About This Lesson
Overview: In this lesson, students employ inquiry based learning using a KWL chart, conduct research, and evaluate the purpose and problems associated with mass incarceration.
This lesson is part of a novel study of the book Monster by Walter Dean Myers, but would be appropriate for other novels, such as The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater, or for a social studies unit on Reconstruction, the Jim Crow Era, Civil Rights, etc.
Essential Questions:
- What is the purpose of incarceration? To what extent should it be used as a deterrent, as retribution, as protection of the community, or for rehabilitation?
- Does the United States incarcerate too many of its citizens? What are alternatives to incarceration?
