In this unit, we will discuss the concepts of innocent and guilt. To do this, we will be reading the book Monster by Walter Dean Meyers. Throughout the unit, you will be asked to journal about your own experiences or what you are thinking about while reading the novel. As a class, we will discuss what we think about guilt and innocence and whether or not you believe the verdict from two angles: based on the information given by the prosecutor and the second will be based upon the information given to us by the narrator, Steve Harmon.
After reading Monster, you will be divided into groups of four and each group will be given copies of the different laws that Steve Harmon was accused of breaking, or could have been charged with breaking, based upon the crime in the novel. Each group will be asked to explain the law to the class. The sheets each group will use, as well as the laws we will be examining, are available in the attachments section at the bottom of the page. These questions will ask what the law says, what are the penalties, and will ask whether or not you believe it would be right for Steve to be charged with any of these crimes based upon what you read.
After this, we will watch Law and Order episodes to see how these same laws were applied to actual cases. Keep this in mind, because we will be using all of this to help us on a final class project for Shakespeare's Macbeth!