this lesson in a standard level US Government class during the last week of class. We had studied the Bill of Rights and some court cases earlier in the course.
I combined this lesson with the one on Flag Burning because the issue of the upside down flag at St. Sabina's parish seemed like a good topic to link both lessons. The students were split on the flag protection issue as they were on the gun control question. Again, we are located in a relatively "safe" neighborhood in lake County.
The best thing about both lessons is that the students read multiple perspectives. Some of them changed their minds after gathering more information. Others reinforced their opinions with more facts.Their critical thinking skills were challenged.
They did have an opportunity to discuss how different their lives would be if they lived in a neighborhood where violence among children was a serious problem. I hope they developed some empathy.
The reading level of the 2nd Amendment lesson was a bit difficult for the standard level class. I really needed more time in class to make sure everyone understood the concepts in the court cases. Upfront Magazine has a readable article on the Heller case.
I may try this lesson with my AP and Honors level students next year when we do our Supreme Court unit.
The posters are great for display in the classroom. The kids stop and read them.
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