Lesson Plans

Title:  Scene of the Crime

Date: May 2016

By: Carol Amberg                                                                                                                             City: Gouverneur

ELA 9                                                                                                                                                   State: New York

THE DOMICILES PROJECT                                                                                                              Mrs. Amberg

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2.e
Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

EXPLORATORY PHASE

1. Students will read the play, Twelve Angry Men, and participate in structured discussions of issues in the

    American legal system suggested by the play.

2. Students will learn 25 legal terms.

3. Students will respond in journals to 10 questions chosen by them from a bank of 20 questions provided them. 

4. Students will read articles about real legal cases in the news and participate in a jigsaw activity in which they

    share this information with peers in small groups.

DISCOVERY PHASE

The Process (Students will be shown how the task has been scaffolded upon our experience with 12 Angry Men .)

1. Students will be introduced to The Domiciles Project.

2. The Task:  Students will use the door art as inspiration for writing an “incident report” for an imagined

                        crime taking place at the scene. 

• Students will view the doors displayed in our school by artist, Alan Tuttle.
• On the first day, they will observe all of the doors and select one door as the scene of their imagined crime.
• They will use a draft of the “incident report” form on which to record information inferred from their door. 
• On the second day, they will come back to their selected door to check details and continue to flesh out the scenarios of their imagined crimes.  Selected final drafts will be uploaded to The Domiciles website. 

3. Back in the classroom, they will revise and edit their incident reports and copy them onto a final report form.