Lending Library Archive

VIDEO: Ordinary Americans: The Civil Rights Movement
Published by: Close Up Publications
Segregated schools. Restaurants that will not serve you. Seats on public taransportation not intended for your use. Are your students aware that these were once acceptable, and even preferable societal arrangements in cities and towns all over the United States? Close Up Publishing's newest video, Ordinary Americans: The Civil Rights Movement, brings your students face-to-face with racism, prejudice, and stories of four remarkable women determined to end the unequal treatment of African Americans.

The women who share their experiences include:

Sheyann Webb, who was 9-years-old when she took part in a 54-mile protest march from Selma to Montgomery
Sonia Sanchez, a New York civil rights worker and the follower of the teachings of MalcolmX
Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper who worked to register African American voters and challenged the white Mississippi Democratic Party at the 1964 national convention
Peggy Terry, a poor white woman whose life was changed by the Montgomery Bus Boycott

With dramatic file footage and qoutes capturing the rising political tension, The Civil Rights Movement documents how the lives of all Americans were never the same again. These inspiring stories will show your students the energy, the breadth, and the terror of this critical era in U.S. history.

VIDEO: MISSISSIPPI, AMERICA
Published by PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria VA 22314, 800/328.PBS1

MISSISSIPPI, AMERICA is a story of how America's black citizens of Mississippi fought against racial injustice and disenfranchisement from the political process during what is now called Freedom Summer of 1964. The program focuses on the experiences and feelings of the many concerned citizens through: 1) Mississippi Summer 1964, 2) The Attorneys, 3) The Crusaders, 4) The Strategy, 5) The Legacy and 6) The Unfinished Agenda

MISSISSIPPI, AMERICA can be used as a compelling tool to facilitate student discussion about how the black citizens of Mississippi challenged that state's voter registration laws and fought against racial injustice and disenfranchisement from the political process to win the rights and privileges enjoyed by all other Americans. The program can be shown in its entirety, but it is recommended that it be shown according to its segments. Viewing the individual segments, with the suggested activities, will allow students time to process and analyze the different aspects of the program.
60 Minutes in length

VIDEO: Profiles of Freedom: A Living Bill of Rights
Published by Close Up

The four landmark Supreme Court cases highlighted in Profiles of Freedom will help you discover how the actions of one individual can affect the rights of every citizen in the United States.

Can one person really make a difference? These four individuals discovered the answer was "yes."

Mary Beth Tinker led an armband protest at her school against the Vietnam War. Her simple actions started a national fight over the freedom of expression.
Joey Johnson burned the American flag as a form of protest. His case turned into a free-speech debate heard in the highest court in the land.
Ernesto Mirandaconfessed to a crime without being told he had the right to remain silent. His appeal changed the process of criminal justice.
Bridget Mergens wanted to hold a Bible study at her school. Her idea ignited a battle over freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.

These cases will come alive through interviews with key players and audio footage of actual arguments made before the Supreme Court. Also included is a discussion among high school students and commentary by Peter Irons, law professor at the University of San Diego and author of The Courage of Their Convictions.

American Bar Association hosts Electronic "Conversation" with Plaintiffs of the Tinker v. Des Moines case

VIDEO: The Supreme Court of the United States
Produced by York Associates Television
Purchased from the Supreme Court Historical Society

This 24 minute video begins with a brief history of the Supreme Court as an institution and the effect the Court has had upon American society. Interviews, by University of Virginia law professor A.E. Dick Howard, a longtime court scholar, interviews all of the sitting Justices, in small groups and individually.

VIDEO: Preparing Citizens Video Series
This series of six videotapes was developed as a supplement to Preparing Citizens (see description). The video component of the project is based on the premise that teachers can learn much from observing teaching and learning in classrooms other than their own. The videotapes in this series provide an opportunity for teachers (and perhaps their students) to visit classrooms of teachers featured in the discussion and performance chapters of Preparing Citizens to see how their lessons and instruction are reflected in the performance or achievement of their students.

Socratic Seminars

This video presents segments of two seminars-a high school class examining the Pledge of Allegiance and a middle school class analyzing April Morning in light of their knowledge of such concepts as civic virtue. The video also includes student and teacher reflections on the specific seminars as well as on general approaches to conducing and assessing seminars.

Public Issues Discussion on Electoral College (27 minutes)

This video presents a small group of high school government students discussing the question: Should the Constitution be changed to allow direct popular election of the President?

