Introductory Activity : Duration: 1-2 weeks
Description: After reading The Midwife's Apprentice , by Karen Cushman, students plan and participate in a mock trial (Alyce vs. Jane the Midwife) .
Goals: Through participation in the mock trial, students will: improve basic skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and reasoning; strengthen skills of critical thinking; strengthen skills of oral advocacy; increase understanding of rights and responsibilities as citizens; strive for accuracy; generate goals and plans for achieving; learn the order of a court case; prepare statements, testimony, and questions; and have a deeper understanding of the story and characters than a discussion could provide.
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Body : Procedure for Mock Trial:
Begin by reading the statement of the case to the class. Explain to students that they will be gathering information from media sources and reporting the findings in an oral presentation. The oral presentation will be in a mock trial format. Inform students that they may be asked to represent either side of the case, and they need to be looking for facts, not opinions, as they read and take notes.
After students complete their research, they will use the workpages provided for preparing the mock trial (see Materials for workpages). Information about running a mock trial in the classroom is provided in the "Teacher Information Pages." The teacher may be the judge, bailiff, and jury or may assign those parts to students.
Following the mock trial, a reflections student workpage (debriefing) is completed. The debriefing may take the form of a discussion guide, or students can respond to the questions in writing, either individually or in small groups.
Timeline of activities and reading preparation :
* Duration: 1-2 weeks (or long enough to read the book and complete the writing activities)
Students should read the book and either:
* finish the entire book using the literature circle method outlined in the literature circle section (a generic group reading method for any novel), and then use the mock trial open-ended pages to prepare a trial...
* or, read the statement of the case and discuss mock trial procedures, in which case the students will take notes on the mock trial open-ended pages to accompany the book (for worksheet activities while reading, if the literature circle approach is not used).
* Duration: 3-5 days:
After finishing the novel, students should form two teams and use their open-ended mock trial pages to plan their cases for a trial (Alyce vs. Jane the Midwife).
* Duration: 1-1? hours:
A simple mock trial could be used to demonstrate the procedure that will be used (see ?Steps in a Criminal Mock Trial? handout), such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears or a very familiar story. This would be a practice for the final mock trial based on The Midwife?s Apprentice .
* Duration: 1-2 hours
Study the basic procedure information about mock trials and the roles everyone will play. Conduct the mock trial, following the basic procedures given in the "Teacher Information Pages."
* Duration: 1 hour: (Debrief and Reflect)
For any Mock Trial teams, this information should perfectly follow the procedure for that competition. In fact, the students could take depositions and write their own statement of the case, as all of this can be as student created as possible. All of these pages of information and work can also be entirely teacher directed, for those not familiar with the Mock Trial program.
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Vocabulary Words : - Civil Trial - A trial involving one person complaining about something another person did or failed to do. In this case, Alyce is complaining that Jane the Midwife did not take her back as an apprentice (although the book has a different ending to the story).
- The Parties - A trial revolves around an argument involving two or more people. The people who bring their argument to the trial are called the ?parties? to the case. In this case, Jane is one party and Alyce is another party.
- Adversary Process - This means that two or more persons who are in conflict present their arguments and their evidence before a third party not involved in the dispute (the judge or a jury) who then gives a decision.
- Testimony - A person (witness) tells the court what s/he saw, heard, did, or experienced in relation to the incident in question. - Expert Testimony - A professional person, someone not involved in the incident, who can give medical, scientific, or similar expert instruction or information.
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