Essential Question
What are your own visions and ideas for a perfect world?
Goals
By the end of this lesson, you will
- design and describe aspects of your own utopian society
- communicate your utopian design through written, oral, and visual communications.
- analyze how the government established by the United States Constitution embodies the purposes, values, and principles of American democracy.
- develop, defend, and evaluate positions on issues regarding the personal responsibilities of citizens.
- analyze the basic rights and responsibilities of citizenship
- identify the legal rights of American citizens according to the Bill of Rights.
To Do's
In Groups of Five, complete the Utopian Webquest (Steps Two through Five) found at https://sites.google.com/site/thegiverutopiaed533/process.
Independent Project: The Operations of Your Perfect World
Name of Your Utopian Society
Choose a creative and appropriate name to represent your new society. Explain your choice in a way that makes the reasons for the name clear.
Declaration of Independence
Write a brief statement (2–3 paragraphs) describing the reasons for your formation of a utopian society. In other words, just like the founders of the United States and the writers of the Declaration of Independent, what is the purpose of your Utopian society? Use at least one of the following references and one of your own to support your answer:
Develop a list of at least ten rules that all community members will follow. Provide a rationale for each rule. The Bill of Rights can be used as a reference: http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
Governing Body
Write a brief statement (2–3 paragraphs) describing how will the government of your utopia be structured? Will you have a democracy, an anarchy, a monarchy, or a dictatorship? How will your utopia make decisions? Resource: http://www.albatrus.org/english/goverment/govenrment/government%20structures.htm
Daily Itinerary
How will utopia inhabitants spend their time during the week? Develop a hypothetical seven-day schedule that community members might follow during a typical day. Your itinerary can be a listing of times and activities, but it should be broken down by the hour (or a similar time period that is appropriate for your utopia).
Name of Your Utopian Society
Choose a creative and appropriate name to represent your new society. Explain your choice in a way that makes the reasons for the name clear.
Declaration of Independence
Write a brief statement (2–3 paragraphs) describing the reasons for your formation of a utopian society. In other words, just like the founders of the United States and the writers of the Declaration of Independent, what is the purpose of your Utopian society? Use at least one of the following references and one of your own to support your answer:
- U.S. Declaration of Independence - see http://www.surfnetkids.com/declaration.htm
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights - see http://www.hrweb.org/legal/udhr.html
Develop a list of at least ten rules that all community members will follow. Provide a rationale for each rule. The Bill of Rights can be used as a reference: http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
Governing Body
Write a brief statement (2–3 paragraphs) describing how will the government of your utopia be structured? Will you have a democracy, an anarchy, a monarchy, or a dictatorship? How will your utopia make decisions? Resource: http://www.albatrus.org/english/goverment/govenrment/government%20structures.htm
Daily Itinerary
How will utopia inhabitants spend their time during the week? Develop a hypothetical seven-day schedule that community members might follow during a typical day. Your itinerary can be a listing of times and activities, but it should be broken down by the hour (or a similar time period that is appropriate for your utopia).
Displaying Your Declarations
In order to display your declarations, you can do one or more of the following:
In order to display your declarations, you can do one or more of the following:
- Write out your declaration, rules, and/or government structure one parchment using pen and ink with calligraphy pens. A lesson on how to do this can be found @ http://42explore.com/calligrphy.htm
- Make a book or poster of your rules. Illustrate each one of them.
Grading Rubric
The first five criteria of the following rubric are applicable for this lesson: