The Challenge, Week 7: Part 2

1. Constitution Day
     The first book I would recommend to my students would be The Illustrated Dictionary of Constitutional Concepts.  It gives brief histories on how we drew from ancient Greece and ancient Rome to form our own constitution.  The Magna Carta from England is also referenced so students can follow a sort of path that led up to our own constitution.  Constitutions from countries all over the globe are referenced so students can compare theirs to ours.
     The second book I would recommend would be the Bill of Rights.  After getting some historical information from the first recommended book, the Bill of Rights gets into the entire constitution and all of the amendments.  If students take anything away from our constitution it should be the rights expressed in the first ten amendments.  Those are the ones that we hear the most about in the media.  Freedom of Speech, Religion, bearing arms, etc. are mentioned almost daily in news stories.  Religious freedom vs. discrimination in Arizona.  Gun control and shootings in schools.  Freedom of speech, etc. have been hot topics in recent weeks.  this will give students the chance to feel a personal connection between themselves, their government, and the Constitution.

2 Oklahoma history.  I chose Plains Indians, A.D. 500-1500  I chose this because I feel that too little is known regarding Native Americans before European settlements.  The book appears to be thorough by covering Native American histories throughout the plains area.  I did not find anything specific about Oklahoma Native Americans, but I feel certain that if I read the book, it would cover this territory.  It would be a good book for my students to read to get the background information on tribes in this entire area.  Then I would have them read the Trail of Tears and/or The Long Death.  I believe it was called The Long Death.  It's been awhile.  These are books about the forced movement of Native Americans from the east to the Oklahoma territory.