Vocabulary Lesson Module 4 Activity 2
Grade: 12 Law
The student is a 4.0+ honors female student who interested in studying law.
Tier 3 words:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Mistake of Law
Recidivism
Injunction
Habeas Corpus
Actus reus
Mens rea
Peremptory Challenge
Objective:
The student will be able to fluently use the common law vocabulary terms correctly
while engaging in oral or written conversations regarding law.
Activate Prior Knowledge:
Student will use a graphic organizer to list all terms she knows related to law, i.e.
Knowledge Mapping.
Lesson Day 1 Explicit Instruction:
“We will be working on eight new law terms today. These terms are common in law and
it is important you know how to use and interpret their meanings. The first term is
Mistake of Law. Mistake of Law refers to when a person who fully knows the law,
unintentionally interprets the law incorrectly. Thus the word, mistake refers to an
unintentional error. An example would be that I borrowed money from you and didn’t
pay you back. You thought in this situation that you could take money off my desk, for
what I owed you. You had specific intent to get your money back and did not realize
there was anything illegal about that. Can you think of a situation you may have been in
that was similar but now knowing “Mistake of Law” you would approach it differently?”
I will continue this with each of the vocabulary terms below.
1. Mistake of Law – A misconception that occurs when a person with complete knowledge of the
facts interprets the law incorrectly.
Example: A defendant robs another person because that person owed the defendant money. If the
defendant mistakenly thought the law allowed Self-Help in this particular situation, the Mistake of Law
could be helpful to the defendant in this situation as long as this is a specific-intent case.
2. Recidivism –refers to a person’s relapse into criminal behavior specifically after receiving
consequences or going through rehabilitation for that behavior.
Example: A person gets caught for armed robbery and receives a prison sentence for that crime. When
he re-enters society after the prison sentence, he commits another armed robbery.
3. Injunction –court order preventing one or more named parties from taking some action. A
preliminary injunction is often filed to allow time for fact finding by a judge before a permanent
injunction is issued.
Example: When an ex-wife fears for her safety and takes out an injunction against her ex-husband; uses
the court to stop an action.
4. Habeas Corpus– Latin, meaning "you have the body." A writ of habeas corpus generally is a
judicial order forcing law enforcement authorities to produce a prisoner they are holding, and to
justify the prisoner's continued confinement.
Example: Federal judges receive petitions for a writ of habeas corpus from state prison inmates who say
their state prosecutions violated federally protected rights in some way.
5. Actus Reus–Latin for guilty act; this is the physical act of the crime verses Mens rea, the mental
intent. Crimes have two components: actus reus and mens rea.
Example: You’re in a store and you put something under your arm to carry it. You run into a friend and
decide to go have coffee. You leave the store not paying; forgetting you have something under your
arm.You have committed Actus Reus but not Mens rea.
6. Mens rea– Latin for guilty mind; is used to describe the mental state a person must be in while
committing a crime for it to be intentional. It can refer to a general intent to break the law or a
specific, premeditated plan to commit a particular offense.
Example: A person driving hits a pedestrian walking across the street. If the driver intentionally steered
toward that person, he had a guilty mind, intent. If he did not see the person, but still hit him, he did not
have a guilty mind, no intent to harm the pedestrian.
7. Peremptory Challenge – The district court allows in both criminal and civil cases each side
the right to exclude a certain number potential jurors with]out cause or giving a reason.
Example: When an attorney is questioning potential jurors, he or she may reject a juror just because they
don’t like the looks of them.
Terms and examples will be displayed on Smartboard. Student will copy terms onto note
cards with a definition in her own words.
Lesson Day 2
Review and checking for understanding: Student will complete the Smart board activity,
matching vocabulary and definitions/scenarios(a similar activity on paper will be placed
in the drop box since I cannot attach the Smart board activity).
On Smart board student is presented with a case study that includes one of the
vocabulary terms. After modeling and providing guided practice, the student is assigned
multiple case studies to review and identify vocabulary terms. She highlights those
terms and will be asked to reproduce them on the Vocabulary Review to be completed
on Day 3.
