From these individual contributions, the group generates a group list of their ten most important points. All the groups share their lists with the class, and we compile a single ten-point document for the class. Sometimes, at the beginning, students' comments seem deliberately uncaring or lack seriousness. They never stay this way, however, and it is testimony to the power of these concepts that students become so strongly engaged. I spend a lot of time looking at the Declaration of the Rights of the Child to enable students to develop a certain familiarity with the ideas and to absorb them and their implications.
None is more important than another.
In groups, students create small skits and act out a violation of one of the ten points of the document. The rest of the class offers to tell which right is not being honored. All the pieces begin to fit together. Take your first list of rights and, beside each one, describe a responsibility that goes with it. Exploring these ideas leads to an effective discipline code for the classroom and school, which emerges from the students' own insights.