Lesson Plan Guide
Name: John Truesdell
Lesson Title: Which Cases Should Be Heard?
Lesson Length: 70 Minutes
Unit: Judicial Branch: The Supreme Court
Course: U.S. Government
Grade Level: 11/12
Considering the context:
 Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to have students investigate, learn, and
evaluate the process the Supreme Court uses to select potential cases.

Lesson in Unit Context: This lesson will take place towards the end of a unit
about the Judicial Branch, specifically concerning the Supreme Court. Prior to
this less students will have viewed the movie Gideon’s Trumpet over the last two
class periods. The movie was used to illustrate the steps of a Court case and was
often stopped to highlight and explain important concepts. Following this lesson,
students will be taking a quiz on this unit.

Goals/Objectives: Students should be able to better answer the central question:
How does a case get selected by the Supreme Court? What factors influence
whether a the Supreme Court selects a case? How could this process be
improved?
Considering the learner:
 At this point in the unit students should be bringing in a fairly good idea of how
the Supreme Court process works considering we spent two days watching parts
of a case and analyzing the important details? I know this from assessing students
and leading class discussion about the steps at the end of the previous two
periods. I think the biggest misconception I will still have to account for is what
types of cases the Court is interested in hearing. I think a lot of students still think
that they should give priority to cases that are interesting or involve a lack of
evidence. I want to try to really emphasize the important of constitutional
questions involved in this lesson. What do you know about group dynamics in this
class that might affect instructional planning?

I have students who have ADD, reading/writing disabilities, and also ESL
learners in this class. I have made many accommodations for these students,
including defining terms in the reading, reformatting challenging texts, and also
providing additional wait time for these students so they can participate.
Considering the content:
Standards Addressed:

Students will be able to analyze the purposes, organization, functions, and processes of
the judicial branch as enumerated in the Constitution (MCE Civ3.1.3).


Students will be able to analyze the various levels and responsibilities of courts in the
federal and state judicial system and explain the relationships among them (MCE
Civ3.4.5)
Students will be able to understand that diversity of interpretation arises from frame of
reference (MCE CivP1.3)
Learning Objectives:
 At the end of this lesson, students should be better able to sort and predict through
potential cases and explain why particular cases are more or less likely to be
considered by the Supreme Court. Criteria students should be able to use to filter
these cases involve case details, how subjective opinions sort the cases, and how
the socioeconomic status of the petitioner affects the likelihood of a case being
hear.

Major Concepts:
 Writ of Certiorari
 Cert Pool
 Gideon v. Wainwright
Instructional Tools:
 Individual reading and writing activities in which students try to predict if a case
would be selected based off a description of the case.
 Large group discussion of what affects a case from being selected.
 PowerPoint lecture about Writ of Cert
 Cell Phone polling software
 Writing on the whiteboard
 Asking extending questions
 Reflecting student questions to entire class
Student Use of Text
 Students will read through example Court cases and try to decide which case is
most likely to be selected by the Supreme Court. Students will have to analyze
the text for details to answer questions intended to help the student sort
information about the case. These questions ultimately help the student build a
supported prediction for whether they think a case should be heard or not.
Challenges expected are students not understanding the question or struggling
with the reading/writing activity due to learning challenges. To accommodate for
this I might clarify instructions as needed, allow additional time to let students
finish their work, or instruct specific students to only address particular questions.
Tools Used
 Whiteboard/Markers
 Printed Handouts
 Poll Everywhere Polling Software
 Projector for PowerPoint
 Moodle
Assessment
 During class informal, formative assessment will be used in the form of
monitoring student work on the decision activity, observing student responses
during discussion, and stopping and asking the class if any confusion has formed.
Additionally at the end of the hour I will collect an exit pass that seeks to have
students explain one part of the case selection process, identify flaws within that
step, and suggest changes for improving it. This should assess how well students
can think critically about what we discussed today.
 During class, I will clear up questions and misconceptions on a individual basis,
however if a question that is important for the learning goals of the day comes up,
I will extend my answer to the entire class. Additionally, at the beginning of the
next day, I will address any confusion that was identified through the exit passes
or from student emails that night.
Materials
 Warm-Up Question PowerPoint Slide
 “Deciding to Decide” Student Activity Handout
 Whiteboard/Markers
 Writ of Cert Lecture Slides
 Projector
Instructional Sequence
1. The teacher should begin class by making sure students have picked up all the handouts for the
day. The teacher should then introduce the purpose of the day, explaining the central question
and reiterating that the class is going to learn which types of cases are selected by the Supreme
Court.
2. The teacher should begin by introducing the Warm-Up question to the students. The question
should ask students to brainstorm three qualities that should be used by the Supreme Court to
judge which cases should be selected to be heard by the justices. The teacher should give
students 3-4 minutes to write these ideas down on a separate piece of paper. Remind Students of
the case selection scene and the conference scene from Gideon’s Trumpet in order to get students
focused on the types of factors that might be important to consider. (5 minutes)
3. The teacher should then ask students to volunteer their responses, writing down the potential
criteria on one side of the board. The teacher should point to these qualities and cue students to
consider them during the next activity. (5 minutes)
4. The teacher should then transition into the Deciding to Decide activity. The teacher should
explain the directions and again explain that the purpose of the activity is to practice thinking
about all the factors considered when picking a case(which are on the activity) and then let
students work individually on the activity. The teacher should move around the room and
monitor student engagement and clarify any questions of misconceptions. (10 minutes)
5. The teacher should then discuss the responses from the activity as a whole group. The teacher
should first survey the class to see which cases they selected, pointing out that their selection of
cases is similar to the Cert Pool in action (foreshadowing a focus of the mini-lecture). The teacher
should also let students explain why they thought their case was best, providing a chance for a
little student debate to get learners interested. The teacher should then discuss whether or not
students thought the case should be heard for each selected case. The teacher should select a
couple of students from each case to volunteer their argument for selecting or not selecting it.
During this, the teacher should poll the class to see which students thought the cases should or
should not be selected. The teacher should then reveal whether the case was selected or not for
each one. (15 minutes)
6. The teacher should use the fact that seemingly important, popular cases amongst the class were
not selected by the Court to point out how complex the Writ of Cert process is and point to the
need to better understand the parts of the selection process in order to better predict whether a
case will be heard or not. The teacher should then use this to transition into the mini lecture
7. The teacher should then discuss the chosen slides of the Cert Lecture, making sure the assess
student understanding by asking questions and using the poll software during the lecture. At the
beginning of the lecture, the teacher should again present the central question of the day, and then
highlight the three ways that the lecture was going to look to answer this question. Cue students
that understanding these three approaches is critical to answering the question. (30 minutes)
8. The teacher should end the lesson by reviewing how the three lecture points relate back and
answer the central problem of the day. The teacher should then ask the class if there are any
questions about this idea. Answer questions as needed. After that, the teacher should end class
by asking students to write an exit pass. Students should be prompted to write on the same piece
of paper as the Warm Up activity, and be told to pick one component of the Cert process that the
class discussed today, and provide a suggestion of how it could be improved. This will test how
deep students understood the material, as well as gauge their ability to apply the content more
critically. (5 minutes)
9. The teacher should dismiss class when appropriate.
Pictures