Jacob Bretz
Summer Fellowship Lesson
2008
Champaign County
Historical Archives
To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.
Lesson 3: Does
the presence of laws incite deviance?
Abstract: In
this lesson students will examine newspaper editorials in order the critically
examine the relationship between laws and deviance. The editorials that
students will examine claim that the problem of drinking in America during the
1920s was made worse by the presence of Prohibition laws while other editorials
claim that prohibition laws are necessary because society must have laws to
function properly.
Essential
Questions/Enduring Understandings:
·
Does the presence of
rules/laws incite or hinder deviant behavior?
·
Is deviant behavior more
acceptable when it is modeled by the majority of society?
·
What inferences can be
drawn about society and its viewpoints regarding Prohibition by examining local
newspapers?
·
Everyone has different
views and justifications for their views regarding certain topics and just
because people differ in opinion does not make one person right and one wrong.
Assessment: Students
will be writing three of their own editorials. For the first editorial students
will pretend that they lived during the Prohibition Era and write about their
own opinion regarding the illegality of liquor. The second editorial will be
written regarding their opinion on a current national law, local ordinance,
school rule, or even one of their parent’s home rules. The third editorial will
be based on the student’s opinion regarding the relationship between the
presence if laws and deviant behavior in school or society as a whole.
Setting the Purpose: In
this lesson students will use a historical event to critically examine a societal
issue, deviance, which spans time, race, and gender.
Duration: Three
days
Procedure:
Day 1
·
Break the class into
groups of 3-4 students and pass out the Deviance Warm-Up Activity
·
Give students 10-15
minutes to complete the activity.
·
After students complete
the activity allow time for groups to act out their deviance skits.
·
When skits are done
reconvene as a class and discuss student responses to the questions on the
warm-up activity focusing on the following two questions.
o
Does
the presence of laws incite deviant behavior and why?
o
Does
the idea of “everyone else is doing it” make people more prone to break certain
rules?
o
How
much does the punishment for a crime steer people away from breaking certain
laws/rules?
·
After the discussion
about the Deviance Warm-Up Activity pass out the Prohibition Deviance Graphic
Organizer along with each of the following articles
o
So We May Cheer Up from the Daily Illini May 6, 1930
o
Saving the Youth Of The
Nation from
the Daily Illini February 5, 1926
o
Prohibitions from the Daily
Illini October 17, 1926
o
Prohibition-A Joke from the Daily
Illini January 25, 1921
·
Go over the direction to
the Prohibition Deviance Graphic Organizer as a class and begin the assignment
together.
·
With the remaining time
in class read each article and complete the corresponding section of the
Prohibition Deviance Graphic Organizer together while discussing the points
each editorial makes about the issue of Prohibition.
o
Read
the articles together as a class but have students write their summaries
individually.
·
Most likely you will not
finish each of the four articles so at the end of class collect articles and
student work to be continued the following day.
Day 2
·
Pass student’s
Prohibition Deviance Graphic Organizer and the articles that remain to be
finished.
·
Continue reading the
editorials and completing the Prohibition Deviance Graphic Organizer in the
same fashion as the preceding day.
o
Remember
to discuss the points made in each editorial regarding prohibition and get
student’s opinions about those points.
o
This
is important because it leads into the next activity.
·
When all four editorials
have been read and the Prohibition Deviance Graphic Organizer completed pass
out the Prohibition Editorial Directions and go over them together as class
answering any questions students may have.
·
Give students the
remaining class time to begin writing their three newspaper editorials and
inform them that they will not finish during class and the remaining work is to
be completed for homework due the next day.
Day 3
·
Have students place
their three finished editorials on their desks and go around checking that each
student is completely done. If they are not finished they will not be able to
participate in the day’s activity.
·
However you choose
divide the class into three groups. Students should not move their desks; the
grouping is only to be used for the purpose of assigning each student an editorial
that they will read to the class.
·
Assign each of the three
groups one of the three editorial topics.
·
Students will then come
up to the front of the class and read their editorial to the class.
·
After each student is
finished reading their editorial quickly discuss the student’s opinion and move
on the next student.
·
After all students have
read collect all three editorials from each student to be graded.