Free Speech? Lesson Plans

View and discuss:

Stossel on Free Speech Limits: Should Some Kinds of Speech Be Banned?, from Fox News, 31 March 2010.

Discussion Guide

Informative Essay–Lesson Plan 1

Objective: 

Students will research and write an informative essay on the extent and limits of free speech in the United States.

Essay Expectations

Modern Language–Lesson Plan 2

Objective: 

Students will take modern language into consideration while determining a list of words and phrases that should not be protected under free speech laws.

Persuasive Essay–Lesson Plan 3

Objective: 

Students will write a persuasive essay on the following prompt, “Should Ugly Language be Free Speech?”  Students will form a position on the issue and defend their position within the essay.

Additional Resources:

Freedom of Speech in the United States (overview, court opinion, and updates), by Tedford and Herbeck, from Strata Publishing, 2009.

First Amendment, from the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University.

Hate Speech or Free Speech?  Much of What West Bans in Protected in the United States, from the New York Times, 11 June 2008.

Is There a Right to Hate Speech? From the Human Rights Brief at the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University, 1996.

You Can’t Say That: At the UN the Obama Administration Backs Limits on Free Speech, from the Weekly Standard, 5 October 2009.

Additional Resources for Global Issues in Context Subscribers:

Should Hateful Speech be Punished? Freedom of Expression, from the International Herald Tribune, 21 January 2005.

World Views on the Status of Free Expression, from World Public Opinion.

Forced to Forget Our Struggle: Freedom of Speech is a Constitutional Right, so Why are Songs Being Banned, Robbing Us of What once Gave Us Strength to Go On?, from The Star (South Africa), 31 March 2010.

Supreme Court Cases Test Speech Rights – and More, from the New York Times, 30 March 2010.

Why We Protect Despicable Speech, from the St. Petersburg Times, 21 March 2010.