1. Teachers' and Students' Rights and Responsibilities

Visit the Education Law Association Web site. After perusing its contents to familiarize yourself with this organization's purpose, go to the Newsletters section and download a sample copy of the School Law Reporter. Choose one article and write a new or updated case study for the "What is Your Rights Quotient?" section of your textbook. Make sure your case study includes an issue classification, a situation description, two response options, and a court decision summary.

2. Students Rights: Title IX and Sexual Harassment

The U.S. Department of Education Web site houses information related to landmark Supreme Court cases, timely legal issues, numerous research studies, and current interpretation of school law. Sexual Harassment: It’s Not Academic. Read the online version of the government pamphlet entitled "Sexual Harassment: It's Not Academic." Write a summary of this article highlighting the various that ways school administrators, teachers, students, and parents can recognize and deal with sexual harassment under Title IX.

3. Values Clarification

Click here to read a lesson plan that reflects a values clarification approach to moral education. What specific values is this lesson plan designed to address? If you were a proponent of values clarification methods, how would you describe the benefits of this lesson? If you were a critic of values clarification, what would you say about its pitfalls? Use specific examples from the lesson plan to illustrate your answers.

4. Character Education

Both of the following organizations support character education programs in schools. Use these two Web sites as the basis for answering the questions below.

The Character Education Partnership

Character Education -- Utah State Office of Education

Compare and contrast the two organizations in terms of their approaches to character education. What specific similarities and differences can you identify? What is your personal view of each organization's approach? Based on what you see here, are you a proponent or a critic of character education? How would you feel about teaching in a school system that has a strong character education focus?

5. Classrooms That Explore Ethical Issues

Click here to read an Education Week opinion piece written by two directors of the Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character. This piece, entitled "Values, Views, or Virtues?" takes a strong stand on how teachers should approach moral, ethical and character issues in the classroom. Read the entire article, then write a letter to the editor expressing your personal reaction to it. Do you agree or disagree with the authors? As a future educator, what issues does this article raise about how you will approach ethical issues in the classroom?