Why Study Parliament?

This lesson aims to capture students' interest in Parliament, open their minds to new ideas about it, and provide them with personal connections to the topic. Students discuss provocative questions about Parliament and its importance.

Objective

Students will think about fundamental questions concerning Parliament and express personal opinions about some of them.

Time

50–70 minutes

Materials Required

Copies of “Why Study Parliament?”

Lesson

Assign students to groups of three to five and distribute the lesson "Why Study Parliament?"
Go through the instructions and clarify the process and the questions. You may want to pre-select certain questions from each segment (i.e., Observe, Reflect, Think about, and What if). Set time limits for discussion of each segment.
Begin group discussions. Allow sufficient time for discussions to develop. Remind them of the passage of time every 10 minutes or so.
As a class, discuss some of the issues raised in the groups.
Assign the personal response writing task.

Optional

Have students view the Parliament of Canada Photo Gallery individually or as a class.

Assessment

As the purpose of this lesson is for students to reflect personally on fundamental questions, you may decide not to assess performance. If you do carry out assessments, the following are suggested:

peer assessment of the group-learning process using a peer rating scale; or
teacher assessment of the students’ personal response writing