The First Amendment - Class Recap

I happened to be in Washington D.C. in 2010 when President Obama's healthcare bill was advancing through Congress. There were a lot of angry protesters outside the Capitol!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for checking in on the blog during your long weekend!  Read on to check out what we did today!

Learning Targets Addressed:

SS.HS.KN.ALT.04: I can explain how different ideological movements and philosophies shape politics.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Cry Me A River” by Justin Timberlake. Selected because of the ongoing crisis in Crimea, Ukraine, and because it was raining out today. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/7/14:
News Brief
First Amendment Debates
Tinker v. Des Moines
High School As A Prison

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: Dawnte.
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News Brief: Eddy had the news brief today but it slipped his mind and he was not prepared. Hopefully in the future!

First Amendment Debates: Last class, I handed out a worksheet that had a few questions about what students thought about different aspects of the First Amendment. For instance, should burning the US flag be allowed? We debated our answers as a class. After this, we tried to identify what the most crucial part to the First Amendment is. Was it freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, or petition?

Tinker v. Des Moines: This is a famous U.S. Supreme Court case about freedom of speech at school. Ultimately, the justices decided 7-2 that the students protesting the Vietnam War by wearing armbands were within their rights to do so. A summary of the case can be found here.

As part of this section, we also talked about the flag burning case of Texas v. Johnson. A recap of that, which found that burning the flag was a protected form of speech, can be found here.

High School As A Prison: At the end of class, I read a Rolling Stone article aloud and had students respond to the following questions:

1. Have you ever felt targeted by someone in power? If yes, what happened? If no, why do you think that is?
2. Do you feel more or less comfortable with SSOs with guns at Westview?
3. Do you feel like adolescent students deserve more rights than they currently receive? Can you think of an example? If you were to make a list of 10 rights that every student should have, what would it consist of?

Thanks for your focus and effort in class! Have a great long weekend!