Lesson Plans and Activities

IDEA is providing these lesson plans and activities to support educators, students, and youth workers in their efforts to bring democratic educational practices into their schools and programs.

Below are two initial lesson plans especially targeted to students, teachers, and schools that are new to democratic education. We will be adding more activities soon and are asking for your help to build out this page - please use the form at left to send us plans and activities that we can share with the broad IDEA community.

Lesson Plan #1: Introducing Democratic Education

Introducing Democratic Education (.DOC, 60k)

Objective: To spark a provocative conversation on democratic education

Grade Level: 5th-12th

Procedure:

1. Open an introductory conversation with students about how they feel about school—if you feel your school is democratic, have them reflect on the majority of schools in the U.S. What words come to mind to the students in these schools? Possible words or phrases may be “boring” or “too many rules.”


2. As the students share these words or phrases, take notes and list them. If you notice a lot of students agreeing with one particular word or phrase, make sure to write a checkmark next to it indicating its favor with the crowd.


3. Now have the students watch the following video: http://www.youtube.com/goodideafolks


4. As students are watching the video, have them write down on construction paper words or phrases which come to their minds. Give them big markers and tell them to just brainstorm it out on the page.


5. While they are doing that, you will select the top 5-8 phrases used to describe non-democratic schools on 5-8 pieces of chart paper which you have posted around the room. For example, one chart paper may have the word “BORING” in the middle of it.


6. After the video is done, have the students look over their own brainstorms and direct them to the sheets around the room. Instruct them through a silent discussion—a “chalk talk.” They will each take a marker and go to one of the posters and comment on the word when they compare it to democratic education (as they understood it in the video). Make sure to stress respectful, thoughtful commenting practices. For example, under the word boring a student may write, “The schools in the video look like they’d be fun because we get to go outside.” To this, the following student may write, “Yeah—we only get to go outside for recess here.” The rule is, everyone must stay silent—this helps to give everyone a chance to formulate their ideas independent of what others think.


7. With 10 minutes left in class, open the discussion. Target the conversation by asking, "What are some ways we could realistically make this classroom more like the schools in the video? What about the school?" Write them down on the board.

Potential Follow-Up:

• Students take their brainstorms, cut out their words and phrases and create a democratic education collage with pictures and other mediums. They must then write a letter to the administrator articulating their ideas for how to make their school more democratic.


• Students read the following blog entry on a transition from a Waldorf-inspired school to a traditional public high school: http://democraticeducation.org/index.php/article/from_student_to_conformist/
• Have them debate the following statement: Students learn best in a Non-Conventional School like the Waldorf-inspired school versus a Conventional school.
• The definition of these 2 types of schools should come from the debate, not the teacher.

Lesson plan designed for IDEA: Institute for Democratic Education in America, by Ammerah Saidi, an urban public school teacher from Detroit, Michigan.

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Lesson Plan #2: Bringing Democratic Education to Your Classroom and School

Bringing Democratic Education to Your Classroom and School (.DOC, 60k)

Objective: To help outline starting actions towards establishing more meaningful learning and democratic practices within one’s school

Grade Level: 5-12

Procedure:

1. Ask students to take 5-10 minutes to write a flashback narrative of one of their best learning experiences in school. To help them think about an experience, stress that such a memory will be vivid—they’ll remember names of people involved or the exact location in school it took place. They may have even kept a product of the experience (a photo, an essay, a posterboard).


2. Have them share out.


3. Ask students to question why this educational experience stuck with them. What did they learn? What made it different than other experiences they’ve had?


4. Next, have students watch the following video on democratic education: http://www.youtube.com/goodideafolks


5. Discussion: After watching the video, have students consider how their experiences were exemplified in the video or were not. Were their memorable educational experiences reflected in the video?


6. Ask the class to brainstorm out ideas of how to take practices in their narratives and the video and implement them in their classroom or school for the next 3 days. This may include going outdoors and finding leaves or plants and naming them and categorizing them for a science lesson. Or this may include creating treasure maps around the school using math concepts (take 5 x 3 steps towards the flagpole from the front door). Or it may include suggestions to increase choice and shared decision-making in the classroom or school.


7. Allow students to formalize these suggestions in a letter to you, the teacher. Then you and the class discuss and decide together which 3 suggestions to implement for the next 3 days. Challenge yourself to expand beyond your comfort zone.

Follow-up Activities:

• After 3 days, have a class meeting to discuss how the last 3 days went. Should the changes remain? Should there be additional changes? Different changes? Explore with the students the possibilities to keep improving the classroom and the school as a whole.


• Have students present what they believe the purpose of education is—in reality, today as it exists. In contrast, have them present what they believe the purpose of education should be. Some examples may be to get a job or make lots of money whereas some may believe the purpose should be to have fun and learn about oneself, and others may think something completely different.

Lesson plan designed for IDEA: Institute for Democratic Education in America, by Ammerah Saidi, an urban public school teacher from Detroit, Michigan.

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