Case Study presented:
“What if you move into a house, and your new neighbors play loud music in the middle of the night,
every single day? What happens if a baseball stadium is built next to your house, and lights shine in
on you every night preventing you from sleeping? These are situations where you may ask the
offending party to stop doing something that is bothersome and a nuisance to you. However, there
are times when simply asking does not resolve the problem. In such a case, you may seek to go to
court to ask the judge to intervene in the situation and force the offensive party from continuing to
behave in the problematic manner. In order to do so, you would file an injunction.”
Lesson Day 3
Present student with structural analysis. I am approaching this lesson with the
information the student has had instruction in prefixes, roots, and suffixes. The student
will be given the following website to aid in the assignment:
http://thoughtfullearning.com/inquireHSbook/pg166.
Teacher: “Word parts themselves can give you insight into word meaning. When you can
identify multiple word parts, you will increase your vocabulary as well as your
comprehension. This is called Structural Analysis. I’m going to demonstrate this process
on the word recidivism.
Here's a word I haven't seen before. The first thing I'll do is see whether I recognize any
familiar parts--a prefix, root, or suffix--or maybe it might be a compound. Okay, I see
that I can divide this word into a prefix I know, and a suffix, re/ci/div/ism. So the
meaning of this word must have something to do with repeating and a condition. Now
let’s see if that might make sense in the following sentence. One may advance in life, but
beware of situations that encourage recidivism. The sentence is referring to advancing
but avoiding situations that might cause a condition or behavior. So the word is talking
about repeating a behavior that is the opposite of advancing. There are times where you
identify letters as a prefix, suffix, or root such as divi in recidivism that does not carry
the meaning. Divi is the root for cut or apart. In this instance you need to go with the
suffix of ism.”
After checking for understanding and guided practice, the student will complete the rest
of the vocabulary words using structural analysis.
Lesson Day 4
Presentation of Vocabulary Overview.
Teacher: “My first vocab word is Actus Reas. For me, I think of the word Act with the
word Actus so that is a clue to me. Acting is physical and the explanation of Actus Reas
is the physical act of a crime. For use I am going to look back at our case studies from
Day 2. It was used in a sentence similar to this one. The mother was so flustered with
her daughter’s behavior she committed Actus Reas.”
The 2nd term, Injunction we worked through together. I asked the student to break the
word apart as we did in the previous lesson regarding structural analysis and look up the
meanings. She broke it into in/junct/ion. She found in=not, and junct=together. She
struggled with how she could make this into the definition of “a court order to stop an
action.” She decided in could also equal stop and the person filing the injunction would
be working with the court. The student felt this one was one of the more difficult words
to provide a clue for. For use, she provided the sample of, “We filed an injunction with
the court, because our neighbors wouldn’t stop playing loud music in the middle of the
night.”
Lesson Day 5:
Student will complete Four Square graphic organizer.
I implemented the strategy in five steps. First I named the concept to be discussed.
Second I provided a definition of the concept that is specific enough to differentiate it
from other concepts. Third, I identified and discussed key attributes that distinguish the
concept in question from other similar concepts. Fourth, I gave examples that fit the
definition and illustrated these essential attributes. Last, I identified and discussed nonexamples so the student could see and practice differentiation.
Assessment: Student was presented with case studies of everyday situations and had to
distinguish the type of legality being executed.
References
Nagy, W., Osborn, J., Winsor, P., & O'Flavahan, J. (1992, May 1). Guidelines for Instruction in
Structural Analysis. Retrieved June 29, 2015, from
https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/17736/ctrstreadtechrepv01992i00554_opt.
pdf?sequence=1
Schubert, J. (2015). Intro to Criminal Justices. Retrieved June 29, 2015, from
http://study.com/academy/lesson/
Glossary of Legal Terms. (n.d.). Retrieved June 29, 2015, from
http://www.uscourts.gov/glossary
"Criminal Law and Procedure." 1994. SMH Bar Review.
Kionka, Edward J. 1988. Torts. St. Paul, Minn.: West.
Reflection:
I felt the whole lesson was effective. My student felt a lot of the activities were redundant
but I believe they helped her to learn the words as quickly as she did. Of course part of
the reason is because of her academic level. I found the structural analysis was very
helpful for the student to connect the vocabulary words with their definitions but also
challenging. In addition, using case studies in non-legal language with the exception of
the vocabulary words was added factor to the ease of remembering the terms. This
lesson went so well, she would have easily been able to handle another five vocabulary
words.