Types of Lessons

Print

Current Issues | Immigration in U.S. History | Supreme Court Cases | Proposed Legislation

Current Issues

Information and lessons on current immigration issues. Each issue has an overview of the controversy; a balanced reading for classroom use; and a lesson plan with reproducible handouts. For a PDF of each lesson plan, you will need to login as a teacher.

Handling Controversy in the Classroom

Immigration in U.S. History

Lessons on the history of immigration, the role of refugees from around the world, and the contributions immigrants have made to our nation. Each lesson is self-contained, consisting of a reading, a set of discussion questions, and an activity. For a PDF of each lesson, you will need to login as a teacher.

Supreme Court Cases

Each short article on court cases is designed to give you and your students a one-page summary of an important Supreme Court or federal appeals court decision related to immigration. In each article, you will find:

• An overview of the facts of the case.
• The crucial constitutional issue that the court had to decide.
• A summary of the holding and the reasoning that the court used to reach its decision.

Important terms, government agencies, laws, and constitutional amendments are hyperlinked to a source document available on the web, often from CRF's own website. Here are a four suggested uses for these case summaries in your classroom:

Moot Court. Using any one of the articles, students can conduct research into the background of a particular case and role play Supreme Court justices and attorneys for both sides of the issue.

Jigsaw. Students can each become an expert on a particular case and, in turn, teach others in the class about the case.

Panel Discussion. Students express their views in a format for a structured discussion of the issues brought up by each case.

Civil Conversation. Students explore the issues and seek common ground on the issues using a facilitator.

Go to the Supreme Court Summaries Index page.

Proposed Legislation

Each article on a proposed piece of legislation explains the background and overview of the proposed law. Some of these have been previously rejected by Congress but are still talked about seriously in Washington, D.C. Other examples are bills currently pending before Congress in one form or another, awaiting a vote before they can become law. Either way, the legislation forms a lens through which students can see ongoing hot topics related to U.S. immigration policy and opinion. Discussion questions follow each short article as well as a link to the relevant texts of the law. Below are four suggestions for lessons using these articles in class:

Committee Hearing. Students assume the role of legislators debating the merits of each piece of legislation in a congressional committee hearing.

Jigsaw. Students can each become an expert on a particular piece of legislation and, in turn, teach others in the class about the legislation.

Panel Discussion. Students express their views in a format for a structured discussion of the issues brought up by each proposed bill.

Civil Conversation. Students explore the issues and seek common ground on the issues using a facilitator.