Unit Plan 11 (Grade 8 Social Studies): Writing the Constitution
Explore how competing state interests and ideological tensions at the Constitutional Convention produced key compromises over representation, slavery and commerce, and executive selection—shaping the Constitution’s structure and influencing ratification.
Focus: Explore how competing state interests and ideological tensions at the Constitutional Convention produced key compromises (representation, slavery & commerce, executive selection), and how those choices shaped the Constitution’s structure and the path to ratification.
Grade Level: 8
Subject Area: Social Studies (U.S. History • Civics)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Students investigate the Convention as a problem-solving meeting where delegates balanced large vs. small state power, commercial vs. agricultural interests, and moral/political conflicts over slavery. Through document sets, structured debate, and a mini-convention simulation, learners analyze why compromises emerged, what they settled—and what they left unresolved.
Essential Questions
- Why were compromises necessary to form a workable national government in 1787?
- How did representation, slavery, commerce, and executive power debates shape the Constitution’s structure?
- What are the civic skills of deliberation and compromise, and how do they apply in a republic today?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Compare the Virginia Plan and New Jersey Plan and explain the Connecticut (Great) Compromise on representation.
- Analyze the Three-Fifths Compromise and related commerce/slave trade clauses, evaluating purposes and consequences.
- Explain choices about the executive (term, powers, selection via Electoral College) and related checks.
- Practice civic discourse (listening, evidence, respectful rebuttal) to craft and defend compromise proposals.
- Connect Convention outcomes to enduring turning points and constitutional legacies.
Standards Alignment — 8th Grade (C3-based custom)
- 8.C3.Civ.2: Describe constitutional structure (branches, checks & balances, federalism); apply to cases.
- 8.C3.Civ.3: Analyze roles/responsibilities of citizens in a republic (participation, discourse, petition).
- 8.C3.Hist.4: Identify turning points and big ideas (self-government, federalism) and their legacies.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can show how a specific compromise solved a conflict and what trade-offs it created.
- I can explain how representation, slavery/commerce, or executive design connects to constitutional structure and checks.
- I can participate in deliberation by citing evidence, proposing revisions, and recording agreed-upon terms.