Wanted: A Just Right Government Objectives: Students will be able to: Describe how the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation led to the writing of the Constitution Compare the Virginia plan with the New Jersey plan Compare the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution Identify cause/effect relationships in the development of America’s government Click on the play arrow to hear the lesson. X X Wanted: A Just Right Government ANTICIPATE the lesson by answering the questions that follow: Imagine your family is going to have an ice cream party at the family reunion and there would be only one kind of ice cream. How many people would want chocolate? Strawberry? Rocky Road? Do you think it would be possible to get everyone to agree? What about if the party could have two flavors? Three? Would it be possible to at least satisfy everyone, even if they don’t get their very favorite flavor? In a simple way, that is how the U.S. government was created, and that a lot of the process had to do with getting people to agree on things. Directions: Follow the steps below to complete the assignment. Step 1: View the Wanted: A Just Right Government presentation. Take notes as you view the presentation. Step 2: Read the lesson. Take notes as you read. Step 3: Complete the Review. Wanted: A Just Right Government Background Information Independent Citizens Seek Awesome Government When the American colonists gained their independence from the British after the Revolutionary War, the Americans were faced with a problem: What kind of government should they have? They’d lived for years under British rule, and they had lots of complaints. Now they would create a government from scratch, and they had a few requirements. Independent Citizens Seek Awesome WEAK Government Their experience under heavy-handed British rule left the newly independent Americans a little bit skittish. Basically, they wanted a government that couldn’t do much. They started by drafting a document called the Articles of Confederation.