9+-+Civics+and+Citizenship


 * Year 9 Civics and Citizenship**

Introduction:
 * Lesson 1:**

Introduce topic outline and aims of the following three weeks i.e. that we want to: - Take the citizenship test and develop our own one. - Democratically develop a student Code of Conduct.

First discussion question: What do we understand by citizenship?

Follow-on: Do we have rights? Why? Do we have responsibilities? What are our rights and responsibilities as citizens? - If students are struggling for ideas, I’ll lead them towards the concepts of the rule of law, a fair trial, respect for the rights of others etc.

Possible class debate questions depending on time: - The voting age should be lowered to 14. - We should be personally responsible for the actions of our pets.

The last class might have a bit left over, so I will allow a 10minute run-over from that class.
 * Lesson 2:**

//Citizenship//:

Class discussion: What qualifies someone as a citizen? And; What should the criteria be for aspiring ones? About 20-25mins to here.

Introduce the concept of the citizenship test. I’m not sure if students will have heard of it or not, but I can fill them in in 5 minutes if they haven’t.

Explain to the students that in the next class they’ll be taking the government’s citizenship test, and ask them to speculate about what’s on it. Rest of class

Students take the test (See Appendix C). They have the whole class.
 * Lesson 3:**

The test is 20 questions. They were taken from the website practice questions. I chose the first 20 questions I was given to ensure the sample was random.

Analysis of test results:
 * Lesson 4:**

Quickly go through the test questions and show the students how they did as a class cohort and also how many students passed/failed the test. Approx 1min per qn = 20-25mins.

Group analysis about the questions themselves. - How well did they test the criteria we developed in lesson 2 about what ought to be required of a citizen? (With any luck there might be some critical analysis of the ‘trivia’ type questions and the value in screening immigrants with these questions.) Rest of class.

Rights and Responsibilities at this school:
 * Lesson 5:**

Students to separate into groups of 3 or 4. Put together a list of 5 rights and 5 responsibilities. I’ll make sure when introducing the activity that along with things like “access to a coke machine”, I’m also looking for expected behavioural standards in class (of staff as well perhaps!) and behaviour towards others in all school environments. 15-20mins

Member from each group to deliver what answers they came up with. Also to answer a couple of questions that fellow students or I may have about their suggestions. There should be 4 or 5 groups, so with a few minutes each it will take the rest of the class. The point of this exercise is essentially to get some brainstorming for what’s to come later.

Laws:
 * Lesson 6:**

How does government pass a law?

I want to spend the whole lesson on giving students a lecture style rundown on how governments pass a law.

Key points to get across: - Politicians are elected representatives of a certain area. - They usually belong to a political party. - A party will propose a Bill to parliament. - The Bill must be approved by over 50% of the parliament. - In most Australian jurisdictions the Bill must pass through 2 Houses (not so essential – if I don’t get to this, or I think it will confuse too many, it’s OK – the point is to give them an understanding of what they’ll be doing later).

Video:
 * Lesson 7:**

Students watch a taped video of the previous days federal Question Time from ABC. I had thought that maybe students could do an excursion here to Question Time at State parliament. I decided against it as there really isn’t much benefit in it beyond that can be gained by watching it on telly, but am open to being convinced otherwise. What do you think?

Student parliament:
 * Lesson 8:**

I want to explain to students for the first 10-15mins what we are going to do. - Break them into parties - I want 2 parties with 30-40% of the class, and a couple of 2-3 student smaller parties. I don’t care whether they call themselves Labor/Liberal/Green party, or make up their own names like “Girl Power” or “Chocolate Party” etc. - Develop party policies. What they want, what they are prepared to negotiate and not negotiate on etc. - Through the use of a Class Parliament, develop; 1. Australian Citizenship Test 2. Student Code of Conduct - I’ll play the role of speaker in our single-chamber parliament

Students are to break up into parties.

If time, begin party policy development.

Students to break off into their own parties, go to library/yard etc, and work on developing party policies. Also, negotiating with other parties to form voting blocks etc.
 * Lesson 9:**

STUDENT PARLIAMENT
 * Lesson 10 & 11:**

Maybe break it up with 15-20mins to go in lesson 10, so they can do some more negotiating if things don’t go smoothly in the first runningetc.

Spare lesson.
 * Lesson 12:**

This can be used for; - video purposes, or - to reflect on the outcomes of the parliament; or - compare laws passed with what the other class came up with; or continue with parliament if it’s not completed in time.