Landmark Case Lesson Plan example

							Name:      Mr. Sokoloff                                People in Group: None
Date:      01/15/10                                    Court Case: Marbury v. Madis



                          SAMPLE Landmark Case Lesson Plan
Your group must teach a 30 minute lesson about your landmark case. The lesson must have a
warm-up activity, a break/out activity and a form of assessment/wrap-up. Planning a lesson is
really difficult; there is a lot to consider: what to teach, how to teach it, the timing of each activity
and how to see if the class understands the lesson. Creating a lesson plan can help with
planning and implementing your lesson.

Instructions: Fill out the lesson plan sheet. Once completed, your group will meet with Mr.
Sokoloff to go over the lesson plan and talk about the lesson you will be doing.

Overview of lesson:
One paragraph that describes what your goal is for the lesson and what the students should
know at the end of the lesson.
Students should know the story of why the case was brought before the supreme court;
specifically how Marshal set up the lawsuit from the beginning and used politics to get
Marbury to sue Madison so he could create Judicial review. Students should appreciate
the scheming and planning. Students also should examine and appreciate the
complexities, nuances and trickiness of the constitution and Judiciary act. Finally,
students must create their own understandings and judgments on the facts of the case
and confront the idea of judicial review.




Key Terms and Vocabulary:
What key terms, names, vocab words and concepts should the students know at the end of the
lesson?

Section III of constitution  Judicial Review  Writ of Mandamus  writ of prohibition 
Judiciary act of 1789  Marbury  Madison  Jefferson  Adams  Midnight Appointees  John
Marshall  “Supreme law of the land”  Secretary of state  Chief Justice  Appointments 
Judicial power  Congressional Regulations v. Jurisdiction  Exclusive jurisdiction v. original
jurisdiction v. appellate jurisdiction.




Materials:
Are there any materials or supplies you need? List them here.

Projector  Handout/copies of handout (no laptops needed)
Warm Up/Hook:
How are you going to start your lesson? What type of activity will you do to get student
interested in your court case? How are you going to relate the court case to their lives?
 Describe the steps and how you are going to implement it.

   1. Students come in and see warm up instructions on overhead: “take handout from table and read
        through the background information to answer the questions.
Take attendance and handle any administrative work while students work.

Students should be working individually; circulate among students to make sure they are on task have no
questions

Make sure there are no vocab concerns: students might be confused about writ of mandamus



                                                                                      _____ minutes long


Break-out/Activities:
How are the students going to learn about the court case? Remember to include all the
information you found and wrote down from your research guide. What types of activities
will you have the class do so that they will understand the court case?
 List the activities and explain how you will implement them.

    1. Announcements (2 min)
         Quizzes will be handed back later in the week
         Late work
    2. Go over facts of case and questions from warm up(answer questions about the reading; vocab,
        details, etc. (5-15 min)
        * cover all critical vocab listed in above section TO SOCIAL SCIENCE CLASS: YOU MUST
        DEFINE ALL VOCAB WORDS HERE! I DID THIS ON MY REAL TEACHER
        LESSON PLAN.
    3. Transition to figuring out ruling (second handout) (2 min)
        - “What will Marshall decide? He must examine the following two documents: constitution &
            judicial act of 1789”
    4. break students into groups of 2 or 3 and have them start answering the questions on second
        handout with constitution and Judiciary act of 1789. (have students work until last 10
        minutes of class.
         Circulate and answer any questions.
         Point out hints to keep students engaged and remind them of vocab words
        - Writ’s
        - Jurisdiction v. responsibility (congress does not have jurisdiction over courts)
        - Justice Marshall
        - Jurisdiction… etc…
5. Go over answers to questions with students. last 10 minutes of class (leave time for exit slip)
                                                                                         38 minutes long


Assessment/Wrap up/Homework:
How will you know that the class understood and learned what you intended them to know?
Conclude class with a way to find out if students learned anything. Quiz? Homework? Exit slip?
 Describe what type of activity and how it will prove that students learned something from
   your lesson.

Exit slip
What would make the courts more powerful? (pick on option and explain why you picked it)
a) Court can issue a writ of mandamus – a court order to force someone to do something.
b) Court has Judicial Review – can tell congress that a law, policy or amendment (change to the
constitution) is illegal
 if time have students share out their responses.
                                                                                            5 minutes long