Teacher Resources: Lesson Plan

The Supreme Court's Rulings on Young People

Overview

In this lesson, students will focus on retrieving information from The Court and Young People Essay. To begin, ask students to look at the essay's first page to identify the five categories of cases involving young people. Divide students into teams and ask all members to read passages describing five cases: Western Union v. Lenroot; Pierce v. Society of Sisters; DeShaney v. Winnebago; in re Gault; and Minersville v. Gobitis. Students will use a graphic organizer to help them structure the information they find for each of these cases. As a culminating activity, each student will select one other case from the essay and graphically organize information about it.

National Curriculum Standards met by this lesson

For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.

Ties to your Curriculum

This lesson ties into Civics/U.S. Government when studying:

Time required

The lesson will take approximately one to two class periods

Materials

The Lesson

Anticipatory Set

  1. Ask students to read the Preamble to the Constitution to see if it refers to young people anywhere. If they are uncertain, ask them to look up the word "posterity."
  2. Next, ask students to look at Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution and ask them if it refers to young people when listing the types of cases the Supreme Court may rule upon.
  3. Explain that the essay, The Supreme Court and Young People (link to essay)has a great deal of information about Supreme Court cases which deal with young people, but because the amount of information is vast, they are going to look for main ideas first. Ask students to look at the first page to identify the five categories of cases involving young people. Next, identify and discuss the types of issues raised in each category. Could the cases have been organized in different categories?

Procedures

  1. Divide students into five teams based on the five essay categories, with each team to focus on one of the following court cases:
  1. Direct each team to read the passage in the essay related to their assigned case and complete the graphic organizer to help them structure the information related to their case.
  2. When teams have completed the organizer, ask teams to select a reporter to share their findings with the class. After all teams have shared their cases, discuss whether the Supreme Court's impact on the lives of young people is surprisingly significant and diverse or whether it is what they had expected.
  3. As a culminating activity, each student will select one other case from the essay and individually complete the graphic organizer as homework.

Assessment

The students' graphic organizer may be evaluated on a twenty-point scale (which may be multiplied by five to convert to 100-point scale or for conversion to letter grades) using the following rubric:

 

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

None

Factual information (5)

(5) Complete and correct factual information about:

Case Name

Date

Cause

Decision

(4) Correct factual information about:

Case Name

Date

Cause

Decision

(3-2) Correct but incomplete information about:

Case Name

Date

Cause

Decision

(1) Incorrect and incomplete information:

Case Name

Date

Cause

Decision

(0) No attempt

Case analysis (10)

(10-9)

Thorough, insightful analysis of:

Youth involvement

Constitutional issues

Impact of case

(8-7) Complete analysis of:

Youth involvement

Constitutional issues

Impact of case

(6-4) Limited analysis of:

Youth involvement

Constitutional issues

Impact of case

(3-1) Incomplete or incorrect analysis of:

Youth involvement

Constitutional issues

Impact of case

(0) No attempt

Group

Skills (5)

Participates in project; shows courtesy and leadership

Contributes to the group but does not monopolize it

Displays courtesy

Participates effectively and works cooperatively

Displays courtesy

Works apart without collaboration, but contributes

Displays courtesy

Contributes minimally

Displays courtesy

Does not participate or fails to cooperate with group effort or makes inappropriate remarks

Related Works

Teachers and students may locate additional information in the case studies link at this website for In re Gault and Pierce v. Society of Sisters.

Western Union v. Lenroot

Pierce v. Society of Sisters

DeShaney v. Winnebago

In re Gault

Minersville v. Gobitis

Interdisciplinary Links

Computer: Starting with the information from their graphic organizers, students will create a computer slideshow about a case. They may look at other Internet sites for the opinions of the court. To illustrate the presentation, students should search for photographs of key figures involved in the case (whether one of the individuals involved in the case, lawyers, or participating justices), or images of locations involved in the site (of the Supreme Court, or a map of the town where the case started--one of the Brown v. Board of Education websites shows the path Linda Brown walked to school). They may wish to use the image section of a search engine to facilitate their search for visuals. The slide show may include a clip of audio files from oral arguments or interviews, if they are public domain.

Language Arts: Students may use information from the case they studied as the basis for a writing assignment, for example:

Graphic Organizer: The Supreme Court and Young People

Name(s): _______________________

Name of the Case

  

Date the Case Was Decided

  

Incident Which Caused the Case

  

How Young People were Involved

  

Constitutional Issue Involved in Case

  

Decision of the Court (including vote, if known)

  

Key Quote from the Case

  

Impact of the Decision