Lesson Plan:  Dred Scott: A Supreme Court interpretation of the Constitution

Course: U.S. Government

Standards:  Sub-Strand C. - Roots of the Republic- The students will know how Constitutional Amendments and Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution have increased the impact of the Constitution on people’s lives.

Content and Habits of Thinking: 

Primary source analysis

Drawing Conclusions

Questioning the Author

Identifying cause and effect

Guiding Questions:

How did the Bill of Rights play a role in the Dred Scott decision?

How did the function of the Supreme Court develop as a key decision-making?

body of government in the Dred Scott case?

Why did the Supreme Court rule that Africans “had no rights which the white

man was bound to respect?” 

How did the Dred Scott case affect the lives of African Americans?

What political, economical and social effects did this decision have the entire

nation?

Assessment: 

Students will be assessed on the highlighting they complete as they use the Questioning the Author reading strategy and their newspaper review of the Supreme Court’s decision.

Lesson Sequence and Instructional Strategies:

Introduction:

Begin lesson by asking students respond to the following questions as a large group: Which cases of the Supreme Court are the most well known?   What were the outcomes of these cases?  How do these cases affect their daily lives or the lives of others? 

Write all responses on the board including full name of cases if students have prior knowledge of their titles.  Proceed by asking students to participate in a timed Fast-write writing strategy in which students respond to the following question:

What does the phrase second-class citizen mean?  To whom does it refer?

Ask students to share responses with class or read them aloud-using anonymity. 

Explain to students that they will be reading a primary document about a case which was decided upon in the 1857, Scott v. Sandford.  Inform them that the case was popular at the time and affected the entire nation in numerous ways.  Their task will be to determine how the country was affected politically, economically and socially.  Also, they will need to determine what the author(s) or judges goal was when producing their opinion as well as the key audiences affected by it.

Body:

Questioning the Author reading strategy:

This strategy offers students an opportunity to focus on the essential points and big ideas of a text, in order to make connections and draw conclusions.  This strategy also helps students become self-monitoring while reading a text.  In small groups assign students the following task as they read the document, Scott v. Sandford:

1.       Read the text provided.

2.       As you read each paragraph, ask yourself the following questions:  What is the author trying to say here.  What is the author talking about? 

3.       Write an answer to each question posed during reading directly on the right-hand side of each paragraph and onto the actual document.

Upon completion of this reading strategy task, have students do the suggested assignment:

As a reporter who has been following the Dred Scott case for the past eleven years, write a brief three-paragraph report for public who need to know the outcome of the decision. 

*Paragraph one: Students should write a detailed description about who Dred Scott was and what his circumstances were.

*Paragraph two: Student should explain what Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote as the majority opinion of the Supreme Court.  Tell which amendments to the Constitution were used as a means of determining the outcome of the case.

*Paragraph three:  Student should explain the implications the decision will have the enslaved population as non-citizens, and/or the politil, economical and social implications the case will have on the nation as a whole.

Closure of lesson:

As a large group discuss the role of the Supreme Court in affecting legislation and the every lives of citizens. 

Instructional Considerations:

For lower level readers/writers read document with students in small group and reduce writing assignment if necessary.

Materials/Resources:

Copy of case, Scott v. Sandford (1857)

Highlighters for reading strategy

Typing time in computer lab or lots of paper for construction of newspaper article.

Comments:

This assignment can be adjusted and used in a U.S. History course under sub standards H. & I as well.