This object lesson is borrowed from somebody else. I found it in the book, Quiet by Susan Cain on page 251. A fifth grade teacher thought that she would teach the important concept of the three branches of government by making the topic real to her students. She found that the classroom was often quite messy and she thought that by dividing the group up into three groups, like the government. They could come up with a solution as if they were the three separate components of government.
The legislative group would determine the laws of how the students would respond to the trash in the classroom. The executive group would determine how the laws determined by the legislative would be executed. And the third branch, the judicial, would determine the cost for breaking the law.
She had the students come up with the rules, how to determine when one was guilty, and how they would be punished. I was very pleased to see this wonderful little object lesson within the pages of this book. The book itself was an interesting read as a discussed the characteristics of introverts and extroverts. I recommend that you take a look at it.
On a personal note, I am working to make my blogs a little bit more of my insights in addition to insights of others. I remember being a staff member of a patriot camp that was presented locally. I volunteered to host the Boston tea party and raiding a ship, they had on-site. It was one cool ship, miniature but still cool that they had it on-site…. Let’s just say a lot of yelling and hooting. Anyway, another one of the classes was dedicated to teaching the three branches of government. When I teach, I have to admit, I often don’t have an excessive amount of pictures and text, to illustrate a lesson except when I enact a specific object lesson. Often times my audiences are adults, and at the times that I taught children, I was usually a substitute.
Many of the teachers at the patriot camp, gave their presentations with pictures, charts and clearly defined diagrams and sometimes games. Their pictures and charts were wonderful aids in teaching. If I ever have more opportunity to teach children, and adults, I need to remember this important aid.
The fifth grade teacher reference in the book, Quiet, made the theme of her lesson relevant by her having her students respond to a real life scenario. Kudos to that teacher.
If you have taught a lesson on the three branches of American government, how did you present the information? Please feel free to share your response in the comment section this blog. Thank you.
