Answer Close-Reading Questions
Have students write their responses, or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.
• What is the central idea of the article? (Central Ideas)
The central idea is that the First Amendment safeguards important individual liberties (freedom of speech, religion, and the press, along with the right to assemble peaceably and to petition the government for change) and applies to all Americans’ lives today.
• What did the Supreme Court mean when it said that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate”? (Making Meaning)
The Supreme Court meant that students still have First Amendment rights at school. While school administrators can restrict personal expression and speech that interfere with learning, they can’t restrict those actions solely because they are controversial or unpopular. For example, the Court ruled that Mary Beth Tinker had a right to wear a black armband to school to protest the Vietnam War.
• Summarize the section “Freedom of Religion.” (Summarizing)
Although the Pledge of Allegiance contains the words “under God,” courts have ruled that public schools can lead students in reciting it as a patriotic exercise. Schools in all but three states do. However, students don’t have to salute the flag or say the Pledge. The Supreme Court ruled that students have that right to opt out in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943.