Many of the founding fathers came to the Constitutional Convention with different ideas on what the Constitution should look like and how the new government should work. In the end, they compromised in the creating of the United States Constitution, and as with many compromises, not everyone's ideas were completely integrated.
In this activity, students will create a three panel storyboard that reflects the two proposed plans of the Constitutional Convention along with the Great Compromise that came from the convention. The New Jersey and Virginia Plans were the conflicting proposals by delegates Paterson and Madison in the quest to establish fair representation in the United States Congress. For each plan, students should include who created the plan along with a description and visualization of the plan itself. In the final panel, students should create a description and visualization of the Great Compromise of the Constitutional Convention.
Extended Activity
For this extended activity, students will create a persuasive advertisement that attempts to convince a colonist to choose either the New Jersey Plan or the Virginia Plan. Students are free to choose whichever type of storyboard they feel will best reflect their plan. Students who complete the extended activity can present their advertisement to the class. Students in the audience will select which plan they would choose if they were a colonist based off of the information provided to them in the student presentations.
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Student Instructions
Create a storyboard that describes two proposed plans from the Constitutional Convention and the Great Compromise that came after.