DISCOVERING DEMOCRACY UNIT

QUEENSLAND AND VICTORIAN SOSE OUTCOMES

LINKS TO CURRENT TOPICS/PROGRAMS AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

1. What does it mean to have absolute power?

2. Off with their heads!

   Let’s discuss

   History Mystery Case #1215

3. What is parliament?

4. Let’s parler!

5. What is the difference between ‘divine right’ and ‘citizen’s right’?

Who’s right?

Pass around the hat!

Don’t lose your head!

History Mystery Case #1640-49

4. How has the power moved from the monarch to the people?

5. Recapping the system.

   Who had the power?

6. How does Australian parliamentary democracy reflect its British inheritance?

Australia’s form of government

History Mystery Case – present day

Students use the King John/King Charles I/ Oliver Cromwell contexts to investigate what it was like in a country before parliament existed. The unit begins with an Alice in Wonderland activity (Off with their heads! Is the Queen acting fairly?) and then traces the conflict leading up to the establishment of the British parliamentary system. Students learn how the Australian system of government, a representative parliamentary democracy derived largely from the British system.

A key strategy throughout this unit is the use of ‘History Mystery Cases’. Students use evidence to decide their answer to a problem.

For a fun activity try the King John Rap. Students write another verse to the rap and sing/chant the rap as a group.

TCC4.3

Students share empathetic responses to contributions that diverse individuals and groups have made to Australian or global history.

TCC4.4

Students critique information sources to show the positive and negative effects of a change or continuity on different groups.

TCC4.5

Students review and interpret heritages from diverse perspectives to create a preferred future scenario about a global issue.

CI4.5

Students express how personal identities are connected to material and non-material aspects of different groups.

SRP4.5

Students classify values that underpin campaigns and organisations associated with human end environmental rights.

TCC3.2

Students create sequences and timelines that summarise sets of events about specific Australian changes and continuities.

TCC3.4

Students organise information about the causes and effects of specific historical events.

PS3.5

Students describe the values underlying personal ad other’s actions regarding familiar places.

CI3.5

Students explain changing attitudes, at different times, towards gender, race, ethnicity, or socio-economic identities.

SRP3.4

Students simply describe the basic principles of democracy and citizenship from ancient to modern times.

Unit 2 World Exploration

• Activity 1 Medieval Europe

Unit 3 Settlement and colonisation

• Activity A Another teacher takes over
• Activity B Bartering
• Activity 10 Colonisation and Change

Unit 4 Cultural Influences

• Activity 7 Forms of government
• Activity 8 Democracy
• Activity 9 Monarchy

Unit 3 Responsible Participation

• Activity 6 Lobby groups
• Activity 7 Party politics
• Activity 8 Council elections
• Activity 9 Electioneering
• Activity 13 Government spending
• Activity 15 Council budgets

• 19 handouts for copying
• Parliament versus Monarch poster
• The Commonwealth Government poster
• Stories of Democracy CD ROM
• Parliament at Work CD ROM – ‘Parliamentary Quiz’.