Put President Harry Truman on trial for dropping the Atomic Bombs on Japan! This lesson helps to guide students through a mock trial and gives them the tools to help conduct it. It comes with worksheets to set everything up from the opening statements to the questioning of the witnesses to the verdict. It also comes with a primary source about the bombings of Japan and a short read about the pros and cons of dropping the Atomic Bombs on Japan.
This packet comes with six different lessons that deal with school issues where the students rights may have been violated and students will choose whether or not the school administrator had the right to do what they did based on the Bill of Rights. There are followup questions to get the students to think beyond what they just read. The students will then write an argument in support of the administrator or the students.
What you get in the packet:
Each lesson comes with a short story of the scenario like a student being searched in school. It also comes with questions and instructions on how to write an essay if you choose to take the lesson further.
Here are the titles of the six lessons:
1. Students Searched in School: 4th Amendment
2. Fight at School: No Trial! 5th Amendment
3. Students Organize to Protest School Problems and are Suspended: 1st Amendment
4. Principal Censors School Newspaper: 1st Amendment
5. Prayer at a School Football Game: 1st Amendment
6. Students Car is Searched at School: 4th Amendment
Students will debate the first amendment in school in a fun and engaging activity that they can connect to real life. They will be debating whether or not the students had a constitutional right to pray at a school football game based on the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment.
What you get:
1. A one and a half page short read of the event, an explanation of the Bill of Rights that relates to the issue and a list of arguments for both sides.
2. A few questions to get the students to think beyond what they just read.
3. A worksheet that will help the students write out and prepare for the debate.
Students will debate the First Amendment in school in a fun and engaging activity that they can connect to real life. They will be debating whether or not the students had a constitutional right to publish the school newspaper based on the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment.
What you get:
1. A one and a half page short read of the event, an explanation of the Bill of Rights that relates to the issue and a list of arguments for both sides.
2. A few questions to get the students to think beyond what they just read.
3. A worksheet that will help the students write out and prepare for the debate