You Can't Fight City Hall?
Module 1, Activity 4.2 - Simulated Community Meeting
Teacher Page
(student page for this lesson)

Introduction:

A community meeting is a forum where community members can express an opinion. In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to research municipal meeting procedures and run a simulated town meeting using editorials.

Resources:

- information on town meeting procedures
- internet access
- handout on basic town meeting information (.doc) or (.rtf)
- student handouts - concerned citizens (.doc) or (.rtf), town representatives (.doc) or (.rtf)
- evaluation (.doc) or (.rtf)

Activities:

Task One - Meeting of the Minds - the preparation
Students will be participating in a simulation. They will need to be separated into 2 groups. Half of the students will play the roles of citizens and half will be town representatives. If you have large class, you will need to break your citizen group into several different groups of citizens so that everyone can speak. Each group would then address the town council with a different area of concern.

Students will have to choose a topic of local concern that they would like to express during the town meeting. Monitor topic choice for school appropriateness and avoidance of repetition. Keep in mind that students can not select a topic that the town has no power over (like abortion).

Once you have selected the groups, you will need to distribute handouts with instructions for each group. Once the groups have chosen topics and are in the research stage, you will act as a facilitator. You will need to make suggestions when students seem stuck and provide them with places they can look for the necessary information.

A Special Meeting of Council is a good choice because these meetings have shorter agendas and less people involved (department heads are not required to attend or give reports). A special meeting focuses on specific, current issues facing a community.

When you discuss the meeting with the students, it will be necessary to explain these differences between a Regular Meeting of Council and a Special Meeting of Council.

You might suggest the students contact the local town council, as most towns will be able to provide a sample agenda and/or copies of pages from the Municipal Handbook or local Bylaws governing meetings. You can also have the students look at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association's Guide to Council Meeting Procedures or give them a handout on basic information on community meetings.

Once students have had time to create groups and do some research on their topic or area, it is time for them to prepare for the meeting. Each of the groups will need to complete a series of steps to prepare for the meeting. These steps are detailed on the student handouts.

Task Two - Meeting of the Minds - the simulation
Using their research, the students will now simulate a town meeting. The purpose of the meeting will be to listen to the issues brought forth by the citizens and make a decision on how council would like to proceed.

"Why are we doing this?"
The students may be asking how a community meeting relates to journalism or editorials. You may want to discuss the purpose of the simulation before they begin. This will prepare them for the discussion that will take place after the simulation

Purpose: This simulation introduces the concept of informed opinion. Whether you are speaking at a town meeting or writing an editorial, you must always assume that the people on the other side of the issue will want to attack your reasoning.

While the meeting is taking place, try to jot down a few examples of loaded language to refer to during the debriefing.

Task Three - Debriefing
It will be necessary to spend some time debriefing after the meeting. Students will want to discuss the outcome and will need help making connections between the town meeting and journalism. Discuss the questions on the student version of this page with the class.

Help the students to see that the more information a person comes to the table with, the more likely it is that he will be able to convince others. Use the examples you jotted down during the meeting to illustrate that how you say something can be an effective tool in persuasion.

In a reflective writing piece, have the students discuss how they might be able to apply what they have learned from the simulation to their editorial writing.

As you will have the opportunity to watch the community meeting, you may choose to evaluate the students in Task Three on their ability to apply the knowledge they have learned about proper meeting format as well as their ability to persuade others. As you will be marking a large group of students at the same time, you will need a system of evaluation that only has a few criteria.

Task Four allows the students to reflect on their own learning. This will give you the chance assess, through discussion and student writing, what the students have learned through their experience.