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Teaching the Constitution

Let's get constitutional.

  • Activities: 5
  • Quiz Questions: 107

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The U.S. Constitution isn't just a document—it's practically the document to end all documents. We'll help you get up close and personal with this granddaddy of historical pieces of paper and the government that created it, while helping you make sense of the Electoral College. Don't get too close to the actual thing, though, or you'll set off some alarms and end up surrounded by guards.

In this guide you will find

  • loads of resources, including approved-but-unratified amendments and articles about how the Constitution is still relevant today (who knew?).
  • close-reading assignments on the preamble, amendments, and the Constitution itself.
  • essay questions exploring checks and balances and the powers of the three branches of government.

Bonus: we don't use F's for S's, which would make thingf really confufing.

What's Inside Shmoop's Civics Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring civics to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

  • 4-10 Common Core-aligned activities (including quotation, image, and document analysis) to complete in class with your students, with detailed instructions for you and your students. 
  • Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students.
  • Reading quizzes to be sure students are looking at the material through various lenses.
  • Resources to help make the topic feel more relevant to your 21st-century students.
  • A note from Shmoop’s teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the topic and how you can overcome the hurdles.

Want more help teaching Teaching the Constitution?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.



Instructions for You

Objective: The Preamble is a critical introduction to the Constitution, and while this Schoolhouse Rock video helped a generation of students to memorize it, it didn't necessarily help them to understand it.

The Preamble concisely presents certain important, and controversial, statements about the origins and range of governmental power. In this exercise your students will break the Preamble down and think about its exact meaning.

Length of Lesson: One class period.

Materials Needed:

Step One: Start at the beginning. Read the Preamble to the Constitution aloud with your students. 

NOTE: It will be helpful for them to have individual hard copies or for you to project or post a copy everyone can work with in Step Two. 

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Step Two: Now, help your students to break it into phrases—bite size chunks that they can tackle one at a time. For example:

We the People of the United States, / in Order to form a more perfect Union, / establish Justice, / insure domestic Tranquility, /provide for the common defence, /promote the general Welfare,/ and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves / and our Posterity,/ do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America./ 

Step Three: Next, help students divide into pairs or groups. Ask them to turn these phrases into headings and list beneath each heading the critical principles and/or responsibilities the framers were attaching to the new government. 

Here are examples of what they might come up with two of the phrases:

"We the People"

  • The Constitution emanates from the people
  • The government’s power comes from the people

"Insure domestic tranquility"

  • Prevent uprisings like Shays’s Rebellion
  • Prevent slave insurrections
  • Maintain law and order

Give the groups or pairs time to make their way through the rest of the Preamble. 

Step Four: Bring the class back together and go through the phrases again, asking students to offer their interpretations. 

Step Five: Complete this exercise by projecting or posting Article I, Section 8 , the section of the Constitution that enumerates the powers of Congress, at the front of the class. Go through this Section clause by clause and have students identify which purposes of government listed in the Preamble is served by each of these powers.

(Lesson aligned with CA 12th grade American government standard 12.4.1)

TEKS Standards: §113.41. United States History Studies Since 1877 b1, c1A, c29B

Instructions for Your Students

"We the people." 

It's kind of tough to hear that phrase without immediately getting this image:

But have you ever really thought about the first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution? And what about the other forty-nine? 

Yep, that's right. The Preamble to the Constitution is only 52-words long. And today? You're going to consider every last one of them. 

Step One: Start at the beginning. Read the Preamble to the Constitution aloud with your teacher and classmates. 

NOTE: It will be helpful for you to have your own copy—digital or print—to work with.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Step Two: Now we're going to break the Preamble into phrases—bite size chunks that you can tackle one at a time. Go ahead and do this with your teacher and classmates. 

We the People of the United States, / in Order to form a more perfect Union, / establish Justice, / insure domestic Tranquility... etc.

Step Three: Once you have it broken into phrases, go ahead and form pairs or small groups. Then turn these phrases into headings and list beneath each heading the critical principles and/or responsibilities the framers were attaching to the new government. 

Here are examples of what you might come up with two of the phrases:

"We the People"

  • The Constitution emanates from the people
  • The government’s power comes from the people

"Insure domestic tranquility"

  • Prevent uprisings like Shays’s Rebellion
  • Prevent slave insurrections
  • Maintain law and order

Got it? Good. Now work with your partner or group and make your way through the rest of the Preamble. 

Step Four: Get back together with the rest of the class and go through the phrases again, offer up your interpretations and listening to what your classmates came up with. 

Step Five: Finish up by going through Article I, Section 8, the section of the Constitution that enumerates the powers of Congress, with your teacher and classmates. Ideally, you'll have it posted or projected at the front of the class. 

Go through this Section clause by clause and identify which purposes of government listed in the Preamble is served by each of these powers.