New Curriculum Unit: The Legal Reference Library

New Curriculum Unit: The Legal Reference Library

Sometimes the textbook definition isn’t enough. Our new Legal Reference Library consists of eight mini-lessons that provide students with a deep understanding of important laws, rights, and legal concepts in a flash.

How well do your students understand the USA Patriot Act of 2001, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965? Do these important legal concepts even get a paragraph in your textbook? We won’t be surprised if your answer is no. And yet, these laws — along with many others — are critical for understanding what our rights are. Our Legal Reference Library will help your students explore why these laws or legal concepts were created and how they are used today.

Part infographic and part written text, these mini-lessons present difficult concepts in a digestible way and provide the foundation for informed classroom discussions. Each lesson consists of a one-page reading and a page of activities to reinforce the concepts learned. You can use the mini-lessons to:

  • Expand on concepts introduced in student textbooks.
  • Enhance an existing lesson or compliment the study of a Supreme Court case from our Landmark Library.
  • Use it as a stand-alone lesson or assign it as homework.
  • Prompt rich, informed discussions about current events.

Dive into the Legal Reference Library and discover new ways to get students engaged in learning about their rights.

Explore more from the educator blog

Sam helps her students connect the founding documents to their daily lives for the Civic Star Challenge

A few years ago, one of my colleagues invited Mary Beth Tinker to speak at our school—she was the student plaintiff in the landmark case Tinker v. Des Moines. It was an incredible experience to hear her calmly describe what it was like to participate in the case, recounting each

We Can Teach Hard Things Like Civil Rights

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Theodore Parker That’s not a typo you see in the attribution above. While the oft-cited quote is chiefly credited to Martin Luther King, Jr., who did indeed speak those brilliant words during more than one speech, it

Laura uses pop culture to make the Declaration relevant to students for Civic Star Challenge

Sometimes teaching civics is as much about translation as it is about history. As part of the Civic Star Challenge, I teamed up with my colleague, Laura McFarren. We wanted to come up with a way to help our students really plug into the Declaration of Independence. Our biggest challenge