How the Amendment Process Works: Changing the Constitution
Explain the constitutional process for proposing and ratifying amendments to meet the needs of a changing nation.

Explain the constitutional process for proposing and ratifying amendments to meet the needs of a changing nation.
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4th Grade · Social Studies · US-NV-SS
8 lessons
Understand the structure of the federal government, the system of checks and balances, and how constitutional amendments and judicial actions expand and protect individual rights over time.
Demonstrate an understanding of the industrial North and the agricultural South before, during and after the Civil War. • Research the roles and accomplishments of the leaders of the reform movements before and during the Civil War (e.g., abolition movement, Underground Railroad and other social reforms, etc.). • Explain how specific events and issues led to the Civil War (e.g., sectionalism fueled by issues of slavery in the territories, states’ rights, election of 1860 and secession). • Summarize key battles, strategies and turning points of the Civil War (e.g., Fort Sumter, Antietam, Gettysburg, other regional battles and the surrender at Appomattox). • Compare the roles and accomplishments of historic figures of the Civil War (e.g., Abraham Lincoln (Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address) Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Clara Barton and Frederick Douglass, etc.). • Explain the impact of the Civil War’s physical destruction on the nation and the people (e.g., soldiers, women, African Americans, and the civilian population, etc.).
Examine the economic, political and social developments during Reconstruction. • Explain the effects of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and the goals of Reconstruction. • Characterize the effects of Reconstruction on African Americans (e.g., rights and restrictions, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth Amendments, rise of discriminatory laws and groups (Klu Klux Klan), motivations to relocate, and the actions of the Freedmen’s Bureau, etc.).