HW - Tuesday, 5/31 - US Marshals Reading + Notes

For tonight, I want you to read several of the informational webpages straight from the US Marshal website, and take three notes from each page.  Just a note, you can go to the first link, and at the bottom of each page it links you to the next section.
http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/broad_range.htm
http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/general_practitioners.htm
http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/peril_of_your_life.htm
http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/civilian_enforcers.htm
http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/loyal_community.htm

Again, you should take three notes from each page.  Each of your notes should be in complete sentences, and be able to 'stand on their own' as facts.

Good Luck!!!

Warm Up - Tuesday, 5/31 - Hope you ejoyed your Memorial Day weekend! Hope you didn't DANCE...

To dance or not to dance?  I prefer to dance...but in fact, there were several people arrested at the Jefferson Memorial this weekend for doing just that...

Read this article to find out about it, I barely believed it myself.

Make sure you've read the whole article, some of the finer points are subtle.  Try to answer these questions about the article:
1) Why did the US Court of Appeals rule that dancing at a memorial is forbidden?
2) The author spins this as an example of civil disobedience, do you agree with that statement?
3) Were the police doing the right thing when they arrested these 5 people?  Defend your answer in two to three sentences.

HW - Thursday, May 26 - Executive Agency Mini-Posters

So we worked on some more Mini-Posters today in class, many of  you finished your first and went on to your second or third poster.  For homework tonight, you should complete several more mini-posters, and by tomorrow morning (before class) you should have a total of 5 Mini-Posters

Mini-Poster Guidelines

• A large and readable title
• at least one picture
• at most one printout
• must be colorful
• clearly state "what they do" or the purpose of that agency
• can have one other fact

And lastly, here is what people have chosen so far:

Bryant - NASA, Amtrak

Michael - ATF, Census

Tommy - Coast Guard, US Marshals

Sarah - NPS, FBI

David - USTDA, NWS

Lucas - Fish/Wildlife Service, EPA

Warm Up - Thursday, May 26 - To Walmart, or not to Walmart...that is the question.

I want you to read a recent blog post by a local news writer, on the site DCist.com.  This article is going to talk about Walmart wanting to move in to DC, and how the Mayor/D.C. Government is reacting to it.

Answer each of these questions, in complete sentences, each answer should be at least two sentences.

1) What is the ultimatum (meaning a 'one or the other' choice) that Grey is giving Walmart?
2) Why does the DC government care where Walmart decides to put it's stores?
3) Does the D.C. government have the right to be involved in where a company wants to open new stores?  Why or why not?
4) Would it make a difference in this situation if it was a smaller local company, with smaller stores instead of a very large company like Walmart?

Here is the story

If you want to read a little more detail, with some extra facts, check out the longer Washingtonpost article here.

Good Luck!

Warm Up - Wednesday, 5/25 - President Web Quest

Today you will check out the web quest online about the life of the President.  A 'webquest' is essentially a short slideshow, where each page directs you to an interesting outside source.

In this webquest, I am asking that you read each source, and write down two interesting facts from each outside source.  You should do this in a word document, and everything of course should be in your own words.

Enjoy the Webquest

HW - Tuesday, 5/24 - None new.

Tonight we don't have any new homework, except to catch up on some if you are behind on some of your assignments(!)

Oh and keep reading Lord of the Flies at home too...

Warm Up - Tuesday, 5/24 - Play Devils Advocate

A good common definition of "Devil's Advocate" is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, just for the sake of argument. (Wikipedia).


This morning, I want you to read this article, and identify the two sides of the argument by playing devils advocate, on both sides.  I want  you to write two separate paragraphs, each on opposite sides of this decision.  One paragraph should argue as to why the Supreme Court ruled correctly in this case (Brown v. Plata), and the other paragraph should argue as to why the Supreme Court Made a mistake.


You could consider starting each paragraph with "I believe that the Supreme Court was right in this case because..." and "I believe that the Supreme Court was wrong in this case because..."


The article can be read on the Washington Post here. 


Good luck.

HW - Monday 5/23 - Research about an Executive Department

Today in class, we each chose an Executive Department to research for homework, here is what we chose:
Michael - Justice
Tommy - Homeland Security
Bryant - Defense
Sarah - Education
Damani - Treasury
Lucas - Agriculture
David - Transportation

For homework, I want you to research about your chosen department.

Part 1 - Find 3 facts about your chosen department from here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/our-government/executive-branch

Part 2 - Find 7 more facts from your department's Wikipedia page.  The easiest way to find the Wikipedia page of something, is going to be to add 'wiki' to a Google search.  For example I might Google 'department of energy wiki'

All of your facts should be in COMPLETE sentences.

