Civic Literacy Curriculum
Question 5: How are changes made to the Constitution?
Q5: How are changes made to the Constitution?
A. Constitutional amendments through Article V
B. An executive order from the president
C. A bill passed by a majority of Congress
D. An opinion from the Supreme Court
Background
The Founders wrote the Constitution to ensure that the government remained bound to its principles and promises, but they recognized that to be a lasting document, it would need to be able to change. Thus, they included Article V, which describes the process of making an “amendment”—a change or addition to the Constitution—in which Congress proposes an amendment and the states ratify it.
Amending the Constitution is a two-step process. In the first step, either two-thirds of Congress proposes the amendment, or two-thirds of the states call for a national convention (the latter approach has never been successfully used, but it remains a way for states to make changes if Congress chooses not to). After an amendment has been proposed either by Congress or the states’ convention, three-quarters of the states approve the amendment, a process called ratification.
This process was not intended to be one taken lightly but instead ensure that a strong consensus of Americans supports a proposed amendment before such a momentous change is made. The high threshold for ratification, across three-quarters of the states, ensures that there is widespread support throughout the whole country, rather than just support concentrated in a few areas or regions or favored and imposed only by a narrow majority.
For the founders, deciding how hard to make changing the Constitution was a balancing act. They did not want to make it effectively impossible, as it was under the Articles of Confederation, which required unanimous approval of every state. On the other hand, the Founders rejected the idea of making the process easy, lest short-lived or narrow majorities make sweeping and permanent change to the nation’s core charter.
Offline Activity
Introduction
This activity offers students the opportunity to develop an understanding of the process involved in creating an amendment. Asking the students to develop and propose their own amendment to their classroom addresses higher-order thinking skills, as it moves them from a concrete (a pre-existing list of rules) concept to a more abstract one by asking them to consider changes based not only on experience but also by thinking about what could be.
Preparation
- Divide students into groups of 3-4, mixing support, core, and enrichment students.
- Provide the group with the Directions & Worksheet handout.
- Provide each group with a copy of the Education Constitution.
- An annotated copy of the Education Constitution is available and used to help guide groups that may be having trouble coming up with an amendment.
Required Materials
The Teaching Materials for this exercise include an annotated copy of the Education Constitution.
Instructions
- Divide the class into three groups based on level. Group A is the group that needs some extra support. Group B is the core group that has the core knowledge to complete the activity. Group C is the enrichment group who have mastered the material and are prepared to extend their knowledge. Pair those who need support (Group A) with those who have core knowledge and/or have mastered the material (Groups B and C).
- Provide each group with the necessary handouts.
- Briefly review the directions on the handout with the class. Explain to the class that they were selected to review the Education Constitution, which will govern the entire school, and determine whether or not it should be amended.
- Each group will propose an amendment to the new constitution. Provide the groups with 20+ minutes to read the constitution, determine the need for amendments, and develop reasons that their amendment should be ratified by the class.
- Circulate the room, talking to each group to make sure that they are on task and to answer any questions they might have.
- At the end of the time allotted, regroup and have one member from each group present the group’s amendment as well as the reasons it should be ratified.
- List the amendments on the board as each group presents.
- Encourage the students to take notes on the amendments.
- Once everyone has presented, lead the class in a discussion on each amendment, specifically asking if they can think of reasons why an amendment may work as well as what problems might result if it is passed (e.g. it doesn’t address the rights of all students, it only benefits a select group of students).
- Hold each amendment to a vote, reminding everyone that it will only be approved if at least ⅔ of the students vote for it.
Note: If there are multiple sections of a grade that are working on this project at the same time, you may want to work with those classes and use a two-step ratification process. This means that after your class approves the amendment(s), it will be sent to the other classrooms for the necessary ¾ approval (based on the total number students, not the total number of classrooms involved).
Discussion Prompts
Below are two discussion prompts that can be used by teachers in a classroom setting.
- The first discussion prompt will be one that is designed to support students that are not really understanding the content in a way that would help them to answer the test question.
- The second discussion prompt will be one that is designed to further student understanding of the content by making real-world connections, including connections to current events, and historical events. As your class progresses through American history, feel free to return to this question as a review exercise or a summative long-form question at the end of the term.
