Topic: To be the Prime Minister

Author: Anna Rabiega

Addressee:

8th grade primary school student.

Core curriculum:

XI. Democracy in the Republic of Poland.

The student:

8) explains the rule of the separation of powers; explains the necessity for the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland (or its activities) to have the support of the Sejm majority; presents the basic competences of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland; gives the names and surnames of the Prime Minister and his deputies; shows that decisions made in a selected ministry influence the life of his family.

The general aim of education:

The student presents the main organs of public authorities.

Learning outcomes:

The student:

• analyzes what the competencies and responsibilities of the Prime Minister are.

• is able to name all the Prime Ministers of the Third Republic of Poland, and put them in order of their time in office.

• evaluates the achievements of each of the Prime Ministers of the Third Republic of Poland and justifies his judgement.

Key competences:

• communicating in a foreign language,

• digital competence,

• learning to learn,

• social and civic competences.

Teaching methods:

• brainstorming,

• WebQuest,

• mind map,

• teaching conversation using interactive timeline, interactive exercises,

Forms of work:

• self‑learning,

• work in pairs,

• whole‑class activity.

Material & equipment needed:

• computers with loudspeakers/headphones and internet access, headphones,

• multimedia resources from the e‑textbook,

• interactive whiteboard/blackboard, felt‑tip pen/a piece of chalk.

Lesson plan overview (Process):

Introduction:

1. The teacher presents the goal of the lesson: You will get to know the prime ministers of the Third Republic of Poland, analyze the competences and responsibilities of the Prime Minister and evaluate the achievements of a chosen prime minister.

2. The teacher says: Imagine that your class is the party that won the majority in the parliamentary elections and the President of the Republic of Poland intends to designate one of you as prime minister. Your task is to help your colleague to prepare an exposé in which the Prime Minister will present the Sejm with the tasks that he intends to implement. Try to present specific proposals for action - the future prime minister must convince the parliament to give him a vote of confidence, and he will not get it if his speech is too vague.

The teacher informs the students that they will use brainstorming and, if necessary, provides them with an explanation of the method. The students have 5 minutes to give their proposals. A willing/selected student writes them on the board. At the end, the teacher and the class verify the information and complete it. One of the students sums up the effects, and indicates what the actions of the prime minister are.

Implementation:

1. Using a teaching conversation method, the teacher helps the students to find the answer to the question: Which of the information listed concern organizational competencies and which substantive competences?

Willing/selected students mark competences belonging to one or the other category with two different colours on the board.

2. Then the teachers informs the students they will be able to verify the division they made, by doing Exercise 1 from the abstract „To be the Prime Minister.” Their task is to assign the prime minister's competences to the right categories. If the students have problems with solving the task on their own, the teacher can display the competences on the multimedia board and solve the task together with the students, explaining the student's doubts.

3. The teacher asks the students to look at the timeline of the Prime Ministers of the Third Republic of Poland (available in the abstract) and note: how many prime ministers were there? who was the Prime Minister more than once? were they all men? who was the Prime Minister for the longest time? whose term in office was the shortest? Willing/selected students answer the questions.

4. Then the teacher asks the students to pair up. He informs the students that each couple is to choose one of the presented prime ministers, but Tadeusz Mazowiecki. The choice of a particular prime minister is decided by the order in which the pairs are ready to choose (first come, first served).

The teacher says that the students will work using the WebQuest method and, if necessary, explains what it is:

• the students search for information and photos on the internet,

• they evaluate, select and arrange information they have found,

• they create a short presentation, e.g. in the form of a mind map using an appropriate application (e.g. bubbl.us, Blumind) or on sheets of paper distributed by the teacher (the size of the sheets of paper is adapted to the size of the class - the smaller the class is, the smaller the sheets may be).

Before the students begin their work, the teacher sets the time to complete the task.

The teacher explains that the task of the couples will be to:

• gather the most important information about the selected character,

• present the greatest successes and failures of the chosen Prime Minister and the consequences of these actions,

• evaluate the selected character's activities as the Prime Minister.

Then the students present the material to the rest of the class. The teacher also says that the aim of the task is not to acquire detailed information about each prime minister, but to pay attention to what kinds of activities are undertaken by the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers as part of his office, e.g. negotiating international agreements (Hanna Suchocka - concordat, etc.).

5. After completing the task, the couples present the results of their work to the rest of the class, stressing the specific competences of the Prime Minister.

Summary:

1. The teacher offers to hold a quick secret ballot for their favorite prime minister. The voting committee, composed of several students, counts and announces the results.

2. At the end of the lesson the teacher asks the students questions:

• What did you find important and interesting in class?

• What was easy and what was difficult?

• How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

Willing/selected students summarize the lesson.

3. Homework proposal:

a. Write a short note “Which of the Prime Ministers of the Third Republic of Poland do you think brought the greatest merit to Poland?”. Justify your answer, citing the achievements of the chosen Prime Minister and his COuncil of Ministers.

b. Listen to the abstract recording to review the material and new vocabulary. Then do the vocabulary exercise at the end of the chapter.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

To be the Prime Minister

To be the Prime Minister is a great honour, but also a great responsibility. According to the Constitution the Prime Minister is only the fourth person in the state (after the President and the Marshals of the Sejm and the Senate), but in practice almost all the executive power lies in his hands. The quality of life of millions of people depends on the decisions made by the head of government. As head of government the Prime Minister has a number of competences. Solve the exercise and find out, how much you know about his responsibilities.

Follow the timeline to find out, how many Prime Ministers there was in the Third Republic of Poland, and when their term of office was.

His opponents said he was “slow as a turtle”, his supporters asked “who is the hawk, then?”. He did not expect to become the Prime Minister. His mission to create the cabinet was not an easy one – he had to take into consideration not only the interests of the “Solidarity” movement, which he represented, but also the communists, who were also in the Sejm. He fainted during his exposé, but when he returned to the podium to continue he joked “I was in the same state as the Polish economy, but I have recovered now, and I hope the Polish economy will recover, too!”. His government will be remembered for carrying out difficult but necessary reforms known as the Balcerowicz plan, which allowed to control hyperinflation, begin restructuring of the economy and privatization. Mazowiecki was criticized for not taking enough care of the cost of the transformation, especially for the poorest. At the same time it was during his time in the office, when unemployment benefits were introduced, and the Minister of Labour, Jacek Kuroń, was an important figure in his cabinet. His soup – kuroniówka – became history. Another reason to criticize Mazowiecki were the communists in his government. They took the state power ministries (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Defence), which allowed them to dispose of a lot of evidence of the criminal activity of the communist regime. On 26, November 1990 Mazowiecki resigned. Andrzej Brzeziecki wrote a biography of Tadeusz Mazowiecki in 2015. This is what he thinks about the Prime Minister: “There are no perfect biographies. The fate of Tadeusz Mazowiecki proves, that one can make mistakes as a young person, but then grow, and with all your political activity serve your country. The Prime Minister was definitely a true statesman. Poland was lucky to have a man like that.” Tadeusz Mazowiecki died in 2013. On the day of his funeral a national day of mourning was observed.