Good luck.  Remember we have a shortened class tomorrow because of our all-school field trips.

Warm Up - Monday, 5/23 - iCivics: Executive Command

Check out http://www.icivics.org/games/executive-command

...you have until break to play, enjoy!

HW - Friday, 5/20 - Lord of the Flies reading

For this weekend, there is no written homework assignment.  However, we will be taking the quiz right away on Monday in class, so prepare yourself.

We will also have another quiz next Friday, so you could also read ahead a little this weekend.  If you have other back work, this would be a good weekend to catch up.

Good luck

Warm Up - Friday 5/20 - Is it legal to lie?

So this morning I want you to read about an interesting court case that has made its way through an appeals court in San Fransisco, that looks like it might be making its way to the Supreme Court.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/is-lying-protected-speech-military-medal-case-is-on-track-for-supreme-court/2011/03/27/AFXcplkB_story.html

What I would like you to do is the following:

• Write down 5 facts about this case, what is it about, what law is involved, what did Alverez do to get in trouble?
• Write down two quotes that you think are the most effective/important (make sure to say who said them!)

Good Luck

HW - Thursday, 5/19 - Museum Response

After having visited the Crime and Punishment today during class, I want you to write a half page doing two things:

  - Rate the museum on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best), and explain why.  Compare it to other museums you have visted
  - Talk about at least two different scenes/exhibits you saw during our visit.

good luck!

Warm Up - Thursday, 5/19 - none!

We left today for the Crime and Punishment Museum, there wasn't time for a warm up!

HW - Wednesday, 5/18 - Reflect on Prisons

Some people argue that the purpose of prisons is to punish people for their crimes.

Others argue that prisons should rehabilitate people who have committed crimes, meaning that prison should be a place where criminals are changed for the better, and when they are released they should be "better" people.

Which do you agree with?

Write a 200 word response telling me if you believe prions should punish, or rehabilitate ciminals.

Good luck@!

Warm Up - Wednesday, 5/18 - iCivics Game: Lawcraft

You have about 30 minutes to check out the game Lawcraft over at iCivics:

http://www.icivics.org/games/lawcraft

Enjoy

HW - Tuesday, 5/17 - Finish Crime in America Packet [+ read LOTF]

For homework tonight, you should finish reading the Crime in America Packet, and complete the remaining exercises 7.7-7.10.  Remember, this work needs to be done on a separate sheet of paper, and should be written in complete sentences.

Also, you should be continuing reading through Lord of the Flies.  On Friday, we will have a quiz on chapters 7-10.

Warm Up - Tuesday 5/17 - Make a Crossword

This morning I want you to create your own crossword using the handout from yesterday.  You can use any key-word that shows up in that section, even if it is not a vocabulary word.  You can also use any words or terms we talked about yesterday in class

Remember: a good crossword clue is one that makes the player have to think hard to get the word from the clue, but should be clear enough that there shouldnt be many other words that fit.


http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/CrissCrossSetupForm.asp

In this puzzle-maker, you seperate your word from your clue with the first space, for example:
"dog this is the clue for my first entry"
Would use the word "dog" as the word, and "this is the clue for the first entry"

Your puzzle should have at least 15 entries, but could have more if you wish.  When you are done, trade crosswords and try to complete another classmates crossword.

Good luck!

HW - Monday, 5/16 - Crime in America Packet (part 1)

Today in class we got the Ch 7: Crime in America Packet.  For homework you want read the first half of the packet, and answer problems 7.2 through 7.6 for homework.  You will need to put your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
1
Good Luck

Warm Up - Monday, 5/16 - Crimes that Have Affected You

This morning, I want you to do some thinking about your past experiences.  I want you to think about in what ways crimes have affected you, your life, your family or anyone you know around you.

Make a 2-column list - where you list the 'crime' someone committed against you (or someone you know) and in the second column, give a brief explanation as to what happened.

The goal of this warm up, is to see what crimes we are already familiar with from our regular lives.

HW - Friday, 5/13 - Lawyer, Judge, Jury

We started reading and underlining important information from our packet today in class.  For homework, finish reading the packet and complete the worksheet at the end.  Other than that, have a good weekend.

Warm Up - Friday, 5/13 - Argument Wars

Check out this iCivics game, Argument Wars!

http://www.icivics.org/games/argument-wars

You get 30 min to enjoy this one, good luck!

