A Unit plan designed for taking up 7 weeks out of a 10 week term (students begin learning for new topic in remaining weeks due to year 12’s having a short term 4). It includes syllabus objectives, a description of the unit, assessment task details, information from the syllabus about Inquiry based learning + the extended response genre and a list of recommended resources. A Scope and Sequence suggesting topics to be covered throughout the term is provided within this document. A Learning Intention and Success Criteria handout for students to glue into the front of their work books

A draft feedback which is used for achieving feedback consistency across classes. You can either highlight the feedback that applies to the student or delete out the comments that don’t apply. Feedback is organised under specific sub headings. Some of them are related to specific cognitive verbs being assessed.

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. 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 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.

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 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 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. 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.

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.

My school runs a 10 Legal Studies elective designed to give students a taste of Senior Legal Studies. This is a Unit Plan for a unit designed to give students foundational knowledge about Australian law and government. It contains: • Subject description • Unit description • Assessment details (formative and summative) • Suggested resources (textbooks, websites, videos etc.) • Teaching and learning cycle • Learning intention & success criteria • Reflection questions for teachers at the end of the unit

A resource which I think Legal Studies teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. This is a PPT designed to introduce students to the research expectations for their assessment task. It begins with two viewing activities of scenarios which they could utilise in their report. The first one was where renters discovered their landlord had installed cameras in their residence. The second was a report from A Current Affair about renters choosing to ‘shut up and suffer’ to avoid eviction. It also had information about my computer usage expectations. I then took students through how to conduct a BOOLEAN search and the power of using a search string to refine their searches. I then modelled a search and included screen shots on the PowerPoint to demonstrate my process. I also introduced students to an acronym which can be used to work out of the websites / sources are reliable (CARS – credibility, accuracy, reasonableness, support). I also provided students with a list of useful resources including the State Library of Queensland, RTA website etc.

A resource which I think Legal Studies teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. Task sheet – explaining task conditions, the criteria and the checkpoints (deadlines). The task was to compile a report to present a well-considered solution to a current legal issue involving rental contracts in Queensland (or Australia as a whole) but also required students to keep an inquiry booklet to demonstrate their research skills. PowerPoint – taking students through the assessment requirements and criteria, the scaffolding materials and an example report {for a criminal law topic}. Exemplar - a word document version of the exemplar which was shown in the PowerPoint. It is an exemplar of a legal report for a different topic {Drug Possession Queensland}.

A resource which I think Legal Studies teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. Handout- sentence starters that I wrote to help students write their nature and scope paragraph {as they are in year 10 and it is their first time writing a legal report}. It has two columns – one for if they are writing about bad renters and one for if they are writing about bad landlords. PowerPoint which I used in class to teach students: How to quote in a report and acknowledge it via in text referencing; gave them a planning framework to go through their sources and work out where they could be used within the report; Tips for writing the Nature and Scope section of the report A copy of the graphic organiser for planning their report (flower structure)

A PowerPoint designed for the first check in with students to see if they have selected their topic and located possible sources. It includes an example of the table they need to complete in their inquiry booklet and example dot points of why it is useful. It also includes a reminder that students will have to hit the analyse and evaluate criteria in their report. Also included are posters explaining analyse and evaluate (cognitions) – not specific to legal studies.

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. In my PPTs I get students to copy the underlined. The rest of the information is talking points and prompts for me. The lesson begins with information about the procedures to be followed when ending a tenancy. There is info for if there is no dispute between the lessor and the tenant (including a flow chart). There is also information for if a disagreement has arisen between these two stakeholders. There is information about the responsibilities of both lessors and lessees for maintaining the premises (e.g. what happens when emergency repairs are required). There is also information about what happens if the landlord wants to end the tenancy (e.g. if the renter has breached the tenancy agreement). It also provides information about breaking the lease. There are also some dispute resolution tips and information about evicting a tenant (including warrants of possession). This was designed to equip students with the knowledge to write a report for their assessment. They could either focus on a case study with bad renters or bad landlords. 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 teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. Scaffolding – a booklet which defines each of the cognitive verbs students need to use in the assessment (identify, define, search, collect, select, analyse, evaluate, organise, synthesise, communicate). There is a table of contents to take you to the specific section you need. The first section goes through what makes a good definition and some thinking prompts. The search section discusses BOOLEAN Search and how to determine if a source is reliable (CARS acronym). Select introduces students to the retrieval chart in their Inquiry booklet and what should go in each column. There are thinking prompts for analysing, evaluating and synthesising. There is a legal studies report structure. There is also a referencing guide for how to cite legal sources. Inquiry Booklet – the e journal that students filled in during their research process. It includes retrieval charts for nature and scope, viewpoints and for gathering and evaluating sources. Posters which I displayed on the word wall in my classroom

A resource which I think Legal Studies teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. A PPT designed to introduce 10 Legal studies students to contract law. It begins with some checking for understanding questions (which students either discuss / write down in a warm up – depending on your preference). There is a brief explanation of the two types of civil law (tort law and contract law). Students are to copy the underlined information. This helps students to understand where this branch of law fits into the big picture. Information is provided about contracts and common types of contracts e.g. employment contracts. There is information about how the Rule of Law applies to contract law. The following terms are also explained: express terms and implied terms; verbal contracts and written contracts; terms and conditions. There is a slide to take students through the elements of a legally binding contract (agreement, intention, consideration, capacity and formalities). Information is provided about whether minors (under 18’s) can form legally enforceable contracts. There are some checking for understanding questions. Students are given a few scenarios to read and questions to answer. For the event of fast finishing -there is a video promoting the Fyre festival to watch and see what the event offered. Then there is a 10 minute video about what actually happened. This is good for generating discussion. There is also an example case study from Victoria about hiring a venue for a concert.

A resource which I think Legal Studies teachers will find helpful. If you use it, and like it, please give me a positive star rating / review. This is a fun viewing activity designed to be used at the end of the previous term to introduce students to the idea of short term accommodation (e.g. Air bnb) as the character in the show has issues with hers. I have included a worksheet for watching Season 1, Episode 1 of Fisk (available on iView and Netflix). The work sheet also includes post viewing research activities NB: My lessons have been designed for use in Australian classrooms and will often feature examples from Queensland legislation.