The Bill of Rights in Current Events

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Procedures:

Step 1 This lesson is designed for use with students who have a basic understanding of the Bill of Rights and who are ready to grapple with the controversial issues these amendments raise today. Additionally, students should have a cursory understanding of the internet and basic computer literacy.

Step 2 Divide students into pairs and assign each pair one of the amendments. Students will use the internet to research current cases and issues involving their amendment. Lead an introduction to some of the basic concepts of searching covered below. Each topic is followed by an activity for students on their student worksheet.

SEARCH ENGINES VS. SUBJECT DIRECTORIES: Before students begin searching independently on-line, explain the difference between a search engine and a subject directory. Have students type in www.yahoo.com. It is easy to immediately demonstrate the difference between a search engine and a subject directory. If students typed in a search word, such as "death penalty" in the top box, they would be using a search engine. Alternatively, if they clicked on News and Media Coverage and then Crime, and scanned the websites listed for one related to the death penalty, they would be using a subject directory. Point out that the death penalty could be included under numerous subject directories, e.g. Society and Culture or Government. Students may have to search in several subject directories or try a search engine if they are unsure of which category they need.

Several sites are devoted to finding good web resources on various topics, and their subject guides are useful, especially for students. The following are recommended:

· The Internet Public Library
· The Mining Company
· The Scout Report (scroll down to the blue box which contains subject directories)

Have students generate reasons why a search engine would be preferable to a subject directory and vice versa. Some ideas are included here:

Direct students to Exercise A on Part 1 of their worksheet which asks them to find 3 useful sites for their amendment using a subject directory and list them on part 1 of their student worksheet.

Once students have found their three, lead a brief discussion about what searching hints they learned from that exercise.

SEARCH TECHNIQUES: Every search engine operates slightly differently; it is good for students to try several and find one they like which they learn well. However, it is also helpful to know the strengths and weaknesses of a few. Explain that some search engines only look at titles and keywords while others will search the full text. Linda Barlow's The Spider's Apprentice is a useful website devoted to the explaining the intricacies of various search engines. There are a few tricks that cross most search engines which students should understand:

BOOLEAN OPERATORS and QUOTATION MARKS: Quotation marks are used to indicate exactly what word(s) you would like returned in your search. Boolean operators are words such as and, not, and or which limit searches. For example, searching lung cancer will bring back results that contain only lung, only cancer, and the two together. Searching lung and cancer will offer links to documents with both words present. Additionally, by asking for lung and cancer and not cigarette, any sites that mention cigarettes in conjunction with lung cancer are excluded. Quotation marks will further specify what you want: "lung" and "cancer" and not "cigarette".

WILD CARDS: Using an * will allow you to simultaneously search words with similar stems. If you are not sure how to spell a name, or you would like sites with different versions of a word, use an * to denote multiple endings, e.g. to find Impressionists, Impressionism, and Impressionistic, search Impressionis*. Before having students do some sample searches, explain bookmarks.

BOOKMARKS are useful when used selectively and organized well. When students first begin on-line searching and realize they can bookmark, they tend to bookmark everything. Encourage students to use bookmarks selectively and in an organized fashion.

In Internet Explorer, instruct students to use FAVORITES to make a bookmark. By selecting ORGANIZE FAVORITES from the Favorites pulldown menu, students can make folders to house related bookmarks. Encourage students to create folders for their amendment, e.g. COURT CASES FOR, COURT CASES AGAINST, GROUPS FOR, GROUPS AGAINST. Students can drag and drop websites into appropriate folders. By doubleclicking on an address in the FAVORITES file, students arrive at the bookmarked site.

To do the same process in Netscape Navigator, pulldown BOOKMARKS and EDIT BOOKMARKS from the COMMUNICATOR menu. From the FILE menu pulldown NEW FOLDER and type the name you want. To add an address later to that folder, from the COUMMUNICATOR menu pulldown BOOKMARKS and FILE BOOKMARK and simply highlight the folder that was just created. To go to a webpage that is bookmarked, from the COMMUNICATOR menu, pulldown BOOKMARKS and highlight the appropriate folder. The contents of that folder appear, and then highlight the website you need.

If students are not working on their personal computer and want to take their bookmarks with them, they can simply copy their folders in the bookmark file and paste them onto their disk.

Have students do Exercise B on Part 1 of their worksheet which has them do several different searches on various search engines to become familiar with a few popular ones. They should bookmark especially useful sites.

EVALUATING WEBSITES: While the web can be a wonderful resource, students should understand their responsibility to be discriminating users. To demonstrate how misleading web pages can be, look at this website together and discuss how to assess authority and accuracy in webpages.

Students should use the guidelines on part 2 of their student worksheet to thoroughly evaluate one of their most promising websites found above.

TAKING NOTES: Printing pages in a browser often leads to inefficient research with time lost in slow printing and wading through irrelevant information. A better option uses familiar copy and paste tools. Show students how they can highlight useful text, tables, or images in a browser, and select COPY from the EDIT pulldown menu. Then, after opening a word document, students can PASTE the relevant information into a document which they can manipulate. Students can make their own notes about what they've found on-line and add points connecting their research. Students should remind themselves that the information has been taken verbatim by adding quotation marks in their document.

CITATIONS: When copying and pasting information from the web, remind students that they must also note citation information. Their worksheet shows the proper APA and MLA form. Indicate to them which you prefer.

Step 3 Once students have a good understanding of the tools for on-line research, allow them to explore the web looking for worthwhile resources relating to the current debate about their amendment. The culminating activity of this project is an oral presentation for the class in which the student pair presents the current controversy around the amendment, e.g. the gun control debate surrounding the Second Amendment. A couple of good sites for all student pairs include FindLaw's comprehensive law resource, specifically the Legal Subject Index and Law: Cases & Codes and the American Civil Liberties Union page.

Step 4 When students have completed the project, discuss how they felt about using on-line resources. Was it worthwhile? Was it better than traditional library research? What pitfalls of on-line research did they discover?

Center for Technology and Teacher Education, University of Virginia, This module was created by Brooke Graham at the University of Virginia.