Interpreting the Constitution: What Does That Mean? (also download PowerPoint 1 and PowerPoint 2)
Topic: Interpreting and applying the Constitution, specifically the 5th and 8th Amendments
Lesson Type: Whole group interactive
What You'll Do: Using a series of yes/no checklists, you’ll let students decide how they think a series of Supreme Court cases should be decided. (Warning: The cases in this lesson may generate debate!) Create suspense by polling the class, then revealing the real answers one by one using our Power Point presentation (complete with drum roll and cymbal crash). If you don’t want to use Power Point, distribute our handy answer cards and let students reveal the answers themselves. This lesson is best used for a participation grade. Collect the checklists as evidence of participation. If you only have one class period, you may only be able to get through one amendment.
Concepts: Bill of Rights; constitutional interpretation; role of the Supreme Court
Argument Wars (also download game guide and lesson plan)
Topic: Landmark cases
Lesson Type: Online game
What You'll Do: Spend a class period in the computer lab playing this fun and engaging game in which students will learn about landmark Supreme Court cases by arguing them! Choose the cases that meet your curricular needs and time restraints.
Concepts: Individual landmark Supreme Court cases; constitutional rights; legal argumentation; precedent; facts versus opinions
Topic: What Courts Do
Lesson Type: Small Groups/Whole Class Interactive
What You’ll Do: First, you’ll introduce students to a real case in which the producers of James Bond films sued Honda for creating an ad that looked way too much like a James Bond movie. Optionally, you can show the actual ad to your class. Then you’ll guide students through the process courts use to look at the evidence, study the law, and apply law to fact. You’ll use a series of short, easy-to-manage activities, including whole group active participation, whole group reading, and timed small-group interaction.
Concepts: Rule of law; the judicial process; evidence; applying the law
Topic: Trial Court participants and processes
Lesson Type: Game
What You’ll Do: After a quick, interactive set to activate students prior knowledge about courtrooms, you’ll form small groups and guide students into a game of Trial Court “Go Fish.” Our variation has a game board that you can collect from students as proof of play. Students learn the before-trial and after-trial roles of everyone involved in a court proceeding.
Concepts: Role of judge, jury, lawyers, and other trial participants; civil v. criminal cases; process of a trial
Topic: Appellate Courts
Lesson Type: Whole Class Interactive/Small Groups/Worksheet
What You’ll Do: A hypothetical situation and an anticipation checklist help you generate interest in the topic. Then you’ll challenge students to spot the answers to the questions on the checklist as you read together about a real middle school girl who was strip searched at school and took her case all the way to the Supreme Court. You’ll check for understanding with a quick active participation activity, then choose one of two options: small group manipulative activity plus a worksheet, or worksheet only.
Concepts: Levels of the court system; courts of appeal; Supreme Court; legal precedent; oral arguments
Supreme Decision (also download the Teacher's Guide)
Topic: Supreme Court and the First Amendment
Lesson Type: Online Game
What You'll Do: Spend a class period with your class playing Supreme Decision. You can play with each student on an individual computer, or as a whole class on a smart board or with a projector. If students are playing their own version, ask them to email or print their game reports so you can see how they did!
Concepts: Supreme Court; 1st Amendment; Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School Dist.
The "Supreme" In Supreme Court (to follow Supreme Decision)
Topic: The Supreme Court and Judicial Review
Lesson Type: Pairs Interactive/Graphic Organizer Worksheet
What You'll Do: First, you’ll pair students up and guide them through a graphic organizer where they’ll compare the way the fictional justices in “Supreme Decision” analyzed Ben’s case with the way the real Supreme Court justices analyzed the real-life case of a girl who was strip-searched at school. (Don’t worry—this won’t overlap the Appellate Court lesson.) Then you’ll give pairs a chance to jot down their thoughts about how a handful of historic Supreme Court cases might apply to their own lives, and you’ll end with a quickwrite that lets students criticize a bogus opinion about judicial review.
Concepts: The Supreme Court; judicial review; precedent; constitutional rights (especially 1st and 4th Amendments); landmark cases (Marbury v. Madison; Plessy v. Ferguson; Meyer v. Nebraska; Brown v. Board of Education; Gideon v. Wainwright; Tinker v. Des Moines School Dist.; New Jersey v. T.L.O.)