Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking
I teach 7th grade at Diegueno, but this assignment could be used for any grade. Over the years, I have had my students participate in trial reenactments based on a scene in a novel we were reading in class. This year I decided to try something a little different, and I am glad I did! It was one of my most rewarding and successful assignments in over twenty years. Students read The Outsiders, and as part of the unit, we read several articles and watched a few video clips on the teenage brain. Students marked the text and wrote summaries of these articles, and I made sure to pre-teach difficult vocabulary.
I then shared two articles with them, both involving juveniles accused of committing horrific crimes. The first case was called "Affluenza: Is it Real?" and was about a 16 year-old who drove drunk. In fact, his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit. . This led to the deaths of four innocent people, as well as life changing injuries for one of his passengers. Part of the defense was that he was wealthy and his parents did not discipline him, spend enough time with him, and gave him whatever he wanted. The students made a connection to one of the characters in the novel, which was pretty cool!
The other case/article was about four boys accused of throwing an eight pound rock over a freeway overpass. The rock crashed through the passenger side of a car, leaving a middle school English teacher, Sharon Budd, clinging to life. Her skull was shattered and she has endured countless surgeries. She also lost an eye and suffers from permanent brain damage.
I was also able to find a few news clips about each of these stories which increased their interest.
Finally, I broke them up into groups of six to eight and assigned them one of the cases. They were expected to find more articles and clips about their case. I explained to them that they would appoint a defense and prosecution and come up with witnesses for each side. They had to prepare their questions and answers ahead of time. I also taught them courtroom vocabulary, how to question and cross examine a witness, how to write an opening and closing statement. and proper courtroom decorum. I found numerous great examples on YouTube of both mock trials and real trials. They were allowed to make up some things for their defense and also use the information from the articles about the teen brain. Students were really fired up about these cases.
After each case, I divided the class into groups of 12 (or as close as possible) and explained the jury system to them. I appointed a foreman and told them to do their best to reach a verdict.
Students worked on this assignment for approximately two weeks, and they were engaged in the entire process. It definitely addressed creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.
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