Our Supreme Court: A History with 14 Activities

Be the first to write a review

All Available Formats + Editions

——

$10.23

NOOK Book

——

$10.23

Our Supreme Court: A History with 14 Activities (eBook) Pub. Date: 4/1/2007 Publisher: Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
$0.01

$15.25

Paperback

$0.01

$15.25

Our Supreme Court: A History with 14 Activities Pub. Date: 10/1/2006 Publisher: Chicago Review Press, Incorporated

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

Advertising

Overview

This lively and comprehensive activity book teaches young readers everything they need to know about the nation's highest court. Organized around keystones of the Constitution—including free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, criminal justice, and property rights—the book juxtaposes historical cases with similar current cases. Presented with opinions from both sides of the court cases, readers can make up their own minds on where they stand on the important issues that have evolved in the Court over the past 200 years. Interviews with prominent politicians, high-court lawyers, and those involved with landmark decisions—including Ralph Nader, Rudolph Giuliani, Mario Cuomo, and Arlen Specter—show the personal impact and far-reaching consequences of the decisions. Fourteen engaging classroom-oriented activities involving violations of civil rights, exercises of free speech, and selecting a classroom Supreme Court bring the issues and cases to life. The first 15 amendments to the Constitution and a glossary of legal terms are also included.

Editorial Reviews

Positive Parenting

Shares fascinating details about the early court.

Children's Literature

With a mix of historical narrative, current events, case studies, and interviews, this wide-ranging volume just might inspire a new generation of constitutional lawyers. After dispatching with the basic institutional history of the Supreme Court, Panchyk gets to the meat of the book: chapters on subject matters such as free speech, freedom of religion, civil rights, criminal justice, and property rights. This could be heavy going, but under this author's adept hand, it is not. Panchyk presents important Supreme Court cases in language that is crisp and clear and pitched appropriately for high school readers. He supplements these case studies with interviews with political and legal leaders, such as Mario Cuomo, Michael Dukakis, Rudolph Giuliani, and Arlen Specter. But many readers are likely to find most interesting the author's interviews with the ordinary Americans whose legal disputes ended up as Supreme Court decisions. These include John Tinker, who was fifteen in 1965 when he got suspended from his high school for wearing a black armband with a peace symbol to protest the Vietnam War. His dispute became Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 1969, a leading precedent on students' free speech rights. Panchyk includes fourteen activities related to the text, mostly group activities suitable for the classroom. This oversized paperback is handsomely designed and features monochrome photographs and reproductions.

More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews

VOYA

This title is a worthwhile addition to classroom study of the Supreme Court. The actual history and development of the court as it exists today is spread throughout the book and explained with short stories of landmark cases. Instead of organizing the cases by year, Panchyk devotes chapters to multiple cases on subjects such as Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Property Rights. This organization works to demonstrate how the tenets of freedom that Americans take for granted developed and changed over time. The author adds dozens of well-chosen interviews with important and recognizable people connected with the cases. They include Napster attorney David Boies talking about copyright issues in the technology age, as well as Kurt Vonnegut discussing the banning of his books in the 1960s and 1970s. This resource will be useful for any high school class that would like to study the Supreme Court in depth. The included activities are well suited to a classroom setting, such as practicing being a courtroom artist or studying the zoning of a neighborhood to better understand property rights. Although most available books concerning the Supreme Court are for adults or younger children, the text and tone of this book are clearly designed for older teenagers. Younger teens will have a difficult time with both the vocabulary and depth of coverage. High school libraries surely will want to purchase this title to support government and history classes.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up
The history and evolution of the court and how it works are discussed in the first chapter. Thematic sections follow, covering such topics as free speech, privacy, and civil rights, with significant decisions included. The cases are arranged chronologically, giving readers a sense of how the court's opinions have changed over time. Throughout, interviews with a variety of people involved in Supreme Court cases add to the text. They include former attorneys general, politicians, lawyers, and litigants. Some of the interviews contribute a wider perspective on issues, while others give personal insight into the case and the time period. The variety and arrangement of photos, drawings, posters, and news clippings add interest and help to break up the text into manageable chunks. Some of the activities are of dubious value ("Be a Court Stenographer"—court cases are now recorded, not typed), and others may be too time-consuming for many of today's standards-based, high-stakes-testing classrooms (electing a class Supreme Court and holding mock trials). All in all, though, this a solid work that makes a complex and important subject accessible to students.
—Anthony C. DoyleCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781556526077
Publisher: Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 10/1/2006
Pages: 208
Sales rank: 1,247,663
Age range: 10 - 12 Years
Series: For Kids series
Product dimensions: 11.00 (w) x 8.50 (h) x 0.56 (d)

Meet the Author

Richard Panchyk is the author of American Folk Art for Kids, Archaeology for Kids, Galileo for Kids, and World War II for Kids and the coauthor of Engineering the City. Senator John Kerry lives in Boston. James Baker III is a former Secretary of State.

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review

( 0 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(0)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines

Tell the world what you think of this product.

Add Recommendations

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

- HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
- Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
- Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
- Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
- Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
- Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
- Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
- See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble