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@citizenshipideas-blog
Ideas for the teaching politics through the 2015 general election
Here are some ideas for how to 'frame' political learning around the forthcoming general election.
Link to the slideshare file:http://www.slideshare.net/citizenshipideas/2015-election-teaching-ideas
Link to download the file as a power point presentation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qxcf93kvfn0vxcf/2015%20Election%20ideas.ppt?dl=0
The Hamward Planner: Six Simple Steps to (lesson-planning) Success!
After visiting lots of student teachers and observing their lessons over the years, I felt the need to create this - a very simple guide to a few essential steps needed in (pretty much) every lesson. I've linked the six steps to Bloom's taxonomy of the cognitive domain, and added a range of activities which can potentially deliver each step - found from either Jeremy Hayward's 'Web of Activities', Mike Gershon's plentiful resources or Paul Ginnis' fabulous 'Teacher's Toolkit'.
I wouldn't use this as a straightjacket to confine or limit creativity, more as a guide or checklist to help increase it!
Download it as a powerpoint document here.
Thought Experiment: One Day Without Immigrants
This New Statesman article by Mehdi Hassan could be the basis for a great thought experiment to add to students' learning around migration. Here's a suggestion for how you might go about it:
Have the question on the board/powerpoint: "What if all the immigrants in the UK, and the sons and daughters of immigrants, were to go on strike for just one day? What would happen?"
Ask students to discuss their predictions in pairs - thinking about impacts/effects on healthcare, education, shopping, entertainment, transport, sport, environment etc.
Students share predictions with the class. Each response should must follow the 'we think... because...' to encourage reasoning and justification.
Explain that for students to be able to predict the future, they need a proof of what is happening here in the present. Students are set the task of finding evidence to help prove what might happen in the various sectors. You could use Hassan's article as a starting point here - he gives vital stats to support each of his assertions/predictions - and have these spread across the room (on tables or on the walls). I would have students completing a master sheet as they go around, with sections on health, shopping, education etc.
Students share conclusions and answer the question on the board again.
Some of the respondants to Hassan's artice make interesting counter-points to his argument (e.g. Annonymouse) and it's worth addressing these points. I would share his post on the board and ask students to critique it or respond. Unomosh's response is interesting. NB Both tend to treat ethnic minorities as immigrants which is obviously wrong. (Alternatively you could have groups of students examining what Migration Watch, the BNP and a range of other groups would say about the day).
Plenary option 1) Ask students what they have learned from doing the activity/thought experiment.
Plenary option 2) Divide students into As and Bs. As have to devise an argument that we should in reality have a day without immigrants, Bs arguing that we shouldn't.
The English-Speaking Union: Debating & Public Speaking Competitions
One way to encourage and enhance students' motivation is to add a competitive element to the outcome of a project - be that internally within a class or school, or through externally-run competitions and events.
The ESU run a range of competitions such as the London Debate Challenge or the Public Speaking Competition, and entry into competitions such as these could really help to boost engagement and motivation, incentivising an extra-curricular debating group/society, or adding a public outcome to a unit of work which sees students research an issue, weigh up arguments, create and give a speech to an audience.
The London Debate Challenge, running since 2001, is for years 7-10 in schools across London. Teams of 3 debate key issues (the 2013 final saw teams debate 'This house believes that the Olympic Games were a success for the UK') in a structured opposition-proposition format, with questions from the floor. Finals are held in central London each July.
The nationwide Public Speaking Competition (the focus of the video above, running for over 50 years) is a less combative format and tests students' ability to orate, working in teams to convey a message.
Maths: spoken word by Hollie McNish
This has exploded on social media over the last few months. A truly engaging piece to spark or deepen debate on the topic of migration.
Track the world in real time!
www.worldometers.info is an amazing site which tracks an incredible array of data & statistics in real-time. Worth checking the sources. That'll be 417 trillion emails sent today...
The story of Tim DeChristopher
Is it ever right to break the law for a cause? Would you be willing to go to jail in support of something you believed in? You could use this story to support students' learning around forms of protest and action, civil disobedience, processes of change-making (etc).
From Wikipedia:
"Tim DeChristopher is an American climate activist and co-founder of the environmental group Peaceful Uprising. On December 19, 2008 he protested at Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction of 116 parcels of public land in Utah's redrock country by successfully bidding on 14 parcels of land (totaling 22,500 acres) for $1.8 million with no intention to pay for them.[2]DeChristopher was removed from the auction by federal agents, taken into custody, and questioned. DeChristopher served 21 months in prison, from July 2011[3] through April 2013.[4]
Saying they had been rushed into auction with insufficient environmental and scientific review, the United States Department of the Interior canceled many of the leases shortly after the auction and a subsequent court injunction."
