TITLE: Forming A Government
TITLE: Donald Peters, Anchorage School District
Special Schools Program; Anchorage, Alaska
GRADE LEVEL: Written for students 7- 12
OVERVIEW: The formation of a government, and the
development of laws, is a concept taught from the
beginning to the end of school. The lesson helps
students understanding of governmental systems, the
laws they create and the punishments assigned for the
violation of those laws. Through the use of a
cooperative learning activity the students will develop
their own government, author laws, and designate the
consequence for the violation of those laws.
LESSON PREMISE: The lesson finds the students on an
island after their ship has wrecked, or their plane has
crashed. Food, fresh water, and shelter are in short
supply. The students must form a government, develop
laws and penalties.
OBJECTIVE(s): The first objective would be that the
student would learn something. The chances of this are
good if the students are left to work out the lesson on
their own. Even if the lesson goes down the tubes,
they will have learned what our founding fathers had to
go through to form this country. The skills that
students will develop are as follows:
1) Cooperative learning skills, they will have to
work together just like in real life.
2) Leadership skills, some one in the class will have
to take charge.
3) Law related skills, they will have to make up
their own laws and consequences for violations of
those laws.
4) Written language skills, everything they do will
need to be recorded. Who knows they may
even write their own constitution.
5) Geography skills, they will have to find out where
they are.
6) Imagination skills, here is a skill not used very
often today. Depending on where the student and
the teacher carry the lesson, skill development is
endless.
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1) Choose a place and a period in time for the
student to crash or wreck on the island.
2) Inform them that food, water and shelter are in
short supply. They will, also, need to know that
their chance of rescue is zip.
3) At the end of the activity they will be required
to turn in the following written work:
a) A description of the type of government
that they have chosen,
b) a list of laws that the new government has
developed,
c) and a list of the penalties for violation
of these laws.
4) Explain to the students that during the activity
the teacher will be grading each student on his or
her own participation.
5) Develop a self evaluation for the students (don't
skip this, it is an important part of the lesson
and will be the best record of what the students
have learned.).
6) Let them go at it and don't interfere. ( It's best
if you start with a set time frame and then work
from there.)
7) When they have finished discuss the outcome as a
group.
ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITIES:
1) Do a geography lesson first to help them
understand where they have landed.
2) Have them write a constitution or a bill of rights
for their new country.
3) Let each student describe in their own words what
the government or country is like.
4) Have coup de' etat, the teacher can take over and
set up a social dictatorship.
5) Read The Lord of the Flies
6) Develop a mock trial testing one of the laws the
class has created.
The list is endless!
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER Let the student's work as a
group -- they may surprise you. In the discussion at
end of the lesson have the students evaluate their laws
and the punishments that they have assigned to them.
See if they feel the punishment fits the crime. The
teacher may want to relate the student's penalties to
those assigned to our laws. If the class has assigned
the death penalty as a consequence this can open a
whole new area for discussion. The design of the
lesson is to take advantage of those teachable moments,
let the students lead for a little while and you will
be amazed at what you can teach them.
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org