My school runs a 10 Legal Studies elective designed to give students a taste of Senior Legal Studies. This is a scope and sequence for a unit designed to give students foundational knowledge about Australian law and government. There are 2 lessons a week. Some of these lessons are also available for sale at my store. A resource which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review.

A resource which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. It is a jeopardy game (template freely available from slides carnival websites). It provides definitions and students have to know the term. (I have placed the answers in the notes section of the PPT slides). Information about the rules of jeopardy can be found via Google or on Wikipedia.

A resource which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. A PowerPoint designed for use in the lead up to the exam to teach students about quotas and referendums. After defining each of these terms, an explanation is provided of the double majority requirement for passing a referendum and the reason for this. It also goes through the steps for a referendum to occur using the 2023 ‘Voice to Parliament’ debate as an example. I include the draft question and the final question, screen shots from social media in the lead up to the vote, screen shots from the yes/no pamphlet produced by the government as well as screen shots I took on the night of the vote calculation showing the progressive count. This is followed by some multiple-choice questions to check for understanding. Then just for interest there is an infographic about the other unsuccessful referendums in Australia’s history. Following this there is some specific information about Part B of the exam (extended response) as students will be given their seen sources during this lesson (a week prior to the actual exam). Their exam topic is on the representativeness of parliament. The slides contain an example response for a criminal law topic: drug possession so that students can see the skills in practice but with a different context. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A resource which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. It is a practice exam for 10 Legal Studies containing 1 extended response question and specific scaffolding (graphic organisers) for students to use in their exam planning time. The topic for this one was voter apathy. I have also included the 8 sources which were provided to students a week before the exam (and a fresh copy in the exam). I have also included an exemplar for a different question.

A resource which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. It is a practice exam containing 6 short response questions around things like: • The role of the upper and lower house • The independence of the judiciary • How statute laws are created I have also included a sheet that contains sample answers which I made to unpack with students after the practice and the PowerPoint that goes with it. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A resource which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. It is designed to help students revise content for their short response exam. It includes terms to revise and some practice questions. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A PowerPoint which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. It is designed to simultaneously introduce students to the topics for their practice exam (voter apathy) and their real exam (lack of representation in parliament). It begins with unpacking Australia’s demographics using results from the census (August 2021). This includes information about the percentage of Australians in each generation, the percentage of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander citizens, the percentage of Australians who speak another language at home, the various religious affiliations of our citizens, the types of households, percentages of home owners vs renters, information about long term health conditions experienced, the educational qualifications we hold & the hours worked and common professions. Then there is an infographic which shows the make up of parliament (2016-2019) which shows the breakdown using categories of Australia, house of reps, senate, the liberal /national coalition party and Labor party. The categories shown are gender age, sexual orientation, education level, non-English speaking background and Indigenous. This is followed by an explanation of party allegiances and how party members rarely “cross the floor.” Afterwards the term apathy is introduced as well as voter apathy aka political apathy / electoral disengagement. There is a graph showing the number of people who lodge a vote as a percentage of all who are enrolled to vote from 1925-2016 showing a decline since 2007. There is a clip from YouTube where Craig Reucassel discusses voter apathy. Information is provided about the fact that in other countries, voting is optional and some of the cons of this. Following this, students are given their seen sources for their practice exam which they are to look at in class and for homework. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A PowerPoint which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. It begins with a quick recap of the two houses of parliament – The House of Representatives (lower house) and The Senate (upper house). Some information about Australia’s mixed system of government is provided. here the terms democracy, representative government, constitutional monarchy and federation are introduced. Next students are introduced to the term MP (short for Members of Parliament). They take notes about what they do. There is a timetable for a typical Monday in parliament house which is used to explain what they do while they are in Canberra. This is followed by an explanation of how MPs are elected. There is a video from the 2022 elections which gives a run down of the main political parties in Australia. Information about backbenchers and their work on committees is provided. This is followed by an explanation of the skills MPs need and a recap of the process for taking a Bill from its initial draft to becoming a law. There are then clips from the news in 2024 showing some topical issues – Tax Cuts and the possibility of removing ‘Negative Gearing.’ The lesson ends with some checking for understanding questions. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A worksheet which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. It contains questions for watching episode 2 and 4 of Ms Represented {available on ABC iView and ClickView.} This is intended to introduce student to the concept of representation in government and why it is important to have female politicians. Episode 4 in particular looks at a method which was used to raise the number of females in parliament (quotas). This is a concept that I wanted my students to be familiar with for their exam. It also shows some of the difficulties which female politicians have experienced in the past. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

