Primary Source Learning: U.S. Constitution

Last Updated on July 26, 2021

Congress.gov Constitution Annotated analysis & interpretation of the U.S. Constitution

Guided primary source analysis activities

• The Constitutional Amendment
• National Anti-Suffrage Association

Lessons from the Citizen U Multidisciplinary Civics Lesson Library

• Find Your Freedom Beyond the Bill of Rights Citizen U Constitutional Rights Foundation
• Introduction to the Constitution California History-Social Science Project
• Journalists and a Free Press Citizen U Constitutional Rights Foundation
• The Magna Carta: Due Process from King John to the 14th Amendment and Beyond Emerging America
• The Meaning of the Federalist Papers Citizen U Constitutional Rights Foundation
• Race and the 14th Amendment Citizen U Constitutional Rights Foundation
• Securing Our Freedoms Beyond the Bill of Rights Citizen U Constitutional Rights Foundation
• Who Gets the Vote? Democracy Project

Library of Congress lesson plans

• American Memory Timeline: Primary Source Excerpts and Discussion Questions Related to the Constitution
• The Constitution: Counter Revolution or National Salvation?
• The Constitution: Drafting a More Perfect Union
• Encouraging Student Understanding of Negotiation and the Value of Notetaking during the 1787 Constitutional Convention Teaching with the Library of Congress
• The U.S. Constitution: Continuity and Change in the Governing of the United States
• Preamble to the Constitution Image Sequencing
• What was the purpose of the Preamble?
• Historical Scene Investigation: I Smelt a Rat
• The Bill of Rights: Debating the Amendments

Library of Congress Collection Connections

• Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention
• U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873

Primary sources & more

• Today in History: U.S. Constitution