Court System Lesson Plan: Civic and Political Institutions

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Court System, supporting the standards of explaining the court system’s structures, and functions, and distinguishing the responsibilities and powers of government officials. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

  • What roles within the court system do you already know about?
  • What are some ways the court system impacts our society? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign Court System Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about the court system while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Produce a mini-documentary explaining differences between civil and criminal court cases.
  • Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying types of courts and explaining their roles and processes.
  • Creative Coding: Code a learning game challenging players to sort terms as relating to state or federal courts.
  • Primary Source Activity: Examine court case documents, then cite details to answer accompanying questions.

More to Explore 

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of the judicial system with these topics: Supreme Court, Trials, Miranda Rights, and Branches of Government.

Teacher Support Resources:

 

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Related:

    Filed as:  3-5, 6-8, BrainPOP, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.2, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.3, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.4