The Elections Canada webpage includes a few suggested lesson plans for teaching democracy available for order or for download.
The first of these, crafted for Canada's Democracy Week asks students to take what they know about democracy as it exists in Canada and compare it with the systems of government at work in various other countries around the world. The idea is fairly straight forward, and the materials provided include a list of questions for students to centre their research around. The lesson ends with presentations. The strength of this lesson depends on the students' prior knowledge of democracy as it works in Canada, so this information would need to be front loaded.
I wonder about including the definition of democracy as "a universal value" on Handout 1; at best, this statement deserves some serious unpacking.
The second lesson suggested for Secondary students is a mock election including candidates, campaigning, and role playing for voters in special situations. The election is meant to follow the Canada's constitutional electoral process outlined in the image below. Materials for polling stations and role playing are linked below. I wonder, however, if there is not a way to infuse this task with greater authenticity in order to prevent students from tuning out. Could elections for a Student Representative Council be carried out according to the Canadian model?
Mock election campaign: http://elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=yth/stu/gui&document=adv&lang=e
Sample ballots and other elections materials: http://elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=yth/stu/gui&document=dx&lang=e
No comments:
Post a Comment