Background
Ratifying the Constitution was not an easy task. Once it was written, there remained the challenge of actually making it the law of the land -- under Article VII of the Constitution, nine of the 13 states needed to ratify it. While some states accepted it almost immediately others needed additional convincing. Two states, North Carolina and Rhode Island, were so troubled by the thought of too strong a federal government that they initially opted out of the Union under the Constitution and were briefly independent. The skeptics of the Constitution at the ratifying conventions agreed to back the Union if the Constitution were amended to add a Bill of Rights, clarifying the limited powers of the federal government and explicitly protecting key individual liberties.
If the Founding Fathers had not anticipated the need to make changes to the Constitution via the Article V Amendment process, we would not only not have the ability to change the Constitution in response to changing circumstances—we would not have had a Union at all.
Prompts:
- Why do we want to make it clear in advance how to change the Constitution with an amendment? Why is this written ahead of time, instead of assuming future leaders will agree on the process to change the rules?
- There are some who argue that the Constitution should be updated by Congress passing important statutes (which is how they change the constitution in England) or by judges making rulings interpreting the Constitution in a way that they think is best for the United States in its current circumstances, instead of using the amendment process clearly laid out in Article V. Why might we want changes to happen through Article V’s specific amendment process, instead of other easier or more flexible possibilities to update the Constitution?
K-2 Lesson
2/3’s of the Class
By Stefanie Kelly
Lesson Summary: Students will learn about the fraction of people it would take to change the constitution. Using the class population students will make a fraction model to represent the number of people required to make changes to the constitution.
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn about the Constitution of the United States and how many people it takes to change the constitution.
- Students will apply what they learned about the fraction of people needed to change the constitution and create a fraction model to represent that amount.
Grades 3-5 Lesson Plan
How Many Amendments Does the Constitution Have?
By Chelsea Reynolds
Lesson Summary: In this lesson, students will investigate how many amendments there are in the U.S. Constitution. Students will also work together in groups to create a timeline of when all of the amendments were ratified and will briefly describe the purpose of each amendment and the historical context of each amendment on their timeline.
Primary Sources: The U.S. Constitution
Learning Objectives:
- Students will identify how many amendments are in the United States Constitution.
- Students will place the amendments of the Constitution in order on a timeline.
- Students will describe the purpose of each amendment and will explain the amendment within the historical context of the time period that it was ratified.
Grades 6-8 Lesson Plan
Mini-Unit: The Role of the Constitution and its Amendments
By Jamie Warner
Lesson Summary: This mini-unit addresses many important questions and immerses students in the essence of the Constitution. The mini-unit will delve into the meaning of "We, the People," navigate the process of amending the Constitution, and foster critical thinking by examining the historical needs that led to the creation of current amendments. Students will also extend their thinking by crafting their own proposal for an amendment to the Constitution, using some frameworks adapted from the National Constitution Center’s lesson guide.
Primary Sources: U.S. Constitution, historical documents on constitutional amendments
Learning Objectives:
- Define the core functions of the U.S. Constitution and its significance in American governance.
- Interpret the phrase "We the People" and its implications for citizen engagement and representation.
- Explore the process of amending the Constitution and understand the historical context behind current amendments.
- Propose an amendment to help address a significant societal or governmental concern you have identified, based on your knowledge of and analysis of current events and national issues.
High School Lesson Plan
Changing the Constitution
By Ryan Werenka
Lesson Summary: The Articles of Confederation contained an amendment process that made it virtually impossible to fix the deficiencies in that governing document, which is one of the reasons why the Articles ended up being replaced. The United States Constitution created a different amendment process which is difficult, but not impossible and has allowed the Constitution to be amended 27 times in its history. This lesson allows students to compare the amendment processes of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution and to examine the difficulty of proposing and ratifying the constitutional amendments by researching several proposed amendments.
Primary Sources: Articles of Confederation, U.S. Constitution
Learning Objectives:
- Students will be able to identify the purpose of amendments.
- Students will be able to compare and contrast the amendment processes of the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution.
- Students will be able to compose a persuasive argument about a proposed constitutional amendment.