Ms. Brady
WebQuest:
DOES “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”
STILL APPLY?
INTRODUCTION
You are a lawyer representing a student who was denied
admission into one of
In preparing a case against the New York City Department of
Education (formerly the NYC Board of Education), you have been searching the
law books for previous Supreme Court cases that would support your position and
apply to the case you are building. You
choose Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka, Kansas because of certain striking similarities.
TASK
1. Using
at least one website provided in the RESOURCES section, you will (a) describe
the social conditions in the American South in the first half of the 20th
century and (b) the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson, both of which led to the need for Brown v. Board of Education.
2. Using Compulegal, you will locate Brown v. Board of Education.
This can be found under Equal Protection
Cases: Race.
·
Discuss the facts
of the case
·
Explain the
arguments for both sides and choose (justify) one side
·
Explain the
Supreme Court’s decision in the case.
3. Develop an
argument to support your client’s contention that the New York City Department
of Education’s new small schools, in their selective admissions process, are
violating the decision of Brown v. Board
of Education.
PROCESS
1.
Visit the
websites about the American South and Plessy v. Ferguson
and write a 1-2 page essay on segregation in the
2.
Using CompuLegal:
a.
read the facts of Brown
v. Board of Education
b.
examine a visual of the
case
c.
visit the CompuLegal Reasoning
page. On this page you can read the arguments of the
case, study precedents
that applied to Brown (including Plessy), and read
about how the Constitution
and Bill of Rights
apply to this case. Then, in the boxes
provided on the Reasoning
page, summarize the arguments for both sides.
d.
in one paragraph, summarize the decision of
the Supreme Court in Brown.
3. Prepare a
2-page legal brief in which you will use the knowledge gained from your study
of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, as well as Jim Crow laws and
segregation in the American South, to support your client’s position in her
case against the New York City Board of Education.
RESOURCES
for conditions in the American South
(1890’s-1950’s):
http://www.africana.com/research/encarta/segregation.asp
for Plessy v.
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/post-civilwar/plessy.html
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/sepbutequal.htm
for Brown
v. Board of Education:
EVALUATION
Grade A
·
Showed a complete
and detailed understanding of the topic and task
·
Successfully
discussed similarities and differences in detail
·
Richly supported
the task using relevant facts and examples
·
The paper was
typed and checked for spelling and grammatical errors
Grade B
·
Showed a good
understanding of the topic and task
·
Successfully
discussed similarities and differences
·
Included relevant
facts and examples to support opinions and perspectives
·
The paper was
typed and checked for spelling and grammatical errors
Grade C
·
Showed a
satisfactory understanding of the topic and task
·
Completed most
aspects of the task
·
Included some
facts and examples to support opinions and perspectives but not in depth
·
The paper was
typed and checked for spelling and grammatical errors
Grade D
·
Showed little
understanding of the topic or task
·
Attempted to
address task but provided little relevant information
·
Included little
facts and examples
·
The paper was
typed and had minor spelling and grammatical errors
Grade F
·
Did not address
the topic or task
·
Included no
relevant facts and examples
·
Paper not typed
and many spelling and grammatical errors
STANDARDS
Social Studies:
§
Analyze
how the values of the nation affect the guarantee of human rights and make provision
for human needs
§
Analyze
the sources of a nation’s values as embodied by its constitution, statutes and
important court cases.
§
Understand
how the
§
Both the
written document and the oral report will be assessed against the following
rubrics.
English Language Arts
§
E1c Read and comprehend informational materials.
§
E1d Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of
public documents.
§
E2b Produce a report of information.
CONCLUSION
Having
successfully completed this assignment, you are now able to:
1.
Analyze
a case forming an opinion based on the facts of the case
2.
Research
a topic using the Internet as a source
3.
Compare
and contrast different legal cases
4.
Apply
a legal precedent to a current legal problem.