Objectives:

1. Become familiar with the Constitution as a document and as a body of law.
2. Gain a broader understanding of the applications of the United States Constitution in our lives today.
3. Recognize and define constitutionality in our legal system today.

Project Requirements:

1. You will collect twenty (20) articles from current news periodicals such as: Newsweek, Time, Cincinnati Enquirer, USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or other newsweeklies, newspapers, journals, or foreign press. You will then need to relate all your articles to various locations within the Constitution. (It is important to note that not all newspaper and magazine articles pertain to the Constitution.)
   
   Your collections will be graded on appropriateness of the articles to the section of the   Constitution  to which they are matched, the scope of your coverage of all parts of the  Constitution  (including the Amendments), and the breadth of the periodical sources you found. (It would be expected that you would utilize 5-8 different sources)
   

Guidelines for the Articles: (see Sample Layout)

• Each article may only be used once. (No Xeroxed copies, nor anything off the internet may be used)
• Highlight each article where it directly pertains to the portion of the  Constitution  to which you are referring.
• Each page must quote the portion of the Constitution which applies to that page’s article.
• Each article must also be summarized briefly on the page.
• The source citation must be clearly labeled and cited in its entirety following MLA form (identified on the Media Center) Website)

Guidelines for each page: 

• Use of word-processing is highly recommended for constitutional location, article summary, and constitutional quotation. If you choose to hand letter this portion of the project, you will need to be extremely attentive to neatness.
• Each page must be numbered.

2. You will write a 2-3 page (typed) argumentative (persuasive) paper which either supports or opposes the following thesis:

"The United States Constitution is a healthy document which still serves our nation exceptionally well and does not need drastic change or revision."

• The evidence and support for your argument will be your collection of twenty articles from current periodicals.
  (dated Sunday, September 11th, 2011 or later)  In other words, you should make references in your paper to some of the articles you collected.

• The essay must be typed and double spaced. It must be 2-3 pages in length and with one inch margins and 12 pt. type.

3. Organization of Project (in this order)

Title page (incl. Title of Project, Class, Name, and the date)
     See sample Title Page

• Table of Contents   (Must include the following components in this order)    See sample Table of Contents

• Articles must be organized in ascending order according to their Constitutional "address"
• Constitutional "Address" of the article. For example, I,8,3 or VI,2 or Amendment 14.1.
• Title of the page
• Source (ex. name of newspaper or magazine)
• Page number (in Arabic numerals)

• Article Pages  (See sample Article Pages)
  
  
• Paper
  • At the end of the project
  • Page numbers

Sample article pages will also be displayed in the media center.

Each student will be required to submit their first article fully completed to make sure they are on the right track. A due date will be given by each classroom teacher.

The entire project is due at the beginning of your class period (or prior), regardless of attendance, on Monday, October 3rd.  If the project has not been turned in at that time, it will be considered late.  If it is turned in late on Monday, it is considered 1 day late and you lose a  letter grade.  (5 minutes late will be considered a full day.  In other words, bring it to class completed and stapled together etc.)  You will lose 2 full letter grades if it is turned in on Tuesday (after the beginning of your class period) and an additional letter grade for each additional school day that the project is late.

Satisfactory completion of this project is a
requirement in order to receive credit for this class.

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