Activity

minutes

Warm-up

Pass out the scenario worksheet (see attached) and have students complete. (5) Lead class members in a discussion about their answers. Try to pull out their opinions and judgments about police, the legal system, individual rights. (5)

10

Pre-assesessment/unearth opinions:

Have students complete the questionnaire (see attached). Students “turn and talk,” sharing their answers with a neighbor. Then ask pairs to share their ideas, and discuss as a class.

It’s important to pull their ideas out here, as they’ll be coming back to these same questions after their SJ study.

20

Death penalty brainstorm

Ask students to make a T-chart on a piece of paper and write lists pro/con death penalty: why people think it’s a good idea, why people are against it.

Chart this as a class. You’ll be revisiting this list.

10-15

Deepen death penalty brainstorm

If your students work well when given a chance to move around, you can make this next section a centers activity. See “Centers worksheet.placards” attachment, and fix placards to tables or centers. Student groups move to different tables and talk about the questions there for 4 minutes at a time, writing their answers on their own papers.

If you don’t want them moving, groups can stay together. In the “Centers worksheet.placards” attachment, the first page is a worksheet which students can answer working together in a group.

Up to 20+

Deepen death penalty opinions

Revisit pro/con T-chart, adding student ideas based on the centers conversations.

5

Homework

Students are assigned one exoneree’s story to read – Juan Melendez, Gary Gauger, or Joseph Amrine. Students read the oral history and Talk to the Text (using post-it notes) or fill in the Metacognitive Reflection worksheet (instructions for these and a MR worksheet are attached).

A note about this homework: It’s important for students to do this Day 1 lesson plan before reading the oral histories. It’s also really important that all students engage in the reading they’re assigned. So depending on the age, independent reading abilities and homework completion rates of your students, you may want to modify these plans creating some class time to start the reading, taking another day to create reading circles or Reciprocal Teaching groups. If you’re teaching Surviving Justice in 5 days, definitely add in a Day 2 that’s reading focused, doing reading circles or RT or extending Peer Problem-Solving (see Day 2 lessons).