“SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”

WEBQUEST

BY JULIA BALY

INTRODUCTION:

Does the Supreme Court ever over turn its own decision?

The Supreme Court is the highest judicial system in the United States. It is the “law of the land.” They interpret the laws to be followed by the federal, local/state courts. However, during the course of history, The Supreme Court has overturned decisions based on federal court cases.

Close your eyes class and relax. You’re waking up in the morning at 5:30 am. You live in the Bronx, but the only school you can attend is in Brooklyn, near Coney Island. Your only means of transportation is the D train. You must walk from your home to where the D train is located. It is a 1hour and 30minutes ride one way. You must get to the station for pick up at 6:00am, 6:15am, 6:30am or 6:45am there are no trains that may board at any other time. There are signs everywhere in the station that tell when colored people can embark on the train. There is a police officer to direct you to the colored cars only. If, you miss the designated times you are held in a room in the station until noon, when you are escorted back to your residence. For those of you that made it to school: it’s a large school, only colored may attend, its old and shabby, with no technology.

Directions:

No talking, take out your journals, write down how you just felt.

TASK

The students will use CompuLEGAL to compare and contrast the two Supreme Court cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. The Board of Education. The students will obtain facts from the resources to create both written and oral presentations that represent the similarities and differences.

PROCESS

· You will write a one-page report that presents the facts of Plessy v. Ferguson.

· You will write a one-page report that presents the facts of Brown v. Board of Education.

· You will write a one-page report that presents the similarities between the cases.

· You will write a one-page report that explains the use of Amendments in these cases that caused The Supreme Court to overturn its decision.

· You should now have a four-page report that explains both cases.

· You will take the information learned and condense it into a paragraph for an oral presentation.

RESOURCES

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Plessy vs. Ferguson Case

Plessy v. Ferguson visual

Compulegal facts of the case

The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown vs. Board of Education case

Brown vs. Board of Education visual

Compulegal facts of case

The case of Brown vs. Board of Education

Tips Handouts 5A

5C

3A

EVALUATION

Written and Oral Presentation

· Each page of the report is 15%

· Written Report 60%

· Oral Presentation 40%

NY State Social Studies

Standard 5- Civics, citizenship and government

NY State ELA Standards

Standard 1-The students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding

Standard 2-Language for Literary Response and Expression

Standard 3-Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Name _______________________________ Date_____

Reading Comprehension Rubric

In order Makes sense On task Did I answer all part to the question?	Some	Makes no sense
Complete sentences that relate to the topic sentence.	Some	Details not related to topic sentences
Introduction and conclusion	One is missing	None
Is the introduction engaging?	Somewhat	Is not engaging
No use of boring words.	Some	Many
Use of 5 senses is evident.	1 or 2	None

Score =30 Score = 20 Score =10

Grammar Rubric

No spelling errors

Some

Many

Capitalization &

punctuation

Some

Little to none

Sentence structure

Some

none

No fragment

No run-on-sentences

Some

many

Paragraph structure

(indent)

none

Score =30

Score =20

Score =10

Student Peer Teacher

Oral Presentation Rubric

Score =10-15 Score=16-25 Score=26-40

1	2	3	Teacher Comments
Student presented for less than 1 min.	Student presented for at least 2 minutes	Student presented for 4 minutes
No fluency	No fluency/frequent pauses or speeding	Fluency/No speeding
Clowning	Not engaging to the audience	Expressions are positive/engaging to the audience
Student is starring at the floor	Student is starring at the floor	Eye contact with the audience/head held up at all times
Extremely fidgety	Body posture is extremely distracting	Body posture is not distracting
Information was scattered	Information was somewhat unclear	Information was very well organized
Student presented very little facts most opinion	Student presented both cases without comparison	Student presented facts from both sides, compared the cases and use the 14^th Amendment as the presentation

Student Reflection: Start by saying something positive about your presentation

CONCLUSION:

This project was composed for my students to acquire knowledge of the law, specifically Brown vs. Board of Education. They will have demonstrated this gained knowledge by oral and written presentation.