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Annenberg Classroom

440 resources available

Book

Citizen

A citizen is a full and equal member of a political community, such as a country or nation-state. Such membership is a necessary condition for the establishment and maintenance of a democracy.

Book

Authority

Authority is the legitimate use of power by rulers over the individuals they rule. It is a government’s justification for exercising power over the people within its jurisdiction.

Book

Accountability

Accountability means that the government in a democracy is responsible to the people for its actions. This responsibility is primarily ensured by periodic public elections through which the people choose their representatives in government.

Lesson Plan

Understanding the Confrontation Clause

In this lesson, students will explore the fundamental reasons for the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment. Students will engage in a simulation and identify the history and evolution of the confrontation clause.

Website

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

The Monticello Digital Classroom, launched in 2017, combines content from the prior classroom archive with materials from the Sea of Liberty website. The Digital Classroom includes lesson plans, articles, and multimedia content for use by teachers, students and scholars of all levels.

Website

ABOTA Foundation

The ABOTA Foundation provides free civics and law-related education resources and programs to teachers and students. Lesson plan topics include media literacy; civic participation in the justice system; the Constitution; federal and state courts; judicial independence; Magna Carta; trial by jury; and separation of powers. ABOTA also offers the James Otis Lecture Series on the Constitution and Teachers Law School, a crash course in the law and legal system for middle and high school educators.

Video

The Confrontation Clause: Crawford v. Washington

The Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause gives the accused the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against him” at a criminal trial. This video uses the U.S. Supreme Court case Crawford v. Washington to help explain the history and importance of the confrontation clause and why the framers knew it would be crucial to an effective system of justice.”

Lesson Plan

The Unfinished Business of Women’s Equality: Educators’ Guide

This guide for K-12 educators provides four types of activity suggestions and related resources for your upper elementary, middle or high school students: class starters; in-depth classroom activities; projects/performances for assessment; and culmination activities.

Lesson Plan

How a Bill Becomes a Federal Law

Through this lesson, students will learn about the dynamic process of federal lawmaking and how it relates to them.

Lesson Plan

Key Constitutional Concepts: Right to Counsel

The landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright examines the impact that one event can make on the Constitution through the judicial process. This lesson is designed to give students an opportunity to interact with the Constitution

Lesson Plan

Key Constitutional Concepts: Presidential Power

This lesson focuses on the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, which challenged the extent to which the president of the United States can exercise power during times of foreign conflict.

Lesson Plan

Your Right to Remain Silent: Miranda v. Arizona

This lesson explores the landmark Supreme Court case that made law enforcement the protectors of individual liberty where people are most vulnerable – in the interrogation room.

Lesson Plan

Making Our Fourth Amendment Right Real: Mapp v. Ohio

This lesson explores the landmark Supreme Court decision that makes state governments also responsible for protecting our Fourth Amendment right. With the exclusionary rule, this right becomes real for all of us.

Lesson Plan

Jury Selection on Trial

In this lesson, students learn about the process used for jury selection and how the role and responsibilities of government in civil and criminal jury trials are viewed by the Supreme Court. They also reflect on the democratic values, principles, and dispositions of character working behind the scenes.

Lesson Plan

Jury Service: Our Duty and Privilege as Citizens

In this lesson, students learn about the importance, history, and constitutional foundations of jury service. They become familiar with federal and state juror questionnaires and jury summonses.

Lesson Plan

Judicial Independence: Essential, Limited, Controversial

In this lesson, students learn about the role of an independent judiciary in the United States. Through a cooperative learning jigsaw activity, they focus on operational differences, essential functions, limited powers, and controversial issues.

Lesson Plan

Freedom of Speech: Finding the Limits

In this lesson students gain insight into the many challenges involved in defining and protecting free speech. They also learn about principles that come from U.S. Supreme Court decisions, such as Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and Morse v. Frederick, and case law that are applied to define the limits for us today.

Lesson Plan

Equal Justice Under Law: Yick Wo v. Hopkins

This lesson teaches about the cause-and-effect relationships between historical events and the development of constitutional principles that protect the rights of all people in America today.

Lesson Plan

A Conversation on Judicial Interpretation

This lesson plan focuses on the essential question: How does philosophy affect the way a judge reads the Constitution and what is the effect of that?

Lesson Plan

The Power of One Decision: Brown v. Board of Education

Through the lesson, students gain insight into decision-making at the Supreme Court, learn about the people behind the case, construct a persuasive argument, and evaluate the significance of Brown v. Board of Education.

Lesson Plan

Our Heritage of Liberty: The Bill of Rights

This lesson explores one of the toughest political fights in American history – over a bill of rights for individuals – and the outcome that became a symbol of liberty and freedom in America.

Lesson Plan

Actions That Changed the Law: Ledbetter v. Goodyear

This lesson tells the law-changing story behind the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Students gain insight into law-making process and consider how statutory decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court can prompt better laws.