The students will take a survey, indicating how democratic they think their classroom community is. 

The survey questions can be found here. 

The students will participate in a series of  small group and whole class discussions, during which they will generate ideas about how to apply democratic principles to classroom problems/deficits. 

Discussion prompts

• How could our classroom community problems be solved democratically? Brainstorm as many ideas as possible.

• How can we achieve our democratic goals? Brainstorm as many ideas as possible. 

• How could we better incorporate this democratic principle into the way our classroom community functions?

For more information about conducting and grading discussions, see this guide. 

The students will write a short answer essay based on the following prompt:

Choose a few of the ideas we came up with and create an argument for/against each one. Be prepared to use your argument in an upcoming class discussion.

For more information about assigning and grading essays, see this guide. 

The students will work together to write a “classroom constitution.”

First, they will discuss and debate each of the democratic solutions they previously came up with. Then, they will vote on which ideas to include in the classroom constitution. 

During future lessons, the students should continually reference their classroom constitution; as they complete activities, they should be striving to uphold democratic principles.