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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 4 of 9

Rights & Amendments

The Bill of Rights and beyond

What your child practices

What the first ten amendments protect, the Reconstruction Amendments, and why rights come with limits and responsibilities.

Alaska content standards learning standard: SS.8.4.6.1; SS.8.5.10.1 · the Bill of Rights and the rights and responsibilities of people in a democracy

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments: the First protects speech, religion, press, assembly and petition; the Second is about keeping and bearing arms.
  2. Later amendments added rights: the 13th ended slavery, the 14th made people born in the US citizens, the 15th protected voting regardless of race.
  3. Match each amendment by its number and the right it protects.

Example: Which amendment protects freedom of speech? Freedom of speech is in the Bill of Rights. It is listed with religion, press and assembly. That is the First Amendment. Answer: the First Amendment

Rights & Amendments in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 4 of 9 in 8th grade Social Studies, after A New Nation and before Factories & Reformers.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Why do rights have limits?

    • Only the president has rights
    • Limits are random
    • One person's rights can't harm others' rights or safety
    • Rights don't exist

  2. Question 2

    A citizen sends a letter asking Congress to change a law. Which right is this?

    • Freedom from cruel punishment
    • The right to a lawyer
    • The right to bear arms
    • The right to petition

  3. Question 3

    Which amendment says powers not given to the national government belong to the states or the people?

    • The Sixth Amendment
    • The First Amendment
    • The Thirteenth Amendment
    • The Tenth Amendment

  4. Question 4

    The Thirteenth Amendment (1865)…

    • Abolished slavery in the United States
    • Created the income tax
    • Ended Prohibition
    • Gave women the vote

  5. Question 5

    Which right is protected when a student writes a newspaper article criticizing the mayor?

    • Freedom of the press and speech
    • The right to a jury
    • The right to bear arms
    • Freedom from quartering

  6. Question 6

    The Seventh Amendment protects…

    • Voting rights
    • The right to a jury trial in many civil cases
    • Freedom of religion
    • The right to bear arms

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