The Death Penalty in the U.S.
Submitted by Dan Dunagan
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Standards:
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Unit Timeframe:
Six 47-minute periods
Unit Overview:
(For a more complete outline of the unit)
Day One: To understand that they death penalty has legal and historic roots in the United States.
Day Two: To understand that, until recently, the death penalty was a reality for some minors convicted of capital crimes in the United States.
Day Three: To understand that statistically, some groups are more affected by the death penalty than other groups.
Day Four: To understand that individual ethnic groups are rarely uniform in their opinions on the death penalty.
Day Five: To understand there are defendable arguments both for and against the death penalty.
Context:
Student Characteristics:
• L2 proficiency level – Pre-Advanced (ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment, 2003)
• Age/grade level – 7th-8th grades
• L1/L2 literacy level – The students are native speakers of English. All are fluent in English.
• Ethnolinguistic backgrounds of students – The students are all members of the language immersion program in the Robbinsdale School District. English is their first language. They have used Spanish since kindergarten. The student population is quite homogenous. Ninety-five percent of the immersion students are white. The overwhelming majority also comes from two-parent families.
Program Model and Context:
• Program type – Immersion
• Program location – Suburban middle school
• Context - In this unit, the students are studying concepts from the U.S. legal system. The lesson fits near the end of the unit. It is part of a mini-unit on the death penalty. This specific lesson will focus on the arguments for and against the death penalty from the point of view of numerous Puerto Ricans.
General Unit References and Resources:
References and Resources:
• ABCteach.com. (n.d.). Blank U.S. map. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from http://www.abcteach.com
• ACTFL Integrated Performance Assessment Manual (2003). Alexandria, VA: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
• Amnesty Internacional. (2003). Mitos y Realidades de la Pena de Muerte en Los Estados Unidos. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from http://www.deathpenalty.org/index.php?pid=Espanol
• Armento, B.J., Nash, G.B., Salter, C.L, & Wilson, K.K. (1992). Hacia una nación nueva. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
• Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (n.d.). Rating Sheet for Oral Role Plays and Interviews: Post-Secondary, Year 2. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from http://www.carla.umn.edu/assessment/VAC/evaluation/rubrics/types/figAnFrOralY2.html
• Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (n.d.). Generic Multi-trait Rubric: Communication Standard 1.1 (Interpersonal Communication). Retrieved May 4, 2005, from
http://www.carla.umn.edu/assessment/vac/evaluation/rubrics/types/interpersonal.html
• Death Penalty Information. (2005). Detalles sobre la Pena de Muerte. Retrieved May 4, 2005 from http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=122&scid=34
• El País. (2001). Cronología de la pena de muerte en EEUU. Retrieved May 4, 2005 from http://www.elpais.es/especiales/2001/pena/2.htm
• Hall Haley, M. & Austin, T.Y. (2004). Content-based second language teaching and learning: An interactive approach. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
• Hastings, M. (2005, March). La Corte prohíbe ejecutar a menores [Electronic version]. La Opinión.
• Samaniego, F.A., Alarcón, F.X., & Rojas, N. (1995). Mundo 21. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.
• Tedick, D. (2005). Course packet for University of Minnesota course CI 5662: Issues in Second Language Curriculum Design.
• Tedick, D., & Klee, C. (1996). Analytic Writing Scale for the Spanish Foreign Language Immersion Program. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from http://www.carla.umn.edu/assessment/VAC/Evaluation/rubrics/types/figAnWriteFLIP.html
• Thales. (n.d.). El código de Hammurabi. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from http://thales.cica.es/rd/Recursos/rd98/HisArtLit/01/hammurabi.htm
• Wikipedia.org (2005). Pena capital. Retrieved May 4, 2005, from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pena_de_muerte
Links or files for unit content: A new window will open for each lesson.
Lesson 01: The legal and historical precedent for death penalty in the U.S.
Lesson 02: How the death penalty affects minors in the United States
Lesson 03: A statistical analysis of the death penalty in the U.S.
Lesson 04: How a sampling of U.S. citizens from a minority ethnic group views the death penalty.
Lesson 05 (unit summative assessment): Debates for and against the death penalty in the U.S.