HW - Thursday, 5/12 - 12 Angry Men (part 2) + Study for LOTF Quiz!!!

So just a reminder, we will have our second quiz on LOTF tomorrow, on the material through chapter 4-6.

Today in class, we finished the movie 12 Angry Men.  Tonight, I want you to write a half-page review/response of the movie.  Talk about what you did like or didn't like.  Were the actors good or bad, which ones?  How was the plot/story?  Would you recommend this movie to a friend? Lastly, tell me in your response what is the main theme or themes to this movie, and how does it involve our rights and our government.
If you want to review the movie, you can look online to read some plot summaries, here is one:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/plotsummary

So movie review, and make sure you are ready for the quiz tomorrow.
Good Luck

Warm Up - 5/12 - Weigh in on Online Privacy

I want you to read, digest, and respond to an article about an upcoming Supreme Court case that involves tracking citizens using their phone's GPS.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/court-asked-to-balance-information-age-advances-with-constitutional-protections/2011/04/22/AF2Q9IdE_story.html

Write a full paragraph discussing the two sides to the case.  You can talk about each side separately, then say which one you agree with.

HW - Wednesday, 5/11 - 12 Angry Men (part 1)

Today in class, we watched (about) the first half of 12 Angry Men, nominated for 3 Oscars in 1958.

For homework tonight, I want you to respond in 2 parts

1. Tell me 3 of the most important pieces of evidence or aspects of the trial so far.  For each aspect, say why it is important.  You can do this in list format, but each item should have complete sentences
2. Predictwhat you think will happen in this movie/case, and how it will happen.  This part should be at least 3 complete subsentence.  (If you've seen the movie already, tell me what the audience is supposed to think right now, or how they are supposed to think it will end)

We will watch the second half of the movie in class tomorrow.

Warm Up - 5/11 - Check out a Recent Supreme Court Case

So this morning I want to direct your attention over to the Oyez Project, which is a non-profit group dedicated to making information about the supreme court available to the public.  Today, your goal is to form "impressions" of two Supreme Court Justices, by listening to audio of them in action


http://www.oyez.org/cases

• Select a case from the last 5 years, one that has the audio available on the left side
• Read the description about that case, and the related information, so you can understand some of what they are talking about
• Click the "Expanded View" of the audio clip on the left side.
• You don't need to listen from the beginning, you can jump around and listen to different parts
• (It's OK that some parts are hard to understand, listen for things like emotion or tone of voice)

The Assignment:
Pick two of the Justices you heard speak in your chosen case.  Write a paragraph for each, telling what your impressions of him/her are.  Just some to think about: Do they interrupt? Speak slowly or quickly?  Do they seem interested?  Are they nice about their questions? ... you get the idea.


If you end up finishing early, poke around try and find one or two other interesting things on the Oyez website.

Good Luck

HW - Tuesday, 5/10 - Research a Supreme Court Case

For tonights homework your goal is to research and answer questions about an important case that went through the Supreme Court

You will use this page
http://www.streetlaw.org/en/landmark.aspx

• You will select one of the cases from the list on the bottom right.
• Read the introductory quote, and click the "Learn More" link.
• You will choose from the "Background summary and questions to consider"
• You must select either the 2 dot, or 3 dot version.  (the one dot versions might not have enough information)
• For your chosen case, give me 5 facts from the reading about the case, and answer the questions below in complete sentences.

Good Luck

Warm Up - Tuesday, 5/10 - Judicial Branch Crossword

I have a crossword at the front of the class, complete that today for your warm-up.  The answers can be found in the handout from yesterday "Judicial Branch in a Flash!"

Good luck.

HW - Monday, 5/9 - Types of Crimes Packet

Read the handout given at the end of class today: Chapter 4: Types of Crimes.  Read, and highlight/underline any important information you read.  At the end of the packet, complete the two sided worksheet.

Also, keep reading Lord of the Flies, by the end of this week (Friday morning) we want to have read through chapter 6, which ends on page 108.  We will have a quiz on chapters 4-6 at the end of the week.

Warm Up - Mon, 5/9 - Court Quest Game

It is time for the next iCivics game:  Court Quest!
http://www.icivics.org/games/court-quest

And by the way, don't forget to login in case you need to stop early

I am going to give you all about 30 min of playing time in class.  Enjoy!

HW - Friday, 5/6 - Find news about the Government!

Find and print out, one news article that has to do with out government.  Make sure you bring in the article on Monday.  Write a 100 word summary of the article.

