Subject: Social Studies Grade: 5 Duration: 120 minutes Term: 2

Unit of Work (Strand): Government Systems Topic: What are parish councils and how does
this system of governance operate in Jamaica
(Conceptualization)

Standard:

Demonstrate the ability to employ reasoning towards local government with reference to; participation in
elections, developing, managing, and maintaining infrastructure and public facilities such as parochial
roads, water supplies, drains, etc.

Standards for Scientific Practices:

 1. Communicating and Collaboration.

 2. Research, Critical Thinking and Decision Making.
☐ 3. Designing and Producing.
 4. Digital Citizenship.
 5. Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions.
 6. Engaging in Argument from Evidence.
 7. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information.

Prerequisite knowledge/skills:
Check that students are able to (in relation
to the specific subtopic):
- Identify current MP’s and Mayors.
- Define Politics.
- Define Government.
- Define, identify and model Governmental Systems
Specific Objectives:
Students should be able to:
- Define and use the terms correctly: Mayor, Councilor, Regulations, Local Government, Municipal,
Corporation (Parish Council), Parochial.
- Identify the goods that are produced in different parishes and explain how goods that are not produced in
the parish are obtained.
- Examine an organizational chart of a parish council describe and make deductions about members and
relationships within the council
- Describe the functions/services of the parish council and draw conclusions about its importance to
governing the country
- State the importance of property taxes to the services carried out by the parish council
- Gather information about how parish council members are selected and discuss the election process
- Describe how decisions made by the parish council, cite evidence to show the impact of these on
individuals and communities and access the effectiveness of the decision.
- Be aware of roles and responsibilities of leaders and activities at the parish level
- Participate in discussions to address issues at the school, community and parish levels

Teaching/Learning Resources:
- Internet (if necessary), Computer (if necessary), map of Jamaica, pictures of mayors, councilors
and MP’s

https://moey.gov.jm/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Grade-5-Exploratory-Core.pdf (pg. 357)

Key Vocabulary:
- Mayor, Councilor, Regulations, Maintenance, Local Government, Municipal, Corporation,
Abattoirs/Slaughterhouses, Infrastructure
Learning Outcome(s):

- Give simple clear definitions for terms

- Provide simple explanation of how members of the parish council are elected
- Given an organizational chart of the parish council, identify positions and the
relationship between positions
- Clearly describe the functions of parish councils in Jamaica
- Use evidence to judge how effectively functions are carried out by the parish
councils
- Describe the process used to make decisions at the parish council and explain how
these decisions affect constituents
- Develop logical arguments to justify the existence of a parish council

Content Outline:

Why do we have Governments?

All countries require governments so they can function. Governments provide laws,
structure, public services, and national defense. While Jamaica remains a parliamentary
constitutional monarchy (in which the monarch does not personally exercise power).
What is a Government?
A government refers to a group of people or system overseeing an organized community.
Now, we're always interfacing with the government, or we're always interfacing with
something that the government does. When we pay our taxes, we are interfacing with the
government. When we try to, when we renew our passport, we are interfacing with the
government.
But what are the ways that we can communicate our preferences? Well, one obvious way is
through elections. Obviously, we can vote someone in, we can vote someone out. We can tell
the government, are we happy with what they've been doing or are we not? What issues are
 important to us, and which issues are not?
Another institution that's considered a way to link the citizens or the people of a country with
its government is the media. Is the media. This creates a two-way arrow, because it's a way
for the government to communicate with everyone else, and it's also a way for views to be
heard and amplified, which the government might take note of. And these things would
influence each other.
TEACHING/LEARNING ACTIVITY:

Engage:

Students will be learning about the mayors of Jamaica.

Put up a poster board or table divided into two columns. Label the first column know
and the second column learned.
Ask your students to tell you what they know about the mayors for each parish.
Write down the information that your students tell you on the poster.

Explore:

Students will use the information received form the table above to complete maps of
Jamaica:
Students will receive a map of Jamaica and pictures with the name of our mayors for
the to attach the correct mayor for each parish. We will then take a deeper dive into
the Parish Council by drawing structures/organization charts that take shape from our
government.

Explain:

Students will be engaged in a classroom discussion that will detail why the
organizational chart is structured the way it is, to help create a connection between
the visual representation and the theory of our political structure.

Elaborate:

The class will then have a discovery learning session where they try to identify the
roles and responsibilities of each member of the parish council. It will then be
discussed in class the true roles/responsibilities of our parish council and MP’s.
Evaluate:

Students will receive a project to complete a portfolio inclusive but not limited to all our
MP’s, Mayors, Councilors and other important political figures such as the Governor
General. Including the constituency, portfolios and associated parishes including maps of
Jamaica with pictures pasted onto the parishes with the necessary politicians.

Teacher evaluation:

Strengths:

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Weaknesses:

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Actions To be Taken:

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