Supreme Court Case Research

Subject Area(s):

• United States History

Grade Level(s):

• 7th-8th Grade

Description:

Find relevant resources to report on landmark US Supreme Court cases.

Goals & Objectives:

Students will find a variety of reference materials in both print and nonprint format on the listed Supreme Court cases and present those sources in an MLA format paper.  They will also give a brief description of each case and explain why the case is considered landmark.

Materials:

Students will use kyvl.org, the Louisville and Oldham Public Libraries, our school library, bartleby.com, and several other web sites to research their cases.  Wikipedia is not allowed. 

Procedures:

Students will find 3 books, 2 articles, the decision and the dissent.  They will write a brief description of each case and a brief explanation of why each decision is considered landmark.  The descriptions and works cited will be in MLA format.

Assessment:

Students will produce an MLA format report and works cited list for their cases.

Standards:

National Information Literacy Standards (K-12)

Accesses information efficiently and effectively.

• Identifies a variety of potential sources of information.
• Develops and uses successful strategies for locating information.

Evaluates information critically and competently.

• Determines accuracy, relevance and comprehensiveness.
• Selects information appropriate to the problem or question at hand.

Uses information accurately and creatively

• Organizes information for practical application.
• Produces and communicates information and ideas in appropriate formats

Strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge generation.

• Assesses the quality of the process and products of personal information seeking.
• Devises strategies for revising, improving, and updating self-generated knowledge.

Recognizes the importance of information to a democratic society.

• Seeks information from diverse sources, contexts, disciplines, and cultures

Practices ethical behavior in regard to information and information technology.

• Respects intellectual property rights.
• Uses information technology responsibly.

Information Skills and Subskills (K-16)

Definition

• Identifies requirements of research task
• Determines amount/type of information needed to complete research task

Selection

• Specifies subtopics or related keywords

Planning

• Formulates a search strategy
• Identifies potential information sources
• Creates a general framework for organizing information found

Exploration

• Uses indexes and search engines
• Locates and accesses information resources
• Explores range of information resources

Collection

• Selects most appropriate information sources
• Skims/scans information sources
• Locates relevant information within selected sources
• Identifies and extracts relevant information from selected sources
• Evaluates quality of information and information source
• Recognizes when sufficient information has been obtained
• Stores information for potential future use

Organization

• Analyzes quality of information
• Filters out irrelevant information
• Summarizes/synthesizes/classifies final information
• Sequences final information
• Organizes final information for presentation

Presentation

• Assembles organized information for presentation
• Reviews presentation for grammatical, spelling, and other errors
• Cites sources appropriately
• Presents results

Evaluation

• Assesses the efficiency of the research process
• Determines ways to improve future research process and results
• Determines future usefulness/applicability of research process
• Subject: United States History

National Content Standards (K-12)

Era 3 - Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

• Understands the institutions and practices of government created during the Revolution and how these elements were revised between 1787 and 1815 to create the foundation of the American political system based on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Right

Era 4 - Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)

• Understands how the industrial revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward movement changed American lives and led to regional tensions

Era 9 - Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)

• Understands the struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties

Era 10 - Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)

• Understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the contemporary United States