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Forming government and passing legislation: unit of work

Teacher guide Forming government and passing legislation: unit of work

TLF ID M009444

This is a unit consisting of four extended lessons about how an Australian federal government is formed and how bills are passed in the Australian Parliament. The unit takes the form of an extended simulation in which students play the roles of members of the House of Representatives. As appropriate, they take part in the election of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, decide on Bills to be presented to the parliament and develop a script for a play in which the audience chooses what happens to the Bill.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • This is a valuable resource for teaching and learning in the civics and citizenship curriculum area. By the end of year 7, students are generally expected to understand the process of forming a government in Australia and to have begun to consider the role of government in formulating legislation and carrying it through parliament.
  • The simulation and playwriting strategy described in the unit is appropriate for the intended learners. The playwriting activity in particular is likely to appeal to year 6, 7 and 8 students, especially the development of a script in which the audience chooses what happens next in the passage of a Bill.
  • The unit also provides a range of resources for teachers to use in the lessons. They include a coloured discs handout, a 'Pass the Bill' flowchart, another sample flowchart to support the online interactive resource entitled 'Law making: pass the Bill', a tree diagram showing the nine possible voting outcomes for a Bill and another sample tree diagram for scripting the play.
Year level

6; 7; 8

Topics Legislation Acts of Parliament Bills of Parliament National government
Learning area
  • Civics and citizenship

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Organization: Commonwealth of Australia
  • Address: ACT, AUSTRALIA
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Name: The Department of Education\, Employment and Workplace Relations (DE
  • Organization: The Department of Education\, Employment and Workplace Relations (DE
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: ACT, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.deewr.gov.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Generic
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
Rights
  • © Commonwealth of Australia 2009. With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and the DEEWR logo and copyright material that is owned by third parties, you may use the material in accordance with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC BY-SA) 3.0 Australia licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/au/ provided that appropriate acknowledgement is made, the material is not subjected to derogatory treatment and any derivative work attributes the original material and identifies the changes that have been made to it.