Hello! How can I help you today? Patron: Hi, I'm working on a research paper about prayer in public schools. Can you recommend some good scholarly sources to help me understand how the courts have weighed factors regarding the legality of prayer in American public schools?

1. Running head: TITLE 1
TITLE 2
Research Question:
How does critical thinking help in the development of
information literacy among youths?
.
Scholarly Article 1
Reference:
Abunadi, I. (2018). A Technology-Dependent Information
Literacy Model within the Confines of a Limited Resources
Environment. Information Technology & Libraries, 37(4), 119.
Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-
library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=13371
8516&site=eds-live&scope=site
Annotation: Write annotation in two paragraphs using your own
words about the scholarly article above. I have provided the
questions you should be answering.
Paragraph 1: Summarize
· What kind of source is this?
· What is the thesis or main claim of the source?
· What evidence or claims does the source present in support of
the thesis? Present at least two examples of support the source
uses.
· What other important claims does the source make?
Paragraph 2: Evaluate
· How adequately does the source support its thesis?
· How current is the information in the source relative to your
research question?
· How credible and authoritative is the source for your research
question?
· What limitations, if any, did you note in the source?
· How does the source help answer your research question?

2. Scholarly Article 2
Reference:
Rivano Eckerdal, J. (2017). Libraries, democracy, information
literacy, and citizenship. Journal of Documentation, 73(5),
1010. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy-
library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=12567
9440&site=eds-live&scope=site
Annotation:
Write annotation in two paragraphs using your own words about
the scholarly article 2 above. I have provided the questions you
should be answering.
Paragraph 1: Summarize
· What kind of source is this?
· What is the thesis or main claim of the source?
· What evidence or claims does the source present in support of
the thesis? Present at least two examples of support the source
uses.
· What other important claims does the source make?
Paragraph 2: Evaluate
· How adequately does the source support its thesis?
· How current is the information in the source relative to your
research question?
· How credible and authoritative is the source for your research
question?
· What limitations, if any, did you note in the source?
· How does the source help answer your research question?
EBook

3. Reference:
Crawford, J., & Irving, C. (2013). Information literacy and
lifelong learning : Policy issues, the workplace, health and
public libraries. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-
com.proxy-library.ashford.edu
Annotation:
Write annotation in two paragraphs using your own words about
the ebook above. I have provided the questions you should be
answering.
Paragraph 1: Summarize
· What kind of source is this?
· What is the thesis or main claim of the source?
· What evidence or claims does the source present in support of
the thesis? Present at least two examples of support the source
uses.
· What other important claims does the source make?
Paragraph 2: Evaluate
· How adequately does the source support its thesis?
· How current is the information in the source relative to your
research question?
· How credible and authoritative is the source for your research
question?
· What limitations, if any, did you note in the source?
· How does the source help answer your research question?
Library Chat Transcript:
Copy and Paste transcript from the Library Chat here.

4. Running head: PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 1
Prayer in Public Schools
Sara Lance
GEN103: Information Literacy
Instructor Smoak
April 15, 2018

5. Fill in the title that you’ve chosen
for your paper, your name, your
instructor’s name and the date.
Be sure that you put the title of your paper in
the header. Notice that the header on the first
page includes the words “Running head:”.
The page
number
should be
at the top
right of
each page.
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 2

6. Research Question: How have the courts weighed factors
regarding the legality of prayer in
American public schools?
Scholarly Article 1
Reference:
Lain, C. B. (2015). God, civic virtue, and the American way:
reconstructing Engel. Stanford
Law Review, 67(3), 479-555. doi: 10.31228/osf.io/fzhwp
Annotation: This scholarly article focuses on the Supreme
Court case Engel v Vitale (1963),
which set the precedent that state-sponsored prayer in school is
unconstitutional. The author
argues that while the decision was originally seen as, and
continues to be seen as, protecting
religious minorities from being forced to participate in the
religious practices of the religious
majority, the Supreme Court Justices did not view it that way
during the decision-making
process. Rather, the Supreme Court Justices took into account
demographic changes (a
significant increase in the Catholic population) as well as
cultural changes (a substantial decrease

7. in anti-Semitism after the Holocaust) that had created a more
pluralistic society; they did not see
themselves as protecting a religious minority but as recognizing
that there was not a prayer, no
matter now bland and generic, that could avoid offending some
parties. In addition, the Supreme
Court Justices looked at the plain text of the First Amendment
and determined that requiring
public school students to recite a state-written prayer was
clearly endorsing religion. There was
little disagreement on these points as indicated by the 6-1
decision, with one vacancy on the
court and one justice too ill to participate in deliberations. The
author used a variety of sources as
evidence for this article, including the text of this and other
Supreme Court decisions, quotes
from an interview with Justice Black, many newspaper and
magazine articles from the time
Your final research question from the Week 1 assignment
belongs here.
The APA-formattted reference for your scholarly article goes
here. If you

8. need help with formatting, visit the Writing Center.
Your
annotation
belongs
here. Be
sure to
include all of
the elements
outlined in
the
assignment
instructions.
Be sure to
discuss
the
sources
(evidence)
that the

9. author
used to
support
his/her
points.
http://writingcenter.ashford.edu/format-your-reference-list
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 3
period as well as historical and legal books and journal articles.
Many of the sources that I’ve
read mentioned the Engel v. Vitale decision and indicated its
importance to this issue but this
journal article provides detailed explanation of why and how the
case began as well as the
reasoning behind the decision, backed up a variety of historical
and legal sources.
The author thoroughly supported her points throughout the
article with extensive sources.
In addition to the text of the decision and an interview with
Justice Black, the author also used
the personal papers of Justice Black to support her argument.

10. This article provides relatively
current information, having been published in 2015. A
significant portion of the evidence
supporting the thesis from the original court case in the early
1960s but the author also used
more contemporary legal, scholarly, and news sources, all the
way up to the year before this
article was published. The author has significant authority on
this topic as a Professor of Law
and Associate Dean at the University of Richmond School of
Law. In addition, this article was
published by the Stanford Law Review, which is well-known
and well-respected as a scholarly
law journal. The most obvious limitation of this article is that it
focuses on the Engel v Vitale
ruling; a number of other court rulings, both by the Supreme
Court and by lower courts, are
relevant to my research question but are not addressed in this
article. This journal article
answers my research question by explaining the reasoning
behind the Engel v Vitale ruling,
which set the original precedent by which other religion in
school cases were decided. It provides
specific information from the ruling and the historical context

11. in which the ruling was made as
well as information about the public and media reaction to the
ruling.
Provide
enough
detail in
your
annotations
to fully
describe
your
sources and
explain how
they fit into
your
research
project
Please notice that the header should be

12. changed to match your title.
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 4
Scholarly Article 2
Reference:
Warnick, B. R. (2012). Student rights to religious expression
and the special characteristics of
schools. Educational Theory, 62(1), 59-74. doi:10.1111/j.1741-
5446.2011.00435.x
Annotation: In this scholarly peer-reviewed article, Warnick
examines the difficulty in balancing
two different parts of the First Amendment of the Constitution,
the Establishment Clause with
the Free Exercise Clause, to show why it is difficult to
determine what religious activities are
permissible for students in the public school environment. The
Establishment Clause prevents
any part of the government from establishing or endorsing
religion while the Free Exercise
Clause guarantees individuals the right to freely engage in
religious activities. Within the public

13. school environment, students have the right to engage in
student-initiated prayer or other
religious activity. Student-initiated religious activity must be
accommodated by school officials
and it is often accommodated by allowing the use of school
property and other resources, which
may give the appearance of official endorsement of the religious
activity. This can create
difficulty in determining when student-initiated religious
activity has crossed the line into
unconstitutional activity. The author also argues that school are
unique areas in American
society because education is compulsory, they serve a range of
ages, and because students are
expected to gain a wide range of competencies, eventually
becoming capable members of society
who understand how ideas (both religious and secular) function
to produce political outcomes.
These three elements that make schools a special place in
American society contribute to the
difficulty with balancing the Free Exercise Clause with the
Establishment Clause and make the
The title of your article should be written like sentence with
only

14. the first word and proper nouns capitalized. Also remember to
italicize the name of the journal.
Remember
to fully
explain the
author’s
arguments
and the
evidence
that he/she
uses to
support
them.
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 5
issue particularly controversial. Warnick used many scholarly
sources as references. He cited
numerous education, legal, and philosophy journal articles and

15. books to support his points as
well as relevant Supreme Court cases. This article is different
from many of the sources I’ve read
because it explains why the issue of religious expression in
schools is complicated, both from the
viewpoint of allowing students the freedom of expression in a
constitutional way and from the
viewpoint of ensuring that students receive a complete
educational experience.
In this article, the author argues that the issue of prayer and
religious activity in public
school is nuanced and complex; he supports that thesis well by
citing many educational, legal
and philosophical sources that validated each element of his
argument. The article was
published in 2012, so it is relatively current. The author, Bryan
R. Warnick, has authority on this
issue as professor of Philosophy of Education at Ohio State
University. The journal, Educational
Theory, was founded in 1951 and is a peer-reviewed journal so
this article is credible. The
article is interesting but limited in usefulness to me because the
factors that courts consider is not
the main focus. Instead, the author discussed balancing the

16. Free Exercise Clause and the Free
Establishment Clause as part of a larger discussion of the
complexities of prayer and religious
activities in public school. This article answers my research
question by explaining how the two
clauses of the First Amendment that are relevant to the issue of
religious activity in public
school, the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause,
apply in a school setting and how
they can be difficult to reconcile.
EBook
Reference:
Discuss the
authority
and currency
in your
annotations
as you
explain the
credibility of

17. your
sources.
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 6
Haiman, F. S. (2003). Religious Expression and the American
Constitution. East Lansing:
Michigan State University Press. Retrieved from Ashford
Library eBook Collection.
Annotation: This eBook examines many different facets of the
First Amendment of the
Constitution, generally focusing on how it has been applied in
court cases related to religion in
American society and the evolution of First Amendment cases
throughout American history. Of
particular relevance to my research question is chapter four,
“Religious Expression in Public
Schools.” This chapter is broken into six parts, covering prayer
in school and school-sponsored
events, the Pledge of Allegiance, use of school resources for
religious meetings outside of school
hours, evolution curriculum, school officials’ religious
expression, and censorship of library and

18. curricular resources. The author discusses many Supreme Court
and lower court cases, arguing
that schools, because they are viewed as shaping young minds,
are a particular focus of conflict
over the proper church-state balance. The courts have
endeavored to both protect the rights of
students and faculty to freely exercise their chosen religion
while also protect against state
coercion to engage in a specific religion (or any religion) or
state endorsement of religion. In
general, the goal of the courts has been for the state to be
neutral in regard to religion and neither
favor or disfavor either a specific religious sect or religious
practice over nonpractice. The
author supported his points in this book by citing and
referencing Supreme Court and lower court
cases, media reports, and scholarly legal articles. This article is
similar to other sources that I
read on this topic in that it discusses some of the same cases
and made some similar points.
However, it also discussed many lower court cases that were not
mentioned in other sources and
it addressed issues beyond prayer and student religious
activities in school, like religious

19. expression of school officials, censorship of library and
curriculum materials, and the teaching of
evolution.
The title of the eBook should be italicized.
For the
eBook, you
may choose
to focus on
a specific
chapter
that is of
particular
importance
to your
topic. Be
sure to
clearly
explain that

20. chapter’s
relevance
and discuss
the
author’s
arguments
and
evidence in
that
chapter.
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 7
The thesis of the relevant chapter of this eBook is best
summarized by saying that the
courts have worked to balance the rights enumerated in the First
Amendment on various
religious issues that find their way into public schools. The
author supported that thesis well by
exploring those various topics and explaining how court rulings
have evolved over time, building

21. on precedent. Although the author cited some scholarly
secondary sources, the majority of
sources cited and referenced are court cases, illustrating the
focus of the author on discussing
court rulings. This eBook is less current than other sources
chosen for this project, having been
published in 2003. However, it is still current enough for this
topic and contains significant
useful information. The author, Franklyn S. Haiman, was
Emeritus Professor of Communication
Studies at Northwestern University. He wrote additional
scholarly works on the First
Amendment and a national award for freedom of expression was
named in his honor. It would
appear that he was an authority on this issue. The eBook was
published by the Michigan State
University Press, which indicates that this is a scholarly book
and that it is a credible source.
The limitation of this source is primarily that it is older and so
does not include any cases or
scholarship written since 2003. In addition, the author largely
used court cases as sources; while
there are some scholarly secondary sources cited and
referenced, there are clearly fewer

22. scholarly secondary sources used in this source than in other
scholarly sources used for this
project. While this source provides a thorough history of the
evolution of the history of religion
in public school cases, it does not place them in the context of
the scholarly discussion as well as
other sources in the project. This eBook addresses my research
question by looking at issues
beyond just prayer in public school. By examining other issues
that fall under the First
Amendment legal umbrella, it is easier to see how the courts
have worked to find a balance
between the Free Expression and Establishment Clauses. In
addition, because this eBook also
No source
can cover
all aspects
of a topic
so they all
have some
limitations.

23. Think
carefully
about
where the
source
might be
lacking.
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 8
discusses lower court cases, it was easier to understand how the
precedent set by the Supreme
Court cases affected subsequent cases that came before these
courts.

24. Be sure to include the transcript from your
Library Chat session below!
PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 9
Library Chat Transcript:
Copy and Paste transcript from the Library Chat here.