Take the book You Be the Jury by Marvin Miller. In this book you are the jury. The responsibility of declaring a person innocent or guilty lies with you, the reader. The reader must make sure justice is served. Do the first two or three cases with the students. They should work in groups of three. Have enlarged copies of Exhibits A, B, and C on hand to pass around for each group to see and study.
Vocabulary Words:
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plaintiff, jury, evidence, guilty, fabrication, defendant, justice, innocent, clues
Jason Compson claims a golfer on the sixth tee accidentally drove a ball through his window? This was supposed to have happened while he was hanging an expensive mirror in his den. Could this be or did he stage the accident to dramatize his unhappiness with the new golf course? You, the students, have to read the case in its entirety and carefully examine the evidence in EXHIBITS A, B, and C. On page 11 of the book is the Verdict. The accident was faked by Jason Compson. EXHIBIT B shows Compson's forehead covered by a large bandage. If he had been hanging the mirror, his back would have been to the window. The injury would have been to the back of his head.
Rewrite the Verdict to show how they used the FORMULA.
What you already know-The window the golf ball is supposed to have come through is opposite the location where he was hanging the mirror. His back had to be to the window when he was hanging the mirror. +
The information given-his apparent injury was on his forehead. That's where the bandage is =
Valid Conclusion-He faked the whole thing. The bandage should have been on the back of his head.
Now using the formula solve the next case in You Be the Jury.
Use this formula to help you discover or create what is in the box in the mystery song.
Are you any closer to an answer?
Possible Conclusions
I went through this unit briefly with my summer camp students and the some of their choices were guns, strippers, skunks, and bad luck. The difficult part for most of them was explaining why their choice affected each person the way it did. Those who thought the contents was a stripper felt the shop owner should have been happy. Those who thought is was a skunk wondered why the man picked it up in the first place unless he had never seen a skunk before and was unaware of his potential danger. Bad Luck was hard to support because the song says he picked it up….
Have the students put together all their information concerning the song and see what they come up with.