Nationalism+Rich+Task+II

**Number of Students:** 21 **Year:** 13 **Number of Lessons:** 3 (55 minute lessons)
 * Class**: English

This rich task involved teaching the students about Nationalism in terms of a left and right wing approach using a short power point presentation, and then splitting the students into groups of around 5 or 6. They were all handed out the profile of a fictional country in a state of crisis and asked to produce a manifesto using extreme right or left wing nationalist policies. The students presented their manifestos to the class and a class debate was held between the groups to defend the policies developed by each party.
 * Outline **

We began the first lesson by exploring the concepts of national identity and nationalism using a short powerpoint presentation, discussing the ideas with the students throughout. We explained what is meant by national identity and some of the factors which can influence it such as music, sports, history and architecture. We offered some examples of things which contribute to our feelings of national identity and pride and then asked the students to think about it in terms of their own country. This led to talking about nationalism, both left-wing and right-wing, and the views held by people who support each form.
 * Lesson One **

The students were then told what their task would be for the lessons and were split into four groups, each being given an information pack. This included a profile and brief history of a fictional European country called The Democratic Republic of Saxa Vord, which was said to be in a state of crisis due to the collapse of the EU, and images of a gallery of great cultural significance to the country which had recently been destroyed. We put emphasis on the gallery and finding a way to replace it with something of national pride; this was likened to the destruction of the Christchurch cathedral which was a symbol of great pride in Christchurch. The pack also contained a diagram which explained left and right wing politics and an outline of the task. The groups were then split into right and left wing based on their positioning in the room, the two groups in the left of the room were chosen to be left wing nationalists and vice versa for the right side of the room. This was to ensure an even split of left and right wing parties. The students then started their task of creating the manifestos, which covered a number of different political areas;
 * Education
 * Healthcare
 * Services
 * Unemployment
 * Immigration
 * Military

They were told that their manifestos could also include a range of other materials that might help strengthen their party’s campaign and help instil a renewed feeling of national pride among the people. Some suggestions were: Students even came up with their own ideas including developing a new Saxa Vord currency and writing and inspirational speech to be read out to the people of Saxa Vord. The students were told to carry on with their manifestos until the end of the lesson, and were told they would continue with the manifestos and flag designs etc in the next lesson. We walked around and chatted to each of the groups as they came up with their various policies and made sure they knew exactly what the task was.
 * Political poster
 * Campaign leaflet
 * Party political broadcast
 * Plans for new developments
 * New flag/emblem/anthem for their country

We started the second lesson by collecting a selection of art supplies, coloured pens, pencils, paper, rulers etc, and handed these out to the students to help them design and create their various posters and flags etc. We then asked them to continue with their manifesto and drawings until the end of the lesson. We continued going round and speaking to the individual groups, asking about their ideas and making sure they were on task. At the end of lesson we asked that they prepare over the weekend for a short presentation to the class of their policies, and explanations of all their national pride symbols. We also let them know that in the next lesson we would be holding a debate on all of their policies and to prepare for that also.
 * Lesson Two **

**Lesson Three** To start off the last lesson, we reminded the class of the task, and what the aims of their presentation should be. We gave them ten minutes to finish off any posters or flags that needed to be completed and to set up any power points that would be being used in the presentation. Each group stood at the front of the class and presented all of their ideas and political policies with many different means, using posters, flags, speeches and powerpoints. They all took between 5-7 minutes on their presentations and covered all areas specified for the manifesto. After every group had finished presenting, we explained to the class that with the remainder of the lesson we would have the debate. We explained the debate to the class again to make sure they knew the purpose of the debate and we got the debate going. We guided the debate by going through the policies one by one and encouraging the groups to look at each other policies and discuss the pro’s and cons of each policy. At the end of the lesson once time was up we revealed to the class that the history of Saxa Vord was loosely based on post Nazi Germany, and that the emphasis on the destroyed gallery was influenced by the destruction of the Christchurch cathedral. Links to Personalised Learning This lesson has strong links to personalised learning starting with the component “Curriculum Entitlement and Choice”. The students are given a lot of freedom in this task to complete it the way they would like to do it. They are only given a few things they need to include in their manifesto and the rest is completely up to them and they can be as creative as they like. Also the way in which they presented their manifestos was left completely free and up to them. The way in which the lesson was taught was also personalised, we used a variety of methods to teach the lesson that included Power Points, Speaking and various hand outs to cover a broad range of learning styles. We also made the lesson relevant to the students by including the reference to the destruction of the Christchurch Cathedral, all this fits in with the “Teaching and Learning Strategies” component Trying out this rich task in a larger class size as opposed to the first rich task which was conducted in a class of only 5 links in to the “School Organisation” component Finally by holding a debate and having the students present all of their ideas to the class, this forced them to have to think about all of their ideas a lot, and about what they had learned. This is an example of “Assessment for Learning”

This lesson was rated by the students between 5 and 10 out of 10 and was rated averagely at 8.3 out of 10. Some of the things the students liked about the lesson include being able to think for themselves. They liked being able to use their imagination and come up with their own ideas and even express their own opinions in their manifesto. Others said they liked being able to work in a group and combining ideas with classmates, and the teamwork aspect of the task. One student commented that they enjoyed that they liked the fact the task was “fun while we learned” which is important in learning because if the task is enjoyable students may feel more motivated to take part and do well. One of the main things students disliked about the task was time constraints, a lot of students feel more time should have went into the task so they could have had more time to work on the task. Another issue with our task was the fact that students did not get to pick which side they were on (left or right wing nationalist) Also some students felt that the same students dominated the debate leaving not much room for every student to take part.
 * Feedback **

I think this rich task went extremely well, it gave all of he students a chance to work as a team and use their imaginations and be as creative as they like. I think this rich task went a lot better having a larger class size as the groups were much bigger giving more scope for different idea’s, and also having 2 groups on each wing made the debate a lot more interesting as teams could team up to debate and also 2 teams on the same wing could debate also giving even more interesting results. In future it may be better to ensure that all students are included in the task, for example if 2 people are debating one policy they cannot debate on the next one other people should have to volunteer, this would ensure that no students may dominate the debate.