Bill of Rights Day!

Freedom to speech.  Freedom to assemble.  Right to bear arms.  We know these freedoms from discussions in classrooms or in the media, but what do we really know about the Bill of Rights?

This December 15th take your students deeper into the freedoms we are granted with Russell Freedman’s In Defense of Liberty.  This Orbis Pictus Honor book breaks the Bill of Rights down chapter by chapter talking about the history, the controversy, and the ordinary citizens who have stood up for each amendment.  Compare this title to Milton Meltzer’s now of of print The Bill of Rights: How We Got it and What it Means to talk about how the Bill of Rights has changed even since 1990 as new issues arise, like electronic privacy and homeland security, which were barely on the radar in 1990 when Meltzer’s book was published.  Add in Kathleen Krull’s Kid’s Guide to America’s Bill of Rights for a look at how freedom affects even young people’s lives. 

Inspire your students with examples of those who have stood up for their freedom with Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott starts with Rosa Parks’ famous refusal to move to the back of the bus in 1955.  But you can go back even further in time with We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin to read about how this little-known civil rights activist staged his own bus protest some thirteen years before Rosa Parks.  Women, too, have changed the shape of freedom in this country, and Ann Bausum’s With Courage and Cloth explores the women’s suffrage movement from 1848 to the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Get to know your rights and be inspired to change the shape of your world this Bill of Rights Day!