Have a good weekend!

Warm Up - Friday, 5/6 - Miranda vs Arizona

Read this page about an important supreme court case:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_miranda.html

Answer the questions in complete sentences:

• How did the police obtain a confession from Miranda?  What did the police do or not do that was questionable?
• What court(s) did this case go through, where did it start? Where did it end up?
• What are the three main rights in the “Miranda Rights”?
• Why is it important our police read everyone their rights?

HW - Thursday, 5/5 - Bordentown Response

Write a 250+ word response to the movie we watched today in class.  We talked after the film about how people differed in their view of what role education should play in African Americans.  While some believed in a vocational approach, others felt that minorities should receive the same general education as whites at the time. Bordentown itself went through several changes over its history, including its approach to educating.

Write a response talking about the two roles, and how it relates to Bordentown.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordentown_School if you want to read a little more, or just remind yourself about the movie.

Warm up - Thursday, 5/5 - America Flip-Flops on Alcohol

We talked in class yesterday about the two constitutional amendments that changed what people were allowed to purchase in this country.  Watch this video about the 18th and 21st Amendments, and what happened in between.  After you watch the video once, go back and pick out 10 facts that you learned from the video (be sure to write in complete sentences).

http://www.history.com/topics/constitution/videos#america-goes-dry-with-prohibition

When you are done, we will discuss in class as a group.

HW - Wednesday, 5/4 - Notes on Living Constitution, read LOTF

For tonight, you should complete the reading we started in class, in the "Living Constitution" packet:

• finish the reading the packet, pages 74-79
• write 2  facts from each of the starred sections (we starred them in class)
• The starred sections were: 15th amendment, 17th amendment, 19th amendment, Suffragist Leaders, 23rd amendment, and the 24th amendment.

Also, you want to continue reading through Lord of the Flies, we will have a book quiz, that will cover the story up through chapter 3.  Chapter 3 ends on page 58.

Good Luck

Warm Up - Wednesday, 5/4 - Search and Seisure of Children

Go ahead and read this Washingtonpost.com article, about the 4th Amendment, and children (minors). 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-confronts-conflict-between-constitutional-rights-and-protecting-children/...

Read through this article, and I want you to do two things:
1) Write a short 1 paragraph summary of the article (about 4 scentences) with only the most important information
2) Answer the question: Was it right to question the 9-year-old girl "S.G?"  Why or why not?

HW - Tuesday, 5/3 - Play a game!

Tonight I just want you play some more of "Do I Have a Right?" for at least 30 minutes.  But read through this post, I want you to add our class to your account:

http://www.icivics.org/

Log in using your email (we created today in class)

Click on My iCivics on the top bar

Click the "Classes" tab

Put in our class code, our class code is "Jay75867"

Once you have added yourself to our class, go ahead and play the game.  Remember, play for at leas 30 minutes, you should get through several 'in-game' days.

http://www.icivics.org/games/do-i-have-right

Good Luck!

Warm Up - Tuesday 5/3 - Bill of Rights Worksheet

First, update your assignment index with "Ch3 Notes" and turn that in to your notebook

I want you to use your Chapter 3 packet, and the notes you worked on last night, to complete a review packet about that chapter.  You should partner up and work in pairs to complete this worksheet.

Come get the worksheet from the front of the class.  Good luck.

HW - Monday, 5/2 - Reading and Notes on Chapter 3 Handout

Today you took home the Chapter 3: Bill of Rights handout.  For homework you will need to finish reading the packet, and take notes on the sections, including some of the sections we read in class.

Your assignment is to take 3 important notes on each of the following sections:
Freedom of Religion
Freedom of Assembly
Freedom  of Speech and Press
Fourth Amendment
Fifth Amendment
Sixth Amendment
Eighth Amendment

One summary sentence from these sections at the end:
More Amendments
State Constitutions
The Miranda Rights

Good Luck!

Warp Up - Monday, 5/2 - Trade Stories!

OK, lets update our Assignment Index with: "Anarchy Story".

Print out 2 copies of your final draft of your anarchy story, put one in your notebook behind your assignment index, and go ahead and trade stories with your classmates with the other one.  See what ideas they came up with!  We will spend about 20 minutes reading each others stories.

HW - Friday, 4/29 - Story Final Draft, Ch1 LOTF

For homework this weekend you have two things to accomplish:

  1) Use the peer edits from class, and complete your final draft of your story.

  2) Finish reading chapter 1 in Lord of the Flies.  We will talk about the story so far on Monday.

Have a good weekend!