Lesson Plan

This weeks blog was hard for me. I do not have any thing I am train for that last longer then a day or two where it seemed Wikis would be inappropriate. So I found this lesson plan online for basic education and modified it. 

Here's the link for the orignial:

Lesson Plan

Title:Supreme Court: A closer look.

Target Audience:  Basic Adult Education Students.

Learning Objectives:

Students will understand:

·          

h    How the Supreme Court is part of the checks and balances/separation of powers established by the U.S. Constitution.

·         important cases of the Supreme Court that help define the role of the government in protecting citizens' rights.

·         the rights and responsibilities of citizens as defined by the Supreme Court decisions where liberties have been expanded or limited.

Materials/handouts/Websites needed:

Media components:

    Newshour with Jim Lehrer Extra Web site

    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/

    lessonplans/socialstudies/scotus_powers.pdf

    THE SUPREME COURT Web site

    http://www.pbs.org/supremecourt

    Supreme Court Landmark Case Timeline

    http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/educators/sc_timeline.html

    Oyez Web site

    www.oyez.org

    Supreme Court Concentration

www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/educators/concentration.html

Supplies:

    Pencils, pens, paper

Handouts:

    Ranking the Importance of Supreme Court Cases

    Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Information Poster Activity

    Defining Limits on People's Rights

Class Outline:

Introductory Activities

    Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances among the Three Branches of Government.

    Have students examine the three branches of government and the Supreme Court's role within the checks and balances system. Go to the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" Extra Web site at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/ lessonplans/socialstudies/scotus_powers.pdf and conduct the activity on "Declare Your Powers."

How is the Supreme Court relevant?

        Divide students into small groups of three or four.

        Distribute the handout, "Ranking the Importance of Supreme Court Cases" to all students.

        Review the directions with them, having them read the case descriptions and discuss their importance.

        Then have them rank each case's importance according to a consensus of the group.

        After each group has completed the rankings, hold a discussion on the reasons for the students' rankings.

Learning Activities

Landmark Supreme Court Decisions Information Wiki Activity

This activity has students working in research groups to find information on an important Supreme Court case and develop an information poster to share with the class.

    Divide students into groups of four to cover as many of the cases  as necessary.

    Have each group research their assigned Case and create a wiki about their Case. Allow creativity with this project  giving them free range of how they want design the Wiki. The only requirements is they answer the following questions:

1.       when was the court case decided

2.       What was the case about? What was issues that brought it to the supreme court in the first place?

3.       What was the decision of the supreme court?

4.       What was it impact on the country?

  Have students discuss on threaded questions or in class the court cases and what they learned on their subjects. Use debriefing questions below if necessary.      

Debriefing Questions:

    Which cases involved Constitutional questions surrounding the Bill of Rights or the power of one of the branches of government?

    Which cases involved judicial review?

    Which cases involved the executive branch? The legislative branch?

    Did you agree with the Court's decision in the case you presented? Why or why not?

    Did you strongly agree or disagree with any of the other Court decisions presented? Explain why.

Evaluation:

Students will show mastery of information through test.

Wiki will be graded as the following as there will mainly be pass fail assignment.

Excellent:

Answered all required questions, Plus additional information about the case.

Used a different media in the wiki, ie youtube links, other widgets

All information was accurate.

Good:

Answered required questions.

Used mainly text that was formatted using different sizes and color.

Information was accurate.

Poor:

Not all questions were answered.

Very plain formatting.

Information was mostly accurate.