Lesson Plan: What's Happening in Parliament?

by Apathy is Boring — March 31, 2010

Parliament is a busy place - so busy, it can be hard to keep track of what's going on. This lesson will help your students find information about Parliament, and develop strategies for becoming well-informed citizens in the future.

Learning Goals

After this lesson:

• Students will be able to find information about Parliament through Citizen Factory
• Students will be able to identify different sources of Parliamentary information
• Students will be able to evaluate different sources of Parliamentary information
• Students will understand how to use media to participate in public debate

The goals of a lesson will obviously vary based on your classroom and curriculum, so feel free to adapt these suggestions to your students. You'll also find curriculum links at the bottom of this page, which can help you identify other learning goals for this lesson.

Pre-assessment and Resources

Take a moment to evaluate your students' current level of knowledge and the media connections they already have with Parliament. These connections can serve as your "hook" to introduce the lesson. Does your school have a student newspaper or TV production class? Do your students discuss current events in any of their classes? Can your students identify a major political issue at the federal level?

Citizen Factory is an aggregator of Parliamentary information, drawing from a both official records and news sources, and it includes articles explaining Canada's democratic process. There is also a PowerPoint presentation to accompany this lesson plan, which can help you present the material in a classroom setting. Feel free to alter it to suit your needs. The third activity in this lesson also requires a copy of a newspaper with an editorial "Letters to the Editor" section.

Introduction

Try to use your hook to introduce the lesson - see what knowledge or experiences your students already have with media and government.

Activity: What Should We Read?

The goal of this activity is to have students find and identify different sources of Parliamentary information.

Have students read How to See What's Happening in Parliament before this activity.

Have students visit Citizen Factory and look up their MPs by postal code. Next, ask your students to look at their MP’s recent activity and news sources.

Ask your students to explain the difference between the parliamentary activity, such as votes or speeches, and the news stories. Where does each type of information come from? Who controls what goes into parliamentary records, and who controls what goes into a newspaper?

Activity: They Said What?

This activity may remind you of the game "telephone," where players whisper a message to each other and it gets distorted over time. The goal of this activity is to help students understand how journalists summarize and represent events in Parliament. Your students can even play "telephone" as a quick warm-up activity.

Ask one of your students to volunteer to be the "reporter" for this exercise. Divide the rest of your students into two groups: the parliamentarians and the public.

Ask the parliamentarians and the journalist to go were the public can't hear them. Give the parliamentarians a basic question (for example, "Who is the best late-night TV show host?") that they have to reach a decision on.

Give parliamentarians 5-10 minutes to discuss the question and then vote on an answer. The journalist can take notes, but encourage the parliamentarians to speak at a normal pace and keep the meeting moving.

Ask the journalist (but not the parliamentarians) to return to the classroom and summarize what happened in the meeting for the public. If the journalist is having trouble, prompt them with the five Ws - who, what, where, when, and why?

With the parliamentarians back in the classroom, ask the public to explain what they think happened in the meeting. Which students argued for which answer? What were their reasons? As the public does this, ask the parliamentarians if they agree or disagree with this version of events, and keep track of their disagreements on the chalkboard.

Have your students read How to Follow Parliament in the News. Based on their experiences from this activity, ask your students how a journalist's reporting might differ from what actually happened.

Finally, ask your students what reasons journalists would have for representing things differently - do they skip the boring parts? Do journalists bring their own ideas to a story? How is a news story different from a transcript?

Activity: Take Action

The goal of this activity is to encourage your students to take part in public debates. To complete this activity, you will need at least one copy of a recent newspaper with a "Letters to the Editor" section.

Ask your students to identify a current issue that matters to them. Feel free to prompt them with news stories or editorial content from the newspaper.

Ask your students to check if their issue is discussed in the "Letters to the Editor" section. If there is a relevant letter, ask your students to evaluate it and decide whether they agree or disagree with the author.

Ask your students to come up with their own position. What points would they like to make about the issue? What do they think other people should know?

Ask your students to write their own letter to the editor. This step is optional, and can be completed either individually or as a group. If this step is completed as a group, you may want to send the letter in to your local newspaper.

Have your students read 10 Tips on Getting Politicians to Listen to You. Ask your students what else they can do to make their voices heard about this issue. Are there other tactics that would be effective? Are there other media outlets - including websites or online forums - where your students could participate in public debate?

Conclusion

Congratulate your students on writing a letter, or encourage them to write a letter in the future. You can also use Historical Facts About the Hansard to link this lesson to Canadian and British parliamentary history.

If you wrote a letter to the editor as a group, be sure to check whether it gets published - that can provide an opportunity to revisit this lesson.

Assessment

Evaluate whether or not the lesson achieved its goals, as well as your specific goals:

• Were students able to find information about Parliament through Citizen Factory?
• Were students able to identify different sources for finding Parliamentary information?
• Were students able to evaluate different sources of Parliamentary information?
• Do students will understand how to use media to participate in public debate?

Curriculum Links

The following links are drawn from the British Columbia Ministry of Education’s Civic Studies 11 curriculum, which aims “to enhance students’ abilities and willingness to participate actively and responsibly in civic life.” They provide examples of civics learning goals that can be integrated with this lesson plan, and Citizen Factory in general.

It is expected that students will:

• Apply critical thinking skills – including questioning, comparing, summarizing drawing conclusions, and defending – to a range of issues, situations, and topics
• Demonstrate effective research skills, including
  • Accessing information
  • Assessing information
• Demonstrate a knowledge of historical and contemporary factors that help define Canadian civic identity, including
  • Roles of individuals in society
  • Governance
  • Rights and responsibilities
• Identify historical roots of the Canadian political and legal systems, including
  • British parliamentary system
  • Political philosophies and parties
• Describe the division of powers in Canada among federal, provincial, territorial, First Nations, and municipal governments
• Describe Canada’s electoral systems and processes
• Describe the Canadian legal system, including
  • Legal processes
  • The enforcement and administration of laws
• Assess the application of fundamental principles of democracy (including equality, freedom, selection of decision makers, rule of law, and balancing the common good with the rights of individuals) with respect to selected to 20^th and 21^st century cases in Canada
• Evaluate the relative abilities of individuals, governments, and non-governmental organizations to effect civic change in Canada and the world, with reference to considerations such as
  • Power and influence
  • Circumstances
  • Methods of decision making and action
  • Public opinion
• Assess the role of beliefs and values in civic decision making
• Evaluate the citizen’s role in civic processes locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally
• Apply skills of civic discourse and dispute resolution, including consensus building, negotiation, compromise, and majority rule
• Evaluate the ethics of selected civic decisions
• Implement a plan for action on selected local, provincial, national, or international civic issue”

Source: British Columbia Ministry of Education. Civics Studies 11: Integrated Resource Package 2005. Victoria: Ministry of Education, 2005.

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