Grade 8 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 4, Lesson 1

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
A More Perfect Union

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 4, Lesson 1: The Constitutional Convention (pp. 106-113)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Change After much debate and compromise, the Constitutional Convention established a new basic form of government.

Review with students the basic plan proposed by the Virginia delegates. Be sure students understand the three branches of government and how they operate with each other and also serve as checks and balances on each other.

Discuss with students the problems slavery posed for counting populations for representatives to Congress and for taxation. Talk about the concerns of the Northern and non-slave holding states and what the Three-Fifths compromise proposed.

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Divide the class into two sections and assign one group to represent the Virginia Plan and the other to represent the New Jersey Plan. Have students organize a debate over which plan should be adopted by the new nation. Then have the groups work together to outline the provisions of the Connecticut Compromise.
Have students draw a map (either individually or working in small groups) that shows how representation would have been different if the the number of representatives had been based only on the total number of people in each state, not on 3/5 of slaves and all of others. For example, if students believe that Georgia would have had more representatives than New York, they will make Georgia larger than New York. At the end, ask volunteers to explain their work.

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