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Here is a great summary by the NYT about Supreme Court cases that revolves around student freedoms - it is a great catalyst for discussions and student involvement in politics and student government.

Fabulous site. Every high school student will be fascinated to read about cases involving school and teens. The SC cases are beautifully analyzed and very accessible for high school kids.

So helpful even for my middle school students, I think. I even learned some things! Who knew that 28 states still allow corporal punishment? I especially love the "impact" sections, which show how influential these rulings can be on future cases.

"This relic from ancient Persia had a profound influence on the Founding Fathers" <br /> This might be a good short video to show middle school students when we try to connect US history to ancient history.... Thomas Jefferson apparently studied ancient Persia as a model for governing people with different religious practices.

Thank you so much. I am definitely going to check this out! We are always looking for ways to connect the ancient world to the modern one.

Tons of good things on this site - videos about government (which I find really hard to locate), interactive games, readings and information about federalism, rights and equality.  There are a lot of resources here, including an entire section for teachers.  I think it is mostly geared towards middle and high school teachers.

Designed for 4th through 12th grade, has pre quizzes, an interactive tour and post quizzes. Solid explanations of processes, understandable by kids around middle school age and up, not dumbed down though. I can see having this as a center-type activity.

VERY useful for intermediate and middle. Definitely a keeper!

These lessons (geared toward middle school or lower level high school) ask students to closely read the Declaration of Independence, summarize key parts of it, and then use persuasive writing and evidence from the document to answer open response type questions. These lessons address several Common Core Standards.

I went searching for a useful article on the Shelby County v. Holder decision. I wanted to supplement the material provided in the Middle School Lesson for this week, which covered a history of voting rights in America. The materials did not go so far as to include this recent development, which arguable disenfranchised a large portion of Americans. I would read this article with the students and then add a character for "period 4" in the lesson who, students would realize, may be disenfranchised by this 2013 Supreme Court decision.

And make sure students realize the close proximity in date of this article and story. This is as current as it gets.

This might be a stretch for elementary and middle school. But I think it's workable for 8th grade and beyond. The lesson has students learning about the distinction between a democratic republic and direct democracy using Federalist paper No. 10

Agreed about the stretch. I would even say this is too tough for grade 8 since the vocab is dense. Would need a lot of infrastructure to get kids prepared.

This is a handy cheat sheet to compare the major differences between the Federalists and Antifederalists. It also includes an activity called "Who would say that?" that would help kids to apply their knowledge.

This is a great site for middle and high school. Emily, now I see where you got your material for your lesson.

This games has students play each of the branches of government in order to create laws, support and defend them. It's simplified enough for young students (upper elementary and middle school) and very engaging. It takes about 30 minutes to play the whole game, but I was able to get quite a bit out of it in just 10 minutes. It helps to clarify the roles of each of the branches of government and how they work together.

Annenberg materials are always reliable and both the games are certainly usable for upper elementary students.

This is a card-matching game providing students with practice classifying information by culture. Key topics for comparison/contrast and sorting include citizenship requirements, legislative function, selection of the executive, characteristics of a jury, role of trial lawyers, law code, uses of the Death Penalty, use of slavery, position of women. Overall goal of lesson is to provide students with reinforcement of key ideas and talking points for considering the impact of Ancient Athenian and Ancient Roman democracy on the United States.

Great game for middle school students.

This will be perfect for my curriculum. It is nice to have a whole class of researchers helping me out! Have you used this before, Allison?

A variety of games built on the founding documents; one fun one is "Do I Have a RIght?" Great for middle school.

This website has interactive games to understand the branches of the government, the Supreme Court and and passing laws. There are also teacher resources, which include curriculum units on topics such as the Constitution, citizenship, the branches of government and state and local government.

I am really excited to use this website and all that it has to offer in terms of teaching about the Constitution as a living document. Peter Sagal's journeys across America and reflects on the magnificence and limitations of the Constitution. He speaks in student-friendly language, uses compelling graphics, and addresses ideas that will attract student attention (such as women in sports and how far we have come).

And, there are differentiated guides for middle and high school. Anything coming from PBS is reliable and well-researched.

This website provides a great breakdown of the Constitution in kid-friendly language. It can be a great resource for lower achieving students who are trying to tackle the often complex language of the document.

I like this site because it is so available for middle school kids. Well worth bookmarking and using.