Kara Johnson
Lesson Plan Title: Direct Democracy vs. Representative Democracy Simulation
Subject: Ancient Civilizations
Grade Level: 6th
Lesson Duration: 1 day
Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to compare and contrast the direct democracy of Ancient Athens with the
representative democracy of the United States, briefly describe how they work and who was
allowed to participate, and evaluate which one they prefer and why.
Content Standards:
6.4.2. Trace the transition from tyranny and oligarchy to early democratic forms of govern
ment and back to dictatorship in ancient Greece, including the significance of the
invention of the idea of citizenship (e.g., from Pericles’ Funeral Oration).
3. State the key differences between Athenian, or direct, democracy and representative
democracy.
Academic Language:
Citizen, democracy, debate, direct democracy, representative democracy
Differentiating Instruction:
 Graphic organizer and images in the powerpoint for a visual aid
 Explicit definition of new academic vocabulary and concepts.
 Students write and discuss with each other before discussing ideas in front of the
class
 Students debated and voted on familiar subjects that they chose so that the focus
was more on the political process and not on debating a complex issue which
might have confused them.
Resources and Materials:
Student notebooks and pencils, talking stick (or ruler, etc.)
Anticipatory Set:

Review what students learned about the 4 types of government from Ancient Athens
(monarchy, oligarchy, tyranny, democracy). Warm-up question about this under doc cam

as they walk in: What were the 4 types of government from Ancient Athens? Who rules
or participates in each of them?
Let students know that we will be doing a simulation of two types of democracy where
they will get to discuss and vote on new rules for their school!
Instruction:
 Have students take notes on last few slides about the two types of democracy.
 Explain how the simulations are going to work:
-First, you will talk with your tables about ideas for new rules for the school that we could debate
and vote on
-Come back together and compile a list of new rule ideas
-I will select two that we will use for the simulation: 1 for direct democracy, 1 for representative
democracy
-I'll provide further instructions as we go
Guided Practice:
 Students discuss new rule ideas in their groups for 3 minutes
 Have them volunteer ideas; compile one list on the board
 Choose two for the simulation
First Simulation: Direct Democracy
 Quick-write, students write pros and cons for the newly proposed rule for 2 minutes
 Students share at their tables for 2 minutes
 Tell students to try to convince the class of their position; to speak, you must be holding
the talking stick and you must stand up. Remind who citizens were in Athens (not
everyone, just free men) and how they gathered on a hillside to make speeches and then
vote.
 I manage the discussion; students raise their hand when they want to speak- try to get
them to look at the class as they speak
 After 10 minutes or so, have students write yes or no for the new rule on a slip of paper
and collect them.
 Announce the results of the vote!
Second Simulation: Representative Democracy
 Quick-write again for pros and cons of the new rule
 Have students discuss at their tables for a minute and choose one person as the table's
elected representative
 Representatives come to the front of the room and have a discussion with each other
about the new rule for about 5 minutes
 Representatives go back to their tables to weigh in with their voters, but let them know
that ultimately, they can vote how they want
 Representatives go back to the front of the room and submit their votes publicly
 Announce the results of the vote!
Closure:
Discussion: Have a brief discussion with the whole class. Try to elicit some of the following
observations from students Direct Democracy: hard to have a discussion with that many people, sometimes not
everyone gets a chance to speak, doesn't work with lots of people unless you used polling
places, everyone gets to have their vote count equally
 Representative Democracy: can be more efficient, sometimes your representative votes on
what they want instead of what you want, but then you might vote them out of office next
time, can be frustrating to listen to representatives speak and not be allowed to participate
Independent Practice/Assessment:
Students take the last 5 or 10 minutes of class to complete an independent writing exit slip:
-Please reflect on the simulation that we did today. Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting
the 2 forms of democracy. What did you learn about direct and representative democracies?
Which form of democracy did you prefer and why? Is there anything you're confused about?