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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 18

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 7.5b; 7.5c · the rights the Bill of Rights protects and how amendments have changed the Constitution

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, press, religion, assembly and petition.
  2. Others protect people accused of crimes, such as the Sixth: a speedy, public trial with a lawyer.
  3. Rights have limits: your rights can’t harm others’ rights or safety.

Example: People gather peacefully to protest a law. Which right are they using? They are meeting together as a group. The First Amendment protects peaceful assembly. Answer: freedom of assembly

Rights & Amendments in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 6 of 18 in 7th grade Social Studies, after Founding Ideals and before A New Nation.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    Which amendment says you don't have to testify against yourself?

    • The Ninth Amendment
    • The Third Amendment
    • The Second Amendment
    • The Fifth Amendment

  2. Question 2

    Which amendment says soldiers can't be housed in people's homes in peacetime without consent?

    • The First Amendment
    • The Eighth Amendment
    • The Third Amendment
    • The Tenth Amendment

  3. Question 3

    The Fifteenth Amendment (1870)…

    • Said the right to vote can't be denied because of race
    • Gave women the vote
    • Freed enslaved people
    • Ended the Civil War

  4. Question 4

    The Ninth Amendment says…

    • The president has all rights
    • States can ignore rights
    • Only listed rights exist
    • People have other rights besides those listed

  5. Question 5

    The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution in…

    • 1865
    • 1776
    • 1791
    • 1920

  6. Question 6

    Which right could protect someone who's been arrested from being held in jail for years without a trial?

    • Freedom from quartering
    • Freedom of the press
    • The right to a speedy trial
    • The right to bear arms

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