Our last unit of Humanities was focused on a social experiment. Most of this unit required us to be work in groups and it involved a point system. I know this might sound a bit strange but read the rest of this post and it will make more sense.
The unit revolved around the well known novel Lord Of The Flies by William Goulding, But more about that later.
Our first assignment was to create our groups.
We had to divide the class into five groups of four, as well as one group of five. Each group had to be fair and equal with balanced abilities. Probably the hardest part of this assignment was to make sure everyone was happy with their groups. That’s because if someone was unhappy in their group. then we were required to re work the groups until we had everyone happy.
As we started this activity, immediately there where a few students who naturally took charge. I was one of these students. But in taking a lead, I did not try to divide up groups, only add my input where I felt it was necessary and would be helpful.
All of us worked hard to make sure everyones voice was heard however, as you can imagine with a class of grade tens, It became really loud, really fast.
To counter the noise, someone recommended we use a talking stick and tried to create one. Unfortunately this idea didn’t take off.
Once the groups were created, a few people were disappointed that they were not with their friends but we all agreed that the teams where fair. In the end, I was in the group of five with Reid, Calum, Sofia, and Willa.
Then came the points system.
As we did class activities and participated in quizzes, we received marks that were based on our participation and on assignment completion. These marks earned points for each team. At the end of the unit, the team with the most points was the winner.
As I mentioned earlier, the unit was based around the well known, to psychologists and grade ten students every where, novel entitled Lord Of The Flies by William Goulding.
We where given three weeks to read the book and during this time, we took weekly tests that focused on the content of the novel. But we did not take these tests as individual students, we took them as a team. Our marks on the tests earned us team points. We also had assignments. One example was a Character and Symbol Chart that we had to fill out. These assignments earned us points too.
As we moved further through the novel, we started to learn about and discuss different forms of politics and political strategies and explored how they tie in with Lord Of The Flies. One example is the six major forms of government:
Constitutional Monarchy:
This is a government where only one person is in charge such as a King or a Queen. An example of this is England who is ruled by Queen Elizabeth II.
Dictatorship:
This is a type of government much like a monarchy where one person is in charge however this individual makes rules for the country without needing consent from anyone. They make the important decisions that include trade, economics, and war tactics. An example of a dictator is Kim Jong Un in North Korea.
Democracy:
This is a form of government where there are multiple people in charge. Whether it is the citizens or an elected leader to represent them. This lets the people have a say in national matters. When the people have a vote it is called a complete democracy, whereas when there is an elected leader it is called a representative democracy. An example of representative democracy is Donald Trump in the United States and Switzerland is an example of a complete democracy because of their national voting system.
Oligarchy:
This is a form of government where a small group of individuals are in charge of a country, organization, or institute. This could be a military group, a group of wealthy business owners, or just a very influential group of people. This can be seen in the Soviet Union.
Theocracy:
This is a form of government where religion takes a large role in the way the country is run. Priests rule and religion is intertwined in the laws and beliefs are enforced through the government. An example of this is Saudi Arabia since religion is a very important part of their culture, and therefore is a part of their laws and government.
Anarchy:
This is technically not a form of government since anarchy is a system that consists of no authority. This can result in disorder and violence however there are no rules or punishments which can lead problems within the country.
The next part of the political system we discussed was the Canadian system.
We talked about the Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms. This is a part of the Canadian Constitution. The Constitution is a document of basic rules that explain how Canada should be run as a country.
Some of these rights and freedoms include:
Equality rights:
Every citizen in Canada has the right to be treated equally and without discrimination.
Minority rights:
Every citizen is under the minority language education rights. Any citizen who speaks French outside of Quebec and citizens who speak English in Quebec are protected by this law.
Democratic rights:
Every citizen has the right to vote in an election of Members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly.
Mobility rights:
Every citizen has the right to enter, remain in, and leave Canada when they want to.
As well as rights and freedoms, we talked about the Canadian electoral system.
Canada is a minority government. A minority government means a government in which the governing party has the most seats but still has less than half the total.
The last thing that we discussed was the political spectrum. I was reasonably familiar with the political spectrum and I had a general idea of where I was on it however It was interesting to learn more about it.
The political spectrum is a system that classifies and compares different political positions. There are two main political positions, Right Wing and Left Wing. If you are left wing, you could be liberal or democratic. If you are right wing, you could be a conservative or libertarian.
My class had the chance to find out whether we are left or right wing by taking a test that asks how we feel about important topics. I was right in my previous assumption which was that I would be almost in the exact centre.
The final element of this unit was to have a debate. To get a better idea of the format we wanted for the debate, me and my class listened to a debate by Intelligence2.
We first broke into two groups: Pros and Cons.
The debate then began with a statement being said to both groups.
Next, both groups had a chance to share opening statements.
Then, both sides rebuttal against each other’s opening statements and then the audience has a chance to ask questions. At the end, both sides get two minutes to share their closing remarks/conclusion.
To improve our debating skills as a team, we played a few games that really helped. I really enjoyed playing the game called Pass the Buck. This is because it allowed my team to practice elaborating on each others statements. One person would start talking about a topic that was important to them and then we would pass the buck (see the naming scheme) to another team mate until everyone in the group had added a point that relates to this subject.
Before we could move on to the final part of this unit, the debate, we had to first understand the “secrets” for speaking in front of an audience. We did this by watching a video called the 7 Secrets Of The Greatest Speakers. A key piece of advice that took form this video was that iyou shouldn’t think of public speaking as a speech, think of it as a public conversation.
Now we where finally ready for our class debates. We were going to be debating with our team against another team. Each pairing would be given a topic to debate and they would either be on the pro side or the con side.
My statement was: be it resolved that to survive you need to be savage.
My team was on the con side.
The first step in preparing for our debate was to do some research. My group did lots of research on different examples of survival without savagery. The hardest part of research is making sure that we have strong points that don’t contradict our main statement.
After our debate preparation, it was time for the debate to take place.
Our debate lasted approximately twelve minutes. During it, a lot of good points were made about whether or not our human nature is innately good or savage. Is savagery learned or natural.
After it was over, my class and teacher voted for who they thought won the debate. In our case, my team won, but just barely.
This was a very Important unit for my growth as a student. It taught me about different forms of government, about my own country, about public speaking, how to research, and how to debate while keeping my information relative to a given topic.
I really enjoyed the process and learned a lot.
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