By Jennifer Bloom and Kate McBride
Engage students in a Structured Academic Controversy in this lesson that focuses on developing deliberation skills using a proposed amendment to the Minnesota Constitution that would change the way Minnesota judges are elected.
This lesson from the Deliberating in a Democracy Minnesota project teaches deliberation skills so that conflicting views can be heard, understood, and valued. The lesson includes a reading about the pros and cons of judicial elections for increasing understanding of the issue.
Objectives
- Students will learn the process of deliberation
- Students will increase understanding of the tensions concerning the way in which judges are elected and the impartiality of judicial elections and the first amendment
- Students will practice skills for democracy
Materials Needed
- Student Handout Judicial Election Deliberating in a Democracy
- Judicial Elections Deliberating in a Democracy instructions powerpoint
- Deliberating in a Democracy Steps
- Deliberating in a Democracy Steps Video
- Making Civics Real: SAC on Racial Profiling with MN teacher JoEllen Ambrose
Procedure
See Deliberating in a Democracy Steps and Steps Video