Anticipatory Set
Prior to beginning the unit, it will be valuable to get the students thinking about their rights, both as citizens and as students in the classroom. This can be done just before the introductory lecture or at the beginning of the school year. I tend toward the second choice in order to set a precedent in the classroom and help to guide classroom behavior and expectations.
The first thing I will do is ask them what their rights are. Students will claim the right to talk, bring their cell phones to school, and listen to their I-Pods during class. They will insist that school personnel should not search their lockers and that if school personnel take away their cigarettes, lighters, and any other contraband items that they should get them back. After straightening out their false notions on these items I hope to get to the right to learn and to be able to learn without undue disruption. This should spark some discussion about whether a student has the right to misbehave to the point of making the classroom too noisy for the teacher to teach. Owning the responsibility for such an action must be made clear to all students. Listing all their ideas on the board (as well as my own ideas) will help to organize what they suggest visually.
After delineating the difference between a citizen's civil rights and liberties and those of a student in an American public school classroom, I can make a chart with the students' rights and responsibilities. Once these have been decided and posted these parameters should guide the workings of the classroom for the entire year and be firmly in place and recognizable when it is time to begin the study of the history of civil liberties described below.
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