Building a Class Government through Elections |
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Advance Organizer: Come into the classroom and tell a student they have just broken one of the classroom rules. Let them know their punishment (which should be unfair) and then go about your normal business. When the student starts to object begin a discussion about what happened, whether there was reason to be punished, and how there could be a system to keep any students from being unfairly punished. Methods: 1.
In the discussion sparked by
the advance organizer, lead the students to think about people that
deal with
justice. Answers should be police,
lawyers, judges, and possibly the president and/or the government. Depending on what has been covered in class
or previous classes you may need to discuss the roles of each of these
positions. 2.
Have the students begin to
think about what offices need to be established in the classroom. 3.
Then discuss how to decide
who gets those jobs. Perhaps you could
pose
the question of how the president or judges get their positions. 4.
Let the class know that they
are going to start their own class government.
Students will campaign, give short speeches, and possibly
hold
office. The reward is that you have a
role in the operation of the classroom. 5.
Decide which offices are
needed in the classroom, i.e. president, vice-president, judge/judges,
sheriff,
lights person, line leader. 6.
Have students think about
what position they would like to hold from what they know, but wait to
finally
decide on what they want to hold until you discuss what each position
does in
the government and what they could do in the classroom. 7.
In the next class period or
in the same day you may take nominations for offices and acceptance of
nominations. 8.
At this point you may want
to discuss what a person would do in order to get people to vote for
them. Have students pick one issue or
thing about
the class they would like to change and have that be their “platform”. The platform is the purpose of the candidate
running for an election. 9.
Give the students the
campaign format. There will be a two
week campaign process. The students will
prepare an introductory speech stating their platform and what they
think should
be done. Every couple of days the children will have the chance to give
a
promotional commercial (open to interpretation). The
students may recruit 2 more classmates to
help them campaign, but cannot be someone running for another office. The students can make small posters that will
be displayed in the classroom. 10.
After two weeks you can have
the election. You can make it as
official as you want with ballots and voting in private booths one at a
time. You may announce the winning
candidates in anyway you see fit. ·
After
the election is held, be sure to continue the active roles of the
offices. Here are jobs the officials can continue to be in charge of;
the job
of the president would be to report to the class any announcements and
possibly
conflicts or problems. The vice
president would be an advisor to the president.
The judge would be consulted before issuing any
punishment, his/her job
would be to decide if they actually broke any classroom rules. If so
then they
would issue the prescribed punishment which would be carried out by the
sheriff
(enforcer of the law). Also, all the elected officials could be part of
a
classroom council that you could work with on some classroom topics
(i.e.
parties, field trips, class projects). ·
To
supplement the campaign you may want to take class periods to
discussing the government branches, responsibilities of each, and how
they do
their job. ·
One
more continuation is to study the departmentalization of government
agencies and create departments based on the classroom officials and
appoint
non-elected students to positions in the government.
Possibly by an interview process. Concepts
Taught:
The foundations
of an election
Basics of a democratic republic
Responsibilities of citizenship Materials
Posterboard for campaign sings
Markers, colored pencils, crayons
Examples of election signs
Voting ballot box
Curtains for voting box
Websites
http://www.americanpresident.org
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/ Books:
How the
A Assessment: The assessment
on this project would be in
several different forms. There may be
informal assessment during the discussion portion in the beginning. You may create a rubric to use during the
entire unit having a score for several different indicators such as a
separate
score for the discussion, campaign understanding, election
participation, and a closing project like
a paper. This activity is a starting point
for an
entire unit on government, branches, departments, politics, and
campaigning so
there will be more to assess on in the future. Closure: The
culmination of this lesson will be the final
election and announcement of the new class officials.
Each person in office will have a portrait of
themselves put up in the classroom displaying their position. Standards
Addressed:
14.B.2 Explain what government does at local,
state
and national levels 14.B.1 Identify
the different levels of government
as local, state and national. 14.D.1 Identify the roles of civic leaders
(e.g., elected leaders, public service leaders). 14.D.2 Explain ways that individuals and
groups influence and shape public policy 14.F.1 Describe
political ideas and traditions
important to the development of the
Social Emotional Learning Goal: 3B.2a. Identify and apply the
steps of systematic decision making. |