Lesson 2: I Can't Wear What??

Overview

Students meet Ben Brewer and find out what happened the day he decided to wear his favorite band t-shirt to school in violation of a new dress code rule. Students read a summary of a Supreme Court case to figure out the “rule” that applies to Ben’s problem. This lesson lays the groundwork for students to write two short persuasive essays—one arguing each side of the issue.

Learning Objectives

The student will:

Identify a freedom of speech issue in a fictional scenario.
Construct the rule about freedom of speech in schools by reading and color-coding a summary of the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines.
Apply the rule to a variety of hypothetical scenarios.

These resources were created with support from the Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation