Creative Teaching & Learning

Democracy Lesson 1: Creating a Country

Lesson 1 in the Democracy Resource Bank requires students to create their own country, promoting values of good citizenship and responsibility.

democracylesson1creatingacountry.pdf

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      string(366) "... of ideas and a key to further learning –  and don’t see ‘speaking their minds’ as an end in itself.Download the democracy resources here: Lesson 1: Creating a CountryOutcomes: Engage with and have ownership of the projectRecognise features that define a countryIdentify features that make a country a nice ..."
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      string(5777) "This  democracy citizenship scheme of work introduces students at upper KS2, 3  and 4 to different forms of government and the values underlying them.  The unit introduces students to the ‘big’ themes of politics through an  experiential, narrative and dialogic approach. Through a talk based  approach, students critically explore the ideas underlying government.In this unit, students invent their own country – which then goes  through stages of development. It experiences anarchy, dictatorship and  revolution. Through this experiential approach, the unit produces an  incredibly sophisticated level of debate surrounding the core values of  democracy – freedom, stability, individuality and rule of law.Project overview: Democracy and other forms of government											Key question: How, and by whom, should we be governed?Setting: Fictional country created by students in the first lesson.Product: An ‘ideal’ system of government for Country X.Main coverage: Citizenship, literacyIntroduction and backgroundThis project is dedicated to teaching clearly about what democracy is  – distinct to learning about the British parliamentary system of  government. Here students are also exposed to other forms of government –  to understand features of democracy, in the context of systems without  rights and freedoms. The aim is to provide students with theoretical  tools to understand contemporary politics in other countries and to give  them space to develop their own ideas about the ideal way to govern a  country.By exploring the processes, mechanisms and values that underlie  democracy, this unit also meets the requirements of the 2008 Citizenship  Order – which requires that students understand: ‘Freedom as part of  democracy; fairness and the rule of law as part of justice; power and  authority; and accountability. Pupils should understand that  accountability happens at many levels’.The unit also addresses the requirements of the PoS that students  participate in democratic activities – including voting and campaigning.The secondary aim of this unit is to introduce students to topical  political issues and to use their newly acquired theory to understand  them.Learning through story, learning through talkThis resource was influenced by the idea that people learn through  narrative. ‘Forms of government’ can be a dry, institutional topic. Here  to unravel how parliament reflects powerful beliefs, learning is  grounded in a story. This builds on Kieran Egan’s work, who argues that  humans make sense of things through story. He argues that the rational  and imaginative parts of our minds are interdependent – knowledge  requires emotional engagement to have meaning.This unit is structured by the class creating its own country. The class then lives a story of events that ha											ppen  to their country. Students must use their imaginations to be part of  this world – and to participate in the changes happening to them.  Through this learning method students develop an emotional attachment to  the country they have created, and they take the developments very  seriously – responding passionately and thoughtfully about what’s  happening and what should be done.The unit has a heavy emphasis on activities developing critical  thinking through talk-based learning. The unit builds on ideas from P4C  and ‘Thinking Together’. According to Thinking Together, exploratory  talk allows students to develop their level of thinking as a group and  alone. They do this by making their reasoning ‘visible’ – using words  like ‘I think’, ‘because’ and ‘why’. They recognise that, when  persuading others, they must justify their ideas with reasons. They  understand that they must seek and respond to contributions from others.  Through talk, students also develop their ideas. Conversation is a  creative process. In thinking through and responding to others’ ideas,  students develop their own.Much of the learning happens through discussion – in reaction to  events. By thinking together, students critically unravel the strengths  and weaknesses of the different forms of governments. They  collaboratively explore what they think is important and critically  explore the challenges of action and revolution. Using debate,  scenario-based role play and problem solving, students empathise with  the experience of different types of government. The students should be  encouraged to feel it is ok – in fact, that is the whole point! – to  change their view. They don’t have to defend a view to its end. In  debate students should feel free to change sides if they change their  opinion. 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Creative Teaching & Learning

Democracy Cross Curriculum Project

28 Aug 2012

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      string(5847) "articles and leaflets, they are part of an evolving story of change. Students must use their imaginations to be part of this world – and to participate in the changes happening to them. We have found this to be an incredibly effective strategy for addressing what could be heavy content and ideas with year sevens. They get engaged and enjoy the subject. They develop an emotional attachment to the country they have created, and they take the developments very seriously – responding passionately and thoughtfully about what’s happening and what should be done. I designed the unit with a heavy emphasis on activities developing critical thinking through talk-based learning. The unit builds on ideas from P4C and ‘Thinking Together’. According to Thinking Together, exploratory talk allows students to develop their level of thinking as a group and alone. They do this by making their reasoning ‘visible’ – using words like ‘I think’, ‘because’ and ‘why’. They recognise that, when persuading others, they must justify their ideas with reasons. They understand that they must seek and respond to contributions from others. Through talk, students also develop their ideas. Conversation is a creative process. In thinking through and responding to others’ ideas, students develop their own. Much of the learning happens through discussion – in reaction to events. By thinking together, students critically unravel the strengths and weaknesses of the different forms of governments. They collaboratively explore what they think is important and critically explore the challenges of action and revolution. Using debate, scenario-based role play and problem solving, students empathise with the experience of different types of government. The students should be encouraged to feel it is ok – in fact, that’s it’s the whole point! – to change their view. They don’t have to defend a view to its end. In debate, I make a point of saying that students should feel free to change sides if they change their opinion. In problem solving role play, the emphasis is on reaching an agreement – and thus compromise. 1 Citizenship POS KS3 2007 2 Egan K. (1991) Primary understanding: education in early childood. New York: Routledge Is everyone really happy under a dictatorship?    MAKING YOUR OWN COUNTRY l Cross CurriCulum ProjeCt Plan 60 Creative Teaching & Learning n Volume 1.1 To complement this approach, I ask students to write a ‘diary entry’ for each of the lesson’s events. This is an opportunity for the students to express their opinion, justify it and record it. Through this, I hope the students have learned the value of explorative talk as a generator of ideas and a key to further learning – and don’t see ‘speaking their minds’ as an end in itself. This is a heavily political and value-laden subject, with scope for indoctrination on the hegemony of the day. I did not want the unit to be a didactic lesson on the values of democracy – but for students to appreciate that other systems have attractions and advantages and understand that the form of government you prefer will depend on which values are most important to you. Since one of my objectives in designing this unit was to facilitate the development of language for learning in citizenship, learning and using key words has a heavy focus. One strategy I used was a display board – to showcase work on the different forms of government as the unit progressed – to reinforce these words. This project uses real case studies – on Somalia, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Cuba. In inner city schools, you may have refugees from Somalia, Iraq and Zimbabwe. I have tried to provide discussion opportunities – allowing students to share their personal experiences. It is important that students from these countries are connected and involved in the learning – and their country is not seen as an outsider. Citizenship programme of study links 3c,d – Key features of parliamentary democracy and government, including voting and elections 3d, Freedom of speech and diversity of views, and the role of the media in informing and influencing public opinion and holding those in power to account 1.1 Democracy and justice 1.1a Participating actively in different kinds of decision making and voting 1.1b Weighing up what is fair and unfair in different situations, understanding that justice is fundamental to democratic society, exploring the role of law in maintaining order and resolving conflict. Understanding and exploring the roles of citizens and parliament in holding government and those in power to account 2.1a Critical thinking – engaging with different ideas/values 2.1c Analyse and evaluate sources used, questioning different values, ideas and viewpoints and recognising bias 2.2b Communicate an argument, taking account of different viewpoints 2.2c Justify an argument, giving reasons to persuade others 2.2a Express and explain their own opinions to others through discussion, formal debates and voting In this pack, you will find: Lesson one – Creating a country Lesson two – Anarchy Lesson three – Dictatorship A 1917 poster celebrates democracy in America.    MAKING YOUR OWN COUNTRY l Cross CurriCulum ProjeCt Plan 61Volume 1.1 n Creative Teaching & Learning Lesson one: Creating a country Lesson aims In this lesson, students design the features of their ‘new country’. The purpose of this lesson is to create a frame of reference for the unit that the students identify with."
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Project plan: Making your own country

5 Apr 2010

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      string(338) "... t omorr ow, butempowering young people as citizens of today’.Teaching Citizenship, spring 2002Deptford Green is in many ways a typical inner-citycomprehensive. Half our 1,100 students areeligible for free school meals; we have a diverseethnic mix and a catchment area with a high index ofsocial and economic deprivation ..."
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      string(5642) "51January 2006 Managing Schools TodayCurriculumCurriculumCurriculumCurriculumCurriculum Citizenship‘A key indicator, perhaps the key indicator, of successfulCitizenship education is the amount of ‘positive power’young people feel they have in their school andcommunity. As a school, we aim to enable our studentsto build the skills, knowledge and confidence to affectpositive change in the world around them. Citizenship isnot about preparing citizens of t omorr ow, butempowering young people as citizens of today’.Teaching Citizenship, spring 2002Deptford Green is in many ways a typical inner-citycomprehensive. Half our 1,100 students areeligible for free school meals; we have a diverseethnic mix and a catchment area with a high index ofsocial and economic deprivation. We have seen a gradualbut significant increase in exam results. In 2004, 49 percent of our students achieved 5 or more A*-C grades atGCSE; an increase of 15 per cent on 2003.One thing that makes Deptford Green stand out is ourinclusive, participatory ethos. Many visitors have commentedon this, as has Ofsted. Our commitment to becoming aspecialist c itizenship school was both enabled by, and hasstrengthened, this ethos. In 2001 there was no category ofspecialism for citizenship, but with the financial support ofthe DfES and the investment bank UBS, we set out to pioneernew approaches to citizenship education. After two yearsof piloting projects and campaigning for the creation of acategory of specialism for citizenship, we believe we won asignificant victory when the Government introduced thehumanities specialism, which included citizenship as one ofits subjects. We subsequently applied to be a specialisthumanities college in English, citizenship and drama andachieved our status in July 2004.Our understanding of citizenshipOver the past three years we have been privileged to meetmany teachers from schools seeking to establish andpromote citizenship. One of the first and most importantquestions that they raise is what exactly is citizenship.A school forcitizenshipIn 2001 Deptford Green Schoolset out to establish itself as acitizenship school. Three yearson, Pete Pattisson and AnthonyBarnett report on the progressthat has been made52 Managing Schools Today January 2006CurriculumCurriculumCurriculumCurriculumCurriculum CitizenshipWe believe citizenship is about the empowerment ofyoung people. It is about building their sense of agency inrelation to the world around them; their sense of efficacy ascitizens. The key question we should ask in planningcitizenship education is this: will this learning experiencebuild the sense of agency of these young people? Will theyfeel more powerful as a result? This position is supported bythe justifiably much-quoted paragraph from the 1998Advisory Group on Citizenship, the Crick Report, which states:“We aim for no less than a change in the political culture ofthis country both nationally and locally: for people to thinkof themselves as citizens, willing, able and equipped to havean influence in public life…”If citizenship is about enabling young people to build theknowledge, skills and inclination to engage with the worldaround them, there are two major implications for schools. First,schools must promote students’ voices both inside and outsidethe classroom. They must listen to their students and take theirviews seriously. We believe participation is the fundamentalright of citizenship. As Article 12 of the UN Convention on theRights of the Child states, ‘All young people have the right toexpress their views in all decisions that affect them’. This is vitalin order to demonstrate coherence between our message andour method; the ‘taught ’ and ‘caught’ curriculum. Gandhiunderstood this when he said, “We can only teach about justiceand democracy through just and democratic means”. Secondly,if we want to build young people’s sense of agency, we mustcreate opportunities for them to change the world aroundthem. We call this process a ‘change action’: an action that hasthe potential to create change beyond the classroom door.This could be as simple as writing a letter to your MP or ascomplex as running a long-term campaign. Wherever possiblewe try to ensure that our students also achieve a ‘changeoutcome’: a tangible change in the community, which hascome as a direct result of the students’ change action. Wherethis occurs, we believe there is a significant increase in students’sense of agency.Therefore, we believe citizenship is:Citizenship is a new subject; a subject in its own right.I t requires and demands its own status within thecurriculum and its own teachers. It is our belief that thet wo most impor tant fac tors in mak ing citizenshipeffective is creating a specialist citizenship departmentwith specialist citiz enship t eachers and creatingdiscrete curriculum space for citizenship. We have mett oo many schools struggling to teach citizenship witha team of non-specialists, or trying to slip it in to othersubjects, as if by stealth. It is not fair on the teachers,the students or the subject .However, citizenship is also a new kind of subject witha distinct pedagogy, which can transform learning. As suchit should not be confined to the weekly citizenship lesson,but is relevant and applicable to all subjects.Some of the characteristics of citizenship pedagogy areas follows:■ Students must have some say in the learning process.Where appropriate students should be given choicesabout the style, content and process of their learning.We believe that not only is"
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Leadership

A School For Citizenship

1 Jan 2005

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      string(5666) "18 Who’s Running the Country?Lesson Aims:To recognise different types of authoritarian rulers and identify known authoritarianrulers and regimes.To compare different types of authoritarian regimes and make connections betweenknown authoritarian leaders.To be exposed to important political events and leaders both in history and in currentaffairs. Students will understand features of the historical evolution of Britain’spolitical system.Resources:L3a Authoritarian Ruler Card Game, L3a Activity 2 Group Discussion sheet.Preparation:This activity can either be done in groups or pairs. You will need to prepare the card-sortgame by cutting out the cards prior to the activity. An alternative would be to prepare a copyfor each student and allow them to stick the finished product into their books. Students willbe familiar with some of the rulers and are likely to ask lots of questions. Make sure you havesome background knowledge about all the dictators.Starter:Recap dictator. Ask students to think of any real-life examples of a dictator they know.Hand out cards and ask students to find examples of ‘Dictatorship’, ‘Theocracy’ and‘Monarchy’ and read together. Ask them to work out what they think the difference is.Feedback answers to class.Activity 1 – Authoritarian Ruler Card Game1.  Read through Authoritarian Ruler card sort information sheet as a class, explaining task. Allow students 20 minutes to complete the card sort game. Students should completethe task in small groups of three to four.Activity 2 – Group Discussion1.  Using L3a Group Discussion sheet groups should discuss and agree on a common answer to the questions.  Nominate one person per group to write down answers. Allow 10-15minutes.Have you seen anything about any of these countries and leaderson the news?Does anyone in the group have any further information about any of thecountries they can share?Which authoritarian regime do you think would be the worst to live under?Which do you think would be the best to live under?Are there any good things about some of the authoritarian regimes?In what ways are all the regimes similar?In what ways are the regimes different from each other?Can you think of any ways in which the different dictators may be connectedto Britain?Do you think Britain should do anything to help people escape fromcountries with dictators or authoritarian rulers?●●●✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱Lesson 3a: Comparing Authoritarian Regimes – (Optional)19Who’s Running the Country?Plenary:Class discussion based on feedback of groupwork.Tips:Advantages of dictatorships – some people have argued that at certain times in acountry’s development a dictatorship is necessary to force through radical changes –  e.g.communism, countries at independence, but at what cost?Some students may perceive a strong government as good, if it forces people to live bytheir religion, and keep to the religion.Are freedom of expression, religion, freedom from persecution and other rights moreimportant than effective government?Regimes are similar in restricting rights of freedom of expression and the media.People argue that restricting rights is never worth it because there is no safeguard fromgovernments committing atrocities against their people, as people cannot protest, orchange the government.British connections – we were once an absolute monarchy, we were also under thecontrol and influence of the Pope prior to Henry VIII.British rule of other countries  during the colonial era was similar to authoritarian rule.Should we help countries under dictatorship? This was the argument about the Iraq war.●●●●●●●●Lesson 3a: Comparing Authoritarian RegimesLesson 3a – Authoritarian Ruler Card GameAuthoritarian Ruler Card GameInformation sheetWhat is an Authoritarian Regime?There are different kinds of governments that all look like dictatorships, but theleaders may not have always come to power using force, and they may claim differentreasons for being in control of the government. So as not to confuse things wecall this group of governments Authoritarian Regimes. Like in a dictatorship, thegovernment is not chosen by the people, the government makes all the rules, and thepeople may well be scared of arrest, or disappearance if they speak out against thegovernment. The government will usually control what is in the news and the media,and may well control lots of elements of peoples lives, like their religions or whatthey wear.DictatorshipA Dictator is a type of Authoritarian ruler. A dictator usually comes to power usingforce, and usually has the army on his side to help him stay in power. A dictatormay claim lots of different reasons for being in power. They might say it is to helpestablish a set of ideas in a country, like Communist dictators. Or they might say itis to help establish order in the country, like General Veno.  Some dictators may justwant power for themselves.Monarchy – A King or QueenA monarch (king or queen) can be a type of authoritarian ruler. Sometimes a king orqueen rule a country. This used to be the case in the UK. When a monarch (king orqueen) rules a country and acts as the government they are an authoritarian ruler.But only  when they are in control of the government. This type of government iscalled absolute monarchy. Nowadays, in the UK we have a Queen but she is not incontrol of the government so she is not an authoritarian ruler and we do not live in anauthoritarian regime. This type of monarchy is called a constitutional monarchy.TheocracyA theocracy is a type of"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Democracy Lesson 3A & B: Comparing Authoritarian Regimes

30 May 2012