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Knowledge is Power
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We need to agree on a common pool of information, in order to have a sensible discussion about the future.
Without a common pool of information, there can be no meaningful Democracy.
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Free Lesson Plans
The lesson plans
below are designed to be used with students following
any Politics or Citizenship course, as well as students
on any General Studies course.
They are most suitable
for 16-18 year old students, but are also very valuable
for 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students.
It would be possible
to use the materials for students aged 14-16, but
they might require additional background and support,
to provide them with suitable context before engaging
with the content.
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There
are many problems with our political system, and with
our politicians.
A quick example
might be that we are trying to achieve too many things
with just one vote every 5 years -
- select a good
local representative,
and
- select a party
which seems as though it could govern competently,
and
- select a manifesto
of what we want to happen.
Taking the Party
out of Politics is a new podcast from
Talk Together, exploring WHY the problems are problematic,
and HOW things could be different. |
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| The
Impossible Puzzles of Political Participation |
Lesson
Plan to accompany the 5
short podcasts on The
Impossible Puzzles of Political Participation
(example in the box, above).
This lesson (normally staged
over two classes, with an opportunity for independent
study between the two classes) invites students working
in groups to explore why some of the structures of
our political system lead to paradoxes, or impossible
puzzles. After an introduction, students work independently
on an impossible puzzle, then present their impossible
puzzle to their group, and finally work as a group
to try to work out how the impossible puzzle might
be resolved.
The two-stage challenge (first to explain to their
peers why something is a problem, and then to work
with their peers to try to resolve the problem) means
that students really engage with the basic political
structures in the UK, in a truly meaningful way. Rather
than expecting the students to be passive recipients
of information, the students are empowered to work
out - and then to try to resolve - the problems in
their own way(s). This process not only means that
they really understand how the systems are supposed
to work, but also means that they have engaged with
the structures in a way which is more memorable, and
which will enable them to discuss the structures (and
the shortcomings of the structures) in the future.
The lesson plan includes hand
outs (or materials which can be displayed through
a data projector), background summaries for the teacher,
and links and QR codes for the students to use to
access the podcasts. |
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| What
does my Local Authority do? |
Lesson
Plan to support the Democracy Classroom drive
to engage students with the local elections in May
2022, by supporting understanding about what Local
Authorites are responsible for.
This is a discussion worksheet,
to engage students could involve students (anywhere
from KS2 upwards) in ideas about local elections.
The worksheet provides an introduction for students
about what the Local Authority does, before leading
into ways in which students could decide on an issue
which is important to them (e.g. litter outside their
school), and interact with their local authority (e.g.
to write a letter to their local councillor, or even
invite candidates to come to school to be questionned
about the issue).
The initial discussion about
what a Local Authority does, and about issues which
might be important to the students, might only take
one class, but the follow up into letter writing or
inviting candidates for questionning could continue
into later classes.
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| Protest |
Worksheet
to accompany the
podcast on Protest
is a way of raising issues.
This is a discussion worksheet,
with an introduction for students to read before listening
to the podcast. The podcast includes extracts from
an interview with two XR UK coordinators, discussing
why XR is using protest to try to raise awareness
of the Climate Emergency. After listening, there are
some questions for students to think about (perhaps
to discuss in small groups, before conducting a whole
class discussion). |
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Rather than concentrating
on the problems, we need to focus on creating solutions.
We need to work together to use
our electoral and political systems better.
Listen to Taking
the Party out of Politics, and be ready
to contribute your ideas about how things could be
different.
No one is as clever
as everyone, working and thinking together. |
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If you would like to learn more, to ask a question, to make a suggestion, or to contact us for any other reason, please email us.
© 2018 Talk Together
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THE
ENVIRONMENT
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THE
FUTURE
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