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Citizenship at key stage 3    (Year 7)

Unit 01: Citizenship - what's it all about?
Section 2: What are ground rules for discussion?

QCA

Objectives
Children should learn:
  • to establish class ground rules that create a safe and constructive environment for group discussion
  • the importance of rules within a community and how these help to safeguard the rights of individuals and groups
  • about democratic processes and how these help us to have our say
  • that having discussions and forming opinions about issues and current events are central to citizenship

Activities

Outcomes
Children:
  • What are ground rules for discussion and why do we need them? Ask pupils working in pairs to talk about what makes it difficult to contribute to a class discussion, eg other pupils stating their opinion forcefully, being ridiculed, being interrupted. The pairs contribute to a whole-class list. Using this list, the pupils identify what rules the class should have to enable everyone to contribute, eg taking turns to speak, not making fun of others, not using put-downs, listening to others and not interrupting. Use this activity to illustrate the link between rights, responsibilities and rules.
  • Identify an issue about which pupils could make a decision, eg where they sit in class. Ask them should they always have to sit in the same place or should they be allowed to change round? If they are allowed to move places, should they be able to do this regularly or only occasionally? Pupils briefly discuss the pros and cons and then vote on which system to implement. Alternative issues could relate to lunchtime arrangements, classroom responsibilities or other aspects of school life.
  • Ask pupils how decisions were made at their primary school. Were they involved in a school council? What did it achieve? Was everybody in the school involved? How else did pupils contribute to the school's life and organisation? Why was it good to be able to contribute to class and school life? Who benefits and in what ways? Ask pupils to consider how their new school gives all pupils the opportunity to contribute to the review and development of school policies, eg policies governing behaviour.
  • Ask pupils what issues in the news - local or national - are of concern to them and list these on the board. Pupils suggest why these issues are of public or local interest and discuss which are most important to them. Ask them to vote for one issue and discuss it as a class, to develop a questioning approach, eg why is this issue a problem and who is affected by it? How could the situation be improved?
  • know what helps or hinders discussion and what rules are needed to enable all members of the group to contribute to a discussion
  • understand that discussing issues and suggesting ways forward are important to playing an active role as a citizen

Points to note
  • Pupils may have learnt at primary school how to establish ground rules - they need to be reminded about the importance of such rules as they will be discussing sensitive issues in citizenship.
  • The issue selected by the class must be suitable for class discussion and be one where the school can allow an element of choice. This will vary from school to school.
  • The Teacher's guide (appendix 8) contains information about planning enquiry in citizenship to develop a questioning approach.
  • The agreed list of ground rules for discussion could be written up as a poster for display in the room and as a reminder for other citizenship activities. The list could be amended and refined through experience. The Teacher's guide includes information about establishing ground rules (see appendix 6).

Sections in this unit

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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.
1. What is school like?
2. What are ground rules for discussion?
3. What is a democratic community?
4. What will change as I get older?