U.S. Constitution Analysis: Preamble and Enumerated Powers Worksheet

Help your students understand the Preamble as never before even as they engage in critical analysis skills, examining the Enumerated Powers of Congress as listed in Article I as they work their way through these Preamble and Enumerated Powers Worksheets.

Reading the Constitution is one thing, but thinking carefully and critically about it is far more valuable! This worksheet will give teachers the tools they need to help students analyze the Enumerated Powers of Congress. Many students find the Enumerated Powers rather boring, but there's no reason for that, not when they are given the opportunity to dive deep into the text and do a little close reading analysis!

Encourage Deep Learning with these U.S. Constitution Analysis Worksheets

The goal of these worksheets is to encourage students to think more deeply about how actions by Congress can serve the nation by fulfilling the goals of government listed in the Preamble. These goals are:

• to form a more perfect union
• to establish justice
• to ensure domestic tranquility
• to provide for the common defense
• to promote the general welfare
• to secure the blessings of liberty

Format of these Enumerated Powers Worksheets

In this activity, students are provided with a simplified list of the enumerated powers and are asked to classify them according to which goal of government they tend to serve.

For example, the Constitution specifies that Congress can establish and support a navy; this clearly relates to providing for the "common defense." Other powers will require them to think more deeply, however. What goal does the establishment of bankruptcy and copyright laws promote, for example?

My idea in writing this was to make the enumerated powers something the students could work with and consider instead of just a list we go over and they quickly forget. The way it is structured should lead students to a finer understanding of the Preamble as well.

Follow-Up Included with this Preamble and Enumerated Powers Worksheet

In the follow-up, students are challenged to think beyond the text and come up with their own list of powers that they would grant to Congress if they were designing the government from scratch.


Constitution Activities by Elise Parker