Unit 3: Student Rights and the Supreme Court

Essential Question: To what extent are students protected by the first amendment?

Assessment: Students will use the primary and secondary sources provided in the unit to write an essay in which they take a position on the essential question.

Students will also practice writing their own legal opinions on Supreme Court cases.

Day 7 (11/22)

  1. Worked with groups to read and evaluate opinions and evaluate the outcome of Morse vs Frederick (2007)

Day 6 (11/21)

  1. Discussed our opinions on the West Virginia NRA t shirt case.
  2. Read the background and started working on Morse vs Frederick (2007)
    Morse case slides
  3. Watched background vide on the case: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbc-news-channel/17693260#17693260
  4. Read background and opinions Morse-vs-frederick-complete

Day 5 (11/17, 11/18)

GQ: How would the Supreme Court rule in the West Virginia NRA T Shirt case?

  1. Students broke up into groups of 5 in order to discuss and evaluate what should happen in this case

HW

Write up your own legal opinion on this case.

Day 4 (11/16)

GQ: What were the different standards created by the the Tinker and Fraser cases?

  1. Worked on identifying similarities and differenes between the Tinker and Fraser cases.
  2. Completed a compare and contrast chart.
    Compare tinker and Fraser
  3. Looked at a new case that dealt with a student t shirt in West Virginia.
    West virginia NRA

HW: Finish doing “Part 1” of the Virginia NRA T shirt case.

Day 3 (11/15)

GQ: What were the ramifications of the Tinker vs. Des Moines Supreme Court case?

  1. Discussed the purpose of student protest. Why are people protesting Donald Trump?
  2. Identified the key facts in the Tinker vs Des Moines court case.
  3. Discussed our positions on the court case and what we think the limits of student speech should be.

HW

Read and annotate Document 3 in your student rights packet.

Day 2 (11/14)

GQ: What does the first amendment say? What are its limitations?

  1. Translated the meaning of the 1st amendment.
  2. Worked in groups to identify examples of what the government can and cannot do.
  3. Started to read about the Tinker vs. Des Moines Supreme Court case

HW

Finish working on reading and answering questions about Document 2 in your packets.

student-rights-packet