No Vehicles Allowed

Grade Level:  Grades 5–12

Time: One class period (approximately 45 minutes)

Languages: English, Spanish, and Mandarin (links available below)

Objectives:

• Identify the purpose and function of law.

• Discover "intent" of lawmakers.

• Analyze practical applications of a law.

• Appreciate that laws may be subject to different interpretations.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR DELIVERY:

• Lesson Plan  (instruction on how to present)

• No Vehicles Allowed Presentation with Notes (45 min) | Teacher Version Presentation without Notes 

PRESENTATIONS

Presentation & Handouts

• Lesso

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• PowerPoint with Speaker Notes (PDF for printing) | Teacher Copy (slides only, no notes) share with teacher for presenting during your visit.

• Handout 1: Branches of Government for Grades 5–12

• Handout 2 (No Vehicles in the Park Scenarios) | Questions for Scenarios Handout 2

• Activity: using a set of scenarios (provided in the presentation), present questions to challenge the class. These questions are included in the PowerPoint Speaker Notes. You may also share the scenarios and questions with the teacher ahead of time. Your visit will consist of you talking the students through each case scenario, challenging them to consider if a law was violated or not. 

• You should focus on the process you use as a judge when determining the legislative intent in enforcing this law. 

• The judge should stress lawmaker intent. Judges can share  with students the difficulties inherent in this duty.

• For virtual and in–person visits, you should meet ahead of time with the teacher to discuss class needs and their level of understanding the three branches of government. 

• For virtual visits, the pre–meeting should be on the platform to be used for the visit. This will give you a chance to make sure you can connect, hear one another, and test your camera and mic.

• You may find this printable PDF of slides with speaker notes handy for making additional notes as you go through the lesson with the teacher. 

• Calling on Students: you and the teacher should decide who will call on students to read the case scenarios.
  Note: if your visit is hybrid (appearing virtually on ZOOM or WebX to a classroom of students), you might not be able to hear students. You may read the scenarios yourself.

• Make sure there's enough time for Q&A (again, if you are appearing virtually to an in–person classroom, ask the teacher to repeat the student's question, or ask the student to walk up to the monitor so you can hear them.

• Ask the teacher for a phone number should you have problems connecting.

After the visit, be sure to collect Feedback forms!

For Teachers  | For Students | For Judges

“We opened it up to a question–and–answer format and discuss what justice means, which was a better approach and more interactive. We had questions about being a judge and a lawyer and school experience, courtroom experience, etc.”