Civics: Individual Rights and Responsibilities in NYS

What Rights does New York Value the most and do our policies align with these values? This lesson asks students to analyze the first two articles of the NY Constitution to gain insight on what New Yorkers value/ have valued.  Students will also read to determine if our values are expressed in our laws by comparing them to the Federal standards. Once students establish context of individual rights in New York they are asked to complete research and develop and argument regarding felon voter laws and see if we live up to the values we project in our legal documents.

If you are a teacher who utilized one or more of our lesson plans, please complete this brief, 1 page survey to help us continue to make improvements to our program.

• Full Lesson Plan Individual Rights – MS Word
• Full Lesson Plan Individual Rights – PDF
• Facts Regarding New York’s Constitution and  Constitutional Conventions – PDF
• Controversial Discourse in the Social Studies Classroom – MS Word
• Controversial Discourse in the Social Studies Classroom – PDF
• Discussion sentence frames – PDF
• Felony research Worksheet– MS Word
• Felony research Worksheet – PDF
• Individual rights  – MS PPT
• NY Expansion of Federal Rights worksheet portrait – MS Word
• NY Expansion of Federal Rights worksheet portrait – PDF
• NY profile – PDF
• NYS Constitution Structure and Values Worksheet – MS Word
• NYS Constitution Structure and Values Worksheet – PDF
• The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies – MS Word
• The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies – PDF