Thomas Longbotham Instructional Planning Grid

1. TEKS
(13) Citizenship. The student understands rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Objective
(E) The student will:
Define capital punishment.
Explore the positions for and against the death penalty.
Identify the arguments for and against capital punishment.

2. Big Understanding
Constitutions limit the powers of government.
Rights protect individual citizens from abuse by their government.
Capital punishment (criminal and civil rights) is (are) a global human concern.

3. Assessment Evidence
Ask students to use what they learn from the videos and online reading to define capital punishment.
(A punishment in which a convicted criminal faces execution, such as by lethal injection. A criminal must
be convicted, the jury must recommend the death penalty in the punishment phase of the trial, and the
judge must agree with the recommendation.)

Do all states allow capital punishment? (No)Do any other Western countries have a death penalty?
(No)How many countries currently use the death penalty and how many have abolished capital
punishment? (Retentionist: 58, Total abolitionist in law or practice: 139)

Students will use the internet to explore the positions for and against the death penalty.

What are the arguments that support the death penalty? (Example: The death penalty is appropriate
retribution for taking someone's life; the death penalty is a deterrent to future murders.)

What are arguments against the death penalty? (Example: The death penalty is cruel and inhumane,
regardless of the crime; the death penalty does not deter or prevent future murders; the possibility of
executing someone who is innocent is too great.)

Students will be divided into groups of three or four. They will discuss and visit websites to help them
collectively define capital punishment and come up with arguments for and against the death penalty
(ranking them from strongest to weakest by popular consensus).

They will make posters with a definition at the top, death penalty countries in numbers, and two
columns of arguments.
Allow enough class time. Provide the following sites for students to use in their research:




Neutral Sites
The Death Penalty Information Center: Arguments For and Against
http://deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/c/about/arguments/contents.htm
Issues and Controversies: Death Penalty
http://www.facts.com/cd/i00015.htm
Bureau of Justice Statistics Capital Punishment Statistics
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm
Capital Punishment (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/c/capitalp.htm
Capital Punishment: Life or Death
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~tonya/spring/cap/group1.htm

Pro-Death Penalty
Pro-Death Penalty
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com
The New American: Capital Punishment
http://www.thenewamerican.com/focus/cap_punishment/index.htm

Anti-Death Penalty
ACLU: Death Penalty
http://aclu.org/death-penalty
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
http://www.ncadp.org
Death Penalty Focus
http://www.deathpenalty.org/
Amnesty International
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/international-death-penalty





4. Opening Hook
As we saw in the Rachel Maddow clip even when it comes to capital punishment in America we live in an
interconnected world? Today were going to take a look at different perspectives of capital punishment
both domestically and from around the world.

5. Instructional Strategies/Activities
Linguistic/Nonlinguistic
Have students produce posters with a definition and two sets of arguments.

6. Materials/Resources
Computer with Internet access/IPADs
Website Handout
Posters
Markers

7. Grouping Patterns
Divide the class randomly into small groups of 3-4 students.

8. Ending, Summary / Reflection
The use of capital punishment, methods of execution, and the crimes that fall under penalty of death
affect how countries view and interact with each other. Even our Constitution was based on some
principles that didnt originate in America. Should we use foreign views in interpreting the Constitution?