History and literature on trial

A trial format can allow students to do research, make arguments, and try to persuade one another in a disciplined way, but with a different twist. This discussion idea works best with a highly controversial topic or subject — for example, students could put the conspirators on trial for the murder of Julius Caesar after reading Shakespeare's play, or they could put industrial leaders like Carnegie on trial, allowing a jury to decide if the industrial leader was an enemy of the working poor or a great humanitarian who revolutionized the American economy in positive ways.

Preparation

Propose the person or people who will be on trial to the class. Either state the charges against the defendant, or ask the class to suggest what the defendant should be accused of. For example, the charges might read "Andrew Jackson is charged with theft of property, kidnapping, and genocide for his role in the Trail of Tears." You may find it easiest to develop a pro or con statement for a typical debate and then turn that statement into a charge for your class trial.

The jury

Assign twelve students to serve as the jury. While the other groups work together to prepare their legal cases, these students should familiarize themselves with the time period that the case will address. An interesting activity for them would be to read newspapers and magazines from the time period to immerse themselves in the culture and events of the time. In the interest of fairness, you may want to give the jury group a separate assignment with these sources that will be as analytical and involved as the assignments for the legal teams — for example, you might ask the jury team to develop a presentation on culture in the time and place of the trial that they will present to the class after the trial is over. This will give them something to work on while the other groups plan their case, help them get connected to the relevant time period, and provide a great opportunity for the same kind of analytical thinking and learning to take place.

Prosecution and defense

Instructions for the prosecution and defense

Divide the other students into two groups -- the defense and the prosecution. Each group will prepare its case and, from its own members, select students to serve as the witnesses for their side (including the person on trial!). Groups should have access to research sources that will allow them to prepare their cases. Provide students with guidelines:

• Determine the strongest arguments for your side's position. Think about who you might call as witnesses to testify to the facts that will best support your case.
• For each witness, including the defendant, establish a basic biography (three to five sentences). You will need to decide on all of your witnesses quickly — halfway through the planning time, you will have to provide this list and the brief biographies to the other legal team.
• For each witness, identify five to ten key facts that are relevant to the case. You must be prepared to cite your sources for these facts.
• You may invent witnesses to support your case when you don't have access to an actual specific individual's life story. For example, in a case about unsafe working conditions for coal miners, you could create a "composite" coal miner based on true stories that you've read, but the person you create must be plausible and rooted in historical reality. (The judge, your teacher, will decide if any created characters have "crossed the line" into exaggeration!)
• Develop a list of questions that your legal team will ask your witnesses. Work with the witnesses to develop factually accurate answers. Remember that your defendants will be under oath — you may not make things up to fit your case! Assign one group member to be the lawyer who will ask these questions.
• Halfway through the planning time, the other legal team will give you a list of their defendants and a brief three to five sentence biography of each. Your group should study this list carefully, consult your research sources to learn more about each person on the list, and then develop questions that you will want to ask these witnesses on cross-examination to try to make your own case. Assign one team member to be the lawyer who will cross-examine the other side's witnesses.
• Try to anticipate the main points that your opponents will make and the kinds of things they will grill your witnesses about. Be prepared to counter these points.
• Finally, write an opening statement that summarizes your case. This should be only three to five minutes long. Select one team member to present this opening statement to the jury.

Alternative setups

If you would like your whole class to participate as defense or prosecution attorneys and witnesses, here are a few other options:

• Have your case be decided by a judge (you) alone instead of a jury trial. Students may have more fun, however, with a jury trial and may feel that a jury trial is more impartial.
• Partner with another teacher who is teaching the same course in the same period. Have his students serve as the jury for your class while you take on one reading or historical issue then, later in the term, his students can conduct a trial in which your class can serve as the jury during one class period. The students on the jury will get a great exposure to the topic at hand without having to devote a lot of class time to out-of-class research, and each class will have the experience of trying its case in front of an impartial jury.
• Invite parents to serve as the jury either by having volunteers come in during the school day, or by planning your trial for an evening class event.

Staging the trial

After students have had time to prepare their cases (you could do this in one class period, allow students to work overnight independently, and convene the court the next day — or develop a schedule that suits your own classroom's pace and needs), call the court into session. During the discussion, you will serve as the judge. The two sides will present their cases — the prosecution will deliver their opening statement, then the defense. The prosecution will call each of its witnesses, who will then be cross-examined and then the defense will follow suit. As the judge, you will maintain decorum and rule on any objections or points of order. Finally, the two sides will be given five minutes to prepare closing statements and then deliver those to the jury.

You may then give instructions to the jury about what their options are — they may find the defendant guilty or not guilty on all counts or some counts, for example. You will have to decide if the jury must reach a unanimous decision or whether a majority rule will suffice. Assign a foreman to guide the discussion in the jury deliberations. The jury should be given ample time to deliberate. You may wish to sit in to help the discussion go smoothly.

While they deliberate, members of the legal teams may be given an informal writing assignment about the experience. One possible prompt might be, "What were the most persuasive points made by the other side in this case? What were the weaknesses in your own case? If you could start over with planning your case, what would you do differently?"

Prompts

Wrap-up

When the jury has reached its verdict, call the court back into session and ask the chairperson to reveal their decision. Afterwards, invite the jury to talk about what parts of each side were persuasive and which side they thought had the harder job. (In some cases, it will be much easier to be on one side or the other.) This activity may be a good "springboard" for an analytical essay by allowing students to think about a variety of good arguments on either side that they could then incorporate into a written assignment.