Lesson 2 - Government of Ireland Act

Understanding 1917 & Beyond

Lesson 2 - Government of Ireland Act

The Home Rule movement began in the late nineteenth century and after various failed attempts at gaining political independence from Britain, The Government of Ireland Act of 1920 created two Home Rule governments – one in Northern Ireland and one in Southern Ireland – and eventually led to partition of Ireland. Due to the existence of Dáil Éireann and the War of Independence, the Home Rule parliament in Dublin was never established.

Resources with links to Statutory Requirements

Intentions

Intentions

  • Review the resources and links in order to explain how the Government of Ireland Act came to be passed and the consequences of the Act.
  • Using the information from the links as an example, prepare and complete a creative response to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the topic.
  • Opportunities for Cross Curricular learning.

Opportunities for Cross Curricular learning

Using ICT

The resources examine the topic utilizing a number of different media, which serve to engage pupils with the material, challenging them to think more creatively and encourage discussion.

The resources could inspire tasks that would support presenting, researching, desktop publishing, and working with sound.

Communication

The resources provide pupils with the opportunity to develop their talking and listening, reading and writing skills through independent learning and shared experience.

Opportunities for Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities

Using the content, pupils have the opportunity to investigate meaning, explore ideas and analyse the information they are provided with. Within their individual learning, through group work and by questioning ideas, there is ample scope within the materials to include a focus on TS & PC. For this section, the following strands from the TS & PC framework are the most obvious to consider:

Managing Information

Pupils have the opportunity to:

  • ask focused questions;
  • plan and set goals and break a task into sub-tasks;
  • use their own and others’ ideas to locate sources of information; and
  • communicate with a sense of audience and purpose.

Thinking, Problem-Solving and Decision-Making

Pupils have the opportunity to:

  • make links between cause and effect;
  • justify methods, opinions and conclusions; and
  • use different types of questions.

Being Creative

Pupils have the opportunity to:

  • experiment with ideas and questions;
  • make new connections between ideas/information;
  • challenge the routine method; and
  • take risks for learning.

Working with Others

Pupils have the opportunity to:

  • listen actively and share opinions;
  • be fair; and
  • suggest ways of improving their approach to working collaboratively.

Self-Management

Pupils have the opportunity to:

  • be aware of their personal strengths, limitations and interests;
  • set personal targets and review them; and
  • organise and plan how to go about a task.

Opportunities to develop

Possible Task

Using sound editing software to explain the consequences of the Government of Ireland Act.

Working in pairs, research and script a podcast which analyses the Government of Ireland Act and explain what the short term and long term consequences of the passing of the Act were.

Areas of Learning: The Arts (Drama), Language and Literacy (English/Irish with Media Education), Environment and Society (History)

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