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Educating Toward a Diverse Democracy: Lesson Plans

Authors: Young Whan Choi, Joe Kahne, and John Rogers

 

High school students in a classroom

Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages

Welcome!

With political conflict on the rise, it is even more important that we as educators commit to facilitating informed, respectful, and engaging discussions of political issues. Understanding the nature of our division, however, is not enough. Democracy requires that all of us participate, so we have designed these lessons to encourage students to take steps to improve the culture, policies, and curriculum at their school. 

Each of these three lessons is roughly 90 minutes, but each can be split into two shorter lessons to fit a 45–55 minute class. While designed to follow a sequence, they can also be taught as stand-alone lessons.

The provided lessons and materials are intended for high school students, particularly those in government or civics classes.

 

 

Lesson 1 - A Diverse DemocracyIllustration of the beating of Charles Sumner

 

 

“How can we better promote the principles of a diverse democracy at our school?” Students unpack what people did wrong in a series of school-based scenarios, which leads them to arrive at the four key principles in our framework for a diverse democracy: Compromise, Laws, Evidence, Respect (CLER). They then evaluate their own school based on these principles and brainstorm actions that could improve the democratic culture of their school.

 

 

Lesson 2 - Student ProtestVietnam War Protest

 

 

“In a democracy, what are the rights and limitations to student protest in schools?” Students learn about four criteria established in the Tinker vs. Des Moines decision and then grade the actions of real principals who attempted to respond to student protests in their school. They then create a draft policy on student protest for their school, which adheres to their interpretation of the Tinker decision.

 

 

Lesson 3 - Teaching American HistoryStatue of Liberty with fireworks

 

 

“What should students learn about American History in order to promote a diverse democracy? Its successes? Its failures? Both? How much of each?” Students engage several short readings that represent a range of perspectives on what should be learned in US History classes. They first interpret these sources, then arrive at their own conclusion, and finally recommend changes to their school’s US History curriculum.

 

 

Learn more about Educating toward a Diverse Democracy

 

Educating Toward a Diverse Democracy by Young Whan Choi, Joe Kahne and John Rogers is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

 

Image Credits

  • Caning of Charles Sumner Illustration - After John L. Magee, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Vietnam War Protest Photo - Frank Wolfe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Statue of Liberty and Fireworks - Public domain

 

 

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