Lesson 1: Superhero?

What should the position of the head of the class be?

Lesson description

The students are presented with the “superhero” handout. They are given the task of filling in the empty bubbles with the competences and responsibilities that a class head should have. They do this on their own for 10 minutes.

After they have completed their work, the students gather in groups of four and discuss their handouts. They come to a conclusion on the most relevant characteristics, competences and responsibilities that a class head should have. They write down their conclusions on slips of paper.

Each group sticks their preferences on the picture of the superhero that has been placed on the flipchart or blackboard. The teacher initiates a discussion on the following questions:

• What is the most important competence that a class head should have?
• When will the class head need support from others?
• Does the class head have to be a superhero?
• In which situations will the class head be just like everybody else?
• What weaknesses can a class head have?
• Under what circumstances do you think that the class head should be replaced by somebody else? How?
• Which wishes are impossible to fulf l for a class head?

After the discussion, the students are given the task to think about whether they could imagine running for the position of head of class. They should think about the responsibility and the competences they discussed and evaluate for themselves whether they would be able to take on this position. The teacher presents them with a sheet of paper and tells the students to write down their names if they are interested in taking on this position.