Constitutional Convention

Answer the questions below to guide you in creating your constitution.

A.
Pick a political philosophy (direct democracy, republic, dictatorship, socialist,
communist etc.) and design a government body around it with laws.
o Answer the questions below to see what kind of political philosophy you might agree
with:
1.
How will you make the laws? We will have 1 representative per 100,000 people
i. What type of legislature will you have? Congress
i. Ex: Parliament, Congress, etc.
ii. Unicameral, bicameral, something else?
ii.
How will you select members of the legislature? The ones with the most
educational background
iii.
How long should members serve? 5 years
2.
How will you enforce the laws? Use similar laws as US and Syria
i. What type of executive will you have? A President
i. If you are dictator, will you have a strong police force?
ii.
How will you select leaders? By representatives
iii.
How long should leaders serve? 6 years
3.
How will you interpret the laws?
i. What type of judiciary will you have? Trial by Jury
i. Ex: Supreme Court, trial by jury, presumed innocence, etc.?
4.
What are your beliefs on equality? Everyone is equal.
i. What divisions exist amongst your group? Men and Women, Wealthy and Poor, City
Workers and Farm Workers
ii.
What laws would you create to protect/define equality? Everyone gets a same
default treatment, everyone is basically treated the same. Only those whom have
greater authority will come first. Ex: Police, city officials/workers etc.
iii.
What would your government look like to protect and enforce the equality laws
you make? A strong police/security force. Using the same tactics as USA.
5.
What rights do you believe we should have? We should have freedom and
equality, no discrimination, freedom of expression.
i. What laws would you create to protect/define rights? Police/government cannot take
away basic human rights(USA.)
ii.
Are your rights unalienable rights? Yes.
iii.
Do you have a Constitution and/or Bill of Rights? Why or Why not? We have a
constitution because and a Bill of Rights. Both because our group believes that the USs
Constitution and Bill of Rights are superior.
6.
What do you define as liberty? Having a say in government.

i. What laws would you create to protect/define liberty? Government can not take their
peoples say in government away.
ii.
What would your government look like to protect and enforce the liberty?
Everyone is allowed to speak to their representative and the representative can talk to
the government about the peoples choices.
7.
What do you think is opportunity? (ex: education, small business loans, things
that help people move out of poverty) Education
i. What laws would you create to protect/define opportunity? Everyone, especially
adolescents, are entitled to education.
ii.
What would your government look like to protect and enforce the opportunity?
Some type of school system would be created similar to either Syria or America(that
would be the refugees choice.)
B.
After you have created your constitution, address the following questions:
1.
Compare and Contrast your government/constitution to the United States
Constitution. Specifically, explain how your laws and government differ or are similar to
the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. Does the central government in the
capital hold more power than the state or does the state hold more power than the
central government? Why? Why not? Most laws are similar, if not the same, from the
USA and some laws will have to be debated between the refugees and their new
government. The Bill of Rights will be the exact same as the Bill of Rights from the USA.
The central government holds more power over the state mostly because the idea of
merging two different governments from two different countries is a brand new one and
if it fails the refugees would need a backup government that has been successful and
still is.
2. Cite at least three founding ideals and why you agree or disagree with them. Bill of
Rights, because everyone deserves their basic rights. Unalienable Rights, because
everyone deserves rights that cannot be taken away from them. And a House of
Representatives, because everyone deserves to have a say in government by having a
majority vote.

Checklist for Constitution

Student Teacher

Item

Yes.

Constitution has a political philosophy (direct

democracy, socialist, etc.).

Yes.

It must be clear what kind of government you

have made (democracy etc.) and why you have
made it that way.

Yes.

Does your government have a structure like a

Congress/Supreme Court etc. (a way of running)?

Sort of.

Are the laws of your constitution understandable,

easy to follow and enforceable?

Some
ideas
are
shared
with the
ideas
from
Syria.

How is it different from the American

Constitution? Give examples.

Did you answer all the questions above?

Constitution Rubric

Focus

Substance

Approaches
Proficiency

Proficient

Exceptional

Vaguely or not at all

on topic; many
parts of the
assignment are not
addressed or are
only superficially
addressed

Mostly on topic; all

parts of the
assignment are
generally
addressed OR one
aspect of the
assignment is not
addressed

Totally on topic; all

parts of the
assignment are fully
addressed

25 Pts

30 Pts

40 Pts

Ideas not
developed; lacking
sufficient detail to
understand the
thoughts behind the
words

Ideas not
completely
developed; some
sloppy reasoning
or poorly selected
examples

Fully developed
ideas with coherent
reasoning and/or
supporting

Clarity

25 Pts

30 Pts

40 Pts

Disorganized
thoughts; multiple
sentence fragments
or spelling and
grammar errors that
distract from the
ideas being
expressed

Somewhat logical
sequence of ideas;
mostly complete
sentences; some
spelling and
grammar errors

Logical organization
of ideas; complete
sentences; very few
spelling and
grammar errors

10 Pts

15 Pts

20 Pts