The Senate televised hearings in July, focused on the fitness of President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court--Judge, and now new Justice, Sonia Sotomayor. All the major questions put to her targeted the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, amendments to the Constitution, and rulings on significant Supreme Court cases. This was a classic opportunity for students, all citizens, and the world to learn more about our Constitution, its checks and balances of power, and the importance of the rule of law to the American way of life.

September 17 is the annual day to celebrate the Constitution. Congress has mandated that all public schools create activities for students to help them understand and appreciate our Constitution. The confirmation of Justice Sotomayor is especially timely because Americans also have an opportunity to celebrate Hispanic American Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15.

On October 5, the Supreme Court opens its 2009-10 session with Justice Sotomayor making an historic appearance as its first Hispanic American Justice. She will add diversity as well as the most experience as a judge compared to any other Justice now or in the past. Her presence will affect the rulings that the Court will make in the future and how they will impact individual rights under the Constitution for decades to come.

Students will learn more about the Constitution and the role of the Supreme Court in deciding Constitutional issues using Discoverer resources. Assign students to write a report of at least 100 words (or a presentation of at least five slides) that cites at least 3 sources. Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking in their reports (you may create or substitute others);

• Who is one of the most famous Supreme Court Justices and why?
• What is one of the most famous Supreme Court decisions and why?
• How does the Supreme Court protect individual rights?
• How does the Supreme Court help limit the power of the President and Congress?

Click the icon HISTORY & GOVERNMENT > United States of America >
Supreme Court.

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

On September 17, 1787, after months of work at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a majority of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention finally approved the new Constitution. To ensure that students continue to appreciate and understand the Constitution, Congress declared that September 17 will be celebrated in all public schools as Constitution Day. Public school teachers have the responsibility of creating learning activities to promote appreciation and understanding of the Constitution.

The Senate televised hearings in July, focused on the fitness of President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court—Judge, now Justice, Sonia Sotomayor. All the major questions put to her targeted the Constitution, amendments to the Constitution, and rulings on significant Supreme Court cases. This was a classic opportunity for students, all citizens, and the world to learn more about our Constitution, its checks and balances of power, and the importance of the rule of law to the American way of life.

Students can learn more about how the Constitution protects our personal and group rights and the role of the Supreme Court and Justice Sotomayor in ensuring these rights.

ProQuest has created a custom BookCart to help your students learn more about the constitution: "The Constitution--History and Importance."

BookCarts are flexible lesson plans for inquiry-based learning activities. Instead of sending students out to search eLibrary Elementary, and often waste time, send them to the BookCart lesson plan for the topic/issue. This BookCart includes all the information that students will need to complete the assignment in ONE PLACE.

• Essential Questions for Critical Thinking help students develop critical thinking skills.
• Student Directions that list what students are expected to do with the resources.
• Call numbers for correlated print resources.
• The option of including a ten-question quiz to help assess what student have learned.
• A 21st Century information literacy standard.
• Models for written and PowerPoint reports in the Web Links section.

Copy Option 1 (NEW)
A complete listing of more than 800 ProQuest Carts by curriculum area (several hundred for ES and MS students) is available for you to copy this or any other Carts that support your department's curriculum inquiry-based learning activities needs.

Each Title is hyperlinked and will provide instructions for copying when clicked. Logon to eLibrary Elementary then click the PDF link. (See Edit Process below to edit the Cart you copy)

Copy Option 2:
To copy this Cart, follow these directions.

• Access your eLibrary Elementary Teacher Edition subscription.
• Click BookCart Admin link for eLibrary Elementary.
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab (several hundred ES and MS ProQuest models).
• Type "The Constitution--History and Importance" in the Search box.
• Click the Copy icon in the Actions column to the right of the title.
• Click Return to My Local Carts tab to end the copying process.

Edit Process:

• This new Cart should be edited to customize it for your students. To begin, click the BookCart Title--it has "Copy of" as its prefix.
• Delete "Copy of" in the Title.
• Type your first and last name in the Author boxes.
• Type your email address in the email box.
• Optional: Edit the essential questions and any other text in the DESCRIPTONS box.
• Scroll down and click Save button at bottom, then click Return to My Local Carts.
• When students logon to eLibrary Elementary, click the BookCart tab, they will see, open, and get involved in the learning activity.

Assign each student two different Justices of the current Supreme Court and former minority Justices from the list below. Students should write a report of at least 100 words that cites at least two articles and one print resource that summarizes information about their assigned Justices.

Reports should include: (a) where they were born and lived, and practiced law before becoming a Justice, (b) educational background, (c) previous legal experience, (d) personal and family information, (e) their political philosophy (liberal, moderate, conservative), (f) which president appointed them, and (g) a famous decision they voted for.

John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice; John Paul Stevens; Antonin Scalia; Anthony M. Kennedy; David Hackett Souter (retired 2009); Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice; Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Stephen G. Breyer; Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr.; Sonia Sotomayor, (replaces Souter). In addition, there were other Justices in the past who represented minority racial and gender groups as does Sonia Sotomayor (1st Latina): Thurgood Marshall (1st African American) and Sandra Day O'Connor (1st woman).

Pathfinder 1:
Click Topic Search > Social Studies > Law > U.S. Supreme Court Justices (Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Breyer, Marshall, and O'Connor)

Pathfinder 2:
Type other current Justices full names from the above listing in the Search box (Roberts, Kennedy, Souter, Stevens, and Sotomayor)