New WTP High School Text available!

The newly published We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution book will be the official text for the district, regional, state and national WTP competitions starting in September 2008. THERE WILL BE NEW QUESTIONS. The District-level questions have already been posted on the www.civiced.org website. State level questions will be issued in September. The Teacher’s Edition will be distributed in mid-August. A sample lesson is also posted on the CCE website. It will include student text with marginalia for teachers. Supreme Court decisions will be linked. Assessments and worksheets will be online, as will the correlations. Enrichment opportunities will also be included.

The new edition is now a stand-alone government text. Any previous gaps have been addressed, and the book is no longer considered a supplement. It is a book and a curriculum. It is aimed at 9-12 grades, with an unofficial 11.2 reading level. Audio version planned.

All six units are cross-referenced and cross-linked.
A companion website is now available!.

To order a replacement set of high school texts, please email lyc@nysba.org

New!! NYS Standards Correlations for new Level III text - Click Here

CHANGES noted . . .

Unit 1

• Revised – still foundational
• Includes theory
• More user-friendly
• Discussions of state constitutions

Unit 2

• Continental Congress and ratification debates
• Process emphasized
• Questions faced by framers vis a vis branches of gov’t and federalism expanded
• Federalists and Anti-Federalists - two separate lessons

Unit 3

• How has constitution changed?
• Right to vote issues
• Constitution’s expansion
• Checks and balances
• Political parties today
• Civil War – constitutional issues and history
• Presidential Power
• Slavery
• Critical thinking exercises: extra-constitutional practices, checks and balances, rule of law

Unit 4

• has been expanded and includes the Supreme Court, federalism and ties to Project Citizen.
• 2 lessons on Congress; contemporary questions and challenges
• 1 lesson; operation of Congress
• Role of the Executive; historical and current
• Separation of powers
• Bureaucracy – public policy
• Supreme Court as an institution
• State Courts
• Federalism in practice
• State and local gov’ts (ties to Project Citizen)

Unit 5

• New lesson: What is a Bill of Rights?
• Bill of Rights discussion changed
• First Amendment issues
• Fourth, 5^th, 6^th and 8^th covered
• How our system uses amendments

Unit 6

• now more substantive.
• Seven lessons
• What Challenges Face US Constitutional Democracy?
• Citizenship; rights and responsibilities, aliens, dual citizenship, legal and moral rights
• Civic Engagement/local engagement
• Links to Project Citizen
• Civil Rights Movements
• Rights of women, blacks, farm workers and Native Americans included
• Civil disobedience
• US system’s influence on other nations
• Globally adopted concepts; federalism, Bill of Rights, judicial review
• What fits and where?
• Challenges to US in the future; amendments, legislation
• Chance for student debates
• Civic and world affairs

To order a replacement set of high school texts, please email lyc@nysba.org