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Teaching the Constitution

The U.S. Constitution contains many complicated ideas and concepts that can be hard for students to grasp. The resources below leverage the strong imagery of Mount Vernon's video A More Perfect Union: George Washington and the Making of the Constitution to help connect the concepts that shaped our nation's government in order to reach students in new ways.

Teaching the Constitution

Watch The Video

A More Perfect Union

George Washington and the Making of the Constitution

Watch VIdeo

Timeline of the Constitution

Discover how the Constitution came to be

View the Timeline

Online Student Quizzes

Find out how much your students know about the Constitution with these online quizzes

Quizzes

Vocabulary of the Constitution

Students use flashcards, quizzes, interactives, and worksheets to show mastery of the advanced vocabulary about the Constitution used in the video A More Perfect Union: George Washington and the Making of the Constitution

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Key Concepts of the Constitution

Students use image-based flashcards in this lesson to practice and demonstrate their understanding of the key concepts of the Constitution presented in the video A More Perfect Union: George Washington and the Making of the Constitution.

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The Constitution as a Job Description

Students use Article 1 and Article 2 of the Constitution, along with George Washington's own notes on presidential powers to create a job description for the President of the United States.

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20 Questions for Reading and Evaluating Historic Prints

Students read and analyze two historic prints with the help of twenty guiding questions in this worksheet.

Download the Worksheet

The Constitutional Convention through Biography

Students take on the roles of delegates to the Constitutional Convention to gain insight into individual perspectives at the crucial moment when the Constitutional Convention debated representation.

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Breaking and Mending the Two Term Precedent

Students are asked to draw a connection between George Washington’s establishment of the two-term precedent for the presidency and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s breaking of that precedent nearly 150 years later by analyzing multiple primary and secondary sources.

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A Teacher's Perspective

Read about how Ohio High School teacher Sean Brennan uses Mount Vernon resources in his classroom to discuss Washington's leadership during the Constitutional Convention in the recent blog post: A Teacher’s Perspective: George Washington and the Principles of the Constitution

Learn More

Teaching the Constitution

Teaching the Constitution

A More Perfect Union

Timeline of the Constitution

Online Student Quizzes

Vocabulary of the Constitution

Key Concepts of the Constitution

The Constitution as a Job Description

20 Questions for Reading and Evaluating Historic Prints

The Constitutional Convention through Biography

Breaking and Mending the Two Term Precedent

A Teacher's Perspective

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