Great video for debates on drug legalisation
Quick and to the point, this pastiche would be great as a resource for students preparing for a debate on the de-criminalisation of cannabis. Obviously ensure you communicate who has made the video and provide a balanced range of arguments!
You could get students to write the script of a counter-advert showing the negative effects, or explore the reasons why products such as alcohol and tobacco are legal while cannabis is not.
Rachel Parent: 14 year-old shows us how to debate
A phenomenal video. Use it for the debate on GMOs, or more generally to teach about debating skills. Some background:
"Fourteen-year-old Rachel Parent founded the organization The Kids Right To Know, which advocates for mandatory labeling of genetically modified (GMO) foods. The Canadian teen’s group and mission were lambasted on the billionaire pundit Kevin O’Leary’s talk show, so Parent challenged O’Leary to an on-air debate.
Parent stood her ground and stuck to her talking points, proving that you can be small and mighty. Whatever your feeling on genetically modified foods, you’ve got to hand it to Parent for standing her ground with such grace and dignity."
See Rachel's website at http://www.gmo-news.com/
The Web of Activities!
Ever stuck for some inspiration while planning? This 'web of activities', created by my colleague Jeremy Hayward at the Institute of Education, is an exceptionally useful tool, underlining the wealth of learning experiences we as Citizenship teachers have at our disposal. Download as a word or PDF file here.
40 Maps to help students make sense of the world
This is doing the rounds on social media at the moment - a great resource for getting students thinking globally. Including fascinating maps for stimulating further debate and exploration, such as those charting the worldwide spread of McDonald's, maternity leave duration by country and comparative population density. Click on the image above or here to view all the maps. Thanks to Eleanor Esson and a whole host of others for sharing.
Human Rights: in a nutshell
Really accessible video introducing human rights through animation. Thanks to Anna Parker for sharing!
Head - Heard - Bin - Bag... a nice plenary device
Thanks to teacher Simon Hannah for finding and sharing this!
For and Against: Votes at 16
With the Scottish Parliament voting on whether to allow 16 and 17 year-olds to vote in the Scottish independence referendum, and the UK government recently confirming it’s intention not to lower the general election voting age, the votes at 16 debate is timely.
Download a set of opinion-based for and against cards here. This resource is taken / adapted from Katheriner608’s lesson resources on the TES.
Decision Time - Direct vs Representative Democracy
Ed Davis created this great way to engage students in the concepts of direct and representative democracy which I've been using for years (with some contemporary updates) and always proves popular in class. The instructions on the slideshow are fairly self-explanatory...
I would get a student in charge of counting & displaying votes on a whiteboard. After the activity there are a range of ways to develop the learning - for example:
Students consider what it is we actually vote for in elections (as opposed to cake or ice cream...)
Students consider why we don't have direct democracy in the UK
Students draw up criteria for selecting who should be allowed to be their representative (Member of Parliament), then compare this to the MP for their constituency (or do the same for the role of school council representative, for example)
Students consider why those aged 16 or 17 are not allowed to vote for someone to represent them in parliament.
Download the above slideshow as a powerpoint presentation here.
Chocolate Democracy!
This method of introducing the concept of voting and democracy to our year 8 students always worked a treat (though it’s potentially high risk as you need it to work as a hook!). At the beginning of the unit/lesson, hand out a box of chocolate fingers (or other treat students will like) to one student (ensure all of the class see you do this, and choose the student carefully) – and explain to them they can do what they like with them (but need to open them now). The student consumes or shares fingers, and almost always some people don’t end up with any. Follow this with a quick 2-minute pair/group discussion around the questions ‘Is it fair / what would be a fairer way to decide?’ Bumblebee around groups of students and prompt – how do we make sure everyone in the class has a say? Elicit responses as a whole class: vote. Next ask students if anyone knows what the word democracy means, and how voting is connected to it…
Download the photo above as a powerpoint slide here.
Current vs proposed national curriculum for citizenship education: a comparison
So the proposed changes to the Citizenship curriculum have been published today. As a first-step tool to help teachers gauge potential changes in content (let alone skills and concepts), I've sketched this rough comparison of the current and proposed curriculum content. I'd recommend viewing full screen. You can download the file below as a word document or PDF file here, plus a one-page word document of the proposed curriculum.