Everyone Has Rules

Explore the importance of rules in a community with the engaging first lesson of this series on the US government. To begin, children play a paper clip game that requires them to make up their own rules as they go, after which the...

Rather than focus on punitive actions and consequences for mistakes, make a safe and inspiring learning environment the rule of your classroom. 

The takeaway from the "Playing by the Rules" lesson plan is that it is each person's responsibility to learn the rules in a given situation and that they must accept the consequences if they choose not to follow the stated rules. Class...

Laws affect everything from a scholar's favorite public park to rules in the classroom. Express the importance of lawmaking and teach how they relate to every facet of life with a resource on how a bill becomes a law.

We hear a lot about the importance of the rule of law, but most people do not really know what those words mean. The lesson is a webpage that defines the rule of law, explains why it is important in a democratic society and provides...

Create your own classroom court. After studying courtroom proceedings, with a focus on the concept of a trial by a jury of your peers, pupils create a set of classroom rules and develop a procedure for solving conflicts. They then are...

Whether out of choice or necessity, people want to know what will happen on a typical day in court. A helpful lesson walks scholars in the field of criminology through the trial process from opening statements to the final verdict. 

Students participate in selection of language needed to form rules for the classroom. They explore the categories of: things you have to do, things you can't do and things you can do if you like. Then they break into groups and create...

Almost every American is familiar with the Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education. Far fewer understand the constitutional reasoning or the wide-ranging consequences of the ruling in the field of criminology. The interesting...

Here is instructional activity 5 from a 7 instructional activity unit on using blogging to create a community of writers. The aim of this instructional activity is to get students writing about what Archaeologists do and how they use...