In Civics class, students create a mock parliament. Electing a leader (whom they deemed "Swaggerus Maximus"), an official opposition, and a tertiary party. To learn about the process for a bill to become a law, they presented prosed bills and put them through the law making process. As teacher, I was the Governor General (they decided that this was most like my actual role in the classroom). In the end, the Governor General decided not to provide Royal Assent to their proposed law -- to mandate a trip to Tim Horton's every week.
Student learning was assessed through a formative written response to a question about what type of democracy we have in our classroom. Their knowledge was evaluated in a "Celebration of Learning", in which a question asked them to describe the steps for a bill to become a law in Ontario, and then to make connections between the legislative process and the elements of democracy.
In the past, I have had students study the legislative process without including the acting out of the mock parliament situation. I've found that this year, when the role-playing exercise is included towards the beginning of the unit, students demonstrate a better understanding of the process, and are therefore able to make more thoughtful and critical assessments of the system in future assessments.
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