Name: Daniel Marnen

Lesson Title: And Justice for All.

Content Area: Social Studies (Civics & Government)

Grade Level: 12th

Stage I: Identify Desired Results

(1) Enduring Understandings: Students will analyze and interpret landmark United
States Supreme Court civil rights decisions and how they interplay with state law
(Pennsylvania).
(2) Essential Questions:
a. How do you use technology to find and interpret published United States
Supreme Court and Pennsylvania decisions?
b. How do you distinguish a precedential decision/opinion that is established law as
opposed to a dissenting or concurring opinion?
(3) Standards
a. PDE
i. Standard - 5.3.U.F
1. Analyze landmark United States Supreme Court interpretations of
the Constitution and its Amendments.
ii. Assessment Anchor C.1.4 Interpretation and Application of Law
1. Anchor Descriptor: C.1.4.2 Analyze the interpretation of the
U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution by the
Courts.
a. Eligible Content: C.1.4.2.2 Analyze court decisions that
support or weaken civil rights and liberties.
(4) ISTE:
a. Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
i. Plan strategies to guide inquiry.
ii. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use
information from a variety of sources and media.
iii. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the
appropriateness to specific tasks.
iv. Process data and report results.
(5) Behavioral Objectives
a. Students will be able to:
i. Locate precedential court decisions on various civil rights topics.
ii. Research, analyze, and evaluate court decisions using the free legal
research sites of www.justia.org and Google Scholar.
iii. Present case summaries using either Google Docs or a presentation tool
such as PowerPoint.
Stage II: Determine Acceptable Evidence

(1) Informal Assessments: Students will conduct research using www.justia.org or Google
Scholar to locate and analyze precedential Supreme Court decisions surrounding various
civil rights issues such as due process, equal protection, First Amendment freedoms,
voting rights, and marriage equality. Students need to establish the facts, law, reasoning,
and conclusion of each case and determine whether any cases supersede it.

(2) Formal Assessments: After students have compiled their cases, they will present a
written summary of each in a Google Docs document or PowerPoint presentation for
grading.

(3) Grading Criteria & Rubric:

CATEGORY 4 3 2 1
Internet Successfully uses Usually able to use Occasionally able to Needs assistance or
Research suggested internet suggested internet use suggested supervision to use
links to find links to find internet links to find suggested internet
information and information and information and links and/or to
navigates within navigates within navigates within navigate within
these sites easily these sites easily these sites easily these sites.
without assistance. without assistance. without assistance.
Sources All sources All sources All sources Some sources are
(information and (information and (information and not accurately
graphics) are graphics) are graphics) are documented.
accurately accurately accurately
documented in the documented, but a documented, but
desired format. few are not in the many are not in the
desired format. desired format.
Amount of All topics are All topics are All topics are One or more topics
Information addressed and all addressed and most addressed, and were not addressed.
questions answered questions answered most questions
with at least 2 with at least 2 answered with 1
sentences about sentences about sentence about
each. each. each.
Quality of Information clearly Information clearly Information clearly Information has little
Information relates to the main relates to the main relates to the main or nothing to do with
topic. It includes topic. It provides 1-2 topic. No details the main topic.
several supporting supporting details and/or examples
details and/or and/or examples. are given.
examples.
Mechanics No grammatical, Almost no A few grammatical Many grammatical,
spelling or grammatical, spelling, or spelling, or
punctuation errors. spelling or punctuation errors. punctuation errors.
punctuation errors

Organization Information is very Information is Information is The information

organized with well- organized with well- organized, but appears to be
constructed constructed paragraphs are not disorganized. 8)
paragraphs and paragraphs. well-constructed.
subheadings.
Stage III: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

Materials: laptop or iPad; word processor; Internet connection; web browser

Procedures:

1) Anticipatory Set:
i. T: Present the concept of civil rights, the U.S. and PA Constitutions, and
how they work together.
ii. S: Discuss with classmates the various civil rights they have observed in
everyday life or experienced a personal issue regarding civil rights.
2) Review
i. T: Review a sample U.S. Supreme Court case and identify the various
parts of the case including facts, law, issue, reasoning, and case holding
(courts decision).
ii. T: review the free online legal research tool: www.justia.org.
iii. S: Locate a case and begin reading and analyzing it.
3) Discuss:
i. T: Discuss with students the structure of a case summary
ii. S: Students will provide a brief summary of the initial case they find
online.
4) Choose a civil rights topic:
i. T: Instruct students to choose one civil rights topic to research and
analyze and inform them they must choose a precedential decision on
their civil rights issue
ii. S: Students must choose one civil rights topic, and perform legal research
on that topic relative to U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
5) Conduct research online for cases
i. T: Instruct students to conduct their research
ii. S: Student will go online and locate their cases, carefully reading the text,
and absorbing the content (students will have two weeks to conduct
research)
6) Instruct students to draft case summary
i. T: Teacher will set forth the parameters of case summary and the
essential breakdown.
ii. S: Students will draft rough draft of case summary and present them for
corrections (students will have one week to compose rough draft)
7) Review rough drafts of case summaries
i. T: Teacher will hand back marked up summaries and instruct student to
review suggested corrections.
ii. S: Students will review rough drafts, take in suggested corrections, and
make those corrections (where necessary) for submission on Google
Docs or PowerPoint for final draft.
8) Draft final version of case summary
i. T: Teacher will instruct students to edit and submit their final case
summary drafts.
 ii. S: Students will present final, edited case summary and present it in front
of the class.
9) Class presentation
i. T: Teacher will have presentation days for case summaries
ii. S: Students will present their case summary before the class and entertain
questions on their analysis.
10) Closure
i. Students will be asked to give real life examples of how their civil rights
topic interplays with the real world.