Register
Play & Learn
Teach
Register
Home > Resource Library > Mini-lesson: Supreme Court Opinions (HS)
Lesson Plan
The Judicial Branch

Mini-lesson: Supreme Court Opinions (HS)

9-12
One class period
Sign up to save to your favorites

Learning Objectives

The student will be able to...

  • Define majority, plurality, concurring, and dissenting opinions

  • Describe the impact Supreme Court opinions have on courts and the public

  • Evaluate a commentator’s credentials when deciding how much value to place on a particular news-related opinion

  • Recognize how news-related opinion can contribute to the public conversation

Sign up to assign Sign up to access

Overview

Students will learn about the types of Supreme Court opinions and the influence of legal precedent. Additionally, this Media Moment Mini-lesson introduces traditional authors of opinion pieces and explores factors that should influence a student’s evaluation of an author’s credibility. Students then evaluate two commentators or authors of choice to judge the value and limitations of their opinions.

Access engaging resources with an iCivics account!

Create your free iCivics account and discover standards aligned lessons and games that meet all of your instructional needs. Our nonpartisan classroom resources engage students with complex concepts in ways they can understand and relate to.

Tags

Pedagogy Tags
Mini-Lesson
Tech Options
No Tech Required
Web browser
State standards icon

View state standards alignment

Search State Standards

Use the Scope & Sequence to help you plan your iCivics classroom experience!

Whether you enjoy finding opportunities within a well-structured sequence of resources or prefer looking around for pieces and bits that can be jigsawed together, our Scope & Sequence documents are a perfect reference point for planning. Scope & Sequence documents are available for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms and list all of our resources in one place.

View the Scope & Sequence