TPACK Template

Content

Subject Civics & Economics

Grade Level 7th Grade

Learning Objective CE.2 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the

foundations of American constitutional government by
b) explaining the significance of the charters of the Virginia
Company of London, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the
Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and the Constitution of
the United States, including the Bill of Rights;

CE.4 The student will demonstrate knowledge of personal

character traits that facilitate thoughtful and effective
participation in civic life by

f) practicing decision making;

Pedagogy

Online Activity In this activity, the students will demonstrate knowledge of the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights to make decisions regarding
the American Colonists.

Prior to the simulation activity, the teacher and students will

participate in a group discussion.
The teacher will first ask the students to list the Bill of
Rights. The students should be able to do this easily
based on previous readings and lessons taught on the
subject.
The teacher will then ask the students to imagine not
having those rights at all. The students will think about
how different life would be if they did not have these
rights governed to them.
The teacher will then ask the students if they were put
in a situation where they were forced to make
decisions regarding the rights of people, would it be
easy or difficult? Why or why not?

After the discussion, the teacher will explain the simulation

activity to the students. The teacher will tell the students to
pay close attention to the scenarios asked as well as the
choices they make.
 In the simulation activity, the students will work individually to
act as a governor prior to the American Revolution, making
decisions to appease the King as well as support the rights of
the colonists. The student will be presented with ten different
scenarios, in which they must decide what to do. Each scenario
relates to one right in the Bill of Rights. Based on their decision,
the colonists will be either upset and pushed closer to
revolution or happy to have a governor who supports their
rights. However, supporting the rights of the colonists typically
upsets the king, so the students will be faced with difficult
decisions. The purpose of the game is to keep the balance
between order and disorder.

Being able to make these decisions and see the effect they
have on the colonists will give the students a better
understanding of the necessity to have these freedoms.
The simulation will allow the students to not only understand
the significance of the Bill of Rights, but also how difficult it
was to make decisions to appease the king without violating
those basic rights. From this activity, the students will further
understand how essential the Bill of Rights is to the
constitution.

After completing the simulation, the students must use the

microphone or the chat area to give a summary of the
simulation to the teacher. This will be done individually. The
students will:
1) Explain if they had order or disorder among the
colonists after completing the simulation.
2) List two of the decisions they were faced with and why
they made the choices they made
3) Explain why the Bill of Rights is so important and how
this simulation helped them understand this
importance.

gyTechnolo

Technology The Hot Seat of The Government game in the Bill of

Rights Section of the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher
Community Website
http://teachers.history.org/resources/multimedia