The State Court Watch (SCW) site is a dynamic teaching and learning environment with many uses for instructors and students. The main components of the site are its case summaries and related learning activities. The case summaries are concise explanations of current decisions of the New York State Court of Appeals, New York's highest court.
The New York State Court of Appeals decisions summarized relate to U.S. Supreme Court cases and Concepts and Topics associated with the New York State social studies curriculum. The summaries also relate to the "We the People" program, a civic education program used by Social Studies teachers throughout the nation. The learning activities provided may be formatted as group or individual projects and include "compare and contrast" exercises, debates, critical thinking exercises and more. The summaries and activities are designed to enhance students' understanding of required content as well as advance skills identified by educators as crucial to student success, such as critical reading, thinking and analysis.
Whether you are teaching or learning, there are numerous "points of entry" into SCW. The site sorts New York State court cases in several ways to enable you to use the site in a way that works best for you.
Related United States Supreme Court cases. Under the Related U.S. Supreme Court Cases tab you will find the list of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions identified by the New York State Education Department as "key" decisions. Each decision has a link to at least one related New York State Court of Appeals case summary and associated learning activities. Each decision is also "hyperlinked" to its full text on the Internet.
Related CONCEPTS AND tOPICS. Under the Related Concepts And Topics tab you will find a list of concepts and topics covered by the U.S. History Social Studies curriculum. Each concept or topic has a link to at least one related New York State Court of Appeals case summary and associated learning activities.
Related "We the People" Units. "We The People: The Citizen and The Constitution" is a national program sponsored in New York State by the Law, Youth and Citizenship Program of the New York State Bar Association and nationally by the Center for Civic Education. This program is intended to improve knowledge, skills and civic attitudes in our representative democracy. Under the Related We the People Units tab you will find a list of the Units that are part of the textbook used with the We The People program. Each Unit has a link to at least one related New York State Court of Appeals case summary and associated learning activities.
New York State Cases summarized. Under the New York State Cases Summarized tab you will find an alphabetized list of the New York State Court of Appeals cases summarized on this site on a grid along with each case's related United States Supreme Court case(s), concepts and topics, and We the People unit(s).