Public Issues Discussion on Physician-Assisted Suicide (43 minutes)

This video features a whole-class discussion among high school students in a law class in Denver East High School.

Democratic Dialogue with Special Needs Students (31 minutes)

This video presents a dialogue process developed for use in classes with many low-achieving or special needs students.

A Case Study in Teaching Civic Standards Using a Portfolio Approach (17 minutes)

In this video, teacher Jackie Johnson of Campus Middle School (Englewood, CO) describes the process she uses to involve students in assessing whether they have achieved the state civics standards. Students reflect on how creating an "Office of Citizen" portfolio and resume helped them integrate learning from a variety of experiences, including mock trials, simulated congressional hearings, and seminars (clips of these learning activities are included).

We the People: Simulated Congressional Hearing (37 minutes)

This video features a panel of students from the winning high school at the Colorado state We the People competition as well as middle school students in a noncompetitive hearing format. The panels' presentations and responses to judges are shown.

The women who share their experiences include:

Sheyann Webb, who was 9-years-old when she took part in a 54-mile protest march from Selma to Montgomery
Sonia Sanchez, a New York civil rights worker and the follower of the teachings of MalcolmX
Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper who worked to register African American voters and challenged the white Mississippi Democratic Party at the 1964 national convention
Peggy Terry, a poor white woman whose life was changed by the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Publications

Law in Your Life
(Posted 7.12.99)
Published by:
Law in Your Life provides practical information and competency-building activities that can help students analyze, evaluate, and understand legal situations in their communities. The interactive approach uses cooperative learning strategies, including small group exercises, simulations, continuums, role-plays, and visual and auditory analysis. This approach helps develop the social skills necessary to interact with other people. Some of the social skills objectives in Law in Your Life are as follows:

participate in activities with others,
accept responsibility for own actions/behavior,
empathize with others,
accept values and cultural diversity as natural

For optimal results, Law in Your Life requires the participation of community resource people such as lawyers, police officers, and school principals. This approach allows students to be active participants in their own education. In this way, we hope to promote in students the capability and willingness to participate effectively in legal and political systems.

Law in Your Life is appropriate for use in a wide variety of settings. This interesting, easy-to-read material can be used in middle schools, junior high or senior high schools, special education classrooms, alternative education, and juvenile justice settings.

Law in Your Life is an outgrowth of several distinct but related practical law curricula and programs developed by Street Law, Inc.

Ordinary Americans: U.S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People
(Posted 4.15.98)
Edited by Linda R. Monk
Published by: Close Up Foundation
Ordinary Americans places history where it belongs--in the hands of the people. Through nearly 200 primary source readings and scores of archival photos, 500 years of U.S. history are told--not through the eyes of the famous, the rich, or the elite, but from the perspectives of ordinary Americans.

This multicultural collection of writings by Americans of African, Asian, European, Hispanic, and Native American ancestry will inspire your students and engage them in t he social and political development of our nation.

An assortment of original readings are presented, including diary entries, letters and speeches.

Your students will read accounts of the boston Tea Party, the death of Abraham Lincoln, and the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama--all from the viewpoints of those who participated in the making of history.

Use an active learning approach with more than 125 group discussion, critical writing, and interactive activities and lesson plans featured in the Ordinary Americans Teacher's Guide. Many include multicultural themes.

Comparative Lessons for Democracy
A collaborative effort of educators from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Russia and the United States
Editors: Dawn M. Shinew and John M. Fischer
Published by Center for Civic Education in cooperation with the Mershon Center at the Ohio State University

Comparative Lessons for Democracy is a series of lessons developed as part of CIVITAS: An International Civic Education Exchange Program. The lessons, which actively engage students in comparative analysis of the histories, transitions, and emerging democracies in Central and Easter Europe, were developed through a collaboration among educators in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Russia, and the united States.

Comparative Lessons for Democracy offers exciting strategies and primary source materials for teaching about this complex and rapidly changing region of the world. The volume includes 35 lesson plans and resource materials intended for use in high school government, comparative government, world history, and current affairs classes. In addition to detailed information about conducting the lesson, lesson plans contain copy-ready student handouts, background readings, and original essays from Central and Eastern European scholars. The lessons were demonstrated and well received at the recent annual conference of the National Council of the Social Studies. The text is useful for students at high school and community college levels and very advanced students at the middle school level.

