Today was only my second day in the classroom, but with the support and encouragement from my school adviser I decided I was ready to dive in head first and teach my first lesson! This is what I’m here to do, right? Why not jump right in? I was nervous, as I had never written a lesson plan before and simply followed a template from my Social Studies text, but after a great chat with my faculty adviser before school and my SA’s go-ahead, the nerves transformed into excitement pretty quickly.

Since it is the Thursday before the federal election, and learning about government and personal responsibility as a Canadian citizen is part of the grade two and three curriculum in BC, I chose to teach about how we choose the people that represent us in government and why it is important to vote. I had a feeling that some of the students would be at least aware of the election, maybe even have some opinions (or their parent/guardian’s opinions) already, and I was right, but my desire to keep it non-partisan helped me steer any political discussions back to our main focus.

https://instagram.com/p/8zhMc3PQu6/?taken-by=ms.bayne

Here’s a quick snapshot of my lesson plan:

• Hook: show pictures of political signs they may have noticed in their neighbourhood to gauge prior knowledge, discuss.
• Body: establish the meaning of power and leadership by first asking who’s in charge in their classroom (teacher, student of the day) and how that person is chosen. Take it wider and ask who the leader(s) are in Vancouver (mayor, city council) and how they are chosen. Bring it federal by asking who’s in charge of the country (Prime Minister, Parliament) and how they are chosen. Throughout the discussion, write new vocabulary words on the chart paper.
• Transition: watch a quick video from Sesame Street about voting to establish how voting works

• Body: Present them with the chance to participate in their own election (in our case it was to choose an official class nickname). Explain what will happen, how to fill out the ballot, the idea of a secret ballot, whether it’s okay to not vote and what the consequences of not voting are (they don’t get a say, can’t complain about the result, lets others choose for them, etc.) I chose the names from which they could pick to illustrate that they may not always like or agree with any of the choices, but they have to make a choice based on what’s right for them.
• Activity: have the students write a page in their learning logs about what they learned about voting and elections, and when they’re done they are given a ballot and are allowed to vote. After voting, they can choose a Center. Announce the winner of the election when you gather at the end of the school day.

Overall, I think it went quite well! First, the kids were totally hooked by seeing pictures of their own neighbourhood on the Smart board, which made it relevant to them and engaged them from the very start, which was my hope. Second, holding the classroom vote and allowing them to participate in an election helped them personalize and internalize the concept of voting as an act of a responsible citizen, which was one of the objectives in my lesson plan. An area of focus for me in the future is time management in my lessons, which my FA warned me about earlier in the day. I tried to keep it moving, but perhaps my desire to be thorough enough to ensure understanding and my underestimation of how much time things can take with this age group affected the flow of the lesson. The lesson plan as it stands can easily be edited down for future use.

https://instagram.com/p/84EU7wvQjt/?taken-by=ms.bayne

I received great feedback and support from my SA throughout and after the lesson, particularly about the length of my lesson and how hard it is to do a lesson like this as the last lesson of the day with this specific group of kids. She said she liked my confidence in the teacher role, and that I had great rapport with the class, and gave me some ideas on how I could have reworked the order of my lesson in order to keep them engaged throughout.

In case you’re wondering, the nickname chosen, by a very narrow margin of one vote, was the Savvy Shark Squad, and when I announced the winner the whole class cheered! My SA and I were both interested in the reaction, especially since half the class hadn’t voted for that one, which leads me to believe that they came away with greater understanding than I could have anticipated! So, great job, Ms. Bayne! You’ve got one under your belt!