| Unit Web Activity
Lesson Plans
Unit 6: Individual Rights and Liberties
That Old Time Religion
Overview
This lesson is designed to help students read about Supreme
Court cases involving religion in the public schools. Students
will also investigate the views of several religious groups
on the subject and express their own opinions.
Correlation to Textbook
This lesson correlates to Unit Six, Chapter 40: Freedom of
Religion in the Street Law textbook.
Correlation to the National Standards
for Civics and Government
II.A.2. Students should be able to explain how major features
of the Constitution, such as federalism and the Bill of Rights,
have helped to shape American society.
II.A.2. Students should be able to describe,
giving historical and contemporary examples, how Americans
have attempted to make the values and principles of the Constitution
a reality.
II.B.1. Students should be able to explain
important factors that have helped shape American society,
such as . . . religious freedom.
II.C.2. Students should be able to describe
political conflict in the United States both historically
and at present, such as conflict about the role of religion
in American public life.
II.D.3. Fundamental values and principles:
Students should be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions
on what the fundamental values and principles of American
political life are and their importance to the maintenance
of constitutional democracy.
V.B.1. Personal rights: Students should
be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions on issues
regarding personal rights.
Objectives
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Describe the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise
Clause of the First Amendment.
- Explain the status of current policies about religion
in public schools.
- Summarize various Supreme Court cases regarding religion
in public schools.
- Analyze Web sites of several religious or rights groups
regarding their stances on the issue.
- State and support an opinion on the issue.
Before You Teach This Lesson
- Before you take your students to the computer lab or
assign this lesson for independent research, go through
it yourself to make sure that it suits your purposes and
that all the links work.
- Decide how you want to conduct each step.
- Step 1, reading Religion
in the Public Schools: A Joint Statement of Current
Law, may be completed as homework the night before.
- Step 2, browsing the Web sites of the various groups,
unfortunately limits students to only those groups that
have established sections of their Web sites on the
topic of religion in the public schools. If you want
your students to investigate Web sites for other religious
groups (even though it may not contribute to this particular
debate), it is worthwhile to look at the sites for the
groups that signed the Joint Statement used in Step
1. You may also try these groups:
- Step 3, reading the Supreme Court cases, may be done
in groups if you do not have enough computers for everyone.
You could also have each group read one case and report
to the class about the case.
Lesson Plan
- Review the lesson outcomes with the students.
- If a Resource Person is helping to co-teach this lesson,
introduce him or her and explain how you will work together.
- Discuss the First Amendment and the Jefferson quote with
your students. Ask them what they think about the “wall
of separation” between church and state. Some possible
discussion questions that preview the lesson include:
- What does the First Amendment to the Constitution
say about Freedom of Religion?
- What is the Establishment Clause?
- What is the Free Exercise Clause?
- Given those clauses, do you think students in public
schools should be able to:
- Pray silently in class?
- Pray aloud over the public address at a football
game?
- Do you think public schools should be able to:
- Exclude a religious club from using the school
building after school?
- Deny funding to a religious, student-run magazine?
- Ask a member of the clergy to pray at a school-sponsored
event?
- Do you think states should be able to:
- Require public school teachers to teach “creation
science” along with the theory of evolution?
- Authorize public school teachers to lead prayers
in classes?
- Require schools to post the Ten Commandments
in their classrooms?
- Have your students begin the lesson
following the path you chose.
- When students are finished with the
first three steps, ask the students to take a stand in Step
4. They should choose a case on which they have a firm opinion
and imagine that the decision was just announced. Their
job is to write a newspaper editorial about the new decision,
taking a stand either in agreement with or opposition to
the Court’s decision. They may use arguments that
they found on the Web sites of the various groups to support
their opinions. Collect the editorials to assess their understanding
of the material.
Suggestions for Using Resource
People
Contact your school system’s legal department and ask
for someone to co-teach this lesson and speak to your class
about the schools’ policies regarding religion in the
schools. Someone who is knowledgeable both in the law and
in the policies of schools in your area will be best able
to answer the students’ many “What if?”
questions.
Timing of Lesson
This lesson is designed for two 45-minute class periods or
one 90-minute block class. Suggested times for each step of
this lesson are below:
- Read the Joint Statement (can be done in class or for
homework the night before): 20–30 minutes
- Browse Web sites of religious and political groups: 15–20
minutes
- Read several Supreme Court cases: 20–30 minutes
- Reflect on and plan editorial: 10–15 minutes in-class,
complete for homework
|
