The Supreme Court in American Political History

Lesson 1: Defining Justice and Its role in the Constitution

Part 1: Students define justice through images

Guiding Question: What is Justice and what does it look like?

Objective: Students will define the term justice through artistic expression and agree on a verbal definition through consensus.

Procedure:

I will begin this lesson by writing the word justice on the board. I will ask students to give me their definition of the word. Next, I will create a web on the border placing the word justice in the center and ask the students to provide synonyms or other words that they feel are related to justice. These words will be the spurs to the web. Once the web is created on the board then distribute drawing paper to the students and tell them that they are going to create an image of the web. Give examples of symbols that have come to represent a certain term or concept (for example: peace sign). Ask the students to create a symbol for justice. These images will then be displayed in the room throughout the duration of the unit.

As for the final act of this part of the unit, the group of students will discuss what definition they all agree upon for the word justice. This will be written down on a poster board and be display in the classroom.

Assessment: Student will demonstrate his/her understanding of justice through written or creative expression.

Part 2: Introduction to the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Amendments

Guiding Question: What are civil rights and where did we get them?

Objective: Student will be able to describe the purpose for having a constitution as well as describe civil rights protected by this document. Student will identify fundamental ideals and principles of our republican form of government.

Procedure:

I will initiate this lesson by asking students to get a partner. Then I will hand each pair a sheet of paper with the following questions on it:

1. What is the Constitution?
2. What is its purpose?
3. What is the Bill of Rights?
4. What are the Amendments to the Constitution?
5. Who does the Constitution protect and does it protect everyone?

The pairs will be asked to work together to write thoughtful responses to these questions. After ten minutes I will call the class together as a large group. On the board or overhead I will construct a KWL chart (What do the students Know? What is it they want to learn? What did they actually Learn?). This chart will be filled in as the students respond to the questions on the paper. This is an informal assessment to let me know how much they know about the Constitution. Each pair will share their answers and I will write them in the "K" part of the chart. If they do not know the answer I will put the question in the "W" section of the chart. The "L" section will be filled in at the end of the lesson once we determined what they have learned throughout the unit.

Next I will show a School House Rock Video "The Preamble" that has animated children singing about the Constitution. It is a catchy tune and the students tend to remember details from the lyrics. This is the students' introduction to the Preamble of the Constitution. After showing it we will revisit the questions we looked at earlier and the "What we want to learn" part of the chart. A discussion about what the Preamble means and its purpose will follow. I will ask one or two students to describe the overall goals of the Preamble and we will write these on our KWL chart.

Assessment: Students will be asked to answer the initial anticipatory questions that were presented at the beginning of the lesson.

Part 3: The Bill of Rights - Ten Promises We Should Know

Guiding Question: How are citizens protected from the government?

Objective: Students will identify and describe the significance of American essential documents. Students will understand the significance of the Bill of Rights to their own lives.

Procedure:

Using Kathleen Krull's book A Kid's Guide to America's Bill of Rights I will read the 462 words that make up the United States Bill of Rights (p.4). I will then begin a discussion with the students on why the founding fathers (James Madison in particular) felt it necessary for individuals to be protected. I will ask students to come up with scenarios in which individuals' rights could be threatened.

Next I will inform students that this document has never been changed only added to and I will introduce the amendments to the Bill of Rights. In order to have the students learn a little more about a particular amendment I will have each child pick at random an amendment which I will have written on an index card. Their assignment will be to look up the amendment - I will provide copies of the Constitution and provide other reference material including the internet - write it down, give an example of how this amendment protects an individual from the government. Extra credit will be given to those students who prefer to act out their example by creating a skit to demonstrate the amendment and its significance.

The culminating activity will be a charting exercise whereby the students will be asked to engage in a poll. The poll will be conducted to determine which amendment the students deem most important and significant to their personal lives. Once the children have been polled then a small group will be responsible for collecting and interpreting the data. The group will generate a bar graph illustrating the results of the poll and present this information to the rest of the class. The activity will be wrapped up by asking if there is a right that they feel in not included in the Constitution. Prior to moving on to the next lesson the class will revisit the KWL chart and fill in any of the sections that they have new information for.

Assessment: Students will be asked to respond to the following question: How would you be affected by the removal of the first amendment's section on the freedom of expression? Give at least three examples of how not having freedom of expression would affect you in school, home, and in your community?