Content Area: Social Studies

 

Index: 6.2A Grade 8 CPI 1

 

Standard: 6.2 - Civics

 

Strand: A - Civic Life, Politics, and Government

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 1 - The student will discuss the sources, purposes, and functions of law and the importance of the rule of law for the preservation of individual rights and the common good.

 

Grade: 8

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        Students understand rules. They know that if a rule is broken, there will be certain consequences. As students examine the rules and “laws” at work in their daily lives, they explore questions such as “Who makes the rules?” Discuss with the students their ideas concerning who makes rules for home, school, and community. Students compile lists of the persons and groups who make the rules and the kinds of rules they make.

 

·        Students investigate the ways in which people are made aware of rules. Are they informed verbally? Are there any other methods? How do nonreaders learn the rules? Bilingual students? Students with visual impairments? With the help of the library media specialist, students collect materials from the school library such as local ordinances and summaries of laws. Tour a local government office (perhaps the field office of a state representative). Ask the library media specialist to help in finding materials, such as a bicycle or motor vehicle code, that give rules and directions.

 

·        Move into the question of fairness. Do the students think that all of the class rules are fair? Why or why not? If they could make the rules, what would they be? Remind them of their earlier discussions. Working in small groups, students develop a set of ideal community rules that are fair to everyone (equity). Each group presents its list to the class and explains why each rule is necessary. Afterward, open the floor for discussion. Tell the class that they will all decide together on new school and community rules. One fair way to decide as a group is to vote. After students vote on each rule, prepare a list of the accepted class rules. The class lives with the rules for one week and then regroups to evaluate the success of each rule.

 

·        Engage the students in activities that involve making rules collaboratively, analyzing the rules, and determining their effects. As they begin to govern their own classroom, they will have an opportunity to explore the workings of a democratic society.

 

·        In small cooperative groups, students role-play travelers who were shipwrecked and stranded on a desert island. Each group of stranded “travelers” must write five laws regarding governance of the island community, individual and/or group behavior, or whatever they think is necessary. Members of each group pick a leader as well as a recorder (to list the decisions made by either the leader or the group). At the conclusion of the writing session, recorders share their notes with the class for review and comment. As a class, students develop a way to organize the travelers into a governmental structure with a legislature to make more laws, a leadership group or executive council, and a judicial group to settle disputes.