Topic: Rulers and the ruled. Processes of democratisation

Author of the script: Monika Piotrowska‑Marchewa

Target group

7th grade student of elementary school

Core curriculum

7th grade

XXIII. Europe and the world in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries: Student:

4) indicates new political ideas and cultural phenomena, including the beginnings of mass culture and changes in customs.

The general aim of education

Students learn about new cultural phenomena and the aspirations of Europeans to popularize the suffrage.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to list the causes and effects of the democratisation process in the 19th century;

• to describe the moral and social transformations of the second half of the 19th century in Europe;

• to characterize the process of the creation of mass society.

Methods / techniques

• exposing methods: teaching conversation, traditional lecture, explanations and comments from the teacher

• programmed methods: using e‑textbook; using multimedia;

• problematic methods: activating methods: discussion;

• practical methods: exercises concerned, working with text and audio recording.

Forms of work

• activity in pairs or in groups;

• individual activity.

Teaching aids

• computers with Internet access;

• materials from e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard or large screen with a projector to display the content of the e‑textbook for the whole class.

Before classes

The teacher asks the students to revise the information about the 19th century ideologies (socialism, liberalism and conservatism) and the consequences of the Spring of Nations.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher explains to the students the lesson objective and the criteria for success.

2. Together with the students, the teacher reflects on the concept of democracy. The teacher asks the students to fulfil Instruction 1. Students learn the contemporary definition of this concept. They wonder which terms from the definition of democracy would certainly not be understood by a person living in the mid‑19th century.

Realization

3. The teacher asks the students to do Exercise 1. Students check when and where the universal suffrage was introduced. They then place the relevant information on the timeline. After the task is completed, the teacher explains the students in a teaching conversation why these changes took place and what influenced the democratization processes. Students do Exercise 2. They place in a table the causes and effects of the democratisation process and the factors conducive to them.

4. When doing exercises, the teacher uses tents or a set of cards in three colors: green, yellow and red. Students use the cards to indicate to the teacher whether they are having difficulty in fulfilling the instructions (green – I’m doing great, yellow – I have some doubts, red – I need help).

5. Students do Exercise 3. They read an excerpt from a popular science text and then, on its basis, they select information about the businesses of specific social groups. Then the teacher divides the students into 4 groups – corresponding to the social groups listed in the exercise (I – financiers, industrialists and traders; II – factory owners; III – workers; IV – small manufacturers). Each group thinks up a character corresponding to their group, embedding him/her in the already known realities of the 19th century. Each group then draws up a petition/ open letter to the (broadly defined) government containing postulates important for them. Then, in the interest of the group they represent, the students sit for a joint discussion and look for solutions that will reconcile all the interested parties. The teacher monitors the conversations, but does not impose solutions. Finally, the teacher writes down on the board the most important postulates and findings.

Summary

6. The teacher briefly explains to the students the role of the political parties that were created in the 19th century. Then, the teacher asks the students to do Exercise 4. The students complete the missing words in the text. They give examples of social benefits known by them.

7. The teacher gives the students evaluation questionnaires in which they evaluate their own work, the work of the teacher and their colleagues during the lesson.

8. The teacher gives homework for volunteer students (it is not an obligatory part of the script): to read subchapter Common features of 19th‑century democracy in the e‑textbook and to learn about the Time Capsule on the futurological book „In 2000” from 1890.