Proposal:
This project seeks to connect middle school students' interest in their rights with an understanding of what their rights as students are (as determined by Federal and Supreme Courts interpretation of the Constitution), and by doing so to help create a deeper understanding of the document and the process of judicial review.
Students will be exploring the role of the Bill of Rights in terms of their rights as students, as decided by Federal and Supreme Court Cases. We will have been discussing the language and meaning of the Constitution and the (historical) issues that created the necessity for a Bill of Rights. Students will have translated and/or summarized the Bill of Rights and have made a list of rights they feel they use regularly in their lives, as well as those they don't and/or feel they can't apply regularly.
As a class we will be looking at Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), New Jersey v. T.L.O (1985), and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1983). Small groups will then analyze individual cases, including Guiles v. Marineau, Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, Broussard v. School Board of Norfolk, Boroff v. Van Wert City Board of Education, Walker-Serrano v. Leonard et al, Syniewski v. Warren Hills Board of Education.
Research Questions/ Essential Questions:
1. How are the Bill of Rights relevant to today?
2. How do the Court's interpretation protect and limit students' rights?
Scale of project: 2 to 3 days to analyze Tinker, New Jersey, and Hazelwood (1 day to work on Tinker as a whole class, 1 -2 days to split the class, have them work on New Jersey and Hazelwood separately, then present analysis to the class);
2 to 3 days to work in small groups on individual cases and present to class;
2 days to plan and present a potentially politically motivated action that does not "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school." (Tinker, 1969)
Student assessment: includes informal observation, completion of analysis sheets for the cases, and the written description and analysis of their (potential) action.
Resources:
www.oyez.org
www.landmarkcases.org
www.aclu.org
http://supreme.justia.org
www.firstamendmentschools.org
www.freedomforum.org
photo of Guiles v. Marineau t-shirt (in file forum)
Other problems/ concerns: Making sure that kids don't plan and execute their political action without checking with me first (i.e. making the news...) (I'm hoping that an explicit assignment sheet, notes on my homework page, and conversations with my principal will help avoid that -barring that, I guess I remember to get a nice haircut...)
Emma Blydenburgh
Middle School History
Groton Dunstable Regional Middle School