③ Transfer · Solve the problem

Phase 3 — Meet the problem

⛔ Gate check: only open this phase once students have finished Surface and Deep. This is where they transfer everything they built into a real, messy decision.

This is Problem-Based Learning. Students don't answer questions about the Convention — they step inside the problem as delegates, and the teacher guides rather than tells. The whole phase runs the problem-solving process named in §113.20(c)(31)(B).

Problem-solving teaching · d 0.61§113.20(c)(5), (c)(31)(B)

Step 1 · Meet the Problem

Read the narrative aloud. Read it once for the story, then again for details students will need.

It is the summer of 1787, and Philadelphia is stifling. Inside the Pennsylvania State House the windows are shut and the doors are guarded — the delegates have agreed to debate in secret so they can speak freely.

They came to fix the Articles of Confederation. But the government is failing: Congress cannot tax, cannot pay its soldiers, cannot settle quarrels between states. Some delegates now argue the Articles cannot be patched at all — the nation needs a new framework.

And they disagree, fiercely. Large states want votes counted by population. Small states refuse to be outvoted and demand an equal say. Delegates from the North and the South clash over slavery — whether enslaved people should be counted to give slaveholding states more power. Some fear a national government strong enough to become a new tyranny; others fear a government too weak to survive.

Outside, the states are watching. Whatever the delegates write, the states must ratify — or reject. The union could hold, or it could break apart. You are a delegate. The room is deadlocked, and the summer is running out.

First reaction (not answers yet): what did you notice? What do you wonder? Keep it open — the point is to pull students into the problem.

🏛️ The room & the stakes: Mount Vernon · The Constitutional Convention ↗ · U.S. Senate · The Constitutional Convention ↗

Multiple perspectives · d 0.75§113.20(c)(21)

Step 2 · Take a delegate role

Assign or let students choose a delegate. Each will reason from that person's point of view. Every role has something real at stake, and no role can win alone — that is the whole point.

🏙️ Large-state delegate (Virginia Plan)

Your state has the most people. You want representation by population and a strong national government. What will you give to win it?

🏘️ Small-state delegate (New Jersey Plan)

Your state is small but equal. You will not be outvoted. What protection do you need before you agree to anything?

🧭 Northern delegate

Your region's economy is trade and small farms, not large-scale slavery. How should enslaved people be counted — and what will you accept?

🌾 Southern delegate

Your region's economy relies on enslaved labor. You want that population counted for representation. Where is your line?

🛑 Delegate wary of central power

You fought a revolution against a too-powerful government. How do you keep any new national government from becoming a tyranny?

📜 Delegate focused on individual rights

You worry the plan protects government but not people. Should there be a written guarantee of rights before the states ratify?

Problem-based learning · d 0.53§113.20(c)(31)(B), (c)(29)(B)

Step 3 · Hunches → Know → Need-to-Know

Build three shared columns on chart paper. This defines the problem and plans the inquiry — the first moves of §113.20(c)(31)(B).

💭 Hunches	✅ Know (from the text)	❓ Need to know
Our guesses about what framework might hold — and what each side would trade.	Facts we can point to (it's 1787; the Articles are failing; large vs. small states disagree; North and South clash over slavery; the states must ratify).	Questions we must answer to build a workable plan — How did they resolve representation? What was the Great Compromise? How was slavery counted, and at what cost? Why was a Bill of Rights added later?

Turn “Need to know” into the H of KWHL: How will we find out? (which sources, whose plan to read). Record it — this is the class's research plan.

Transfer strategies · d 0.75§113.20(c)(29)(A,C,D)

Step 4 · Inquiry & investigation

Groups pursue their “Need to know” questions using vetted sources (see the facilitator guide for suggested public-domain sources). Students gather and use valid information, applying the source routine they practiced in Phase 2. Keep filling the Learned column of KWHL as answers come in.

Teacher-as-guide moves: answer a question with a question; point to a source, not the answer; ask “How do you know?” and “Whose interest does that serve — and whose voice is missing?”

📚 Investigation sources: DocsTeach · The Constitution ↗ · National Archives · Constitution transcript ↗ · Senate · “A Great Compromise” ↗ · National Constitution Center · Classroom resources ↗. Full list + how-to in the facilitator guide.

Weigh & choose · d 0.75§113.20(c)(15)(B), (c)(31)(B)

Step 5 · Propose & defend a framework

From their delegate's point of view, each group develops a proposed framework the states could accept — and defends it with evidence and with the compromises behind it. Connect their proposals to the real outcomes: the Great Compromise (a two-house Congress), the Three-Fifths Compromise (name it honestly — enslaved people counted as three-fifths of a person for representation and taxes, a decision that entrenched slavery), and the later Bill of Rights. Assessment happens throughout the process, not only here (the reasoning is the point).

Groups present an 8-part problem/solution brief (poster, slides, or spoken):

Title & group members (and your delegate role)
What is the problem the Convention must solve?
Why is it a problem — and for whom?
Who are the stakeholders, and what does each want?
Options we considered (advantages & disadvantages of each)
Our proposed framework — and the compromises behind it
The evidence and sources behind it
How we'd know if the framework could actually hold the union together

Evaluation & reflection · d 0.75§113.20(c)(16), (c)(21), (c)(31)(B)

Step 6 · Debrief & metacognition

Close the loop — the evaluate step of the problem-solving process. Discuss across roles so students hear how the same problem looked from every side.

What was resolved? Representation was settled by the Great Compromise; a stronger federal government was built with checks and balances.
What was deferred? Slavery was not resolved — it was compromised over and left to fracture the nation later; individual rights waited for the Bill of Rights (§113.20(c)(16)).
Whose voices were left out? Name them plainly — enslaved people, who had no vote yet were counted for others' power; women, who could not vote or serve; and Native nations, whose lands and sovereignty the new government did not recognize.
Transfer: where else does this problem-solving process fit — a decision your class, school, or community must reach when people want different things?

Connect to today & to the standards: representative government is still built by weighing competing goods and by compromise. Name the six steps students just used — that is §113.20(c)(31)(B).

🧑‍🏫 Facilitator guide & sources ✅ Assessment pack

‹ Phase 2 — Deep Unit home

Aligned to (not reproduced from) 19 TAC Ch.113 §113.20; effect sizes from Visible Learning MetaX. This scenario dramatizes the real debates of the 1787 Constitutional Convention.