Justice Elena Kagan

September 17 is the annual celebration of Constitution Day. Appropriate to the celebration this year is the confirmation of a new and 112th Justice of the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan. She is the fourth woman to sit on the court. The others are Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor.

Historically, on October 1, this will be the first Supreme Court of the United States with three female Justices. Once she is sworn in, three Ivy League law schools—Harvard, Yale and Columbia—will have bragging rights as the alma maters of all nine justices.

On a vote of 63 to 37, Kagan, who will succeed retired justice John Paul Stevens, became the second member President Obama has placed on the high court. One year ago, Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation as the court's first Latina.

Some Democrats have said they hope that the lifetime appointment of Kagan, a consensus-building liberal, will nudge the court slightly to the left.

Along with her relative youth, Kagan, 50, brings a resume unlike any of those with whom she will serve. She will be the first appointee since 1972 to join the court with no judicial experience. Other justices have corporate law backgrounds or a long record of arguing before the court. Kagan worked briefly for a law firm and argued her first case before an appellate court 11 months ago. It happened to be before the Supreme Court, the first of six cases she argued as the nation's first female solicitor general.

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help your students learn more about the Supreme Court—"The Supreme Court & Judicial Branch." This is one of 22 CourseCart learning activities that librarians and/or teachers can copy to their local collections.

CourseCarts are collections of BookCart learning activities that address the major topics and issues of popular courses and textbooks—in this instance, U.S. Government & Civics. This learning activity and all the other CourseCart learning activities in the collection can be copied by first opening eLibrary Teacher Edition and then by clicking this CourseCart link (XLS).

CourseCarts save time and provide teachers with the flexibility to make inquiry-based learning activities at a variety of points in a course when it's appropriate.

Each Cart provides examples of essential questions that help students develop 21st Century critical thinking skills, student directions that guide the research process, an option for call numbers to related print resources, an optional quiz, a 21st Century literacy standard, and ProQuest models for written reports and presentations. You won't find this combination of inquiry-based learning activity support in one place in any other K-12 resource.

• Open eLibrary TEACHER EDITION.
• Click BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top.
• Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab (800 ProQuest models).
• Type "The Supreme Court & Judicial Branch" 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.

Librarians or teachers can edit this BookCart to customize it for their students.

To edit this BookCart:

• Click the new BookCart TITLE with the prefix "COPY OF".
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your name in the AUTHOR boxes and your initials in the EMAIL box (required filler info).
• Option: Edit any ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS for your students in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Option: Edit the existing STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the Description box.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS and view your new student learning activity.

Good news! Reviewing and copying hundreds of ProQuest model BookCart learning activities has been made more convenient by using the new hyperlinked titles list (PDF) organized by curriculum area.

September 17 is Constitution Day each year. Students need to learn more about Justices Elena Kagan, Sandra Day O'Connor, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and their qualifications and contributions to the Supreme Court.

Assign students to select one of the Justices and complete a report of at least 150 words that cites at least three resources. Or students may choose a PowerPoint report of at least two minutes and seven slides.

Select the Advanced Search option > Type "woman supreme court justices" in the Search box > Input "women OR Justice" in the Document Title box > Sort Results list by DATE > Search

Students should address the essential questions for critical thinking listed below (you can add or substitute others).

• What experiences prepared this woman to be a Justice of the Supreme Court?
• Does a female perspective help provide a balanced view on issues—why or why not?
• What does your Justice have in common with the other three besides being female?
• What significant cases did your Justice vote on (or will vote on for Kagan) and which side did that represent?
• How does the Supreme Court help limit the power of the President and Congress?

Your students can use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.

Teachers may be interested in a ProQuest flexible rubrics model for evaluating inquiry-based learning activities.

Teachers may also be interested using this free (registration required) tool for creating a variety of printed resources including quizzes.

Find out more about all of ProQuest's research tools...