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Mock hearing teaches congressional lesson
Kathleen Higgins/writer@qvpr.com
Carla Beltran, a fifth-grader in Cynthia Mahler’s class at Monument Elementary School, speaks during a mock congressional hearing May 26.
Fifth-graders from Monument Elementary School proved they know what made this country the way it is during a mock congressional hearing held May 26.
“I’m nervous for them,” said Donna Schesselmaier, a substitute aide in Cindy Mahler’s class.
Mahler and fifth-grade teachers Melody Smelser, Vicki Edwards, Jeremy Kelley and Keren Faust have been teaching students about the United States Constitution for the past six weeks. The hearing was the culminating project for the students to show what they learned about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
“I learned the three branches of the government,” said Austin Vanderveen, one of Smelser’s students. “I learned what the Constitution means and how it was made.”
Students from each of the five classes were given a set of questions two weeks prior to the hearing in order to prepare a response. They were asked one of the selected questions by the moderator, Mahler, and presented their responses to the mock congressional committee.
The committee would then ask each student a prewritten question. Mahler said that this year the students were given the questions in advance so they could better prepare themselves, but this wouldn’t always be the case.
The congressional committee was made up of five judges who were looking for understanding of the question, application of constitutional principles, reasoning and evidentiary support, and examples. School board members Tricia Lubach and Myrna Blakely acted as judges, as well as community members Jody Watson Lund and Karen Murray. Edwards also acted as a judge and timekeeper for the presenters.
The mock hearing is most similar to a depiction of a constitutional committee, where the Constitution is examined and reviewed. Students were asked questions like, “According to the founding fathers, what are the basic purposes of government?” One student was asked, “Was the group of framers representative of the population at the time?”
“No, they were not representative. There were no women, black people, or poor people and no American Indians,” said the student.
Students studied what the common good was and used examples like recess and lunch to express how the common good played a part in their lives.
“They learned how to do research and present their ideas,” Mahler said. “They learned speaking skills and learned why laws are the way they are.”
Some of the questions even asked whether participating in elections and voting was necessary. All of the students responded that it was important. They responded by giving faux advice to hypothetical older siblings as to why they should vote.
The presenters worked through various obstacles to be able to present their ideas to the panel and fellow students. Most of the children had never spoken in front of that many people before.
Smesler’s class had a student who was a brand-new English language learner, a hearing impaired student and a student who had arrived the day before the mock hearing.
The students finished their study of the Constitution with a test on their textbook. The students then wrote a reflection paper commenting on the judges’ critiques, what they learned about the Constitution and how they felt about the hearing.
“I think, through reading the reflections, that the students were very pleased with themselves that they knew something about the past,” Mahler said. “But I feel that they were most pleased that they overcame their fear of standing up and speaking out.”
