Yes, what a busy few weeks! We are working diligently to complete our unit on the criminal justice system, but life just keeps getting in the way. We started the unit with our crime scene investigation - The Mystery of the Missing Mice. The crime scene engaged the students and began our journey to learn and understand more about our system of justice. So to gain a true understand, students had to begin at the beginning - Bill of Rights with a modern day twist thrown in - Mars Colony Bill of Rights. The students were asked to imagine that they were members of the first colony on Mars. Their task was to generate a five amendment Mars Colony Bill of Rights based on the original Bill of Rights. After researching online sites on the Bill of Rights ( links on our Moodle class), they worked individually to rank (evaluate) the first ten amendments of the Constitution in descending order of importance from 10 - 1. Once they had their individual rankings, they worked in teams of 3- 4 to generate a team list to present to the class. Each group presented their list and explained their team's decision as they completed the chart.
Next up was Types of Trials through History. Again, students used online resources located on our Moodle class to learn about the four major types of trials - ordeal, oath, combat and jury. Each team member became the expert on one type of trial, then shared the knowledge with the other members of the team (Jigsaw) so that all could complete the assigned graphic organizer. I kicked it up a notch on Thursday by modifying the lesson - now students worked as a team to become experts on one type of trial and then share the information with the rest of the class through a skit. After each skit, students were given an opportunity to complete the graphic organizer.
The week after testing we will start the mock trial lessons - it will be fun and very informative!
Next up was Types of Trials through History. Again, students used online resources located on our Moodle class to learn about the four major types of trials - ordeal, oath, combat and jury. Each team member became the expert on one type of trial, then shared the knowledge with the other members of the team (Jigsaw) so that all could complete the assigned graphic organizer. I kicked it up a notch on Thursday by modifying the lesson - now students worked as a team to become experts on one type of trial and then share the information with the rest of the class through a skit. After each skit, students were given an opportunity to complete the graphic organizer.
The week after testing we will start the mock trial lessons - it will be fun and very informative!