Sample Lesson

Article: The Challenge of Teaching Democracy

Preparing Citizens: Linking Authentic Assessment and Instruction in Civic/Law-Related Education
by Barbara Miller and Laurel R. Singelton
Published by Social Science Education Consortium

The purpose of this handbook is to assist educators in improving the links between civic education curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The book's first major section focuses on defining authenticity in civic education, identifying essential learning, and developing authentic assessment tasks and scoring rubrics. The second section explores specific assessment tasks, including discussion; mock trials, moot courts, and simulated legislative hearings; student writing; and student-created products. The final section explores issues and challenges.

The Challenge of Violence
by Marshall Croddy, Charles Degelman & Bill Hayes
Constitutional Rights Foundation, Los Angeles

    The first volume of a new series, this 72-page supplementary text challenges students to grapple with one of America's most vexing problems. The book is divided into three units.
    UNIT I: Students first place the problem of violence in a historical context, explore the problems of violence today, including gangs and youth violence, and learn about causes and risk factors.
    UNIT II: In a series of motivating readings, students examine how law and public policy at the national, state and local levels seek to address the problem. Students engage in crucial societal debates over proposed solutions, including punishment versus prevention, gun control, curfews, and school uniforms.
    UNIT III: Students move beyond the classroom and learn how to take action against violence in their own lives and communities. Working as individuals and groups, they learn about and practice the skills and strategies of violence prevention, including self-protection, conflict management, volunteering, and conducting their own service-learning public safety projects.
    A separate teacher's guide provides step-by-step procedures for up to 21 interactive lessons, which use material from the text and 18 reproducible handout masters. Included are directed discussions role plays, simulations, and critical-thinking exercises. Also included are readings and procedures for guiding three "civil conversations" in which students conduct structured, Socratic-style discussions on provocative issues.

Tolerance for Diversity of Beliefs: A Secondary Curriculum Unit
by Patricia Avery, John Sullivan, and others
Published by Social Science Education Consortium

Tolerance for Diversity of Beliefs is a complete curriculum unit designed to engage secondary students in actively exploring issues associated with freedom of belief and expression. Throughout the curriculum, student systematically examine the ways in which the legal and constitutional framework of our society embodies the norms of freedom of speech and minority rights. Cast studies, role playing, simulations, and mock interviews are among the diverse strategies used in the curriculum.

A More Perfect Union: Shaping American Government
Published by: Choices for the 21st Century Education Project, Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies, Brown University, http://www.choices.edu

    What powers should government have over its citizens? What should we as citizens do if we believe that the government has overstepped the bounds of its legitimate authority? How should political power and responsibility be divided among the federal, state, and local levels of governments? How sound is the political judgment of the American electorate?
    As we enter the 21st century, these questions are at the top of our nation's public agenda. More then 200 years ago, they occupied much the same position in the formative years of the American republic. In A More Perfect Union: Shaping American Government, a ten-day classroom unit, students will revisit the events and controversies of 1763-88 to gain a deeper understanding of the political climate of the era and the values that contributed to America's political foundation. In exploring the parallels between the debates of 1776 and 1788 and our country's current political discourse, students will gain an insight into many of the issues that define our own age.
    The background reading in A More Perfect Union: Shaping American Government has been written to place students in the context of the late 1700s as they prepare to consider the policy debate surrounding the American struggle for independence. The unit relies heavily on primary sources, such as speeches, letters, newspaper articles and editorials, and political cartoons.

The first part of the background reading examines Britain's colonialization of North America and the factors shaping colonial society
Part II, students study the points of contention that drew the colonies away from the mother country after the French and Indian War.
An optional reading reviews the course of the American War for Independence.
Part III explores the principles and shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation.
Part V, students consider the economic divisions emerging in the young American republic and the forces supporting the call for the Constitutional Convention.
Part V probes the most controversial sections of the constitution proposed in 1787.

U.S. Immigration Policy in an Unsettled World.
Since the first European settlers set foot in North America, immigration has suffused the American experience. Indeed, many of the values that unite Americans as a nation are tied to immigration. Immigration has not only framed our vision of the U.S. role in the world, but has seeped into our view of human nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, saw in immigration a phenomenon that "will construct a new race, a new religion, a new state, a new literature" in the United States.
The idealism surrounding immigration explains in large part the deep feelings it engenders in the public policy arena. In recent years, these sentiments have jostled with concerns about the economy, ethnic relations, social services, the environment, and other issues to recast the discourse on U.S. immigration policy. From 1980 to 1990, immigration law underwent a period of change comparable in importance to the reforms of 1965 and the early 1920s. At the same time, the debate over immigration has expanded to incorporate a broad range of foreign policy issues. The discussion now features arguments on U.S. relations with Latin America, human rights, international trade, and the worldwide refugee crisis. U.S. Immigration Policy in an Unsettled World, a five-day classroom unit developed by the Choices for the 21st Century Education Project at Brown University, seeks to engage students in the leading issues driving the current immigration debate.
Level: High School You can purchase and download this material online from Choices for the 21st Century Education Project

