Constitution Day

Sept. 17, 2025

2025 Theme: Power to the People

Exercise the First Amendment and claim your civic rights

The Journalism Education Association hopes to help scholastic journalism students exercise the First Amendment and claim their civic rights. Constitution Day, observed Sept. 17 each year in commemoration of the signing of the United States Constitution, is an excellent time to do it.

There are many ways to celebrate and learn about Constitution Day and the First Amendment. Below are lesson plans and activities curated by JEA's Scholastic Press Rights Committee to help students learn how to exercise their First Amendment rights. These materials could be the focus of Constitution Day activities or be used any time throughout the year.

Constitution Day is also a great time to review student press rights particular to your community. How aware are your students of their own editorial policy? School board policy? Guidelines for ethical performance and meaningful, all-encompassing staff manual? How about the existence (or lack thereof) of a New Voices law? Are there ways your students could strengthen or improve their specific protections? You can always check out additional resources on JEA.org or through the Student Press Law Center.

Constitution Day classroom materials

The Constitution, signed in 1787, begins with a short preamble, spelling out its intent:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Thus, much of the document explains how the Constitution gives power to the people — not to a king or some other ruler, but to the people themselves. In the United States, since 1787, they have been the ones making decisions and planning their destiny, not an all-powerful ruler.

The Scholastic Press Rights Committee put together this set of activities around this theme for teachers to use in their classrooms this Constitution Day, Sept. 17. They range from full lesson plans to quick activities and ways to promote Constitution Day in your school community.

Five activities your students can do to promote Constitution Day

by Andrea Negri, MJE

Last year, Andrea Negri, MJE, moved to a new school and eventually restarted its Quill & Scroll chapter. Since then, she has been brainstorming potential chapter activities. Celebrating Scholastic Journalism Week is a no-brainer — so why not also observe Constitution Day? Here are five activities your chapter — or your student media programs or even journalism classes — could do to help educate your school about the Constitution.

Lesson plan: “The Constitution's promise: E Pluribus Unum – Out of many, one”

by Candace Bowen, MJE

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day — the second part is new for 2025 — is a U.S. federal observance that honors the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. Our national motto, and the theme for 2025, is “E Pluribus Unum — Out of many, one,” reminding us of our responsibility to each other and to creating a unified country out of a wide range of diversity. This is especially a good reminder for journalists, who are often considered the Fourth Estate — the one that keeps the other three — legislative, executive and judicial branches of government – in line. This lesson plan is designed to help students seek out a variety of sources and tap their voices to report what’s going on in the lives and minds of your student body, helping them accept each other and work together for a better, more unified school environment – “Out of many, one.”

Lesson plan: "Power to the People — Student coverage of protests"

by Kristin Taylor, MJE

The 2024-2025 school year was filled with people taking advantage of their First Amendment right to assemble, and this new year is sure to be no different. This lesson plan encourages students to consider the First Amendment’s connection to the theme of “Power to the People.” It also encourages them to read great student journalism from other schools — a bonus! Students will select 1-2 articles from a list of options published on Best of SNO, a site that “showcases the best student journalism from members of the SNO Network,” to explore the complexities of protest — and the complexities of reporting on it.

Class research activity: "Power to the People — Do they use that power wisely?"

by Candace Bowen, MJE

This class activity encourages students to research ways U.S. citizens have power and explore how they use it and, perhaps, at times, abuse it — or at least don’t use it wisely. Bowen provides prompts to help students back up their findings with reliable, knowledgeable sources.

Shoring up the basics: Short videos for Constitution Day

by Tripp Robbins, MJE

Robbins created this series of bite-sized videos as an introduction to topics in student media law and ethics for the Scholastic Press Rights Committee. They can be used as part of a curriculum or just on a need-to-know basis. They're concise and dense, so you may want to pause them to digest some points. This is a brief intro to some of the videos most relevant to Constitution Day. They are not sequential, so start with the topic you're interested in!

Event header photo by Chris Waugaman. Photo of students at the Seattle JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in April 2025.