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Content Area: Social Studies
Index: 6.2D Grade 8 CPI 5
Standard: 6.2 - Civics
Strand: D - Citizenship
Cumulative Progress Indicator: 5 - The student will discuss basic contemporary issues involving the personal, political, and economic rights of American citizens (e.g., dress codes, sexual harassment, fair trial, free press, minimum wage).
Grade: 8
Sample Activities:
· Prepare a list of First Amendment rights readily understood by students in this grade cluster. After the students have studied the list, discuss each of the guaranteed rights and what they mean to every individual. Record specific applications mentioned during the discussion. Discuss with students these rights: free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, the right to petition the government, the right to be secure in our homes, the right to due process of law, the right to a speedy and public trial, the right of trial by jury, and protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Prepare for students summaries of several Supreme Court cases dealing with several of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Sources include U.S. Law Week, the Supreme Court Reporter, and the Rutgers Law Review and USSCPLUS.com, the Supreme Court Website which is a fee-paid service. Instruct students in the basics of writing a very simple legal brief outlining the facts of the case and referencing the relevant portions of the Constitution. (Develop the format in conjunction with the language arts teacher.) After researching cases, cooperative learning groups develop their own legal brief related to the specific right that the group members have researched. Students can then role-play some of these in a moot-court setting, as is done in law schools. For each case, roles may include the judge, attorneys for both sides, witnesses, plaintiffs, and defendants.
Inspiration Template:
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