Teachers Talk LawNow Archives

Teachers Talk LawNow – Jim Keegstra

August 27, 2012 By CPLEAadmin

LawNow magazine is an incredible resource for teachers. Each issue offers engaging articles about law in language suitable for students. Teachers Talk LawNow is a series of lesson plans for teachers based on these articles.

“R. v. Keegstra was such a landmark freedom of expression case that aspects of this issue were considered in three separate trips to the Supreme Court of Canada between 1990 and 1996.”

This LawNow article is available to download in the July/August 2012 issue of LawNow magazine :

What Ever Happened to … Jim Keegstra – Peter Bowal and Craig Graham

This weeks blog shifts out of the classroom and into the staff room. Jim Keegstra was a teacher from Eckville, Alberta. For years he had been teaching students his own brand of history that included Jewish conspiracies and other anti-Semitic content. Eventually he was charged with criminally promoting hatred against an identifiable group.

Many recently graduated teachers studied this case in University and older teachers will remember the news coverage. Leave this article on a coffee table in the staff room and see what discussions it creates. Some discussion points to get your started are:

How could Keegstra teach his opinions for so long and could something like this happen today?
What limits should there be on “free speech”?
If Keegstra had kept his opinions out of the classroom, but still made them public, should he have kept his job?

Teachers Talk LawNow – Electoral Reform

August 9, 2012 By CPLEAadmin

This LawNow article is available to download in the July/August 2012 issue of LawNow magazine :

“Corruption and Scandals – A Modest Proposal – Electoral Reform “ Phil Lister, Q.C.

Who doesn’t love a good scandal? Politics can be a hard sell to some kids. Grab their attention by starting your lesson with a discussion on political scandals. This article is a great conversation starter to get kids to think about electoral reform and how elections work in other countries.

Evaluating Electoral Systems
1. Place students in small groups to review the article and then answer the question, “what reforms to our political system (if any), are required to keep democracy healthy in Canada?”
2. Students will research electoral systems in other countries to create a proposal to change or protect our current electoral system.
3. Hold a class referendum where groups present their proposals to the class. Guide students in a debate on the merits of each proposal.
4. Conclude the lesson with a final class vote on the proposals.

Teachers Talk LawNow – The Olympics and Doping

August 2, 2012 By CPLEAadmin

Which Passport Should I Take to the Olympic Games? – Hilary Findlay

Athletes that cheat ruin the spirit of competitive sports, but they also provide “teachable moments” for science teachers. Talking about doping in the Olympics is a stealthy way to teach biology to students. This LawNow article discusses new anti-doping efforts at the London Olympics. This is an excellent opportunity to teach about body systems, specifically the circulatory system and respiratory systems.

Circulatory and Respiratory Student Teaching
1. Divide your students into small groups. Assign the circulatory system to half of the groups and the respiratory system to the other half.
2. Students will research their system and prepare an interactive presentation for their classmates. This presentation should include

the role of the circulatory or the respiratory system in the body;
the parts of the system and their function; and
an explanation of blood doping and how it relates to their body system.

3. Pair the circulatory system groups with respiratory system groups and have students perform their presentations to each other.

Teachers Talk LawNow – Corporate Social Responsibility

July 19, 2012 By CPLEAadmin

What is Wrong with Corruption? – Peter Bowal and Christopher Bowal
The Ethics of Corporate Social Responsibility- Janet Keeping
Lessons Learned from the British Petroleum Disaster – Jeff Bone
International Corporate Political Corruption: the Case of Niko Resources Ltd. – Peter Bowal and Joshua Beckie
Chevron Corp. v. Naranjo: Goliath’s Global Anti-Enforcement Injunction against David – The Court, an initiative of the Osgoode Hall Law School.

These articles provide the opportunity to explore a wide range of topics including transnational corporations, environmental law, government regulation, and free market economies. The articles can be approached from a variety of perspectives. For example, they can be studied within the context of globalization or with a greater emphasis on economics. The articles could also be used to create a unit in language arts that concludes with a persuasive essay.

Jigsaw Activity
1. Divide students into five groups and provide them with one of the articles listed above. Each group will create a summary of their article based on a guiding question drawn from your lesson objectives. For example:

What are some of the undesired consequences of free markets and how can governments, corporations, and companies limit them?
What relationship, if any, does economic and political globalization have with corruption?

2. When the groups have finished their summaries assign the members of each group a number between one and five. Create new groups using these numbers. Students will then teach their new group about the article they helped to summarize.
3. When the group activity is complete, students will then work independently on a writing assignment. The guiding question from the beginning of the lesson can be used as the topic for a formal essay.

Extension Activities
The project could also be supplemented with a film study. Some suitable documentaries with similar themes include:

Bananas!;
Capitalism a Love Story;
The Corporation; and
Food Inc.

Teachers Talk LawNow – Jim Keegstra

Teachers Talk LawNow – Electoral Reform

Teachers Talk LawNow – The Olympics and Doping

Teachers Talk LawNow – Corporate Social Responsibility

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