Students brainstorm qualities that judges might possess, then discuss why those qualities are important.
Civics Lessons
Grade Level: Grades 6-8
Qualities of Judges
The Public Sphere
Public sphere, public agenda, public opinion, public policy… What’s the difference? Students discover the relationships among these concepts and how they influence the issues we all discuss and care about.
Investigating the Departments of the Executive Branch
In this lesson, students learn about the role of bureaucracy in U.S. government; they then examine the history, leadership, organization, and goals of executive agencies.
We the People
Students recognize the different parts of the U.S. Constitution and conduct a close text reading to discover the meaning and significance of each part. Throughout the lesson, students will track the development of the Constitution from the original document and its articles to the amendments up through the 1992 edition of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment.
What Makes A Good Judge?
This lesson focuses on the costs and benefits of various judicial selection methods. Students will list characteristics they think essential or valuable to being a good judge, and then see which system of judicial selection – appointment, merit, or election – obtains the highest quality judges. In discussing each method, students will understand the tradeoffs between accountability and independence in judicial selection.
This lesson was developed to be used on Law Day, but does not need to be limited to Law Day.