A Teacher's Guide to the Selective Service System
Published by the Selective Service System, the books is pretty much what it says. The material covers: The Selective System Today; Required to Register" (A Chart of Who Must Register); The History of Constription in the United States; The History of the Selective Service System; Organization and Functions of the Selective Service System; The Draft Process; The Lottery; Selective Service Classification, etc. This material is free. You can call 1.703.605.4100 or email information@sss.gov and request the book. I was told that they send out "kits" to all the school (most likely the principals) and there is a card in the kit you can check and return to get the material. Men can also register online at http://www.sss.gov.

Teens on Trial: Young People Who Challenged the Law -- and Changed Your Life
Thomas A. Jacobs, J.D.
Published by: free spirit Publishing, http://www.freespirit.com

Can teens go all the way to the Supreme Court—and win? The best-selling author of WHAT ARE MY RIGHTS? describes precedent-setting cases that reveal the power of social action and prove that even teens can change the law. For example, because 15-year-old Gerry Gault fought for his rights, every teenager in the U.S. has specific rights when arrested and charged with a crime. Because 14-year-old Deborah Weisman challenged her school's policy regarding prayer at graduation ceremonies, teens know they can take a stand on issues that matter to them.
In this fascinating book, Arizona judge Tom Jacobs familiarizes readers with our legal system, dispels myths and mysteries, and shows that the law is by and for the people—including young people. He explores cases about privacy, visitation and divorce, search and seizure, dress code, drug testing, free speech in school newspapers and yearbooks, sexual harassment at work, transfer to adult court, and the death penalty, among others. Readers are encouraged to do their own "legal research" in books, articles, and on the Web. Recommended for all young people, teachers (especially social studies and sociology), and youth workers in the legal system. 200 pp., B&W photos & illust., S/C, 6" x 9". Ages 12 & up.

What Are My Rights?
Author: Thomas A. Jacobs, J.D.
Published By: free spirit Publishing, http://www.freespirit.com

"How long do I have to stay in school?" "Can my property be searched and seized?" "Are my grades public information?" "Do I have to pay income taxes?" "Can I start my own business?" "When can I have a beer?" "What if I'm discriminated against based on my age, sex, or race?" Teenagers have many questions about the law, but often they don't know where to turn for answers. This book makes it easy to explore 95 legal questions that pertain specifically to them. The friendly, accessible style invites teens to learn about the law, consider their responsibilities, appreciate their rights, and make informed decisions about what they should and shouldn't do. Covering laws related to the family, school, workplace, growing up, and more, it also discusses the consequences of willful misconduct and bad judgment. Special "FYI" sections point the way toward additional readings and Web sites; "Think About It, Talk About It" questions inspire readers to consider and share what they've learned and what it means to them. 208 pp., S/C, 6" x 9". Ages 12 & up.

When No Majority Rules The Electoral College and Presidential Succession
Author: Michael J. Glennon
Published by: Congressioal Quarterly, Inc.
Read the book online.

What exactly happens when the Electoral College vote becomes more than a confirmation of the popular vote? Or if the House must select the next president? How great an impact can third party candidates have on splitting the Electoral College? What was the intent of our Constitutional Framers in establishing this way to resolving presidential elections?
This timely book describes the process by which our President and Vice President are selected. It identifies and discusses key issues and explores historical precedents, the pitfalls and unresolved issues of the system, and the role of all groups involved, including political parties and the courts.

Software

Express Yourself: The First Amendment
Developed by ACLU

A unique interactive software program for use on Macintosh compatible computers, explores First Amendment issues as they relate to students today. The program was created by the ACLU-NC's Howard A. Friedman First Amendment Education Project. The goal of the Friedman Project is to work with high scool students and teachers on issues involving freedom of expression, freedom of the press; rights to associate, assemble and petition the government; and freedom of religion.

For more information on getting your own copy or downloading Express Yourself follow go to http://www.aclu.org/students/express.html.