Of all the amendments found in The Bill of Rights, the First Amendment contains some of the most important freedoms for American citizens. A unit plan on the First Amendment features interactive lesson plans designed to teach about those...

What does "freedom of speech" mean to your class, especially in the context of Internet communications? In round-table discussion format, middle and high schoolers address the issues discussed in "State Legislatures Across U.S. Plan to...

Students research and investigate what laws exist about freedom of speech. They write an article about this topic. Students interview the students at their school on this topic. They take a stand and support their stand with facts.

Placing Ben Franklin’s ideas about a free press next to those embodied in the First Amendment sheds light on both. Learners interpret and compare two primary sources and then examine them in the light of a contemporary survey about...

Look at different case studies to discuss the ethics of journalism. Twelve real-life events are written up and your learners get to be the editors. Encourage your class to think about the implications of publishing decisions. After each...

A newspaper receives documents that reveal not only a devastating secret the public needs to know, but also troop movements that could put American lives at risk: to publish or not to publish? Using background readings, discussion...

The perfect resource for a beginning journalism teacher or someone designing a journalism unit, this activity prompts students to write a newspaper article. It covers all aspects of the writing process, such as a guided warm-up...

Not all news in a newspaper comes in the form of a traditional article; photographs, charts, and even editorial cartoons help spread important information, too. A civics-based unit describes the parts of the newspaper as tools for...

The contributions of African-Americans to the American Revolution are the focus of this Social Studies and language arts lesson. After reading and discussing Linda Crotta Brennan’s The Black Regiment of the American Revolution, class...

A discussion of the Supreme Court’s Opinion of Tinker v. Des Moines generates a discussion of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment. Although the key elements of this lesson are based on a video that is not included, the activities...

Make a study of the First Amendment and its relationship to freedom. Pupils rewrite the amendment and discuss the central idea before focusing on a specific phrase. After discussing, class members write a journal entry about the included...

Third graders discuss books that have been banned and the things that they have in common. They explore the concept of freedom of speech and write poems based on their discussion.

How significant was the Cold War during the 20th century? After reading and analyzing speeches by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, learners consider the historical context of foreign policy decisions made during the Cold...

Students see the difference between protected and prohibited speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment. They explain why free speech is essential to a democracy and consider how best to deal with speech they find offensive.

Prompted by a viewing of Emiko and Chizu Omori’s Rabbit in the Moon, a documentary about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, high schoolers examine a series of documents, including the Bill of Rights and the UN’s...

Young scholars create a lesson to present to the rest of the class about current laws, including expressing killing the president as a joke. Students research past events and current laws. Young scholars present to the class using...

Newspaper in Education (NIE) Week honors the contributions of the newspaper and is celebrated in the resource within a civics, mathematics, and fine arts setting. The resource represents every grade from 3rd to 12th with questions...

Research, role-playing, and reflection are the three “R’s” that form the basis of an examination of Cyberbullying. Although based on the Criminal Code of Canada, the included scenarios and case studies provide valuable resources for a...

Is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) good for America? The informative website is a one-stop shop for ACLU debate resources. Scholars read about the topics surrounding the issue, including free speech, national security, and...

Whether you are teaching a newspaper unit in language arts, covering the First Amendment and censorship in social studies, or focusing on writing ethics in journalism, a unit based on the foundations of journalism would be an excellent...

Students weigh rights of students and others to free speech versus the responsibilities that come with those rights.

Students consider how free speech applies to journalistic practices in light of a legal case involving two reporters. They participate in a fishbowl discussion about journalism codes of ethics and write response papers.

Fifth graders will practice the six parts of speech. They will also create a storyboard about one part of speech. The project will create ownership of the knowledge because of the freedom to do one's own assignment.

As a part of a study of the First Amendment, high schoolers research a current news story that seems to involve one of the freedoms granted by the First Amendment. Investigators decide whether they think the action presented in the story...