Historical Society of the New York Courts Resources
Historical Society of the New York Courts Blog
Our blog provides information about past Society events, as well as historical essays and reflection pieces, and the more informal tone provides a great entry point into legal concepts.
Judicial Notice
The Society’s publication Judicial Notice features articles written by practicing lawyers, judges, and legal historians. These articles cover a variety of topics throughout New York legal history, including groundbreaking New York court cases, significant changes to New York law, and profiles of New York Judges.
Legal History by Era
Legal History by Era features profiles of important figures, courts, and court cases in particular time periods, while placing them in historical context and providing primary source documents corresponding to each era.
Past, Present, & Future Events
The Society sponsors a variety of programs, including lectures, panel discussions, and performances. We feature videos of our past events online, and the majority of our programs can be streamed in the classroom.
Additional Resources from other organizations with more curriculum, activities, and information to
enrich teaching in the classroom
Annenberg Classroom
The Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics created the Annenberg Classroom to provide educators with free classroom resources to help students learn about the U.S. Constitution and Three Branches of Government, including videos, lesson plans, games, and timelines.
Civics for All
Created in 2018, Civics for All works with the New York City Department of Education to provide New York City K-12 educators with a variety of resources for the classroom, including civics curriculum, lesson plans, activities, and professional development.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History provides educators with various materials to use to teach American history, including primary source documents, curriculum and lesson plans, study guides, short essays, materials, and professional development.
New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society has created education resources and programs for students and teachers such as teacher workshops, lesson plans, curriculum, and opportunities to learn and teach about American democracy through the Tang Academy for American Democracy and Dorothy Tapper Goldman Center for Teaching Democracy.
National Endowment for the Humanities: EDSITEment!
The National Endowment for the Humanities’ EDSITEment! features curriculum, teacher’s guides, and lesson plans that break down the learning objectives, activities, and the skills students will use during each history and social studies unit. On the website, educators can search by grade level, subtopics, and number of class periods the lesson takes to complete.
National Constitution Center
The National Constitution Center provides teaching tools, professional development, live online courses, videos, activities, and classroom resources for educators to help students to learn about the history of the U.S Constitution and role of the federal judiciary, as well as to learn how to better understand current controversies and Supreme Court decisions.
Bill of Rights Institute
The Bill of Rights Institute features free resources for educators and students on the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution, curriculum, primary sources, lesson plans, and links to articles discussing recent court decisions and related material, as well as professional development.
Federal Judicial Center
The Federal Judicial Center provides educators with a variety of resources about the federal courts, past and present, as well as background information, activities and discussion questions, and “Famous Federal Trials,” which includes a detailed summary of a significant trial in U.S. history, primary source documents, a PowerPoint lecture, and student handouts.
Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission
The Commission promotes a court system free from any and all forms of bias and discrimination and a judiciary and workforce that reflect the rich diversity of New York State. The Commission provides resources for educators including a documentary video A Bridge to Justice: The Life of Franklin H. Williams as well as students’ perspectives on the video, discussion questions, and various lesson plans and activities.
Street Law
Street Law has created a resource library for educators featuring numerous case summaries, lessons, activities, and mock trial materials.
Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court
Street Law has partnered with the Supreme Court Historical Society to provide educators with resources for high school and middle school students to learn more about key, landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including full case summaries and excerpts, background reading, vocabulary/glossaries, and classroom activities and projects. The website also features links to the Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers and to the Supreme Court Historical Society’s own events, and education materials and resources.
Justice Resource Center
The Justice Resource Center features law-related and civic education resources and programs for elementary, middle, and high school students, including curriculum, professional development, mentorship and mock trial opportunities, and courthouse visits.
Justice for All: Courts and the Community Initiative
Launched by the late Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, this civic education initiative seeks to “increase public understanding of the role and operations of the courts and bring courts closer to the community.” Justice For All provides various teaching tools and activities including courtroom reenactments, professional development, courthouse visits, and a Summer Justice Institute for New York City students.
Stanford History Education Group: Reading Like a Historian
Stanford History Education Group’s “Reading Like a Historian” includes lesson plans and classroom activities (available in English and Spanish), and videos of teachers commenting on their experiences using these materials in their classrooms.
Civics Renewal Network
The Civics Renewal Network is an alliance of a variety of civics-related non-profits, each providing different classroom-related materials. This Partners page lists a variety of member organizations with more additional resources than the ones we’ve covered above.