Furthering student knowledge of Canada's electoral system

As part of the Program of Studies, this project will aim to make students more aware of their roles and responsibilities as Canadian citizens. This project will aim to create an atmosphere where students can live the role of a responsible citizen while partaking in similar activities one would within Canada’s democratic system. Students will be encouraged to create projects that would further their knowledge of Canada’s political and electoral system while furthering the knowledge of other students around them. This project will further the knowledge of students currently in this class, while also further the knowledge of other students in the school. To help further the knowledge of other students in the school, projects will be displayed using display boards, bulletin boards, visual media such as television and audio broadcasts as well as other multimodal literacies chosen by the students. The primary goal of this project is to make students more aware of their rights and responsibilities as Canadian citizens in a manner that is engaging, motivating and meets the objectives outlined within process-based learning and 21st century competencies.

Update (March 6, 2013)

Before starting our projects I gave my students a copy of the actual proposal that I had submitted to Imagineaction. Students were able to see the outcomes that I had outlined along with the actual purpose of the project. With the end goal in mind students got into groups of three and started to plan their projects.

The first step for the groups was to decide which of the outcomes they were going to research while looking for connections between the different outcomes that were included in this proposal. Students needed to research each of their topics using a variety of resources such as: textbooks, online sites, newspaper articles, radio announcements and primary works. This project allowed students to expand their researching skills in an authentic manner.

Students’ primary goal was the proper researching skills such as: data gathering, data synthesizing and data evaluation. Once students had gathered their data they needed to create their work in their own words. Using proper researching skills students needed to collect references for each of their sources, students needed images to accompany their work and finally students needed to locate current examples of their topics.

While students were gathering their information they needed to think of how they wanted to express their newly acquired knowledge. To accomplish this task students needed to keep a log of the tools they needed in order to build their completed projects. Students requested for a variety of different materials such as: display boards, foam letters, coloured sharpies, magic modeling clay, poster boards and craft paper.

Overall, I can say that the work my students are producing right now is very well researched and is done with a high degree of effort. Students are engaged, motivated and are on task. With guidance, students are completing work that is of high quality.

Update (March 6, 2013)

At this stage of the project I have gone to Staples and bought my students all the materials they had asked for. The materials have been given to the students and they have started putting together their work.

Now that the projects are getting put together it was so nice to see all the groups sharing their resources and helping each other out during the create creation process. Groups were very friendly with one another and supported each other so that everyone is able to achieve to the best of their ability.

Groups worked hard and gather information that was of very high quality and was gathered in a proper manner. Students work was referenced and clearly displayed their commitments to furthering themselves. Students also presented their work to other classrooms in an effort to make young people more informed of the government.

A very interesting observation that my students made was that students in grade 6 were well informed about many of the topics the grade 9 students were talking about. My grade 9 students said that they were able to have full conversation and even debates with the grade 6 students as they had some prior knowledge about democracy.

Overall, I would say this project was very well done. I would apply for this proposal again in the future as students were able to create amazing projects which highlighted their knowledge and commitment. Thank you so much for this opportunity, it was much appreciated. I would also like to thank you for the opportunity to further my students’ knowledge.