Civil Rights

United States Civil Liberties and TKAM

Description:

Harper Lee began To Kill a Mockingbird in the mid-1950s, after moving to New York to become a writer. She completed the novel in 1957 and published it, with revisions, in 1960, just before the peak of the American civil rights movement.

To Kill a Mockingbird is set the 1930's in small-town Alabama. What if Lee had set the novel in the 1960's? How would this change Tom Robinson's fate? The attitude of the town people? Would anything change at all?

You will work in groups to explore the issue of civil liberties by conducting Internet research on related court cases. Your group will present your findings in a PowerPoint presentation. Finally, you will analyze how the effects of the American civil rights movement would have changed TKAM if Harper Lee had set the novel during the heart of the American civil rights movement. 

Procedure:

• You will rotate through the following roles in your groups (you will fill out a group process assessment form at the end of this project, so be sure to stay on task and do your part!) 

Researcher: finds information for the presentation

Writer: takes notes and writes text for the presentationTechnician: keeps others on task by watching the clock; also acts as a problem solver for any technical difficulties arising from the computer or printer

• Choose a topic as a group to research. Try to choose one that you know very little about. (i.e. racial justice, immigrants' rights, free speech, etc.)
• Think about the following questions as you research court cases dealing with your civil rights topic: Do you agree or disagree? Do you support the court's decision? Why or why not? You will be trying to convince an audience that what you feel would be the best outcome for your court case.
• After you complete your research, work together to create an informational PowerPoint presentation on your case by gleaning the most important information from your notes. Groups can use their creativity to design the presentation, but you must include the following information:
  
  • Cover page (students' and teacher's names, class, section, and date)
    
  • Title page (court case title)
    
  • Facts of the case (who, what, when, where, why, and how)
    
  • Students' and court opinions, including any dissention
    
  • Bibliography/Work Cited Page
• After each group presents, be prepared to discuss the following:

~What do other students think of your case and its final verdict? 

~How does your case relate to other groups' cases? 

~How has the outcome of your case directly affected any of your lives? 

~How do you think the outcomes might affect you in the future?

• Be prepared to right a critical analysis and discuss how your case would have affected Tom Robinson's verdict and the overall plot of TKAM

*See the U.S. Civil Liberties and TKAM Project Rubric for grading procedures and due dates

Helpful Hints:

1. During your research on the Internet, your chosen court cases should be recent (since the 1990s) and should deal with the issue of civil rights. 

2. Utilize helpful sites such as: The American Civil Liberties Union and The Legal Dictionary during your research of court cases.

3. Example of possible court cases: 

• Cheema v. Chandless (2005) 
• Flaherty v. Keystone Oaks School District (2002)
• Jones v. City of Los Angeles (2006)

Work Cited:
Doyle, Lauretta D. "That's Not Fair! Examining Civil Liberties with the U.S. Supreme Court, Lesson Plan. "International Reading Association." Hollandale, Wisconsin. 25, Jan. 2011.
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/that-fair-examining-civil-294.html.