Back to School Week: Middle School Lesson Plan IV

Trust for Representative Democracy

America's Legislators Back to School Week

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Middle School Lesson Plan IV - What Is Public Policy?

Introduction:

Public policy is an agreed upon way that our government fulfills its responsibilities to protect individual rights and to promote the common welfare. State legislators debate, discuss, and pass into law public polices that affect our lives. In this lesson students work in discussion groups to create a Venn Diagram in which they identify ideas about public issues and policies that they have in common.

Objectives:

At the conclusion of this activity, students will be able to:

identify public policy issues at the local, state, and national levels;
use a Venn Diagram to focus discussion on a public issue;
define public issue, public policy;
hypothesize about the nature of legislative debate.

Materials:

Transparency #5: What Is Public Policy?
Handout #4: Sample Issues List
Transparency #6: Venn Diagram
Handout #5: Venn Diagram

Procedure:

1. Show students transparency #5, What Is Public Policy? Conduct a short brainstorm in which students list public policies from any level of government that they are familiar with. Check their understanding of the levels of government by asking them to list their ideas in four columns: federal, state, local, school. For example:

Students probably know that school districts make policies about student discipline and that teachers and principals are given the authority to enforce these policies.
Congress recently passed a reduction in income taxes which will be enforced by the Internal Revenue Service, an agency of the executive branch.
State legislators make laws about driving and police officers enforce drivinglaws.
Local governments (city, county, township, etc.) often pass policies prohibiting liquor stores near schools or billboard advertising on certain streets. Different departments within local government enforce these policies.

2. Next, ask students to identify issues currently being discussed at the national or state level (i.e., Congress-- stem cell research, patients' bill of rights, Social Security, campaign finance reform, missile defense, Kyoto Protocol; state legislatures-- issues will differ among states, but perhaps cell phone ban while driving, state competency exams, death penalty debates, school violence, gambling laws, voluntary school prayer, or gun control legislation might be on the public agenda in your state; school issues might include school uniforms, student testing, character education, etc.)

3. Explain to students that when people become aware of problems in their communities, they often want government to develop and carry out policies to deal with these problems. U.S. citizens have a First Amendment right to say what they think government should do about problems in the local community, state, nation, and even on an international level. Citizens also have a right to try to influence the decisions government officials make about addressing all of these problems.

4. Distribute Handout #4, Sample Issues List (or create your own class list or use the student-created list from the previous lesson). Place students in groups of three and ask them to highlight items that they consider to be issues for their state legislators. Next, ask student groups to agree upon one state issue/problem for discussion. It is important that students understand that at this point in the lesson they do not need to agree upon what to do about the issue/problem. As a matter of fact, the activity will be more productive and meaningful if students disagree about what course of action, if any, government should take.

5. Introduce the characteristics of the Venn Diagram using Transparency #6. Explain the various parts of the Venn Diagram to students. Ask them to point out which area shows the similarities shared by A and B? A and C? B and C? Which area represents what all three-- A, B, and C-- have in common?

6. Distribute Handout #5, Venn Diagram. At the top of the page they should write the state issue they have selected. Then they should identify person A, B, and C. Each student (A, B, and C) will explain and fill in the appropriate section of the Venn diagram with his/her individual position on an issue.

7. Allow groups about five minutes to discuss the issue and to propose a public policy to address this particular issue. Tell them that the goal of this part of the lesson is to reach the center of the Venn Diagram, an area that represents the ideas about the issue that all three group members can agree upon. Explain to students that their agreed upon idea at the center of the diagram could be a proposed new policy. Students should be encouraged to compromise and negotiate in order to reach the center of the diagram. Students should also fill in the areas of the diagram in which person A agrees with B, A agrees with C, etc.

Note: If students are unfamiliar with a Venn Diagram, teachers may wish to allow time for groups of students to practice by identifying similarities and differences among their pets, favorite subjects, number of siblings, future careers, etc. Write out the differences and similarities in the appropriate parts of the diagram. At the center students should write what all three persons have in common.

8. If time permits, have students discuss another issue and try to reach agreement using additional Venn Diagrams.

9. Ask several student groups to report to the rest of the class. Did groups select the same issues? Was there a great deal of disagreement about what should be done to address this issue/problem? Was it difficult to reach the center of the Venn Diagram? Was compromise necessary in order to reach agreement at the center of the diagram? Did any group reach agreement on a new public policy to address an issue? If you had been given more time, do you think you could have reached agreement? Encourage students to hypothesize about the similarities between this activity and the process of policy making for legislators.

10. Explain to students that disagreements are common in our diverse communities and hence, our legislatures. Many citizens have competing interests. We don't always get everything we want in a new public policy. At any level of government, discussion, debate, compromise, and negotiation on public issues are important components of the policy making process in our representative democracy. The policy making process involves a lot of argument as legislators attempt to find areas of agreement for the different values and interest of the many constituents they each represent. Sometimes these differences are debated for a long time and many are settled through compromise.

11. To close the lesson, explain to students that their state legislator will visit class within the next several days. Students should prepare a summary paragraph on the state issue and the compromise they reached in the center of their Venn Diagram. They should also develop several questions for their state legislator about the issue and/or policy they discussed in their small groups.

This project is supported by a Robert H. Michel Civic Education Grant sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL.

Posted 9/12/01

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