TeachLaw has three primary goals:

1. To help a young person understand their legal rights and responsibilities through education;
2. To encourage a change in belief or behaviour to reduce risk-taking behaviour in young people; and
3. To empower young people by outlining protective factors that may minimise victimisation, or support those who become victims.

For this reason, our hope is that TeachLaw modules will be bookended with rigorous assessment strategies to provide an opportunity to assess students as they progress through the module. We ask that these assessments do not replace the survey at the start and end of each module as this is the main way that we can continue to improve our modules. If you are unable to connect to the Internet, or students do not have their own devices, you can print out a paper version of our survey here:

Note, if you are completing a follow up lesson, you will need to download this survey instead:

Please keep in mind that there is a risk in designing your own tasks as they may not accurately explain or represent complex legal issues. If you would like us to review your assessments for legal appropriateness, please contact us here at least a fortnight prior to delivering your seminar and we would be happy to review them for you. We may also ask for permission to publish these reviewed materials to our TeachLaw site as “optional activities” for our modules.

Diagnostic assessment

All TeachLaw modules should begin with a recommended diagnostic assessment to assess students’ prior learning and knowledge. This in turn can help shape the module, and may provide valuable feedback to Youth Law Australia so that we can continue to update and improve our modules.

Whilst each module contains a recommended diagnostic assessment, we encourage you to be flexible to suit your class’s learning style. Some other kinds of diagnostic assessment which you may wish to modify for use are listed below.

Four corners

This task should be performed at the start of the lesson as a diagnostic assessment to determine student’s understanding of the issues before learning the content, and to understand student’s preliminary understanding of the content from previous lessons.

To begin, arrange the classroom into 4 quadrants (as below), being strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree. Read out a series of statements, or a short hypothetical with questions throughout and ask students to stand in the quadrant that most closely aligns with how much they agree/disagree with the statement/question. Ask 1-2 students from each quadrant to explain their position.

True or false

This activity is designed to loosen students up and get them reflecting on their legal knowledge, and understanding. It is designed to be a quick activity to introduce students to the topic.

The presenter will read a statement out and ask students to put their hands on their heads if they think the statement is true, and to put their hands on their hips if they think it is false. The game is designed to be played with elimination, with a set winner, or winners at the end.

Second person hypothetical scenario

This technique is useful for sparking interest in the legal information contained within the presentation. It should demonstrate the law’s real world relevance in such a way that proves to students the value of learning the information.  It can also serve as a diagnostic tool.

To open the lesson, you can present one of the example scenarios from within the module from the second person. Then ask the class what they think they would do if they were in that situation e.g. “everyone imagine that you have been working for 2 weeks on probation at a new job, you have just been fired and have not been paid for the 2 weeks… What can you do?” You should let the students think about this and respond by putting their hand in the air.

After receiving answers, do not give a definitive solution but rather make it clear that figuring out what the right thing to do is legitimately difficult and requires legal awareness. 

This kind of curiosity-sparking establishes an imperative to learn more about the topic. It stimulates critical thinking and establishes awareness within students’ minds as to the current state of their knowledge. Proceed to present the module and the legal answers.

Observation checklist and questioning

Rather than a formal activity, you may choose to ask students a series of questions to discuss as a class or in pairs, and observe the level of interaction and contribution each student makes. If you intend to use this approach, we encourage your questions to move from simple to complex e.g. beginning with basic concepts before moving through to set opinions. You may also use to take the “Who, What, Where, When, Why, How” approach to questioning to ensure that you test students on factual knowledge (Who, What, Where, When), analytical skills (How) and ability to reflect and form an opinion (Why).

Mind map and reflection

As a variation to class discussion or pair discussion, this activity encourages students to brainstorm as a class anything they may know on the topic – the point of this is to assess what knowledge and what misconceptions are present in the classroom which can be emphasised or corrected throughout the lesson. We would encourage you to physically map out the issues raised and return to them at the end of the lesson.

Summative assessment

All TeachLaw modules have SMART lesson objectives that will be specific to the area of law, year group and lesson that you are delivering. As such, students’ understanding and knowledge can be clearly assessed against these criteria. It is essential that students complete a feedback form in addition to any in-class summative assessments so that we can assess students longitudinally to determine the helpfulness of the module and where it can be improved whilst also assessing individual growth and improvement.

While each module contains a recommended summative assessment, we encourage you to be flexible to suit your classes learning style. Some other kinds of diagnostic assessment that you may wish to modify for use are listed below.

Observation checklist and questioning

Similar to the diagnostic assessment above, you may again choose to ask students a series of questions to discuss as a class or in pairs and observe the level of interaction and contribution each student makes. If you intend to use this approach, we encourage your questions to move from simple to complex e.g. beginning with basic concepts before moving through to set opinions. You may also use to take the “Who, What, Where, When, Why, How” approach to questioning to ensure that you test students on factual knowledge (Who, What, Where, When), analytical skills (How) and ability to reflect and form an opinion (Why). In this case, it would be beneficial to pair this with the diagnostic assessment so that a more specific change in thinking/knowledge can be observed.

Mind map and reflection

This is another diagnostic assessment you can repeat as a variation to class discussion or pair discussion. This activity encourages students to brainstorm as a class anything they learnt from the lesson – the point of this is to assess what knowledge and insight was gained. If this is completed as the diagnostic assessment also, we would encourage you to revisit the original mind map and compare the two.

Exit passes

This activity can be varied to suit your classroom – the basic premise is that students must write down 1-3 things they have learnt from the lesson and hand it to the presenter, or share it with the class. This could take many forms, for example:

• Writing a news headline or a tweet to summarise what was learnt;
• Writing things on a post-it-note which is stuck to the door or wall;
• Using a word association or live feedback app such as PollEv; or
• Using a rose/thorns approach where students write down one thing they learnt, and one thing they didn’t like/still don’t understand.

Pictorial feedback

You may wish to use different images e.g. emojis or postcards with different images to encourage students to give conceptual feedback by placing a sticky dot, or post-it-note on the image that represents how they feel after the lesson. This could be used as a springboard to discuss the lesson and reflect on content.

Kahoot! Quiz

Kahoot! is a live quiz program where students can connect using any device and compete against one another to come first by selecting the correct multiple choice answer fastest. Whilst this will require you to make a quiz based on the material, and to have an account, Kahoot! is both fun and engaging.

You may also wish to check out our page on class activities for engaging class activities to use during the lesson.

We are always looking for new ways to engage with students. If you have used an activity in class that you have found particularly helpful, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us here.