The teacher first discusses with the students about our laws, consequences and taxes, which will help develop their own town in the classroom. Then tell the students that they are going to be 'paid' $20 for coming to 'work'. But money will be deducted when you need to go to the bathroom when it is not break time ($2) or playing on the class computer ($5). For starters the students will decide a name for our town. Then they will have a mock election. This contains a campaign by 3-4 students (to become mayor) , a debate with questions from their classmates and a voting on who they think should be mayor.
Every day a new student will be the classroom 'banker'. This student will be responsible for charging, paying and making change for their fellow classmates. Also the class will be responsible to pay county tax; this can be from $4 - $6. The money that will be collected will be a fund for class activities. For example, a 'fun movie' can be worth $400 and extra playground time can be worth $200. You would also explain to the students that adults pay taxes to make schools, roads, and our town a better and prettier place to live. Also if we don't pay it, we will get punished. If the student misbehaves he will not be able to do the class activity, which will loose his tax money he/she payed.
Another activity that connects would be the 'mock court case'. The teacher will set up a robbery and therefore there will be a court case. There will be students picked for the criminals, a lawyer, a of course a jury. The teacher will be the judge and observes the decision if the criminal is guilty or non- guilty.
There will be other discussions among these activities on real world aspects on how this work outside the classroom.
As an assessment, students will be tested on their knowledge on what was taught.
This is a role play strategy. Students are acting like adults and doing things adults do in real life. Another strategy would be cooperative learning, the students will be working in groups and as a entire group.
