Georgia SS4H2.b
The Standard
Evaluate the major issues debated at the Constitutional Convention: the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, the rights of states to govern themselves (federal system), the Great Compromise, and slavery (Three-Fifths Compromise).
Georgia Standards of Excellence for Social Studies · Analyze the challenges faced by the framers of the Constitution.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain why the national government under the Articles could not solve problems such as collecting taxes, regulating trade, or enforcing laws. They compare state and national power, explain the two-house compromise, and examine how counting enslaved people affected representation and taxation. They judge what each agreement solved and what problems it left in place.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can match each debate with the opposing views, the agreement reached, and its result. The student explains that the slavery compromise increased slaveholding states’ representation while giving enslaved people no rights or political voice.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may confuse the Constitutional Convention with the writing of the Declaration of Independence. They may think the two-house agreement settled state power, or that the Three-Fifths Compromise granted enslaved people partial rights rather than using population counts for representation and taxation.
How to Assess It
- Give students four rows labeled Articles, federal system, representation, and slavery. For each row, have them write the problem, the agreement or response, and one result.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Use state population cards and counters to model representation, then have groups negotiate a two-house legislature.
Ask, “When should a national government overrule a state?” and require students to support their answer with one Convention issue.
Run a card sort matching each problem, competing viewpoint, agreement, and result.
Compare federal and state responsibilities using familiar examples, such as national money, Georgia schools, and driver licensing.
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Related Standards
- SS4H2
Analyze the challenges faced by the framers of the Constitution.
- SS4H2.a
Identify the major leaders of the Constitutional Convention (James Madison, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin).
- SS4H5.b
Discuss how the issues of states' rights and slavery increased tensions between the North and South.
- SS8H3.d
Analyze the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and explain how those weaknesses led to the writing of a new federal Constitution.
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