After City of Chicago v. Morales: If Youth "Hang Out" on the Street, Are They Breaking the Law? Activities/Resources for Teachers Click on any of the following links for activities and teaching resources related to this summit. Seeking Solutions with Hedrick Smith (PBS) An excellent website created around a series of PBS specials on how several U.S. cities have confronted youth violence. The site includes video clips of individual teens, data and statistics, quizzes and polls for students, resource lists, other organizations, and much more. A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers From the Illinois Labor History Society. A downloadable curriculum covering the history of labor from the Colonial Period (1763) to the present day. Includes primary documents, lesson plans, timelines, teaching activities, and more. Teaching Activities: 1. Ask students to read the article from the First Amendment Center’s online magazine Free! titled "First Amendment Not a Victor in Defeat of Chicago Anti-Gang Ordinance," by Tony Mauro. According to the article, what did the Supreme Court decision say about civil liberties? Break students into six groups. Ask each group to review one of the six opinions issued for Chicago v. Morales and report back to the rest of the class about what each opinion and the decision said about civil liberties. Compare the group reports about civil liberties to the account by Tony Mauro. Do the classroom reporters reach the same conclusions as Tony Mauro? If not, how do the conclusions differ? 2. Look at the 1992 Chicago Ordinance itself and ask students to read it as a homework assignment or read it aloud in class. Break students into small groups. Ask them to identify the key sections of the Chicago law that would need to be changed to meet constitutional objections. Ask them to rewrite those sections. 3. Ask students to research the missions of some of the interest groups that filed Amicus briefs in Chicago v. Morales. Ask students to give oral reports interpreting how they believe the anti-gang congregation law would affect the people specific interest groups seek to serve, or how the law might further the groups’ missions, using material from research to support their positions. 4. Download some of the Amicus briefs and use them briefs to illustrate persuasive writing. Analyze, as a class activity, the structure of a particular brief with emphasis on its development of logical argument, its use of facts and evidence, the difference between fact and opinion, and its use of precedent and tradition. Did students find one of the amicus briefs more convincing? >>The Case Home >>Legal Background >>Related Cases >>Interest Groups >>Chicago Context >>Gangs >>Activities/Lessons >>News Accounts >>Related Issues Fall 1999 Summit Home | The Case | Summit | Pilot Classrooms | Discussion | Experts Student Poll | Students Only National Online Youth Summit Home