Warm up worksheet – labelling cognitive verbs {Infer, Discuss, Interpret, Decide, Recommend, Apply, Select, Define}. Handout – a series of sources about a break in to a business (Jb Hi Fi) – newspaper article, crime scene photograph, extract from Criminal Code Act 1989, a criminal history, victim impact statement, interview transcript & textbook excerpt. It includes a retrieval chart for planning a response to an extended response exam question. A PowerPoint which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. It begins with a discussion of the criteria being assessed in their exam and what it means to ‘analyse’ and ‘evaluate’ in legal studies. Students are taught what to look for to determine the ‘nature’ and ‘scope’ of a legal issues. They are shown what a source might look like in their exam. As a class we go through the sources and complete the graphic organiser. Following this the structure for an extended response is explained. Students must write their response and if it is not completed in the lesson, it becomes homework. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A PowerPoint which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. A warm up question for students to answer in paragraph form about the importance of impartiality and fairness in legal trials. This lesson begins by defining criminal law and its purpose. It introduces the main source of laws in QLD – the Criminal Code of 1899. The categories of criminal law are explained – offences against the person; offences against property; drug crime and motor vehicle offences. The different reasons for punishment are explained – retribution; deterrence; rehabilitation; denunciation; community protection. Then students learn how to navigate legal documents and how to read the subsections. This is modelled for students using ‘Wilful Damage’ in the QLD criminal code. Students have to write a summary of what they learn (teaching synthesis skill). Following this, public order offences are explained. A list of illegal activities from the Summary Offences Act (2005) are shown in dot point form. Students then have to look up ‘public nuisance’ and write a summary of what it involves and what the punishment is. The meaning of the term penalty unit is explained. Finally, there is a viewing activity about public nuisance. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A match the definitions warm up activity where students have to identify the correct meanings of various cognitive verbs. A PowerPoint which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. I usually get students to copy the underlined text. The lesson then focuses on how the adversarial court system works in comparison to an inquisitorial system. There is an explanation of which section of the constitution provide for the creation of federal courts. There is an explanation of the various types of courts in Australia. The following roles are explained: magistrate, judge, jury, Prosecution, defence, solicitor, barrister, bailiff, interpreter, media, clerk, defendant and witness. Information about specialist courts and tribunals is also provided e.g. the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A PowerPoint which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. A PowerPoint which begins by showing the rule of law pyramid and explains it. Requirements for laws are explained. Some elements of the pyramid are further explained including ‘presumption of innocence.’ Subsequently the 3 levels of government and their responsibilities are explained. As are the three pillars of the rule of law (judicial, legislative & executive). Information is provided about who enforces the law and the court system. There are some graphs of crime trends in Queensland. This is followed by an explanation of ‘statutory interpretation.’ The terms ‘onus of proof’ and ‘standard of proof’ are explained. Information is provided about the difference between criminal and civil cases. NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A PowerPoint which I think Legal Studies / Civics teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. This is the first lesson in a unit designed to introduce student to legal concepts and terms. It begins with an explanation of laws and how they differ from rules and customs. Information about who has authority to make laws in Australia is provided. Students are introduced to an acronym for writing short response questions (as students will sit an exam at the end of the unit). They apply this structure to answer a checking for understanding question. Following this there is information about the two main sources of law in Australia: Statute Law and Common Law. Within this section, students learn terms including: constitution, Bill, amendment, House of Representatives, Senate, fair and reasonable. Also included: two copies of the learning intentions and success criteria for the unit (poster and handout style). NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.

A Scope and Sequence suggesting topics to be covered throughout the term. A revision booklet to help students prepare for the external exam. Some elements are not complete but I left the formatting in just in case you had the time to add them (the evaluation and synthesis questions). Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).

Unit plan designed for a 10 week term of 11 &12 Modern History. It includes a subject description, a description of the unit, a list of unit objectives (from the syllabus), inquiry questions to guide the unit, the recommended teaching and learning cycle from QCAA, a topic specific learning intentions and success criteria, assessment task details and a list of recommended resources. Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).

A PPT which goes through important events between 1984 and 1994. It includes photographs, textbook extracts, research from websites etc. to help students gain an understanding of this era. By the end of the lesson students should be able to answer the following question: What roles did de Klerk and Mandela play in the path to democracy? Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).

A PPT summing up the key events in the second half of the 1970s. It includes information about the 1976 Internal Security Act, the renewed use of death sentences, the emergence of the Black Consciousness Movement, the trade embargo established by the UN (1977), Botha’s ascension to PM (1978). There is also some information about the beginning of the 1980s including the formation of the United Democratic Front. Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).

A PPT explaining the Soweto uprising and its aftermath. The last slide contains a homework activity which requires students to research differing interpretations of the Soweto uprising and write a response to questions. Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).

A PPT with a focus on types of secondary sources and their levels of reliability. It begins with a warm up where students list the types of secondary sources they are familiar with. There is a review of the meaning of bias and the distinctions between a balanced source and one which is pro / anti a specific topic. These is also info about how to determine the usefulness and reliability of a source. Students are given a worksheet with most of the information in the O-P-V-L chart pre filled. They copy the information in for the sections which are missing from their handout. The source types included are: biographies, statistics, textbooks, documentaries, journal articles, historical novels, poems, songs and biopics. Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The syllabus objectives would also be useful more broadly for English students in other states and countries with an interest in the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa (1948-1994).