• Define the differences between political questions and constitutional questions.
• Identify the seven methods of constitutional interpretation.
• Explain the importance of civil dialogue.
• Explore the structural constitution—Articles I through VII of the Constitution.

• Define natural rights, rule of law, and popular sovereignty—the key principles at the core of the American Revolution.
• Describe how ancient and Enlightenment thinkers influenced the development of many of the key ideas on which the nation was founded.
• Identify the factors that gave rise to the American Revolution.
• Identify key principles of the American Revolution in significant sources from the era.

Module 3: Road to the Convention (Primary Source: Federalist No. 10)

• Understand Shays’ Rebellion and its influence on the Founding generation.
• Describe the Articles of Confederation and determine what type of national government it established.
• Discuss what the Founding generation learned from key state constitutions.
• Explain why the Founding generation decided to write a new constitution.
• Examine the key lessons in Federalist Nos. 10 and 55.

Module 4: Constitutional Convention and Ratification (Primary Source: Closing Speech at the Constitutional Convention)

• Meet the framers of the Constitution and their influence on the new constitution.
• Describe the main debates and compromises reached by the delegates at the Constitutional Convention.
• Explore the key arguments advanced by the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists during the battle over ratification.

Module 5: The Bill of Rights (Primary Source: Virginia Declaration of Rights)

• Define the Bill of Rights and explain why the Founding generation added it to the Constitution.
• Identify the factors influencing the Founding generation’s move to add a bill of rights to the new Constitution.
• Describe the rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
• Describe the role that the battle over ratification (and the views of the Anti-Federalists) played in creating a Bill of Rights.
• Describe how the 14th Amendment and later Supreme Court decisions transformed the Bill of Rights through the process of incorporation.

Module 6: Separation of Powers and Federalism (Primary Source: Federalist No. 51)

• Define the separation of powers and explain how this system works.
• Describe federalism, including how it functions within our constitutional system and how it affects our lives.
• Identify where we see the separation of powers in the Constitution and why the Founding generation valued it as an important feature of their new system of government.
• Identify where federalism is in the Constitution and why the Founding generation valued it as an important feature of their new system of government.

Module 7: The Legislative Branch: How Congress Works (Primary Source: McCulloch v. Maryland)

• Explain the Founders’ vision for Congress and explore the key debates and compromises at the Constitutional Convention.
• Describe the role that Congress plays in the national government.
• Identify the powers that the Constitution grants to Congress.
• Discuss how the Supreme Court has interpreted the powers of Congress over time.
• Compare the Founders’ vision for Congress with how Congress works in practice.

Module 8: The Presidency and Executive Power (Primary Source: Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer “Steel Seizure Case”)

• Discuss Article II of the Constitution and outline the requirements to be president, the election process, and the President’s primary powers and duties.
• Examine the origins of the Presidency and describe the Founders’ vision for the  nation’s chief executive.
• Describe how the President’s role in our constitutional system has changed over time.
• Review the role of the Supreme Court and Congress in checking the President.
• Define what an executive order is, understand the roots of the President’s authority to issue executive orders, and study the role of executive orders in our government over time.
• Analyze competing constitutional visions of the Presidency over time.

Module 9: The Judicial System and Current Cases (Primary Source: Federalist No. 78)

• Describe judicial review and explain it is a key component of the American constitutional system.
• Describe judicial independence and explain why the Founding generation viewed it as an important feature of the federal judiciary.
• Examine primary source writings on the Supreme Court in Federalist, No. 78.
• Describe how a case gets to the Supreme Court.
• Identify how the judicial nomination process works and how a justice ends up on the Supreme Court.

Module 10: The First Amendment (Primary Source: A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom)

• Describe the origins of the Fourth Amendment and the Founding generation’s vision for this provision.
• Discuss how the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourth Amendment over time.  
• Describe how the Fourth Amendment contributes to debates about individual privacy.
• Analyze how the Supreme Court has applied the Fourth Amendment to new technologies.
• Identify current areas of debate over the Fourth Amendment.

Module 12: Slavery in America: From the Founding to America’s Second Founding (Primary Source: “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”)

• Describe what the Constitution says about voting rights.
• Identify who can vote in America during various periods in our nation’s history 
• Explore the role of federalism in the context of voting and elections in America.
• Discuss the groups that benefited from the 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th Amendments.
• Analyze battles at the Supreme Court over the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• Describe the long battle over women’s suffrage, culminating in the 19th Amendment.

Module 14: The 14th Amendment: Battles for Freedom and Equality (Primary Source: The 14th Amendment)

• Describe the reasons that the Founding generation included a formal process for amending the Constitution.
• Explain how the Constitution’s amendment process works, and why the founders made it so hard to amend the Constitution.
• Identify the key periods of constitutional change in American history and outline factors that drive successful pushes to amend the Constitution. 
• Describe all 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.