Let's Vote!
Learning About Democracy Through the Selection of Classroom Jobs (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 3: Literacy for GrowthAges:
9-12
Grade Range:
4th 5th 6thFood Groups:
Primary: Classroom Tips
Secondary: Knowledge Building, Writing Processes & Strategies
Transcript
This is our classroom job board and generally, I do not put up job boards in the class. However, this year my students asked me half way through September, why they haven't been assigned specific jobs for the year. Well my response was, "As a class if we would like to create jobs than we will create jobs." So each student was responsible for sending in to me in writing, or oral or email a few jobs that they thought would be interesting for us to have as a class. We then looked at all the jobs we came up with and through process of elimination voted it down to the jobs that we see here on the board. Now after a couple months, a few students actually pointed out that we actually don't do the jobs and so as a class we got together and talked about why this was. There's only a few jobs they that we pointed out that we do, for example bringing back the lunch bins from the gym or making sure the closet doors are closed. The other jobs we determined are really everyday things that people were responsible for and it was a really good learning experience for us as class, really about democracy and what it means to do things democratically. The jobs were created by them and then also, just from a citizenship and responsibility perspective of what jobs are just everyday things that we do, and what jobs are really things that are assigned to other people. So, I've left the job board up throughout the year and I continue to change the names through the different jobs so that it's become a little bit of a humorous aspect in our class.
Activity Objective
The goal of Let's Vote!: Learning About Democracy Through the Selection of Classroom Jobs (Virtual Tour) is to provide students with an opportunity to learn about the process of democracy by allowing them to choose and vote for classroom jobs.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Have students write persuasive letters explaining why they think their classroom needs a specific job.
- Post all of the selected jobs on the board and have the students vote on the top 3.
- Have students write application letters for a classroom job.
- Plan a study of democracy and have students read about and discuss the process of democracy and why it's important.
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